Page:Goldenlegendlive00jaco.djvu/156

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142
S. Winifred

repent him of that cursed deed. And then this holy man Beuno, reproved him, not only of the homicide, but also because he reverenced not the Sunday and dreaded not the great power of God there showed upon this holy virgin, and said to him: 'Why hast thou no contrition for thy misdeed? But sith thou repentest not, I beseech Almighty God to reward thee after thy deserving.' And then he fell down dead to the ground, and his body was all black, and suddenly borne away with fiends.

Then after, this holy maid Winifred was veiled and consecrate into religion by the hands of this holy man Beuno. And he commanded her to abide in the same church that he had do make there by the space of seven years, and there to assemble to her virgins of honest and holy conversation whom she should inform in the laws of God. And after the seven years to go to some holy place of religion, and there to abide the residue of her life. And when this holy man should depart from her and go into Ireland, she followed him, till she came to the foresaid well, where they stood talking a long while of heavenly things. And when they should depart, this holy man said: ’It is the will of our Lord that thou send to me every year some token, which thou shalt put into the stream of this well, and from hence it shall by the stream be brought into the sea, and so by the purveyance of God it shall be brought over the sea the space of fifty miles, to the place where I shall dwell.' And after they were departed, she with her virgins made a chasuble of silk work, and the next year following she wrapt it in a white