In art he is represented with a bear by his side, and a cross marked on his shaven crown, which, according to the legend, was miraculously impressed.
S. ALFWOLD, B. OF SHERBORNE.
(A.D. 1075.)
[Mayhew in Trophæa Cong. Angl. O.S.B.; Gabriel Bucelinus in his Menologium Benedictinum. Hieron. Porter, in his Flores Vitarum Sanct. Angliæ. Authorities:—William of Malmesbury, and Henry Knyghton.]
In the reign of the Confessor, Alfwold, a monk of Winchester was raised to the bishopric of Sherborne. At that time the English people were greatly addicted to the pleasures of the table, and it was expected of the bishops to keep open house and have their tables well provided with abundant and delicate fare. But Alfwold, though ready to show all hospitality, lived plainly himself, drinking water out of a common bowl, and eating out of a wooden platter. He had S. Cuthbert's life and example ever before his eyes, and repeated to himself constantly the antiphon for his festival, "The blessed bishop Cuthbert, a man perfect in all things, in the midst of a crowd remained a monk, and to all was venerable." He visited Durham, and opening the shrine of S. Cuthbert addressed him lovingly as a friend, and deposited by his side a token of his regard.
S. WILLIAM, CHILD M.
(A.D. 1144.)
[Anglican Martyrologies. But the day of his invention, April 15th, was observed as his festival at Norwich. Authority:—An account of his martyrdom in Capgrave.]
According to the legend related by Capgrave, there lived in Norwich in the 12th century a couple named Wenstan and Elwina, of the peasant class, who became parents of a boy, named William. One day Wenstan went to a feast and took his little son with him. During the meal a beggar came in with irons on his hands, worn as an act of penance; the child put out his hands to touch the chains and manacles, and instantly they broke and fell at the feet of the mendicant. At the age of seven the boy was so filled with the ardour of self-mortification, that he fasted three days in the week, and was constantly in the church singing psalms and reciting prayers.
On the Passover in 1144, some Jews of Norwich took the child, and having strangled him, crucified him, and then took the body in a sack out of the town, to bury it in a wood. But a certain Aelward saw them entering the wood, and followed them. Then, in alarm, the Jews ran away, and considering that their only chance of safety lay in bribing the viscount, who was chief magistrate of the town, they offered him a hundred marks of silver if he would hush the matter up. The viscount took the money, sent for Aelward, and threatened and persuaded him to hold his tongue about what he had seen. Aelward kept the secret for five years, till he was on the point of death, when the martyred boy appeared to him, and bade him disclose what he had witnessed. Now at the same time, early in the morning, a nun was walking in the wood, when she came suddenly on a child's body lying at the foot of an oak tree, with two ravens fluttering over it, and the woman was so frightened that she ran into Norwich and told what she had seen. Then a crowd of people went forth and took up the body, which though it had lain five years unburied in the wood, was incorrupt, and brought it into Norwich; at the same time Aelward made his confession, and thus the whole of the circumstances were made clear; the people readily concluding that this newly found body was the same that had been left by the Jews, according to Aelward's account, unburied in the wood, five years before. The body was buried, and a rose bush was planted at the head, about the festival of S. Michael, (Sept. 29th), and it at once put forth fresh leaves and flowers, and bloomed till the feast of S. Edmund, (Nov. 20th). Many miracles were performed at the grave. It does not appear that this discovery was followed by a massacre of the Jews.