IN the company of the two angels, Fursey saw the devils’ lies spreading like wildfire on earth, until Christianity seemed so full of contradictions – now enticingly lax, now dispiritingly severe – that many hearts abandoned themselves to their worst passions without repentance.* That tragedy alone, said the angels, brought sadness into heaven.

So Fursey was sent back to teach men the truth about God’s infinite patience.* Before he left, two monks who had recently died gave him plenty of wise advice, above all that Scripture alone pricks the heart: the laws of church or state achieve very little where souls have not been healed by hearing it. Then Fursey climbed reluctantly back into his lifeless body, and found himself back in Ireland.

Fursey laboured many more years in Ireland, East Anglia and northern France, preaching hope and repentance with readings from Scripture, and healing the sick. “Let anyone read the little book of his life” Bede urged, “and I believe he will reap much spiritual profit.”