Introduction
In 1165, a priest came all the way to Durham from Lytham on the Lancashire coast, to give thanks at St Cuthbert’s shrine for several remarkable miracles experienced by members of his parish. He told the stories to Reginald of Durham, including this one about a man with a gruesome disfigurement.
A VERY wealthy man from Lytham succumbed to a sickness that pulled his face all awry.* His lips and ears twisted, his skin wrinkled and took on a ghostly pallor. Even his wife and children could no longer hide their revulsion.
Suddenly it came to him to make his prayers in the little wattle-and-daub parish church of St Cuthbert. Not much happened all day, but at dead of night the church blazed with light, and he saw Cuthbert himself. “Most holy Cuthbert” he burst out, “help me, a wretch; the prayers of so virtuous a man are a medicine more potent than any sinner’s.”*
Cuthbert was deeply moved. Holding out a hand, he invited the man with the twisted face to the altar, and bade him kiss it; and when he did, his disfigurement was smoothed away.
As a thank-you, the man used his earthly riches to rebuild the ramshackle chapel in stone,* and dedicate it afresh to St Cuthbert, the wonderworker of Lindisfarne.
The identification of Reginald’s ‘Lixtune’ with Lytham in modern-day Lancashire is not certain, but often made. Lixtune was a village on the west coast, at the far northern point of ‘Chester lands’, either mediaeval Cheshire or the Diocese of Chester. Reginald included the story in a section dedicated to events in Copeland, at the southwest corner of Cumbria.
The man’s prayers recall the advice of St James in James 5:14-16: ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much’. It is not that God refuses to listen to sinners. Rather, as St James explains in James 4:1-3, we have not yet overcome the war within ourselves, and (unconsciously) mix self-serving desires in with our prayers; whereas a saint who has trodden the narrow and difficult path of purification, illumination and deification does not do this, and his ‘medicine’ is strong because his heart is pure.
As Reginald tells us, the tumbledown state of the wooden church had already brought another miracle from St Cuthbert, in the case of a bird-nesting boy who fell through the roof. See Cuthbert and the Iron Grip.
Précis
A disease left a parishioner at St Cuthbert’s Church in mediaeval Lytham horribly disfigured. He prayed long hours in the church, and at last Cuthbert himself appeared in a blaze of light. Touched by the man’s faith, he bade the man kiss the altar, which made him well. In gratitude, he rebuilt the tumbledown church with his own money. (59 / 60 words)
A disease left a parishioner at St Cuthbert’s Church in mediaeval Lytham horribly disfigured. He prayed long hours in the church, and at last Cuthbert himself appeared in a blaze of light. Touched by the man’s faith, he bade the man kiss the altar, which made him well. In gratitude, he rebuilt the tumbledown church with his own money.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, if, may, not, or, whereas, whether, who.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Blaze. Ghost. Not.
2 Away. Dead. Much.
3 Day. Than. Wretch.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding -less.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
hps (5)
heaps. hips. hoops. hopes. hops.
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