The Strange Case of Thomas of Eldersfield
How many miraculous recoveries from castration and blinding were there in thirteenth-century England? Paul Hyams investigates the conjunction of the cure with the growth of a saint’s cult.
In the competitive world of medieval saint-cults, each shrine strove to outdo its rivals in attracting pilgrims and benefactors. One sure way to achieve pre-eminence was to broadcast the saint's miraculous arts. The more unusual the miracle, the more weight it carried. Ordinary cures were ten a penny, but restoration and regrowth of bodily parts after they had been physically removed was something really special. A Worcester monk of the 1730s proudly boasted that before his local hero, Wulfstan, only St Thomas Becket had managed such a feat.
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