Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

CHAP. XII. How a little boy was cured of a fever at his tomb.
SOME time after, there was a certain little boy in the said monastery, who had been long
grievously troubled with a fever; he was one day anxiously expecting the hour when his fit was to
come on, when one of the brothers, coming in to him, said, "Shall I tell you, my son, how you may
be cured of this sickness? Rise, enter the church, and go close to Oswald’s tomb; sit down and stay
there quiet and do not leave it; do not come away, or stir from the place, till the time is past, when
the fever leaves you: then I will go in and fetch you away." The boy did as he was advised, and the
disease durst not assail him as he sat by the saint’s tomb; but fled in such fear that it did not dare
to touch him, either the second or third day, or ever after. The brother that came from thence, and
told me this, added, that at the time when he was talking with me, the young man was then still
living in the monastery, on whom, when a boy, that miracle of healing had been wrought. Nor need
we wonder that the prayers of that king who is now reigning with our Lord, should be very
efficacious with Him, since he, whilst yet governing his temporal kingdom, was always wont to
pray and labour more for that which is eternal. Nay, it is said, that he often continued in prayer
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The Venerable Bede
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

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from the hour of morning thanksgiving till it was day; and that by reason of his constant custom
of praying or giving thanks to God, he was wont always, wherever he sat, to hold his hands on his
knees with the palms turned upwards. It is also commonly affirmed and has passed into a proverb,
that he ended his life in prayer; for when he was beset with the weapons of his enemies, and perceived
that death was at hand, he prayed for the souls of his army. Whence it is proverbially said, "‘Lord
have mercy on their souls,’ said Oswald, as he fell to the ground."
Now his bones were translated to the monastery which we have mentioned, and buried therein:
but the king who slew him commanded his head, and hands, with the arms, to be cut off from the
body, and set upon stakes. But his successor in the throne, Oswy, coming thither the next year with
his army, took them down, and buried his head in the cemetery of the church of Lindisfarne, and
the hands and arms in his royal city.