Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

CHAP. VII. How it was indicated by a light from heaven where the bodies of the nuns should
be buried in the monastery of Berecingum. [675 A.D.?]
IN this monastery many miracles were wrought, accounts of which have been committed to
writing by those who were acquainted with them, that their memory might be preserved, and
succeeding generations edified, and these are in the possession of many persons; some of them we
also have taken pains to include in our History of the Church. At the time of the pestilence, already
often mentioned, which ravaged all the country far and wide, it had also seized on that part of this
monastery where the men abode, and they were daily hurried away to the Lord. The careful mother
of the community began often to inquire of the sisters, when they were gathered together, in what
part of the monastery they desired to be buried and a cemetery to be made, when the same affliction
should fall upon that part of the monastery in which the handmaids of the Lord dwelt together apart
from the men, and they should. be snatched away out of this world by the same destruction as the
rest. Receiving no certain answer from the sisters, though she often questioned them, she and all
of them received a most certain answer from the Divine Providence. For one night, after matins
had been sung, and those handmaids of Christ had gone out of their chapel to the tombs of the
brothers who had departed this life before them, and were singing the customary songs of praise
to the Lord, on a sudden a light from heaven, like a great sheet, came down upon them all, and
struck them with such amazement, that, in consternation, they even left off singing their hymn. But
that, resplendent light, in comparison wherewith the sun at noon-day might seem dark, soon after,
rising from that place, removed to the south side of the monastery, that is, to the westward of the
chapel, and having continued there some time, and rested upon those parts, in the sight of them all
withdrew itself again to heaven, leaving no doubt in the minds of all, but that the same light, which
was to lead or to receive the souls of those handmaids of Christ into Heaven, also showed the place
in which their bodies were to rest and await the day of the resurrection. The radiance of this light
was so great, that one of the older brethren, who at the same time was in their chapel with another
younger than himself, related in the morning, that the rays of light which came in at the crannies
of the doors and windows, seemed to exceed the utmost brightness of daylight.
118
The Venerable Bede
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

---