Deb
English
mentioned Ellis Peters a few days
ago, and it got me thinking. I read one Brother Cadfael mystery quite a
few years ago; I don’t recall disliking it, and yet I’d never bothered to
read any more about the Welsh monk. The series is perenially in print,
and I decided it was time to investigate. Suiting deed to thought, I picked up
a couple of Cadfael titles; this one (the earliest) and one written many
years later.

For those who are unfamiliar with Brother Cadfael, he’s a Benedictine
monk; he resides at the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury,
England. Born in Wales, he had an adventurous youth before settling down
as a monk. He was a crusader on the First Crusade, and was with Godfrey
of Bouillon when Antioch was taken. After the Crusade, he became a sea
captain, and roved over all the Mediterranean world. Finally desiring a
little rest he joined the Benedictines and settled down to grow herbs.

The present book concerns the efforts of the ambitious Prior Robert to
acquire a saint’s relics for the Abbey. Relics (that is, bones) were a
big deal then; one gathers that there was something of an (I apologize in
advance) arms race among the various cathedrals, abbeys, and monasteries
to see who could get the best relics. Prior Robert has set his sights on
the bones of St. Winifred, a little-know Welsh saint. As a native
speaker of Welsh, Cadfael goes along on the trip to get them.

There’s so much here that Peters gets right. Cadfael and the other
monks, and the people they meet, are all believers, as they would have
been. Some are more susceptible to superstition than others (many believe
that a corpse will bleed if the murderer touches it); others are quite
willing to invent signs, wonders, and visions to advance their cause.
But in Cadfael, Peters makes it clear that she understands the
distinction between the reality of God and the mockery we all-too-often
make of Him in our scheming. It’s a fine line to walk, treating the
Christian faith with respect while recognizing the frailty of individual
Christians, but Peters makes it look easy.