The first vision was experienced by a monk named Godwine, “a man of great simplicity and innocence”, who was a former sacristan of the monastery. While asleep on the eve of Wilfrid’s feast, he was woken by sounds in the choir: he heard the singing of the familiar chants appointed for the beginning of the vigil – Domine, labia mea aperies; Deus, in adiutorium meum intende – and the Psalm, Domine, quid multiplicati sunt. Then he heard voices singing Unum Deum in Trinitate fideliter adoremus, cuius fide Deo uiuit sanctus presul Wilfridus – “Let us faithfully worship one God in the Trinity, through faith in whom holy Bishop Wilfrid lives in God”. When he heard this, Godwine thought he must have overslept, so he jumped up and hurried to the choir, chastising himself for his laziness. He reached the entrance to the choir and hesitated, realising that he didn’t recognise the voices which were singing as those of his brother monks.
Then he looked into the choir, and it was empty. Since he could still hear the singing, he thought his eyes must be blurred by sleep, so he went to his usual place in the choir; but as he stood there he could see everything clearly, and there was no one there. But he could still hear singing – a multitude of voices in harmony. “But now it seemed to him that he was not hearing them singing psalms nearby, but rather from above, as if they were in the rafters of the church; and so, ascending as they sang and escaping as they ascended from the ears of the brother listening to them, these holy angels who had come, praising in hymns God who lives gloriously in his saint, once again sought the heavenly realms.”
Read it all.
Eleanor Parker on the Feast of Saint Wilfrid–Two Canterbury Visions
The first vision was experienced by a monk named Godwine, “a man of great simplicity and innocence”, who was a former sacristan of the monastery. While asleep on the eve of Wilfrid’s feast, he was woken by sounds in the choir: he heard the singing of the familiar chants appointed for the beginning of the vigil – Domine, labia mea aperies; Deus, in adiutorium meum intende – and the Psalm, Domine, quid multiplicati sunt. Then he heard voices singing Unum Deum in Trinitate fideliter adoremus, cuius fide Deo uiuit sanctus presul Wilfridus – “Let us faithfully worship one God in the Trinity, through faith in whom holy Bishop Wilfrid lives in God”. When he heard this, Godwine thought he must have overslept, so he jumped up and hurried to the choir, chastising himself for his laziness. He reached the entrance to the choir and hesitated, realising that he didn’t recognise the voices which were singing as those of his brother monks.
Then he looked into the choir, and it was empty. Since he could still hear the singing, he thought his eyes must be blurred by sleep, so he went to his usual place in the choir; but as he stood there he could see everything clearly, and there was no one there. But he could still hear singing – a multitude of voices in harmony. “But now it seemed to him that he was not hearing them singing psalms nearby, but rather from above, as if they were in the rafters of the church; and so, ascending as they sang and escaping as they ascended from the ears of the brother listening to them, these holy angels who had come, praising in hymns God who lives gloriously in his saint, once again sought the heavenly realms.”
Read it all.