Brother Cadfael 01: A Morbid Taste for Bones

I know I was elsewhere, and translated out of night's darkness into so glorious a light? And surely this is again the world I left! A fair world enough, but I have been in a fairer, far beyond any deserts of mine. Oh, if I could but tell you!"
    Every eye was upon him, and every ear stretched to catch his least word. Not a soul left the church, rather those without crowded in closer.
    "Son," said Prior Robert, with unwontedly respectful kindness, "you are here among your brothers, engaged in the worship of God, and there is nothing to fear and nothing to regret, for the visitation granted you was surely meant to inspire and arm you to go fearless through an imperfect world, in the hope of a perfect world hereafter. You were keeping night watch with Brother Cadfael at Saint Winifred's chapel - do you remember that? In the night something befell you that drew your spirit for a time away from us, out of the body, but left that body unharmed and at rest like a child asleep. We brought you back here still absent from us in the spirit, but now you are here with us again, and all is well. You have been greatly privileged."
    "Oh, greatly, far more than you know," sang Columbanus, glowing like a pale lantern. "I am the messenger of such goodness, I am the instrument of reconciliation and peace. Oh, Father... Father Huw... brothers... let me speak out here before all, for what I am bidden to tell concerns all."
    Nothing, thought Cadfael, could have stopped him, so plainly did his heavenly embassage override any objection mere prior or priest might muster. And Robert was proving surprisingly compliant in accepting this transfer of authority. Either he already knew that the voice from heaven was about to say something entirely favourable to his plans and conducive to his glory, or else he was truly impressed, and inclining heart and ear to listen as devoutly as any man there present.
    "Speak freely, brother," he said, "let us share your joy."
    "Father, at the hour of midnight as I knelt before the altar I heard a sweet voice crying my name, and I arose and went forward to obey the call. What happened to my body then I do not know, you tell me it was lying as if asleep when you came. But it seemed to me that as I stepped towards the altar there was suddenly a soft, golden light all about it, and there rose up, floating in the midst of the light, a most beautiful virgin, who moved in a miraculous shower of white petals, and distilled most sweet odours from her robe and from her long hair. And this gracious being spoke to me, and told me that her name was Winifred, and that she was come to approve our enterprise, and also to forgive all those who out of mistaken loyalty and reverence had opposed it hitherto. And then, oh, marvellous goodness! - she laid her hand on Rhisiart's breast, as his daughter has begged us to do in token of our mere personal forgiveness, but she in divine absolution, and with such perfection of grace, I cannot describe it."
    "Oh, son," said Prior Robert in rapture, riding over the quivering murmurs that crossed the church like ripples on a pool, "you tell a greater wonder than we dared hope. Even the lost saved!"
    "It is so! And, Father, there is more! When she laid her hand on him, she bade me speak out to all men in this place, both native and stranger, and make known her merciful will. And it is this 'Where my bones shall be taken out of the earth,' she said, 'there will be an open grave provided. What I relinquish, I may bestow. In this grave,' said Winifred, 'let Rhisiart be buried, that his rest may be assured, and my power made manifest.' "
    "What could I do," said Sioned, "but thank him for his good offices, when he brought divine reassurance for my father's weal? And yet it outrages me, I would rather have stood up and said that I am not and never have been in the least doubt that my father is in blessedness this moment, for he was a good man who never did a mean wrong to anyone. And certainly it's kind of Saint Winifred to offer him the lodging she's leaving, and graciously forgive him, but - forgiveness for what? Absolution for what? She might have praised him while she was about it, and said outright that he was justified, not forgiven."
    "Yet a very ambassadorial message," admitted Cadfael appreciatively, "calculated to get us what we came for, assuage the people of Gwytherin, make peace all round -"
    "And to placate me, and cause me to give up the pursuit of my father's murderer," said Sioned,