Translation of the Bones of Saint Oswald

Oswald, king of Northumbria, fell in battle in 642, and the victors cut his body apart and put it on display. Decades later, according to Bede, the English monk and historian, his niece Osthryth, by then queen of Mercia, had his bones carried to the monastery of Bardney. The crowned woman in white is most likely her, pointing down at the open grave. At the foot of a plain wooden cross, a bearded man in a heavy brocade cloak leans into the pit and lifts out the skull, while long bones already rest on the red lining of a gilded shrine with carrying poles. Crowding in from the other side are the people a relic was expected to help. A young man with bandaged eyes kneels in prayer, another leans on crutches, and pilgrims wait with their staves.