ST HUGH AND ST MEINRAD 119 



chrismatory, with a letter affirming that St Peter 

 himself had consecrated it ; and, later on, this 

 same, or another raven, was sent by the king with 

 a ring and letter, containing a proposal of marriage, 

 to the maiden of his choice. Deeds these, which 

 are duly recalled in the artistic representations of 

 St Oswald in some of the fifty-seven churches in 

 England which are called after him. 



St Hugh of Lincoln, one of the noblest of 

 Christian prelates in the whole course of English 

 history, was like other saints, notably St Francis, 

 always fond of birds ; and long after his death, 

 when, in 1365, thieves carried off the jewelled relic 

 of his hand, and having stripped it bare, threw it 

 away in a field, a raven is said to have kept watch 

 and ward over it, till it was discovered and restored 

 to its proper resting-place. The thieves, affrighted, 

 gave themselves up to justice, and were hanged at 

 Lincoln. 



Once more, St Meinrad, who dwelt in a cell 

 over which has now risen the monastery of 

 Einsiedeln a noted place of pilgrimage in Switzer- 

 land was murdered by two robbers, who, having 

 done the deed and found no booty, took themselves 

 off, undiscovered, as they imagined, to a little inn 

 at Zurich. But two ravens who had been the only 



