ained by a knight of that same city
whose only son was a cripple and weak in all his body. Though the
child was of tender years he had passed the age of weaning; but he
still remained in a cradle. The boy's father, seeing the man of God to
be endued with such holiness, humbly fell at his feet and besought him
to heal his son. Francis, deeming himself to be unprofitable and
unworthy of such power and grace, for a long time refused to do it. At
last, conquered by the urgency of the knight's entreaties, after
offering up prayer, he laid his hand on the boy, blessed him, and
lifted him up. And in the sight of all, the boy straightway arose
whole in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and began to walk hither
and thither about the house."[65]

St. Thomas of Hereford (1222-1282) was the last Englishman to be
officially canonized. The extant documents of his canonization record
no less than four hundred and twenty-nine miracles alleged to have
been performed by him. The following case of resurrection from the
dead occurred, however, twenty-one years after his death. I quote the
account in full:

"On the 6th of September, 1303, Roger, aged two years
and three months, the son of Gervase, one of the warders
of Conway Castle, managed to crawl out of bed in the
night and tumble off a bridge, a distance of
twenty-eight feet; he was not discovered till the next
morning, when his mother found him half naked and quite
dead upon a hard stone at the bottom of the ditch, where
there was no water or earth, but simply the rock, which
had been quarried to build the castle. Simon Waterford,
the vicar, who had christened the child, John de Bois,
John Guffe, all sworn witnesses, took their oaths on the
Gospel that they saw and handled the child dead. The
King's Crowners (Stephen Ganny and William Nottingham)
were presently called and went down into the moat. They
found the child's body cold and stiff, and white with
hoar-frost, stark dead, indeed. While the Crowners, as
their office requires, began to write what they had
seen, one John Syward, a near neighbour, came down and
gently handled the child's body all over, and finding it
as dead as ever any, made the sign of the cross upon its
forehead, and earnestly prayed after this manner:
'Blessed St. Thomas Cantelope, you by whom God has
wrought innumerable miracles, show mercy unto this
little infant, and obtain he may return to life again.