> Margaret Cormack wrote:
> > Is>there any literature on the motif of imbibing demons and the ill
> >effects thereof? I am interested in a variant of this motif, in which it is
> >not a demon, but a worm of some sort which is swallowed, and the result is
> >physical ailment (typically the victim swells up) rather than possession.
Among the miracles collected at Thomas Becket's tomb in 1171, the year
after his death, is the story of a Canterbury woman afflicted with
horrible suppurating, swollen facial tumor who is given a swallow of
"St.Thomas's Water." Immediately, she coughs up a one-and-a-half inch
four-footed (sic) worm with a tail like an awl, which some believed to be
sent from "the Enemy." This is recounted in gross detail in vol. II of
_Materials for the History of Thomas Becket_ in the Roll Series (67) and
translated by E. A. Abbott in _St. Thomas of Canterbury, His Life and
Miracles_ (1898). I don't have the page numbers handy for either volume,
but the miracle is in Book II, ch. 18. I have a translation of the story
as a text file I could send you if you'd like.
John S.
____________________________________________________________________________
John Shinners e-mail:[log in to unmask]
Chair and Professor Phone: (office): (219) 284-4494
Humanistic Studies Program Phone (dept.): (219) 284-4501
Saint Mary's College Fax: (219) 284-4716
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
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