Catherine, Called Birdy: May–July

1ST DAY OF MAY, May Day and the Feast of Saint Marcoul, who cures corrupt and rotten ulcers, suppurating rashes, and other foul diseases of the skin

1ST DAY OF MAY, May Day and the Feast of Saint Marcoul, who cures corrupt and rotten ulcers, suppurating rashes, and other foul diseases of the skin

John Swann from the alehouse and William Steward’s red-haired daughter Molly were acclaimed king and queen of the May.

She must not talk overmuch yet not be silent, lest people think she does not know how to converse.

14th DAY OF MAY, Feast of Saint Boniface, who led a dissipated life but was kind to the poor and died while protecting Christians

In order to put an end to my idleness, which Morwenna says is the great pathway that leads to all evils, I have been made to hem sheets for my marriage bed.

Walter Grey, the steward of Crossbridge Manor, stopped here today to drink our ale and to boast of a miracle in Crossbridge village.

One of the villagers, he says, an unlettered man with no language but English, woke up one morning suddenly able to speak fluent Hebrew.

Odd William tied his writing table, parchments, and pens onto the back of the miller’s mule and set out for Crossbridge and fame.

We dressed all in green and yellow to celebrate Whit Day and sang “Summer is icumen in,” although it was so cold and rainy that the dancers fought to wear the tree costumes, which are clumsy but warm, and all were wet and bedraggled.

He told my father that this toothworm was especially stubborn and malignant and that nothing would do but a poultice of raven manure on the sore tooth.

He told my father that this toothworm was especially stubborn and malignant and that nothing would do but a poultice of raven manure on the sore tooth.

It is Corpus Christi week and on Thursday the guilds of Lincoln will deck their wagons with flowers and herbs and pull them through the town to the cathedral square, where they will perform their plays about the wonders of Creation and the life of Jesus and I will be there to see!

On either side were merchants’ booths with wares spread out upon the counters—cloth, ribbons, candles, needles, boots, belts, spoons, knives, arrowheads, and more.

Then the Devil himself appeared, hoofed, horned, and tailed, clad in a wolf skin, bedecked in bells, shaggy and awful and smelling like last week’s herring.

Then the Devil himself appeared, hoofed, horned, and tailed, clad in a wolf skin, bedecked in bells, shaggy and awful and smelling like last week’s herring.

While someone built another, God and the angels entertained us with songs and bawdy stories.

I am desolate.

22ND DAY OF JUNE, Feast of Saint Ebbe the Younger; who cut off her nose to protect her virtue from marauding Danes

It is tedious and leaves me bumpy and red with bites, but does not overvex my brain, so I can think and wonder while I work.

23RD DAY OF JUNE, Midsummer Eve and Feast of Saint Ethelreda, who died of a tumor on her neck, divine punishment for her vanity in wearing necklaces in her younger days

Before light this day I awoke with an inspired notion.

Meg was already there, trying to coax milk from an unwilling cow.

4TH DAY OF JULY, Feast of Saint Andrew of Crete, stabbed to death by a fanatical iconoclast

4TH DAY OF JULY, Feast of Saint Andrew of Crete, stabbed to death by a fanatical iconoclast

After my harrowing days locked away, I rejoice to be free.

He sent me a silver toothpick, a sewing kit, a gauze headdress in a stinking green that is my least becoming color, and a pouch of silver.

I am rapturous with holy feelings to think I will see pieces of actual saints, whose souls must be with God although their bodies lie in Croydon Abbey.

Finally they were set upon by a maddened bull, who, after goring them to death, was also struck by lightning.

This morning the relics of Felix and Projectus were carried from the abbot’s office to the church by a great procession of monks in a cloud of incense fumes and the smoke from a thousand candles.