Meet the Middle Ages
BackMiracle stories
"On the Wednesday after the conversion of St. Paulus at the end of January, two-year-old Bo swallowed a piece of a large iron nail. Little Bo was the son of Peter, a peasant who lived in Klåstad near Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping. The nail stuck deep in the boy´s throat. Although his mother, Margareta could reach the nail with her middle finger, she could not pull it out." Bo almost dies on this dramatic Wednesday in Östergötland in the 1370´s. Only a miracle can save his life. "What does his panic-stricken mother do? When she saw that the boy was nearly dead, she carried him to the chapel. His eyes were closed and he could not breathe. Margareta prayed to St. Birgitta, begging that her son be saved. While she was praying, the nail vanished and the child happily started to suck its mother´s breast. Olav and Johan, peasants of Klåstad, witnessed this event." A miracle has happened. Two-year old Bo has come back to life.
The story above is a tale of a miracle. These tales teach us something about the minds and thoughts of ordinary medieval people.
A story of a miracle was taken down in writing to convince the Pope that a certain person should be made a saint. The miracles were written down by priests, who took them to the Pope in Rome. By these tales of strange and wonderful things happening when a pious person had been prayed to, one wanted to convince the Pope that he or she should be canonised that is, made a saint. In order to believed, the miracles had had to be witnessed by reliable people. The events in the tale should be reasonably credible and not too outrageous. Through these stories, we get a glimpse of medieval life. We learn about people ´s pleasures and worries, of their illnesses and accidents. We feel the love between parent and child. Many of the stories are about children.
If people asked for help, they would often make a promise as well. They could for example promise to visit the shrine of the saint or give gifts to the poor.