acquisition by purchase of the body of Saint Odulf from some
travelling merchants, dealers in relics of sanctity, who, as will be
seen, had no right to have the remains of the saint in their
possession.

Saint Wistan was a scion of the royal house of Mercia, heir to the
throne, and for a short period nominal monarch, but his nature was
more fitted for a religious than a political life, and he took little
part in the affairs of the state. In the year 849 he fell a victim to
the treachery of his cousin Britfard, a rival claimant to the kingdom.

Saint Odulf was not an Englishman, his whole life having been spent at
the monasteries of Utrecht and Stavoren in the Netherlands. Several
miracles are recorded as having been worked by him both before and
after death. To the monastery of Stavoren, which he had founded, his
body belonged by right, but from here it was stolen and conveyed to
England. By unknown means it came into the hands of certain vendors of
holy wares, as related above, and from them it was purchased by Abbot
Aelfward, for something like a hundred pounds, about the year 1034.

A curious story relating to the remains of this saint is told in the
monastic chronicles. Edith, the queen of Edward the Confessor, being
anxious to acquire some precious relic for purposes of her own, called
upon a number of the religious houses of England to send their
treasures to Gloucester, there to be inspected by her, and, among
others, the convent of Evesham sent the remains of Saint Odulf and
Saint Egwin. As the queen was examining the shrine of the former, she
was suddenly struck with a peculiar form of blindness, and not until
she had invoked the saint's intercession, and declared her intention
of restoring the sacred relics to the monks, did she regain her sight!