The Leper of Saint Giles

The Leper of Saint Giles (1981) Ellis Peters

Set in England in 1139.

I found I hadn’t purchased book four, so I skipped to book five of the Brother Cadfael series.

Brother Mark has gone to Saint Giles, to minister to the lepers there, and Brother Cadfael misses his former assistant, but does get to see him when he brings his medicines.

It is when they are at Saint Giles when the marriage procession passes by–the groom first, and his betrothed following later.

There is a casual cruelty displayed here that is disturbing to the modern eye, but would have been normal for the term, which in some ways makes it all the more disturbing.

But there are plenty of lovely thoughts as well.

(B)lessedness is what can be snatched out of the passing day, and put away to think of afterwards.”

And a passage I particularly liked, during a candle-lit service.

There was something fascinating in the way the light of the candles picked out so sharply every detail of those ministering hands, cut off at the wrist by dark sleeves. So many severed hands moving and acting with a life of their own, the only pallors in the enfolding dimness.

Again, I enjoyed this story, and Brother Cadfael’s views of the young and sin.
Rating: 8/10

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