The Golden Legend: Popular Saints

Source

Source: Selected public-domain passages from Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, compiled c. 1260, translated by William Caxton in 1483 and modernized in the Temple Classics edition edited by F. S. Ellis, 1900. Additional public-domain web transcriptions are noted in the metadat

Saint Nicholas

a. Coverage: Partial source packet for the popular-culture saints entry, not the complete Golden Legend.

Saint Nicholas

And when the holy man Nicholas knew hereof he had great horror of this villainy, and threw by night secretly into the house of the man a mass of gold wrapped in a cloth.

And anon at once a man appeared in his likeness, and said: "Lo! see ye me not? ye called me," and then he began to

Saint Valentine

help them in their exploit of the sea, seaman's duties and anon at once the tempest ceased.

Saint Valentine

St. Valentine, friend of our Lord and priest of great authority, was at Rome.

St. Valentine anon immediately, very soon put him in prayers, and by his prayers the daughter

Saint George

of the provost received again back her sight, and anon all they of the house were converted.

Saint George

Saint George said to them, "Doubt not. Believe in God and Jesus Christ, and be baptized, and I shall slay the dragon."

The king established a church there in honor of Our Lady and of Saint George, in which there flows to this day a fountain

Saint Christopher

of living water that heals sick people who drink from it.

Saint Christopher

Christopher said to him: "Thou hast put me in great peril; thou weighest almost as I had all the world upon me."

The child answered: "Marvel thee nothing, Christopher, for thou hast not only borne all the world upon thee, but thou hast borne him that

Saint Lucy

created and made all the world upon thy shoulders."

Saint Lucy

Lucy said: "The words of God may not fail, ne may not be departed from them."

Then they drew out their swords and smote her through the throat, but nevertheless sh

Saint Barbara

e died not anon, but preached to the people.

Saint Barbara

Then Dioscorus, her father, took her and smote off her head; and when he descended from the mountain a

Saint Mary Magdalene

fire from heaven descended on him and consumed him.

Saint Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene i

Saint Thomas of Canterbury

s said of bitter sea, or a light giver, or lighted.

Saint Thomas of Canterbury

And anon the knights smote him, and one of them smote off the crown of his head, and another brake the point of his sword upon the pavement.