Brother Cadfael: Huesos de Santos, Historia y Misterio en la Abadía de Shrewsbury

Brother Cadfael is a monk at the Shrewsbury Abbey, but he has chosen life in a monastery only after a wild and colorful past. His worldly past includes travel, wars, women, and even fighting in the Crusades. As a monk in the monastery, he tends an herb garden and uses the herbs to make medicines and tonics to help those around him. Although his present life as a monk and his wild past seem to contrast, Cadfael has no regrets about the past and feels no contradiction between his two lives.

The Mission to Obtain Saint Winifred's Bones

Brother Cadfael's life takes a twist when he is called upon to join the mission to obtain Saint Winifred's bones for the Shrewsbury Abbey. He joins the group of brothers led by Prior Robert as an English/Welsh translator.

The Medieval Belief in the Power of Bones

Medieval men believed in the power of bones. The bones of saints were revered, collected, and even fought over by churches and monasteries because they were believed to effect miracles. A church or monastery which had the relics (bones or other remnants) of saints could expect to collect much money in the way of alms from the pilgrims who came seeking miracles. This "Morbid Taste for Bones" sets the scene for the first of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael Series.

Brother Cadfael in Twelfth-Century Shrewsbury

Cadfael is a monk at the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury during the twelfth century. He has come late to the cowl, having served the Lord as a Crusader in the Holy Land for many years. Thus, he is more worldly and less naive than many of his monastic brothers. As the herbalist for his monastery and the surrounding area, he has more freedom of movement than most monks of his order.

A Journey to Wales

In this first of twenty Brother Cadfael novels, he is chosen to accompany a group of monks on a trip to Wales to recover the bones of St. Winifrid. Winifred is a Welsh saint who died and was buried in Welsh soil, and Cadfael has his doubts about the mission. One of the brothers in his monastery, Columbanus, has had a vision that St. Winifrid wants her bones brought to their monastery. Cadfael is chosen to go on the journey because he is Welsh and speaks the language.