Henry the holy
On 7 February 1486, Alice Newnett of Mere in Wiltshire was raised from the dead. She had been the latest victim of a virulent plague sweeping through England – a sickness so fast-acting that the priest who had been called to give her Extreme Unction (the final anointing administered to the dying) arrived to find she was already almost lifeless. Before he finished the last rites, Alice apparently expired. The priest hurriedly made his last anointings and commanded the women present to lay Alice out for burial while he arranged her gravesite. (In cases of plague, it was best to bury the dead swiftly, to prevent infection spreading.)
Alice’s body was laid on the ground and, sorrowfully, her mother sewed the girl into her shroud. There the corpse lay for two hours. But then, as evening drew near, Alice suddenly sat bolt upright inside her shroud. The priest had been too hasty. She was not dead after all. Indeed, on closer inspection it was discovered that all signs of plague had disappeared from her body.
As she explained to her marvelling mother, Alice knew the cause of her resurrection. While she had lain still, she had received a vision of a
