The Pilgrim of Hate

The Feast of St. Winifred draws many a hopeful pilgrim to the Abbey. Some, the stricken who seek a miracle, make their way to Brother Cadfael's herbarium for the relief the good Benedictine can give them. Like Ciaran, a youth who has vowed to walk the length of England into Wales on his bare feet. Or his shadow, Matthew, another comely youth who insists on going with Ciaran every step of the way, though, to the glory of God, he at least is shod.

From the beginning Brother Cadfael suspects these two are bound together by more than simple devotion, but it's not until his old friend the hawk-eyed Sir Olivier arrives that the youths' mystery takes on a darker hue. For Sir Olivier's mission concerns not the Saint's Feast, but the murder of a knight in far-off Winchester, where the factions of Church and State have met to decide issues touching the lives of all the citizens of twelfth century England.