Cadfael

Cadfael (1994 - 1998)

with...
Derek Jacobi ...Brother Cadfael
Michael Culver ...Prior Robert
Peter Copley ...Abbot Herribert
Julian Firth ...Brother Jerome
Mark Charnock ...Brother Oswin
Anthony Green ...Hugh Beringar (1997)
Eoin McCarthy ...Hugh Beringar (1995-1996)
Sean Pertwee ...Hugh Beringar (1994)
Albie Woodington ...Sergeant-Warden (1994-1996)

Cadfael is the lead character in the PBS Mystery series, based on a series of books by Ellis Peters. He is a Welshman, now in his 60s, and a Brother in the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul, in Shrewsbury, England. The time is the 1100s, while Stephen and Maud are contending for the throne of England. Cadfael is now a brother, but he has been in the world- he spent 15 (or so) years in the Mideast, first as a Crusader, then as captain of a fishing boat. While there, he began to learn about gardening and herbs, he loved several women and even fathered a son, although he did not know it at the time. Finally, the quiet, the peace of the monastery called to him, and he came home to England and took vows. When the series begins, he has been a brother for about 15 years. His adventures are all centered in life in the Monastery, which is the center of his life, but they also show that he has not turned away completely from the world. There are now 20 novels and a book of short stories written about Cadfael. For a complete list of the Cadfael novels, go here. Ellis Peters died in the autumn of 1995; Cadfael fans and mystery readers everywhere mourned her passing.

Among the wonderful bits of information about the Cadfael series compiled in the Cadfael Chronicles pages are these quotes: visit these pages soon if you're a Cadfael fan.

From "Monks Hood"

"Give your love freely and look for nothing in return. No man is measured by the love he gives to others, but by how much he is loved."

"Under the certainty of heaven all that we can be sure of is tomorrow. When yesterday is already ours, what more can we ask?"

from "The Leper of St. Giles"

Cadfael: "I often think that the senses are the gateway to the soul; we should celebrate them more."
Avice: "That sounds almost heretical, Cadfael."
Cadfael: "Oh, sometimes I like to put the sand of doubt into the oyster of my faith."

From "Monk's Hood"

"Beware how you pass judgment on your superiors at least until you know how to put yourself in their place and see from their view."

From part of Abbot Radulfus's sermon at the funeral of Father Ailnoth from the book "The Raven in the Foregate"

"For even the pursuit of perfection may be sin, if it infringes the rights and needs of another soul. Better to fail a little, by turning aside to lift up another, than to pass by him in haste to reach our own reward, and leave him to solitude and despair. Better to labour in lameness, in fallibility, but holding up others who falter, than to stride forward alone."

From 'An Excellent Mystery"

Happiness, thought Cadfael, watching him, consists in small things, not in great. It is the small things we remember, when time and mortality close in, and by small landmarks we
may make our way at last humbly into another world.

from "Virgin in the Ice"

"There is no profit in ifs. We go on from where we stand, we answer for our own evil, and leave to God our good."

Cadfael to Ermina Hugonin

from "One Corpse Too Many"

The trouble with me, he thought unhappily, is that I have been about the world long enough to know that God's plans for us, however infallibly good, may not take the form that we expect and demand. And I find immense potential for rebellion in this old heart, if God, for no matter what perfect end, choose to take Hugh Beringar out of this world and leave Adam Courcelle in it.

from "One Corpse Too Many"

"I hope I never do anything without due thought - even if the thought sometimes has to shift its feet pretty briskly to keep up with the deed" Cadfael to Hugh Beringar after Hugh asks Cadfael's help and hopes that Cadfael would not refuse after giving "due thought".

Cadfael to Emma Vernold in "St Peter's Fair"
"Penitence is in the heart, not in words".