Letters from the Bema

Pilgrims, a count

Not a prediction, only a few numbers from this year's Feast.

The hill road before dawn, pilgrims walking up.

In the cathedral's book: three bishops' candles, two thousand six hundred and some baptisms, one lost child (found at the crypt door eating a honey cake), one fainting priest (the heat), three lost wallets, four brides. The guest houses of the lane were full from the 18th. The water seller on the hill sold out by nine in the morning.

My favourite entry in the sacristan's book is in his own hand: "Everything went as always, which is to say, by God's mercy and not by our plan."