ABSTRACT
Gregory of Tours and the Whitby monk wrote the first life of St. Gregory the Great acknowledged that the miracles described did not happened but lfric is a long way from admitting such a possibility. The importance of known and written authority is underlined in the life of St. Edmund, where he deliberately confines himself to the miracles reported by Abbo. The rigorous skepticism about contemporary miracles voiced in the Ascension Day homily gave way to a more believing spirit because the contemporary crises in England desperately called for a continuing belief in sanctity. Ælfric's concern with authenticity is less an anxiety to validate the miraculous than an interest in relating hagiography to the real world of his own time. More telling, perhaps, for Ælfrie's belief in some kind of truth for these legends is his concern with distinguishing between true and false legends of the saints.
