Observations placeholder
Carolingian Chronicles – Rebel Saxons see the likeness of two shields red with flame wheeling over the church
Identifier
028767
Type of Spiritual Experience
None
Background
A description of the experience
Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories, trans. Bernhard Walter Scholz (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970), 53, 55.
In 776 the Saxons rebelled against Charlemagne and attacked the castle of Syburg with continued lack of success, finally deciding to storm the castle. They reportedly
"saw the likeness of two shields red with flame wheeling over the church. When the heathens outside saw this miracle, they were at once thrown into confusion and started fleeing to their camp in terror. Since all of them were panic-stricken, one man stampeded the next and was killed in return, because those who looked back out of fear impaled themselves on the lances carried on the shoulders of those who fled before them. Some dealt each other aimless blows and thus suffered divine retribution."