Laudator Temporis Acti

Life of St. William of Roschild, Abbot of Eskille VI.58, tr. G.G. Coulton, A Medieval Garner (London: Constable & Company Ltd., 1910), p. 114:

While Abbot William was yet in this corruptible body, weighed down with old age, two teeth were torn from his head, which he committed to Brother Saxo saying: "Keep these two teeth in thy charge, and see that thou lose them not." He did as the Abbot had required him, pondering in his own mind wherefore this command had been laid upon him. When however the Lord had taken him away from before our face, then his surviving disciples, in memory of so holy a Father, besought that somewhat might be given to them of his possessions or of his garments; among whom one Brice, the Sacrist, complained that naught had fallen to his share saving a fur cap which the Saint had been wont to wear on his head. To which complaints this Brother made answer to whom these teeth had been entrusted: "I will give thee no small gift—nay, a mighty one, a pearl of price, no less than a tooth of our Father who in his lifetime loved thee not only with a special love, but thee above all others." With these words he delivered to him the tooth; and the Sacrist, rendering manifold thanks for this grace conferred upon him, took the tooth and held it in that dear veneration which it deserved. Oh what gifts did God afterwards confer upon mortal men through that tooth!—gifts which, if they were written down, man's weak intellect would never be content to believe!

In Latin, from Acta Sanctorum, April 6 (April 1-10, vol. I, pp. 633-634)

Cum adhuc esset Abbas Wilhelmus in corpore corruptibili, laborans senio, duo dentes ex capite ejus avulsi sunt: quos committens Fratri Saxoni, dixit: Habe custodiam horum dentium penes te, et noli illos amittere. Fecit ille quod rogatus fuerat, haesitans intra se cur hoc ei mandatum dedisset. Postquam autem tulit eum Dominus de medio, discipuli ejus qui superstites erant, in memoriam tanti Patris, aliquid de rebus vel vestimentis ejus sibi impertiri optabant: inter quos adfuit Sacrista, Brixius nomine, conquerens se nihil de rebus ipsius accepisse, praeter mitram pelliceam, quam solitus erat gestare in capite. Cui sic conquerenti, Frater cui dentes commissi fuerant, respondit: Dabo tibi donum non parvum, immo magnum, margaritam pretiosam, scilicet dentem Patris nostri, qui te in vita sua dilexit, non singulariter solum, sed specialiter unum. Et dicens, tradidit dentem. Ille pro collato sibi munere gratias agens multimodas, susceptum dentem, prout decuit, in magna habuit veneratione. O quanta Deus mortalibus per hunc dentem postmodum contulit! quae si scriberentur, mens infirma credere nequaquam aequiesceret.

Related post: Holy Shoes.