Relationships
On his many travels before the chronicles open, Cadfael had relationships with at least three women: Bianca, a Venetian girl; Ariana, a Greek boat girl; and Mariam, a young Syrian widow, with whom he lived for many years in Antioch. Through the course of the stories, it emerges that Mariam had a son by Cadfael, although he only comes to realise he is a father by accident (The Virgin in the Ice). After Cadfael takes vows, he has a close affection for at least two young women: Sioned, the daughter of a Welsh lord (A Morbid Taste for Bones) and Godith Adeney (One Corpse Too Many). He also enjoys a platonic relationship with the equally worldly Benedictine nun, Sister Magdalen (formerly Avice of Thornbury) of the nunnery close by at Godric's Ford (The Leper of St. Giles, Dead Man's Ransom, The Rose Rent.) His former fiancée Richildis, now widowed and re-married, briefly re-appears in his life (Monk's Hood).
Born in Antioch, and named Daoud, Cadfael's son never knew his father, but his mother Mariam always described Cadfael in loving terms. Based on this praise, Daoud decides to embrace his father's Christianity rather than his mother's Islamic faith, and takes the name Olivier de Bretagne. After Mariam dies, Olivier offers his service to a crusading noble, and quickly becomes his favourite squire (The Virgin in the Ice). His master supports the Empress Maud, which places him on the opposing side to Cadfael's friend Hugh Beringar, though they eventually reconcile their differences. Olivier is presented as the gracious knight and paladin: skilled and brave in battle, 'fiercely beautiful', resourceful, resilient, generous and chivalrous; he risks his life to save an enemy who had been keeping him imprisoned in a dungeon (Brother Cadfael's Penance). His name echoes that of the companion of Roland, hero of the great Medieval heroic epics. Olivier comes closer than any other character in the series to fulfilling the ideals of the French-Norman culture, "almost more Norman than the Normans", perhaps because he has consciously chosen it. In The Pilgrim of Hate he is described as having "a long, spare wide-browed face, with a fine scimitar of a nose and a subtle bow of a mouth and the fierce, fearless, golden eyes of a hawk. A head capped closely with curving blue-black hair, coiling crisply at the temples and clasping his cheeks like folded wings. So young and yet so formed a face, east and west at home in it, clean shaven like a Norman, olive-skinned like a Syrian, all memories of the Holy Land in one human countenance".
Cadfael works closely with his friend Deputy Sheriff (later Sheriff) Hugh Beringar of Maesbury in the north of the shire, often bending the Abbey rule to travel with or visit him. Beringar, introduced in the second novel, One Corpse Too Many (1979), is Cadfael's main ally in the pursuit of justice. Beringar swore loyalty to King Stephen when he came of age; the king, although initially suspicious, soon came to trust Beringar and appointed him Deputy Sheriff, and finally Sheriff of Shropshire. At times, Beringar has to choose between loyalty to the Crown's justice and Cadfael's private view of the injustices of the world.
Cadfael is tolerant and caring towards most of his fellow brothers, but has several particularly close friendships. Brother Mark (Monk's Hood, The Leper of Saint Giles and The Summer of the Danes) worked with Cadfael in the herbarium on joining the abbey. Cadfael describes him: "He was my right hand and a piece of my heart for three years, and knows me better than any man living". Cadfael is also close to Prior Leonard of Bromfield Abbey (The Virgin in the Ice); Brother Paul, the master of the novices and schoolboys; Brother Edmund the infirmarer, who treats the sick and supervises the Abbey infirmary; and Brother Anselm the precentor, who is in charge of music and the order of the worship services. Cadfael regards Brother Oswin, who becomes his assistant, almost as a son, caring for him deeply and revering his innocence.
He also has a special affection for the martyred maiden Saint Winifred who lies at the centre of the first book in the series, A Morbid Taste for Bones, (though this was not originally the novel chosen to launch the chronicles), in which Cadfael takes part in an expedition to Wales to excavate the saint's bones and bring them to the Abbey in England, establishing it as a pilgrimage site of healing relics. Later recalling the event Cadfael says: "It was I who took her from the soil and I who restored her - and still that makes me glad - from the moment I uncovered those slender bones, I felt in mine that they only wished to be left in peace the girl was Welsh, like me". Through the series he petitions her for help and talks with her in Welsh, as a down to earth steward of the common people, more accessible than a remote and mysterious God, a local channel of healing and benediction, and throughout the series it is implied that Saint Winifred regards Cadfael as "her fallible but faithful servant" (The Pilgrim of Hate) and has interceded for him at least twice (The Pilgrim of Hate, Brother Cadfael's Penance).
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