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This is the first of a series of twenty books featuring Brother Cadfael, collectively known as the Cadfael Chronicles. The author did not have a series in mind while writing this first book; the strength of the central character became evident as she wrote the second book.[3] All of the characters in the monastery itself (abbot, prior, monks with specific jobs like the precentor or infirmarer) are introduced by name, if not by personality, in this first book of the series.
St. Winifred and her shrine are mentioned in most of the subsequent books, and Cadfael often prays to her or talks to her in Welsh. For much of the series, Cadfael is only partly sure that he acted correctly when dealing with the saint's relics. He admits his actions in 1141 to his friend, Sheriff Hugh Beringar, in The Pilgrim of Hate, the tenth book in the series. In that book he concludes that his actions are vindicated when he witnesses a miraculous healing at Winifred's shrine in Shrewsbury Abbey. In The Holy Thief, St. Winifred's coffin is stolen from the Abbey, and Cadfael lives in fear that the coffin will be opened and the deception discovered; he is much relieved when the coffin is eventually returned intact.