Caedmon

	Caedmon's Cross overlooking the town of Whitby

The story of Caedmon, an illiterate herdsman of Whitby Abbey, is a remarkable one. He is called "the Father of English poetry", though I suppose that "Anglo-Saxon poetry" would be more accurate. His surviving poems, although reduced in number by the attacks of destructive criticism, are still an impressive corpus of religious poetry and show tremendous skill in the use of language and figure to present his theme.

Here is his story and if you find the divine intervention part hard to swallow, then I feel sorry for you. Caedmon was neither the first nor the last example of someone given unusual abilities to be used for the glory of God.