In Which What Has Been Said Is Confirmed by Some Examples

WE read of the holy virgin Gertrude that one day Christ our Redeemer appeared to her, carrying in His right hand health and in His left hand sickness, and told her to choose which she would. She answered: “What I desire, Lord, with all my heart is that Thou wilt not regard my will, but that that may be done in me which shall be for Thy greater glory and satisfaction.”

It is told of a client of St. Thomas of Canterbury that in an illness he visited the tomb of the saint to beg him ask God to give him health. He obtained his petition, and went back home well. Then he began to think within himself that, if illness were better for his salvation, why should he seek for health? This reason struck him so forcibly that he went back to the tomb and asked the saint to beg of God to give him what was better for his salvation. God let the illness return, and he lived much consoled under it, understanding that that was what was better for him.

Surius in the Life of St. Vedastus, bishop, relates another like example of a blind man who, on the day of the translation of the body of that holy bishop, greatly desired to see his holy relics and consequently to have sight to see them. He obtained it of our Lord and saw what he desired. And, going about with sight, he turned to prayer that, if that sight did not make for the salvation of his soul, his blindness might return. After making that prayer he remained blind as before.

St. Jerome relates how, when St. Anthony, abbot, was summoned by St. Athanasius, bishop, to the city of Alexandria to help him in confuting and extirpating the heresies that were there, Didymus, who was a most learned man, but blind of the eyes of his body, discussed with St.

Anthony many passages of Holy Scripture in such a manner that the saint was in admiration of his genius and learning. After having discussed these passages, he asked him if he felt sad at being blind. He was loth to reply for shame. After being asked a second and a third time, he in the end openly confessed that he did feel sad thereat. Then the saint said to him: “It is a marvel to me how a man so wise as you can be sad and grieved at not possessing what flies and ants possess and the very earthworms, instead of rejoicing in the possession of what only saints and apostles have merited to obtain.”” Hence is seen, says St. Jerome, that it is a much greater thing to have spiritual than bodily eyes.

In the history of the order of St. Dominic, Father Hernando del Castillo relates how St. Dominic, while he lived at Rome, used to visit an afflicted sick woman, cloistered and a great servant of God, who had taken up her lodging in a tower hard by the gate of St. John Lateran; and the good father used oftentime to hear her confession and administer to her to the most Holy Sacrament. The woman was called Bona, and her life so well answered to her name that God taught her, like a good woman, to preserve cheerfulness in trials and find repose in death. She suffered a most severe infirmity in her breasts, which were so eaten away by cancer and so full of worms as would have been for any other person an insufferable torment, but not for her, who suffered it with admirable patience and giving of thanks. St. Dominic loved her much, seeing her so suffering and so advanced in virtue. One day, after having confessed and communicated her, he desired to see that cruel and terrible wound, and gained his point, though with some difficulty. When Bona uncovered herself, and the saint saw the putrid mass of the cancer, swarming with worms, and her patience and cheerfulness, he was moved to compassion, but had a greater desire of her wounds than of the treasures of earth and begged her to give one of those worms as a relic. That the servant of God would not do unless he promised to restore it; for she had come to that pitch of joy in seeing herself thus devoured alive that, if any of the worms fell on the ground, she took it back to restore it to its place. So on his word of honor she gave him one, which was well-grown and had a black head. Scarcely had the saint taken it into his hand when it turned into a most beautiful pearl, and the friars in admiration told their father not to return it; but the sick woman asked for her worm and bade them give her back her pearl. But in the act of being given back it returned to its original form of a worm, and the woman put it in her breasts where it had been engendered and grown. St. Dominic prayed for her, made the sign of the cross over her, and left her. But as he was going down the tower-stairs the woman’s cancereaten breasts fell off from her, worms and all; and little by little the flesh grew in its place, and in a few days she was altogether cured, telling to all who came near her the marvels that God wrought through His servant.

In the same history it is related how, when Friar Reginald was in communication with St. Dominic about taking the habit of his order and had now made up his mind to do so, he took to his bed with a fever which the doctors thought mortal. Father St. Dominic took greatly to heart his recovery and made continual prayer to God our Lord for that intention; and the sick man also along with him called our Lady to his aid with great devotion and earnestness. While the two of them were at this prayer, the most holy Queen of Heaven, our Lady, came into Reginald’s room, surrounded with a brightness and splendor quite heavenly and marvelous. She was accompanied by other two holy virgins, whom he took to be St. Cecily and St. Catherine, martyrs. They went up with their sovereign Lady to the sick man’s bed. She, as Queen and Mother of Mercy, comforted him and said: “What wouldst thou have me to do for thee? I come to see what thou askest; tell me, and it shall be given thee.” Reginald was overpowered and dumfounded with so heavenly a vision and doubted what it became him to do or to say; but one of the saints who accompanied our Lady soon drew him out of this perplexity, saying: “Brother, do not ask for anything, but leave all in her hands, for she knows better what to give than thou what to ask.” The sick man followed this counsel, so discreet and well-advised, and so answered the Virgin: “Lady, I ask for nothing; I have no will beyond thine; in it and in thy hands I place myself.”” The Blessed Virgin then reached out and took some oil which her attendants brought with them for this purpose, and anointed Reginald in the way that it is customary to give extreme unction. So great was the efficacy of the touch of those holy hands that suddenly he found himself well of the fever and as restored in bodily strength as if he had never been ill. And what is more, along with that sovereign favor there was conferred on him another still higher in virtue of the soul, for from that moment he never felt any sensual or impure motion in his person all the days of his life, at no time, no place, and in no occasion.

In “Ecclesiastical History” it is related that among the men who flourished at that time there was a very distinguished man named Benjamin, who had of God the gift of healing the sick without any medicine by the mere touch of his hands, and anointing them with a little oil and saying a prayer over them. Along with this grace of healing others, he himself suffered from dropsy in a very grievous form and became so swollen that he could not come out by the door of his cell without displacing the doorposts. So he remained inside for eight months until he died, sitting in a very large chair, where he cured many ailments, never complaining nor grieving that he could find no remedy for himself. And those who pitied him he consoled, saying: “Pray God for my soul and never mind about my body, for when it was well it served me to no good purpose.”

In the “Spiritual Meadow” there is a story of a monk named Barnaby, who on a journey ran a splinter into his foot, and would not have it removed for some days nor have the wound attended to, that he might have something to suffer for the love of God; and it is said that he used to say to those who visited him: “The more the outer man suffers and is mortified, the more the inner man is quickened and strengthened.”

In the “Life of St. Pacomius,” Surius tells of a monk named Zacheus, who, suffering from epilepsy, would not on that account abate the rigor of his customary abstinence, which consisted in living on bread and salt, nor again cease to repeat the prayers that the other monks were accustomed to say in health, attending matins and the other canonical hours. The rest of the time, in the intervals of prayer, he occupied in making mats, baskets, and ropes; and from the roughness of the esparto grass with which he wove them, his hands were so badly hurt that the blood ran from the cracks in the skin; this he did not to be idle. At night, before sleeping, his custom was to meditate on some passages of Holy Scripture; then he made the sign of the cross all over his body; that done, he retired to rest till the hour of matins, at which, as has been said, he arose and remained at psalmody and prayer until it was daylight. This was the division of his time that this holy invalid made, and these were his ordinary occupations. There happened to come at one time a monk to visit him. He, seeing his hands in such a pitiable state, told him to anoint them with oil and he would not feel such pains in the openings. Zacheus did so; and not only was the pain not mitigated, but it was much increased. He went afterwards to see St. Pacomius and told him what he had done. The saint said to him: “Did you think, son, that God does not see all our infirmities and that He could not heal them if He pleased? Now as to His not doing so, but permitting us to suffer pains se long as He pleases, do you think that He does that for any other purpose but that we may leave the whole care of ourselves to Him and put all our confidence in Him alone; and also for the good and advancement of our souls, so that He may be able afterwards to increase the remuneration and everlasting reward for these short afflictions which He sends us?” Zacheus at that was filled with compunction and said: “Pardon me, father, and pray God for me that He may forgive me this sin of want of confidence and conformity to His will, and desire to get better.” At parting with Pacomius, in penance for so light a fault he fasted a whole year a fast so rigorous that he only ate once in two days, and then very little and weeping over it. The great Pacomius used afterwards to recount this notable example to his monks, to urge them to perseverance in work, confidence in God, and zeal to make up for small faults.