Chapter CXXV. How the creatures returned his love: and concerning the fire which hurt him not

166. All the creatures therefore strove to return the Saint's love and to show their gratitude for his services; they rejoiced in his caresses, granted his requests, and obeyed his commands. Let me relate a few instances. When he was suffering from disease of the eyes and had been induced to submit to treatment, a surgeon was summoned to the place. So he came and brought an iron instrument for cauterization, and ordered it to be put into the fire until it should be red-hot. Then the blessed father, to encourage his body now shaken by horror, spoke thus to the fire: "My brother fire, who dost outvie all other things in splendour, the Most High hath created thee mighty, fair, and useful. Be kind to me at this hour, be courteous, for I have loved thee of old in the Lord. I pray the great Lord who created thee to temper thy heat now so that, burning me gently, I may be able to bear it." Having finished his prayer he made the sign of the cross over the fire, and thenceforth remained undismayed. The surgeon took the glowing iron in his hands: the brethren, yielding to human weakness, fled: the Saint with cheerful readiness exposed himself to the iron. The iron was plunged hissing into the tender flesh, and the cauterization was slowly made from the ear to the eyebrow. What pain that fire inflicted is declared by the words of the Saint, who knew best what it was, for when the brethren who had fled came back, the father said with a smile: "Faint-hearted and poor-spirited ones, wherefore did ye fly? I tell you of a truth I felt no heat of fire nor any pain in my flesh." Then turning to the doctor: u If the flesh is not well burnt," said he, "apply the iron again". The doctor, whose experience in such cases was very different, proclaimed this as a Divine miracle, saying: "I tell you, brethren, I have seen wondrous things to-day".

I believe that the man to whom at his will cruel things became gentle had returned to primal innocence.