It had been three years since he had started his work in France.
He had started at Montpellier and at Arles. The situation that he had found in the county of Toulouse appeared tragic. The Cathari, here called albigesi, had in their hands all the region. They were sided by the lord of the county, Raymond and by the local barons.
In this country which was exceptionally rich, thanks to the profits that were recovered by the commerce with Orient, country in which was much spread the predominance of the Hebrews, so much as Languedoc was called New Judea, dominated an atmosphere far from Christianity. The clergy was corrupt. Simony, dissoluteness, avarice and the attachment to wealth flowerished. The courts of the barons offered shelter to the Cathari. The children of the noble studied in the school directed by the 'perfects'. The songs troubadoric spread in a poetic form the teachings of the Cathari.
Chatarism here revealed in a more obvious way than in Romagna its hostility to Christianity. It had created its own structures: it had its own bishops, its own clergy, it summoned synods. There were even Chatari orders. The Bishops of Languedoc passed one after the other at the catara church. Innocence III, convinced that the country was subdued by heresy, sent in Languedoc Bernando of Chiaravalle. Bernardo at his return confirmed to the Pope of having found the Churches deprived of believers, the believers deprived of Priests, the Priests deprived of honour.
The mission of Bernard did not bring victory. Then Dominick had tried to convert the Cathari. He had wanted his disciples to be learned so that they could face victoriously the disputes. And also, that they would renounce any wealth and become poor so that they would not attract on them the accusation of avarice that burdened the clergy. However, not even Dominick had succeeded. He had not many disciples and hadn’t found support in the high clergy of Languedoc that didn’t like the methods he adopted.
The papal legates sent in Languedoc had solicited the count Raymond to take the arms against the Cathari. Raymond however favoured, hiddenly, the Cathari, because that allowed him to live a personal dissolute life. Both he and his barons had pretended deafness to the appeals of the legates. Then, one of the legates fell victim of assassination. The Pope, once he knew, turned to the king of France appealing to him so that he could announce publicly a crusade against the Cathari and against Raymond. To the king of France, this was not useful: for a long time he dreamed to crush that vassal too rich and to incorporate the county to the lands of the reign. The French crusade left. Its first act was to conquer Beziers and massacre the whole population of the city. Perished in equal measure both Cathari and Catholics. "God will recognise his" assured the chief of the crusade. After that was conquered Carcassone.
The struggle against the Cathari became of secondary importance. The crusade became a war to subdue Languedoc. This, combined the population who didn’t want the country to be united with France. The war continued. At the end, those who had taken part in the war had enough of it and returned in France. In the country remained also those who believed that after they had defeated the barons of Languedoc, they would confiscate their possessions. Their guide was Simon de Montfort. Cruel and fanatic he led the work of conversion without any pity. He burned castles, palaces, cities and villages; he destroyed vineyards and eradicated the orchards. He was transforming a luxuriant country in a desert. People were killed in the cruelest way. The captured 'perfects' were burned. After the victory of Muret it looked like Montfort would have completed his work.
The situation however changed when against Mortfort took the arms Raymond VII, the new young count of Tolosa. In Toulouse came together the armies of the count and his vassals along with all the persecuted. Montfort stopped under the city walls and started a relentless siege. It lasted eighteen months. Both sides resorted to the most ferocious cruelty. Finally a bullet cast by a big crossbow of the fortress, which was guided by women, struck Montfort and crashed his skull.
After the death of the head, the French armies abandoned the siege. Languedoc freed itself from the French yoke. The Cathari, surrounded by the halo of their defenders, took again the predominance in the country. The 'perfects' were giving everywhere their teachings. The Cathari Bishops had taken possession of the dioceses. The hate of everything that was French was above the contrast of religion.
All this however didn’t last long. Another crusade guided by the king of France in person, Luigi, left. Languedoc wasn’t strong enough to withstand again. Yielded nearly without a fight.
Now, under the French hegemony, in the country began a tighten hard struggle against the Cathari. Those who were renouncing to their faith had to wear a cross-sewn on their back. Those who wanted to remain Cathari had to run away from the country or to go to prison. The 'perfects' were burned. The laics were forbidden to have the Holy Scripture.
The Friars minor that had arrived before him in Montpellier related all this to Anthony.
During his first year of sojourn in France he worked in Languedoc. According to the method learned by the Friars of the Dominican order, he was leading the life of a preacher and of a poor man. He was wondering from village to village with his patched habit and with his sandals whose straps had hardened for the blood that had soaked on them. In accordance to the recommendation of the Gospel, he didn’t take anything with himself. In order to have some food and to find to sleep, he was asking for alms. The population usually welcomed him with benevolence, just because he was a mendicant and because he was not French. For a long time he couldn’t get in contact with the Cathari, who were hidden, and didn’t have trush in anybody. But at the end, both him and his companions were able to acquire that trust of the Cathari. The Cathari were coming to speak to Anthony. They were listening to his teachings. A voice has spread around that the Friars minor didn’t come to spy or to investigate. Anthony was meeting people frightened and tired to hide themselves. They confided in him all their dreads and their doubts, and what was more terrible: the teaching of the 'perfects', that is, the lack of mercy of those that assured to announce love.
The Episcopalian courts every so often uttered sentences against the captured and held back in the underground jails the Cathari. Anthony presented himself to the bishops asking them to allow him to defend those Cathari in the tribunal. Some Bishops allowed him, they allowed him to enter in the prisons, and have interviews with the heretics. He even tried to reach the jailed 'perfects' of which it was known that were condemned to death. The judges, between which there were even the Friars of the Dominicans, sometimes mitigated their sentences surrendering to the ardent words of Anthony.
He didn’t even realise when he first started to be surrounded by the love of people. It was well known that there was no man whom he wouldn’t try to defend. Entire crowds followed Anthony and listened to his teachings. In those crowds there were many women: mothers, wives and sisters of those whom he had been able to save from jail or for whom he had been able to render the sentence more clement.
When he was starting to confess, in front of his confessional there were boundless lines of penitents. It happened that he was starting to confess just after the morning mass and that he wouldn’t stop confessing till twilight.
Everywhere he appeared the crowds gathered. They were crowding so much that one could not make a step forward. Some men of women because they were so devouted to him, equipped themselves of blades and scissors, taking advantage of the crowd, to cut pieces of his habit. Once, because of this, he was hurt. The habit had been so shred that no other patch was sufficient and it was necessary to change it with a new one. At the end they had to make a barrier of strong men that had the task to surround Anthony to protect him when he entered the crowd.
After one year he left Languedoc and yielding to the calls he went towards North towards the mountains. He arrived in Puy close to the springs of the Loire. Here the population was Christian, it was not touched by the Cathari influences. The cult of the Madonna in the local basilica recalled in Puy pilgrimages of all the villages. However the effect of the pilgrimages hardly counter balanced the general decadence of the Christian customs. Even here the people were as a flock abandoned by their shepherd.
As soon as he appeared, once again the crowds were starting to follow him, thirst by his teachings and their devotion. Once again appointed men had to protect him from the tight crowd. Once again he was confessing for whole day.
Just in Puy he started to have problems with his health. All of a sudden and simultaneously, showed up various symptoms that impeded him in doing his work. At first he tried to ignore them: as it had happened till now, the illnesses appeared and after a while they disappeared. But this time the problems were staying put.
In the late autumn, Anthony received an invitation to Bourges at the synod. The Bishops had gathered in that city to discuss the situation, which had born in Languedoc and Provenza.
Anthony felt a certain restlessness entering the lands of the reign of France. He was discouraged by the methods of conversion used by the French Bishops. The invitation of the Bishop of Bourges contained the request that Anthony would preach to the ecclesiastical dignitaries who were gathering for the synod.
When it was the moment for Anthony to speak, he said, standing up straight in front of the semicircle of the dignitaries clothed with cloaks interwoven of gold:
"Venerables, reverend shepherds, placed in charge by our Lord to the people. You have gathered here to consult the means to be used in order to redeem the sheep entrusted to you against the dangerous heresy that dominates the country and that continually does much evil. It is true. The teaching imparted by the Cathari also called albigesi is a teaching highly harmful. Not only it is in contrast with the true that enunciate the Holy Church, but takes from people the faith that God is merciful and teaches that the world is the laughingstock of Satan. We need to do the utmost to demonstrate to people that nothing happens if it is not in God’s will, and that God wants what is good for us. Even when he punishes, he indicates the way for salvation. So that he could demonstrate the love from God towards man, our Lord Jesus Christ came on earth, lived, suffered and died of a terrible but redeeming death on the cross.
Nevertheless, most reverend shepherds, we should tie the struggle against the wicked heresy with the struggle against man. Each human soul belongs to Jesus, and he wants each and every one. In his Gospel he pointed out, speaking of the seed of the Divine word, how many dangers are in ambush for each and every one of these little seeds. So that the Word of God could grow in the hearts of men, it is needed that they are protected by thirst, by birds, by brambles and by thorns. Unfortunately, how many times looking at the people come to mind the sorrowful words of the Lord Jesus Christ: 'I have compassion for these people...'
Because they wander as being lost, when they see that the crave of power and the temptation of wealth have pervaded the hearts of those who are placed as guardians of the herd of God. Oh, most reverend gentlemen, we need to feel pity towards the sheep, who need to choose between the terrible heresy or the war and the hate…"
He felt that his words were not well accepted. He read that from the looks of his listeners. Yet, he felt that he had to say them. They heard him in silence till the end.
After the ceremony the archbishop Sully took Anthony for a long interview. He admitted that Anthony’s words had shaken him. He said that he too knew that the run towards wealth had deprived many dignitaries of the Church of their influence on the population, and because of that heresy had re-enforced.
Nevertheless he had to point out that the work of the shoeless, of the Friars minor, was often taken bad, and sometimes the same Friars were taken as Cathari or as the poor people linked to them, against which the church put in guard their followers, and they were even sought by the king’s guards. Once he thanked Anthony for his intervention and for the sermon he asked him that for his safety he should go to the synod in the province of Guyenne, that was subordinate of the English crown. There, there wouldn’t have been any danger...
Anthony obedient to the advice of the Archbishop went to Limoges. As soon as he appeared, he was surrounded by the crowds. By now he was well known even here. He delivered his sermons in the ancient Roman amphitheater and in the abbey of Saint Martin, he confessed in the church of Saint Paul, he visited the Franciscan house in the surrounding cities. In Saint Junien, when he finished his sermon to the people gathered there, fell the wooden ambo above and below, and under which, were his listeners. But nothing wrong happened to anybody, not even one person suffered damages.
The veneration for Anthony was so big that people brought him food, clothes, worthily gifts. He didn’t accept anything. Not only he proclaimed the need of poverty, but he, himself lived in poverty. Some admired him, some other were irritated.
One day he went to Brive. He celebrated the mass, he delivered the homily, he confessed. At night, tired, he took refuge in a cave outside the city, which the Friars had achieved so that they could use it for refuge. But as soon as he sat, in front of the door they heard a terrible cry. The Friars leaped outside to see what had happened. From the city had come some crying women. While still crying they told Anthony that a woman who had gone to hear Anthony’s sermon, during her absence, her seven years old son who had remained alone had pulled over himself a container full of boiling water. He was still alive, but was suffering in a terrible way. The woman, desperate, had started to swear…
Anthony said to the women that he would go immediately with them to see the child who was burned, first, however he returned to the cave and after he moved away in a little dark corner, he threw himself prostate with his arms opened wide on the ground. He started to pray with fervour.
For some time he had realised that the terrible enemy had kept his eyes on him.
Before that time, for a few years he seemed to have forgotten about him. Anthony had never felt his proximity. The other one, evidently despised the man that continued to search and continued not to be able to find his way. But since he had come to France, the other one had become more vigilant. He didn’t attach Anthony directly. He didn’t appear in appalling visions not in daytime or during the nighttime. But he walked invisible to the side of Anthony and struck the others. Already that time at Saint Junien he had the awareness that something was going to happen. The box build on the edge of the gully appeared very solid. The people had stayed on top of it and on the bottom of it… He had prayed with fervour so that what was going to happen wouldn’t hurt anybody of which had come to listen to him. When he finished to preach, the heavy construction collapsed, although nobody was able to explain why that had happened. Nevertheless the heavy beams had not killed or wounded anybody.
And now that child… Just at the moment the mother was listening to the sermon. Since the morning something seemed to put him on guard from an incumbent peril.
He expected something to happen. The day had gone by without anything happening. The other one had waited for the right moment…
"Strike me, not them." He was praying. A burned child, could there have been anything more terrible? He knew the hard resoluteness of brother fire. Recently they had told him of the suffering Friar Francis was going through when, in order to help him with his sight, they had burnt his temples with an incandescent iron. He, so resistant to the suffering, had complained for the pang.
"Brother fire do not be so cruel" he whispered.
He had implored God that he would give him the strength to bear the pain. And here a child… The other knew how much one person could suffer when it is others who are hit. He was malignant, cruel, and relentless.
"Francis" he whispered in the prayer, "you too, do not allow it to happen. Oh, why are you not here."
He stood up and with a slow step he got out from the cave. The women were grouped, but they didn’t cry any longer. They listened to the words reported by the others that had just come from the city. In their voices resounded the amazement. One of the newcomers held in her arms a boy. She was telling the news.
One of the women saw Anthony that was going close to them and said something to them. All of them kneeled in front of him. The one with the boy in her arms drew closer to the Friar. She started to speak, half crying, half laughing. Everybody turned and knelt. The woman with the boy in her arms drew near to the religious. She began to speak half-sobbing and half-laughing:
"Friar... Friar... You are a saint... Look, this is my son... He is well... Indeed ... There isn’t even trace of the burns. Look, look... It was you to do this..."
"No" assured him.
"It not me. It was God."
"But it was you implored him. Everyone says that..."
"You must thank him." He interrupted the woman.
"Go, go right away in the Church. Pray and thank him..."
It was by now night when in the cave appeared a Friar minor who had arrived from far away. He had a dirty face, covered with dust, his eyes reddened, trembling lips, the signs of tears on his cheeks. He fell in the arms of the Friars, so fatigued he was from the hasty march: "He is dead... friar.. friar Francis... is dead."
Chapter 27
Chapter 27
It had been three years since he had started his work in France.
He had started at Montpellier and at Arles. The situation that he had found in the county of Toulouse appeared tragic. The Cathari, here called albigesi, had in their hands all the region. They were sided by the lord of the county, Raymond and by the local barons.
In this country which was exceptionally rich, thanks to the profits that were recovered by the commerce with Orient, country in which was much spread the predominance of the Hebrews, so much as Languedoc was called New Judea, dominated an atmosphere far from Christianity. The clergy was corrupt. Simony, dissoluteness, avarice and the attachment to wealth flowerished. The courts of the barons offered shelter to the Cathari. The children of the noble studied in the school directed by the 'perfects'. The songs troubadoric spread in a poetic form the teachings of the Cathari.
Chatarism here revealed in a more obvious way than in Romagna its hostility to Christianity. It had created its own structures: it had its own bishops, its own clergy, it summoned synods. There were even Chatari orders. The Bishops of Languedoc passed one after the other at the catara church. Innocence III, convinced that the country was subdued by heresy, sent in Languedoc Bernando of Chiaravalle. Bernardo at his return confirmed to the Pope of having found the Churches deprived of believers, the believers deprived of Priests, the Priests deprived of honour.
The mission of Bernard did not bring victory. Then Dominick had tried to convert the Cathari. He had wanted his disciples to be learned so that they could face victoriously the disputes. And also, that they would renounce any wealth and become poor so that they would not attract on them the accusation of avarice that burdened the clergy. However, not even Dominick had succeeded. He had not many disciples and hadn’t found support in the high clergy of Languedoc that didn’t like the methods he adopted.
The papal legates sent in Languedoc had solicited the count Raymond to take the arms against the Cathari. Raymond however favoured, hiddenly, the Cathari, because that allowed him to live a personal dissolute life. Both he and his barons had pretended deafness to the appeals of the legates. Then, one of the legates fell victim of assassination. The Pope, once he knew, turned to the king of France appealing to him so that he could announce publicly a crusade against the Cathari and against Raymond. To the king of France, this was not useful: for a long time he dreamed to crush that vassal too rich and to incorporate the county to the lands of the reign. The French crusade left. Its first act was to conquer Beziers and massacre the whole population of the city. Perished in equal measure both Cathari and Catholics. "God will recognise his" assured the chief of the crusade. After that was conquered Carcassone.
The struggle against the Cathari became of secondary importance. The crusade became a war to subdue Languedoc. This, combined the population who didn’t want the country to be united with France. The war continued. At the end, those who had taken part in the war had enough of it and returned in France. In the country remained also those who believed that after they had defeated the barons of Languedoc, they would confiscate their possessions. Their guide was Simon de Montfort. Cruel and fanatic he led the work of conversion without any pity. He burned castles, palaces, cities and villages; he destroyed vineyards and eradicated the orchards. He was transforming a luxuriant country in a desert. People were killed in the cruelest way. The captured 'perfects' were burned. After the victory of Muret it looked like Montfort would have completed his work.
The situation however changed when against Mortfort took the arms Raymond VII, the new young count of Tolosa. In Toulouse came together the armies of the count and his vassals along with all the persecuted. Montfort stopped under the city walls and started a relentless siege. It lasted eighteen months. Both sides resorted to the most ferocious cruelty. Finally a bullet cast by a big crossbow of the fortress, which was guided by women, struck Montfort and crashed his skull.
After the death of the head, the French armies abandoned the siege. Languedoc freed itself from the French yoke. The Cathari, surrounded by the halo of their defenders, took again the predominance in the country. The 'perfects' were giving everywhere their teachings. The Cathari Bishops had taken possession of the dioceses. The hate of everything that was French was above the contrast of religion.
All this however didn’t last long. Another crusade guided by the king of France in person, Luigi, left. Languedoc wasn’t strong enough to withstand again. Yielded nearly without a fight.
Now, under the French hegemony, in the country began a tighten hard struggle against the Cathari. Those who were renouncing to their faith had to wear a cross-sewn on their back. Those who wanted to remain Cathari had to run away from the country or to go to prison. The 'perfects' were burned. The laics were forbidden to have the Holy Scripture.
The Friars minor that had arrived before him in Montpellier related all this to Anthony.
During his first year of sojourn in France he worked in Languedoc. According to the method learned by the Friars of the Dominican order, he was leading the life of a preacher and of a poor man. He was wondering from village to village with his patched habit and with his sandals whose straps had hardened for the blood that had soaked on them. In accordance to the recommendation of the Gospel, he didn’t take anything with himself. In order to have some food and to find to sleep, he was asking for alms. The population usually welcomed him with benevolence, just because he was a mendicant and because he was not French. For a long time he couldn’t get in contact with the Cathari, who were hidden, and didn’t have trush in anybody. But at the end, both him and his companions were able to acquire that trust of the Cathari. The Cathari were coming to speak to Anthony. They were listening to his teachings. A voice has spread around that the Friars minor didn’t come to spy or to investigate. Anthony was meeting people frightened and tired to hide themselves. They confided in him all their dreads and their doubts, and what was more terrible: the teaching of the 'perfects', that is, the lack of mercy of those that assured to announce love.
The Episcopalian courts every so often uttered sentences against the captured and held back in the underground jails the Cathari. Anthony presented himself to the bishops asking them to allow him to defend those Cathari in the tribunal. Some Bishops allowed him, they allowed him to enter in the prisons, and have interviews with the heretics. He even tried to reach the jailed 'perfects' of which it was known that were condemned to death. The judges, between which there were even the Friars of the Dominicans, sometimes mitigated their sentences surrendering to the ardent words of Anthony.
He didn’t even realise when he first started to be surrounded by the love of people. It was well known that there was no man whom he wouldn’t try to defend. Entire crowds followed Anthony and listened to his teachings. In those crowds there were many women: mothers, wives and sisters of those whom he had been able to save from jail or for whom he had been able to render the sentence more clement.
When he was starting to confess, in front of his confessional there were boundless lines of penitents. It happened that he was starting to confess just after the morning mass and that he wouldn’t stop confessing till twilight.
Everywhere he appeared the crowds gathered. They were crowding so much that one could not make a step forward. Some men of women because they were so devouted to him, equipped themselves of blades and scissors, taking advantage of the crowd, to cut pieces of his habit. Once, because of this, he was hurt. The habit had been so shred that no other patch was sufficient and it was necessary to change it with a new one. At the end they had to make a barrier of strong men that had the task to surround Anthony to protect him when he entered the crowd.
After one year he left Languedoc and yielding to the calls he went towards North towards the mountains. He arrived in Puy close to the springs of the Loire. Here the population was Christian, it was not touched by the Cathari influences. The cult of the Madonna in the local basilica recalled in Puy pilgrimages of all the villages. However the effect of the pilgrimages hardly counter balanced the general decadence of the Christian customs. Even here the people were as a flock abandoned by their shepherd.
As soon as he appeared, once again the crowds were starting to follow him, thirst by his teachings and their devotion. Once again appointed men had to protect him from the tight crowd. Once again he was confessing for whole day.
Just in Puy he started to have problems with his health. All of a sudden and simultaneously, showed up various symptoms that impeded him in doing his work. At first he tried to ignore them: as it had happened till now, the illnesses appeared and after a while they disappeared. But this time the problems were staying put.
In the late autumn, Anthony received an invitation to Bourges at the synod. The Bishops had gathered in that city to discuss the situation, which had born in Languedoc and Provenza.
Anthony felt a certain restlessness entering the lands of the reign of France. He was discouraged by the methods of conversion used by the French Bishops. The invitation of the Bishop of Bourges contained the request that Anthony would preach to the ecclesiastical dignitaries who were gathering for the synod.
When it was the moment for Anthony to speak, he said, standing up straight in front of the semicircle of the dignitaries clothed with cloaks interwoven of gold:
"Venerables, reverend shepherds, placed in charge by our Lord to the people. You have gathered here to consult the means to be used in order to redeem the sheep entrusted to you against the dangerous heresy that dominates the country and that continually does much evil. It is true. The teaching imparted by the Cathari also called albigesi is a teaching highly harmful. Not only it is in contrast with the true that enunciate the Holy Church, but takes from people the faith that God is merciful and teaches that the world is the laughingstock of Satan. We need to do the utmost to demonstrate to people that nothing happens if it is not in God’s will, and that God wants what is good for us. Even when he punishes, he indicates the way for salvation. So that he could demonstrate the love from God towards man, our Lord Jesus Christ came on earth, lived, suffered and died of a terrible but redeeming death on the cross.
Nevertheless, most reverend shepherds, we should tie the struggle against the wicked heresy with the struggle against man. Each human soul belongs to Jesus, and he wants each and every one. In his Gospel he pointed out, speaking of the seed of the Divine word, how many dangers are in ambush for each and every one of these little seeds. So that the Word of God could grow in the hearts of men, it is needed that they are protected by thirst, by birds, by brambles and by thorns. Unfortunately, how many times looking at the people come to mind the sorrowful words of the Lord Jesus Christ: 'I have compassion for these people...'
Because they wander as being lost, when they see that the crave of power and the temptation of wealth have pervaded the hearts of those who are placed as guardians of the herd of God. Oh, most reverend gentlemen, we need to feel pity towards the sheep, who need to choose between the terrible heresy or the war and the hate…"
He felt that his words were not well accepted. He read that from the looks of his listeners. Yet, he felt that he had to say them. They heard him in silence till the end.
After the ceremony the archbishop Sully took Anthony for a long interview. He admitted that Anthony’s words had shaken him. He said that he too knew that the run towards wealth had deprived many dignitaries of the Church of their influence on the population, and because of that heresy had re-enforced.
Nevertheless he had to point out that the work of the shoeless, of the Friars minor, was often taken bad, and sometimes the same Friars were taken as Cathari or as the poor people linked to them, against which the church put in guard their followers, and they were even sought by the king’s guards. Once he thanked Anthony for his intervention and for the sermon he asked him that for his safety he should go to the synod in the province of Guyenne, that was subordinate of the English crown. There, there wouldn’t have been any danger...
Anthony obedient to the advice of the Archbishop went to Limoges. As soon as he appeared, he was surrounded by the crowds. By now he was well known even here. He delivered his sermons in the ancient Roman amphitheater and in the abbey of Saint Martin, he confessed in the church of Saint Paul, he visited the Franciscan house in the surrounding cities. In Saint Junien, when he finished his sermon to the people gathered there, fell the wooden ambo above and below, and under which, were his listeners. But nothing wrong happened to anybody, not even one person suffered damages.
The veneration for Anthony was so big that people brought him food, clothes, worthily gifts. He didn’t accept anything. Not only he proclaimed the need of poverty, but he, himself lived in poverty. Some admired him, some other were irritated.
One day he went to Brive. He celebrated the mass, he delivered the homily, he confessed. At night, tired, he took refuge in a cave outside the city, which the Friars had achieved so that they could use it for refuge. But as soon as he sat, in front of the door they heard a terrible cry. The Friars leaped outside to see what had happened. From the city had come some crying women. While still crying they told Anthony that a woman who had gone to hear Anthony’s sermon, during her absence, her seven years old son who had remained alone had pulled over himself a container full of boiling water. He was still alive, but was suffering in a terrible way. The woman, desperate, had started to swear…
Anthony said to the women that he would go immediately with them to see the child who was burned, first, however he returned to the cave and after he moved away in a little dark corner, he threw himself prostate with his arms opened wide on the ground. He started to pray with fervour.
For some time he had realised that the terrible enemy had kept his eyes on him.
Before that time, for a few years he seemed to have forgotten about him. Anthony had never felt his proximity. The other one, evidently despised the man that continued to search and continued not to be able to find his way. But since he had come to France, the other one had become more vigilant. He didn’t attach Anthony directly. He didn’t appear in appalling visions not in daytime or during the nighttime. But he walked invisible to the side of Anthony and struck the others. Already that time at Saint Junien he had the awareness that something was going to happen. The box build on the edge of the gully appeared very solid. The people had stayed on top of it and on the bottom of it… He had prayed with fervour so that what was going to happen wouldn’t hurt anybody of which had come to listen to him. When he finished to preach, the heavy construction collapsed, although nobody was able to explain why that had happened. Nevertheless the heavy beams had not killed or wounded anybody.
And now that child… Just at the moment the mother was listening to the sermon. Since the morning something seemed to put him on guard from an incumbent peril.
He expected something to happen. The day had gone by without anything happening. The other one had waited for the right moment…
"Strike me, not them." He was praying. A burned child, could there have been anything more terrible? He knew the hard resoluteness of brother fire. Recently they had told him of the suffering Friar Francis was going through when, in order to help him with his sight, they had burnt his temples with an incandescent iron. He, so resistant to the suffering, had complained for the pang.
"Brother fire do not be so cruel" he whispered.
He had implored God that he would give him the strength to bear the pain. And here a child… The other knew how much one person could suffer when it is others who are hit. He was malignant, cruel, and relentless.
"Francis" he whispered in the prayer, "you too, do not allow it to happen. Oh, why are you not here."
He stood up and with a slow step he got out from the cave. The women were grouped, but they didn’t cry any longer. They listened to the words reported by the others that had just come from the city. In their voices resounded the amazement. One of the newcomers held in her arms a boy. She was telling the news.
One of the women saw Anthony that was going close to them and said something to them. All of them kneeled in front of him. The one with the boy in her arms drew closer to the Friar. She started to speak, half crying, half laughing. Everybody turned and knelt. The woman with the boy in her arms drew near to the religious. She began to speak half-sobbing and half-laughing:
"Friar... Friar... You are a saint... Look, this is my son... He is well... Indeed ... There isn’t even trace of the burns. Look, look... It was you to do this..."
"No" assured him.
"It not me. It was God."
"But it was you implored him. Everyone says that..."
"You must thank him." He interrupted the woman.
"Go, go right away in the Church. Pray and thank him..."
It was by now night when in the cave appeared a Friar minor who had arrived from far away. He had a dirty face, covered with dust, his eyes reddened, trembling lips, the signs of tears on his cheeks. He fell in the arms of the Friars, so fatigued he was from the hasty march: "He is dead... friar.. friar Francis... is dead."