Anthony`s aggressors removed his habit and cast it in a ditch. He lay naked and covered with blood. The people who found him had no idea who he was. Only after a little while someone recognised him as the preacher. There was a great uproar. Someone ran to call the Friars minor. Someone else hurried to inform the Bishop. The news was spread swiftly around the city. The Friars minor called, arrived and took Anthony home. A doctor was called. He diagnosed, with great assurance, that Anthony had broken ribs, fractured skull and was going to die.
The news of the aggression arrived very quickly in the city. Entire crows gathered under the house of the Friars minor. Some were praying, others were crying, other were shouting with anger the name of the man that all believed was the sender of the aggressors.
Other doctors came as well, between them even the Bishop`s doctor. After long visits refuted the first diagnosis. Anthony was full of painful bruises, but he didn’t have nothing broken. He quickly recovered the senses. Covered with compresses and spread by various ointments he layed down for ten days.
Only after this period, supporting himself to a walking stick, he went in front of the Church. The crowd greeted his appearance with proclamation of joy:
"Let’s hit Graziani! Let’s burn that scoundrel!"
He silenced their shouts with the words:
"Saint Paul has written: we are persecuted, but not abandoned, crashed on the ground, but not defeated... God allows that we suffer, God however elevates and fortifies. To suffer for Him, it is a great grace. A lot can be redeemed through it. Even the apostles were saying: 'that thunderbolt arrived and burned the house of those who are sending us away.' But what did Jesus say to them? 'You don’t know of what spirit you are. Since he didn’t come to punish, but to save, to elevate and not to kill, to forgive, and not to revenge..."
The same day he expressed the desire to visit the house of Arcella. He couldn’t walk, so that, the Friars asked a merchant to lend them their donkey. On its back, Anthony arrived at the palace of the Enselmini.
He found Helen and Julia very worried. The news of the aggression had arrived to the palace. Julia had been persistent in going to the city and find out more about the aggression. She had visited her father’s house. She found out that the night in which she had left with Anthony, the gang of the aggressors had assailed the house of Girolamo. They were looking for her. The place had been turned upside down. They had menace to kill her elder brother, if they hadn’t found Julia. At the end however they had gone without killing anyone, but limiting themselves to destroy all that there was in the house.
Anthony decided that Julia had to continue to live in Arcella. With his great joy he realised that between the old slave of Graziani and Helen had born a wonderful friendship. Helen was ill, and that illness forced her to stay in bed. Julia was looking after her with so much care. She performed all her duties. She had met new acquaintances and thanks to that, two girls had expressed the desire to enter the convent of the Poor Dames as soon it would rise.
"Look, Friar" said Helen to Anthony. "I had almost given up hope that I could have carried out the desire of Friar Francis to found the house of the Poor Dames. God has sent me weakness and illness. Instead you have brought here Julia and the work is starting to take place just as a miracle. It is said that all that you touch, it will be repaired miraculously, things lost are found, people are discovering their way..."
"Don’t talk like this" he reproached her.
"If something miraculous happen, in that, there is always the hand of God. The world is full of miracles, only we are not able to see them. We are not able to see the hand that incessantly guides everything. If this hand even for an instant would withdraw and would abandon us to ourselves, our sins and our passions would tear to pieces the world... But he will not abandon us. His continuous and invisible miracles will correct till the end our errors..."
"Even Friar Francis was saying that every thing is a miracle."
"Because it is so. The water quenches our thirst, even if can drawn us. The fire warms us, even if could burn us. Death takes us to Jesus, even if could take us to the eternal darkness..."
They were sitting down on a stone bench in the garden. Now they fell silent and looked worried in the emptiness. Helen broke the silence and said: "The work of Friar Francis will be fulfilled. But I am ill. You Friar, must think who has to be the one to fulfil it. May be Julia...?"
He shook his head.
"My daughter" he said. "God doesn’t look at our strength. We serve him better, not when all is easy, and when we have no doubts, but when we are in difficulties. At times it seems that he chooses his instruments less suited to fulfil his work... But he wants that we forget about what we are capable of doing, and will surrender blindly in his hands. Do you think that God doesn’t know that you are ill? I know that you would want to guide the work according to your project, take care personally of all... he instead demands that you accept the illness in submission and humbleness. Do not offer resistance to him, daughter."
"I will not offer resistance" she whispered.
"I will fight inside me all the objections. What ever he decides, I will try to carry out as per his will."
The day after the little donkey brought Anthony to Padua, at the house of the Friars minor, that it was close to the church dedicated to the Holiest Virgin Mary. The trip had weakened Anthony. During the travelling he had been attacked by suffocation. After the arrival he was assailed by athsma. The Friars took him in the cell and laid him on the pallet. The doctor of the Bishop, which had been called, shook his head over the ill person.
"He works too much" he said.
"He shouldn’t go anywhere, neither should he travel for a long time..."
"Very well, I will stay in bed till I will regain my strength." he reassured the friars.
"I must, in fact, regain my strength in order to go to the Chapter."
"Till Pentecost there is still a little time." Said happily the Friars."
But two days after a Friar minor gasping for breath rushed in the house of the Friars minor. He was the bearer of a terrible news. The coffin of Francis, that was in the crypt of the church of Saint George, had disappeared. Winning the weakness, Anthony stood up with fatigue from the pallet and left for Assisi.
Chapter 32
Chapter 32
Anthony`s aggressors removed his habit and cast it in a ditch. He lay naked and covered with blood. The people who found him had no idea who he was. Only after a little while someone recognised him as the preacher. There was a great uproar. Someone ran to call the Friars minor. Someone else hurried to inform the Bishop. The news was spread swiftly around the city. The Friars minor called, arrived and took Anthony home. A doctor was called. He diagnosed, with great assurance, that Anthony had broken ribs, fractured skull and was going to die.
The news of the aggression arrived very quickly in the city. Entire crows gathered under the house of the Friars minor. Some were praying, others were crying, other were shouting with anger the name of the man that all believed was the sender of the aggressors.
Other doctors came as well, between them even the Bishop`s doctor. After long visits refuted the first diagnosis. Anthony was full of painful bruises, but he didn’t have nothing broken. He quickly recovered the senses. Covered with compresses and spread by various ointments he layed down for ten days.
Only after this period, supporting himself to a walking stick, he went in front of the Church. The crowd greeted his appearance with proclamation of joy:
"Let’s hit Graziani! Let’s burn that scoundrel!"
He silenced their shouts with the words:
"Saint Paul has written: we are persecuted, but not abandoned, crashed on the ground, but not defeated... God allows that we suffer, God however elevates and fortifies. To suffer for Him, it is a great grace. A lot can be redeemed through it. Even the apostles were saying: 'that thunderbolt arrived and burned the house of those who are sending us away.' But what did Jesus say to them? 'You don’t know of what spirit you are. Since he didn’t come to punish, but to save, to elevate and not to kill, to forgive, and not to revenge..."
The same day he expressed the desire to visit the house of Arcella. He couldn’t walk, so that, the Friars asked a merchant to lend them their donkey. On its back, Anthony arrived at the palace of the Enselmini.
He found Helen and Julia very worried. The news of the aggression had arrived to the palace. Julia had been persistent in going to the city and find out more about the aggression. She had visited her father’s house. She found out that the night in which she had left with Anthony, the gang of the aggressors had assailed the house of Girolamo. They were looking for her. The place had been turned upside down. They had menace to kill her elder brother, if they hadn’t found Julia. At the end however they had gone without killing anyone, but limiting themselves to destroy all that there was in the house.
Anthony decided that Julia had to continue to live in Arcella. With his great joy he realised that between the old slave of Graziani and Helen had born a wonderful friendship. Helen was ill, and that illness forced her to stay in bed. Julia was looking after her with so much care. She performed all her duties. She had met new acquaintances and thanks to that, two girls had expressed the desire to enter the convent of the Poor Dames as soon it would rise.
"Look, Friar" said Helen to Anthony. "I had almost given up hope that I could have carried out the desire of Friar Francis to found the house of the Poor Dames. God has sent me weakness and illness. Instead you have brought here Julia and the work is starting to take place just as a miracle. It is said that all that you touch, it will be repaired miraculously, things lost are found, people are discovering their way..."
"Don’t talk like this" he reproached her.
"If something miraculous happen, in that, there is always the hand of God. The world is full of miracles, only we are not able to see them. We are not able to see the hand that incessantly guides everything. If this hand even for an instant would withdraw and would abandon us to ourselves, our sins and our passions would tear to pieces the world... But he will not abandon us. His continuous and invisible miracles will correct till the end our errors..."
"Even Friar Francis was saying that every thing is a miracle."
"Because it is so. The water quenches our thirst, even if can drawn us. The fire warms us, even if could burn us. Death takes us to Jesus, even if could take us to the eternal darkness..."
They were sitting down on a stone bench in the garden. Now they fell silent and looked worried in the emptiness. Helen broke the silence and said: "The work of Friar Francis will be fulfilled. But I am ill. You Friar, must think who has to be the one to fulfil it. May be Julia...?"
He shook his head.
"My daughter" he said. "God doesn’t look at our strength. We serve him better, not when all is easy, and when we have no doubts, but when we are in difficulties. At times it seems that he chooses his instruments less suited to fulfil his work... But he wants that we forget about what we are capable of doing, and will surrender blindly in his hands. Do you think that God doesn’t know that you are ill? I know that you would want to guide the work according to your project, take care personally of all... he instead demands that you accept the illness in submission and humbleness. Do not offer resistance to him, daughter."
"I will not offer resistance" she whispered.
"I will fight inside me all the objections. What ever he decides, I will try to carry out as per his will."
The day after the little donkey brought Anthony to Padua, at the house of the Friars minor, that it was close to the church dedicated to the Holiest Virgin Mary. The trip had weakened Anthony. During the travelling he had been attacked by suffocation. After the arrival he was assailed by athsma. The Friars took him in the cell and laid him on the pallet. The doctor of the Bishop, which had been called, shook his head over the ill person.
"He works too much" he said.
"He shouldn’t go anywhere, neither should he travel for a long time..."
"Very well, I will stay in bed till I will regain my strength." he reassured the friars.
"I must, in fact, regain my strength in order to go to the Chapter."
"Till Pentecost there is still a little time." Said happily the Friars."
But two days after a Friar minor gasping for breath rushed in the house of the Friars minor. He was the bearer of a terrible news. The coffin of Francis, that was in the crypt of the church of Saint George, had disappeared. Winning the weakness, Anthony stood up with fatigue from the pallet and left for Assisi.