Page 116 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

O. R. VASSALL-PHILLIPS

of the warning of a Saint, she at once sent for a Priest, made her
peace with God, and died in excellent dispositions three days
afterwards.
In the little town of Auletta there was a young girl who, from her
infancy, had been unable to walk a single step; she had been obliged
to lie on her back all her life, a helpless invalid. When Saint Gerard
saw her, his heart was filled with pity.
“It is nothing,” he cried, “the child can walk perfectly.”
Then he called her to him. “Come to me, my child.”
That moment she leaped up — she was able to walk as well as
anyone in the room. The bystanders cried out in wonderment:
“A miracle! a miracle!”
Covered with a holy confusion, the Servant of God ran away to
hide himself. He sought refuge in the house of a Priest, who has left
posterity an account of the whole incident. The people, however,
pursued him, exclaiming:
“The Saint! where is the Saint?”
Whereupon Gerard made his escape in all haste by a back door,
and left the place without further delay.
This cure was radical in its effects. Several years afterwards there
was pointed out to a Redemptorist Lay-brother, passing through
Auletta, the girl who had been given the use of her limbs by the
famous Brother Gerard.
In his humility a fugitive from the applause of men, our Saint next
turned his steps to the village of San Gregorio. Here he received
hospitality from the Parish Priest, to whom he was personally
unknown. But it was impossible for Saint Gerard's light to remain for
any length of time hidden under a bushel. The day after his arrival a
visitor called at the house. Suddenly, as they were engaged in
conversation, Gerard turned abruptly to the Priest with the strange
question:
“Reverend Father,” he asked, “can you tell me this: If anyone had
made up his mind to commit a great sin, and then afterwards,
through the grace of God, were to repent and relinquish his criminal
design, would that man, I would ask, be still bound to tell his bad
intention in confession, even though he never put it into execution?”
The Priest answered the question according to ordinary
theological principles, and was much surprised at its apparently
motiveless nature. However, a moment after his visitor in

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