Page 92 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

O. R. VASSALL-PHILLIPS

the sign of the Cross, and then advanced unhesitatingly into the sea.
“In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity,” thus did he adjure the
frail craft which was going down before his very eyes, “stay where
thou art, I command thee.”
That moment the boat remained motionless. Gerard advanced,
seized it, as he might have caught a lily floating upon the surface of
the Bay, and brought it to the shore. Then, in presence of the
assembled multitude, without his clothes being so much as wet, he
stepped out of the sea on to dry land.
The people in enthusiastic wonderment cried out:
“A miracle! A miracle!”
Gerard himself in his humility ran away, as though he had
committed some great crime, and hid himself in a shop until nightfall.
When Father Margotta asked him afterwards how he had managed to
draw in the boat, he answered simply:
“Father, to God all things are possible.”
The renown of this miracle caused Gerard to become known in
every part of Naples. He could not appear in the streets without men
and women calling out as he passed:
“There goes the Saint! The Saint who saved the boat.”
The little Redemptorist House was daily besieged by persons of all
ranks, eager to speak to the holy Brother, and obtain his advice in
their troubles and difficulties. But the more he was exalted among
men, the more earnestly did Gerard set himself to discover fresh
means of self-abjection.
When he first went to Naples he' used, sometimes alone,
sometimes with Father Margotta — who seems to have been almost
as greedy of humiliations as himself — to mix with the beggars at the
door of the Oratory. Then with the other poor people he would ask
an alms of the chanty of the sons of St. Philip. This wonderful act of
humility was of course forbidden directly it came to the ears of higher
Superiors at a distance, but Gerard soon found other means of
advancing in holy humility.
Thus, one day, on opening the door, he received the following
message:
“The Duchess of Maddoloni wishes to see Brother Gerard.”
As he saw that the servant evidently did not know him by sight, he
replied in all seriousness:
“I am afraid that I cannot bring you that Brother. To tell you the

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