Chapter VII - The Wonder-Worker at Limoges

The city of Limoges gave the wonder-worker one of those triumphal receptions which explains the faith of that epoch. The people wished to see him, to hear him, to touch the hem of his garments. He had scarcely set foot in the city before he preached in the cemetery of Saint Paul. On the following day it was the abbey itself which claimed his presence. The Benedictines of Mount Soubase had respectfully received the seraphic patriarch, and had furnished him with his first place of prayer. Their brethren of Limoges surrounded the privileged disciple with the same veneration, and extended him equal assistance. His coming to their monastery is mentioned as an event. The guardian, however, did not neglect the direction of the religious confided to his care. He strengthened the good, enkindled ardor in the slothful, and had pity for the wavering. One of this latter class, a novice named Peter, discouraged for the moment, was tempted to return to the world. The saint was warned by a revelation of the temptation and the interior agonies of the novice. Saint Anthony went to him and, breathing on him, said, "Receive the spirit of strength and wisdom." The novice at once fell to the ground as if dead, while his soul was ravished by ecstasy and transported among the splendors of heaven. When he recovered his senses he wished to speak of the heavenly wonders his soul had contemplated, but the saint hindered him. The temptation had passed away and the novice became an exemplary religious.

At Limoges his preaching excited an indescribable enthusiasm. It became necessary to preach in the open air, for no church was large enough to contain the multitudes that flocked to hear him.

To true and loyal souls who asked the assistance of his prayers, the wonder-worker refused nothing. The following is a striking example: A certain lady of Limoges who was a great benefactress of the Friars was one day severely reproached for it by her husband. In a fit of anger and jealousy he went so far as to tear out her hair. Sorrowfully she sought the wonder-worker, related what had happened, and asked him to restore her hair. The request seemed somewhat singular to Saint Anthony, and a smile which looked like a refusal played about his lips. But, touched by the tears of the lady, he cast himself on his knees, and while he prayed the hair grew again, as if under the action of an invisible hand. But what was still more remarkable, the husband, struck by this marvel, repented, was reconciled with his wife, and vowed to the Franciscans an affection which lasted his life-time.

At Limoges the name of Saint Anthony was hailed with delight, and this admiration spread to the whole region.

All the cities of Limousin disputed the honor of the wonder-worker's company. He yielded to their requests when he could, taxing his strength without ever considering difficulties, and sowing miracles at every footstep.

At Saint Julien he predicted that the improvised pulpit from which he spoke would be overthrown, but, notwithstanding the efforts of Satan, no serious result would follow. The prediction was fulfilled. The staging fell in the tumult at the beginning of his discourse, but no one was injured.

By a spiritual favor Saint Anthony recompensed the abbey of Solignac for the generous hospitality the sons of Saint Benedict had shown him. A poor monk of the monastery, tempted like Saint Paul by the demon of impurity, could find no rest either day or night. He opened his soul to the powerful wonder-worker, who clothed him with his tunic. The shadow of Saint Peter healed the sick, the robe of Saint Anthony was no less efficacious. From this robe, sanctified by contact with a virginal flesh, went out a virtue which appeased the storm of the senses and delivered forever the monk kneeling at his feet.

Again, there was a poor sinner so stifled by emotion and repentance for his faults that he could not speak so as to make his confession. "Go," said the saint, "and write your sins on a sheet of parchment." The penitent obeyed; he returned in about an hour, bringing a sheet wet with tears and containing a long list of his sins. But as fast as he declared them an angel effaced them, and when he reached the end the page was white and without stain.

Everywhere, in the cities as well as in the country, the invincible champion of God's rights created extraordinary interest. People from all ranks of society sought him out. All sorrows, whether physical or moral, appealed to him. Every one blessed him, but especially the lonely, the homeless, the sick, and sinners.

It must be mentioned that mothers were especially anxious, and women in general were most enthusiastic about him. Endowed with religions instinct deeper than that of men, the women eagerly pressed about his pulpit to assist him in his poverty, or to defend him against the calumnies of the Manicheans. In return he consoled them in their sorrows, strengthened their weakness, blessed their children, and lavished on them the most splendid miracles. These were most touching because they referred to what was most sensitive - a mother's sorrow.

It is related that a woman who was preparing a bath for her child, on learning that the saint had arrived in the village, hastened to hear and see him. In her haste she placed her little child in a boiler of scalding water instead of in a bath of tepid water. On returning from the sermon, she had a presentiment of her mistake. She ran, more dead than alive, and found her son in the boiling water, it is true, but smiling and without the slightest injury. In another place a lady, on returning from an instruction given by the apostle at Limousin, found her child dead in its cradle. We can imagine the mother's sorrow at a catastrophe so cruel and so unexpected. A thought of hope, however, crossed her mind. Perhaps the powerful wonder-worker would restore her child! She returned to him weeping, but confident, and from her broken heart escaped this maternal cry: "My son is dead! Have pity on the tears of a mother!" "Go," answered the saint, in an inspired tone, "the good Lord will have pity on you." She believed his word, returned in haste, and found her son not only alive but in all the vigor and freshness of his young life, amusing himself with his little toys.

It was amid these wonders, and many similar ones, that the apostle went through the neighborhood of Limoges. He scattered graces and heavenly favors, even as the husbandmen sow the seed, with full hands, until the people spoke of him in their picturesque language as the sower of miracles.

And when he had finished his mission in one place he continued his course, walking through the frost and snow barefoot, always unmindful of himself, always in search of the lost sheep. The consoler of souls, he was himself consoled by sight of the good he bad done them; not infrequently he mingled with the people and shared their joys and sorrows.

One day he entered the house of a rich and pious man who had offered him the hospitality of his manor. This man hardly suspected the grace which he was about to enjoy. The gentleman assigned him a room separated from the others, that he might have more freedom in bis exercises of piety and contemplation. While the blessed Anthony prayed alone in his chamber the proprietor visited the tenants of the manor. Suddenly his solicitude and his devotion for the saint prompted him to look towards the place where he prayed; through the window he saw in the arms of Anthony a child of great beauty who embraced him with tenderness. The saint, on his part, returned the caresses and kisses; and not for an instant did he take his eyes from the beautiful child. Pale with emotion, and beside himself at the sight and the beauty of the child, the gentleman asked himself whence the charming little one had come. He was not the victim of an illusion; the spectacle which he witnessed was a reality. The blessed Anthony was conversing intimately with Jesus, the Son of God and of the Virgin, who had come from heaven to console His servant. The mere mention of the name of Jesus caused his heart to beat with joy; now he conversed with Him face to face, as with a friend. and with touching familiarity. In his humility he seemed embarrassed by the miracle which had just happened. He could not, however, conceal it from his host, for the Holy Infant Jesus revealed to Anthony what the man had seen. This is why. after the Infant had disappeared, he forbade his host to reveal what he had seen as long as he lived. But after the death of the blessed Anthony the gentleman divulged the secret of the vision just recorded. He made the deposition solemnly while shedding torrents of tears.

From this time Anthony strove to show the Heart of Jesus as the principle of supernatural life; as the golden altar on which burns night and day the incense which arises in odoriferous clouds towards heaven and embalms the earth. He felt especially an insatiable desire to adore, to thank, and to annihilate himself before God and to remain alone with Him. From Chateauneuf, where he had just enjoyed the vision described, he went to Brive. There he found in the neighborhood of the city a kind of desert where he founded a hermitage like Mount Saint Paul. He dug out a grotto in the rock near a fountain of limpid water, and abandoned himself to the delights of contemplation. In this solitude he established three or four postulants who had left the world in order to be near him. After his departure he left them there. Wonders accompanied him even in the desert. His poverty there was extreme; everything was wanting except courage and the love of God. In a moment of distress the venerated guardian asked a lady of Brive to assist the little community and to send some vegetables. This she did gladly, in spite of a severe and persistent rain-storm, which was enough to paralyze the most energetic good-will; yet she charged her servant to carry the treasures of her charity to the hermitage. On her return the faithful messenger related to her mistress with admiration that she had walked all the way in the heavy rain, and that not a single drop reached her.

This fact reminds us that nothing is small which is done in a spirit of faith, and the good Lord never fails to recompense, whether it be sublime devotion or the cup of cold water given in His name.

Solitude is the home of strong souls. There the air is pure, peace most profound, and converse with God most easy. It is not astonishing that the angel of darkness, this abiding enemy of the human race, seeks to disturb the echoes, especially when he has before him apostles who take from him his victims. One evening during the prayer which follows the song of compline, the companions of Saint Anthony saw a band of thieves occupied in destroying the harvest of a neighboring field which belonged to one of the principal benefactors of the convent. They ran to warn the blessed Anthony. He said to them: "Be not deceived. This is an artifice of the demon, who strives to turn you away from the exercise of the presence of God." Early on the following day the harvest was intact, and the religious were again witness of in what large measure the soul of their superior was adorned by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

- taken from Saint Anthony, The Saint of the Whole World by Father Thomas F Ward