aint was the number of miracles he had
worked. Thus, in the life of St. Benedict, it is related that when his
nurse Cyrilla let fall a stone sieve, her distress was changed into
rejoicing by the prayer of the holy child, at which the broken parts
came together and were made whole; that once on receiving his food in a
basket, let down to his otherwise inaccessible cell, the devil vainly
tried to vex him by breaking the rope; that once Satan, assuming the
form of a blackbird, nearly blinded him by the flapping of his wings;
that once, too, the same tempter appeared as a beautiful Roman girl, to
whose fascinations, in his youth, St. Benedict had been sensible, and
from which he now hardly escaped by rolling himself among thorns. Once,
when his austere rules and severity excited the resentment of the
monastery over which he was abbot, the brethren--for monks have been
known to do such things--attempted to poison him, but the cup burst
asunder as soon as he took it into his hands. When the priest
Florentius, being wickedly disposed, attempted to perpetrate a like
crime by means of an adulterated loaf, a raven carried away the deadly
bread from the hand of St. Benedict. Instructed by the devil, the same
Florentius drove from his neighbourhood the holy man, by turning into
the garden of his monastery seven naked girls; but scarcely had the
saint taken to flight, when the chamber in which his persecutor lived
fell in and buried him beneath its ruins, though the rest of the house
was uninjured. Under the guidance of two visible angels, who walked
before him, St. Benedict continued his journey to Monte Casino, where he
erected a noble monastery; but even here miracles did not cease; for
Satan bewitched the stones, so that it was impossible for the masons to
move them until they were released by powerful prayers. A boy, who had
stolen from the monastery to visit his parents was not only struck dead
by God for his offence, but the consecrated ground threw forth his body
when they attempted to bury it; nor could it be made to rest until
consecrated bread was laid upon it. Two garrulous nuns, who had been
excommunicated by St. Benedict for their perverse prating, chanced to be
buried in the church. On the next administration of the sacrament, when
the deacon commanded all those who did not communicate to depart, the
corpses rose out of their graves and walked forth from the church.

[Sidenote: The character of these miracles.]

Volu