Amputees

[Faith1960]

Will do that.

Did it work?

 

[GEddie]

Did it work?

No.

I am however, trying for the Kindle version.

Who should I call to untangle it?

ICXC NIKA

 

[GEddie]

No.

I am however, trying for the Kindle version.

Who should I call to untangle it?

ICXC NIKA

Never mind, I figured it out; they had just raised the price is all!

What the heqq, it’s all penance.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Mintaka]

This is a bit late, but I just ran across this today. As you will see, St. Columbanus’ biographer, Jonas of Bobbio, didn’t think this was a particularly important or impressive miracle. It happened in public, outside in broad daylight, in the presence of many witnesses, and the name of the man healed is given along with his testimony. (Jonas of Bobbio was writing not long after St. Columbanus’ death, and had many monks and laypeople mentioned by name as witnesses in his biography.)

Vita S. Columbani, by Jonas of Bobbio (aka Jonae Abbatis Elnonensis). Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, vol. 87, 1025. Translated in The Life of St. Columban, ed. Dana Carleton Munro, Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania, 1895. Slightly adapted by me.

23. If we try to include some things which may seem of little importance, the goodness of the Creator (Who is equally merciful in very small matters and in great, Who does not delay to turn His pitying ear to trifling details, just as in the very important matters He grants the desire of the suppliant) will be manifest to those who bawl envious detractions.

For on a certain day when the excellent man of God had gone with the brethren to cut the harvest near Calmem, which is called Baniaritia, and they were cutting the crop while the south wind blew, one of them, named Theudegisil, happened to sever his finger with a sickle, and the finger hung by only a small strip of skin. *Theudegisilus nomine, digitum falce praecideret, nec prorsus haereret praeter pellis parvo retentaculo.*]

The man of God, seeing Theudegisil standing apart, commanded him to continue the work with his companions. But the latter told the reason for his actions. Columban hastened to him, and with his own saliva restored the wounded finger to its former health. *celer ille ad ipsum properat, digitumque illitum saliva pristinae sanitati statim reddit.*]

Then he ordered Theudegisil to make haste and put forth more strength.

The latter, who had grieved for a long time over his severed finger, joyfully began to work doubly hard and to press on before the others in cutting the grain.

Theudegisil told us this and showed us his finger. *Theudegisilus narravit, digitumque monstravi*t.]

Saints healed a lot of stuff with spit, or in other matter of fact ways. Nineteenth and twentieth century saint books tended to shy away from this sort of thing, no matter how many witnesses or how contemporary the account. That’s why most Catholics can’t reel off a list of severed limb miracles or regrown limb miracles or miraculous transplant miracles, even though they are in the accounts if you read enough.

I’ve read a lot about St. Columbanus, but the chopped off finger miracle was new to me. Apparently it was too embarrassing for the secondary source Victorian books, although I knew from them about the multiplication of beer and bread, and several other famous miracles he performed and prophecies he made. Primary sources like the Vita S. Columbani are much more informative than the secondary sources.

And the bit where he ordered the guy to get back to work and quit slacking is pretty hilarious!

 

[Mintaka]

There are similar stories about the healing of an amputated foot by St. Peter of Verona (a Dominican killed by hitmen, aka St. Peter Martyr) and St. Anthony of Padua (a Franciscan). Since Franciscans and Dominicans had a great rivalry back then, it’s hard to say which source has the real info, although St. Anthony’s version appeared in books about fifty years before St Peter’s version. (Or Italians being Italians, maybe it did happen more than once.)

It is definitely a cautionary tale against taking hyperbole too literally.

Since I found the St. Peter Martyr version first, here it is.

Taegio, Vita S. Petri Veronensis, section 23. Collected and printed in Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis vol. iii, 700 E. Translation by me.

"At the time when Blessed Peter was most fruitfully performing the duty of preaching throughout Italy, it happened that a certain youth felt pricked with repentance by his preaching, and approached him for his confession of sins. Among the rest of his sins, he confessed that in a certain disturbance, he had kicked his mother around with his foot.

"Arguing against such a sin of presumption to scare him, St. Peter indeed said, among other things, that this foot which struck his mother deserved to be cut off. Then, having given him a healthy penance, he allowed him to leave, absolved of sin.

"But the young man, his mind continually pulled again and again toward Blessed Peter’s words about the amputation of his foot, was deceived by diabolical persuasion. Secretly taking a pick-axe, he cut off his own foot as vengeance against its wicked deed.

"And when he let out screams from the excessive pain, his father and mother quickly ran to him in the household. Then on hearing that he had received the happenstance of Blessed Peter’s words to himself as how he should proceed to judgment, his father went out for Blessed Peter, putting all delay behind him, and exposed the painful case, asking that he not refuse to see the suffering youth, and that he be helped by his prayers to the Lord.

“So joined by a companion, the tender Father [Peter] came near him. And shaken by tender compassion and relying on the tenderness of Christ, he threw out all who were in attendance but kept those parents and his companion. And most devoutly, on bended knees and with many tears, he called on the clemency of God. And rising, with great confidence in God, he took the foot in his hands, and applying it to the stump of his leg and sealing it with the Sign of the Cross, he healed it instantly and as if he had never had any wound. But as a sign of the miracle, a thin scar remained at the joining of the foot, with all inward deformity absent.”

The Bollandists also reprint the older St. Anthony story in the notes to the chapter, so I’ll translate that in the next post. Taegio seems to have ripped off the St. Anthony story word for word in many places, so he wasn’t even trying to hide that it was the same story. Like a lot of medievals, he seems to have felt that it was the writer’s job to record stuff, and the reader’s job to sort it out.

 

[Mintaka]

Argh. Got up too early. I’m also still getting over a cold. Let me amend the St. Peter of Verona translation:

“… his father and mother and the rest of the household quickly ran to him.”

Also, I misread the second version of the story. It’s a later miracle account, about St. Peter Martyr, by another Dominican guy named St. Antoninus of Florence. So his copying the same wording is natural, not plagiaristic.

Yep, some days I might as well not get up. But I will find the St. Anthony of Padua story for you folks.

 

[Mintaka]

Here’s the later miracle account.

St. Antoninus of Florence, giving an incident from the life of St. Peter of Verona. Collected in Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis vol. iii, 702 B.

"At that time, when he was roaming around preaching throughout Lombardy and Tuscany and Romagna, it happened that he heard in confession a certain adolescent, feeling pricked to repentance by his teaching. And among the rest of his sins, he confessed that he had kicked his mother around with his foot.

But the saint, shuddering at the crime, argued against him with bitter tears, showing him the seriousness of his wicked deed.

Shaken by his word and example, he asked, “What do you ask me to do, Father, in satisfaction for my disgraceful act? Look, I am ready for anything.”

“Surely,” said the holy man, “this foot which was the instrument of such impiety deserved to be cut off; and as when Christ said in the Gospel, 'If… your foot causes
you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you.”* Yet I do not say that you should do this. So beware in the future. Do such and such a penance for satisfaction [of the sin]."

The adolescent went away with no moderate zeal for avenging the accomplished departure [from what is right], but of course not according to understanding. Returning home, he got a dagger (not a small one) and in a boiling passion of spirit, cut off his foot. Intense pain followed, which did not remove or diminish his fervor. He screamed from pain, and the noise was heard, and his blood poured copiously onto the ground.

His mother quickly ran to him. She noticed the cut off foot pouring out blood, and putting the distress away as if outside her, she called out to her female friends and neighbors. They hurried to help, totally filled with astonishment. Not knowing the cause of the matter, they exerted themselves to staunch the blood flow soonest. And having applied what care could be given, they questioned the adolescent how and for what reason he had done this to himself.

The youth responded that he had confessed himself to that preacher Peter, and among the rest of his sins, about spurning his mother with his heel; which sin he had shown him was so enormous, that it had not looked to the adolescent that he could satisfy it sufficiently unless by punishing the foot through cutting it off.

The mother lamented; her familiar friends joined in; the neighborhood was filled with whispers insulting Father Peter and the convent, holding the Brothers, who would impose the penance of cutting off feet upon adolescents, to be indiscreet and fatuous. Hurriedly, they proceeded to the convent; they called out the Prior. They set forth their complain against Father Peter; they explained the case.

This was set forth to the holy man. He justified himself; he had not imposed such a work. But to make provision for the simplicity of the adolescent, he ordered him to be brought to him, along with the cut off foot.

When this was done, after sending ahead a prayer, he joined the cut off foot and fastened it to the tibia in the place where it had been cut. And instantly, it was grafted on and the tibia was incarnated with the foot, and it was as if nothing had been cut there. And those who were in attendance seeing it, they glorified God who gave such power to human beings, and turned the simple fatuity of a youth into glory for his saint."

• (Matthew 18:8)

 

[Mintaka]

I couldn’t find the original version of the “Legenda Rigaldina,” so I translated this into English from a Portuguese translation.

Other versions set the miracle in Padua with a guy named Leonardo, but I haven’t found them yet.

“Legenda Rigaldina”, by Jean Rigauld. Fontes Franciscana, vol. iii.

1. Another wonderful deed happened when the saint found himself in Spain.

1. A young man, forgetting that respect which is due to a mother according to the Lord’s Commandments, and infuriated against his mother, the impious despiser and transgressor of that precept gave her such a violent kick that the lady fell onto the ground.

1. Deeply sorry after hearing a sermon by the saint, and transfixed by the sword of the Divine Word that came out of Anthony’s mouth, he confessed his sin with a bitter heart and eyes washed with tears.

1. Seeing him so repentant, the man of God imposed on him (among other things) that he should humbly ask his mother’s pardon.

1. When that man asked his mother’s pardon as directed, in conformity with the man of God’s penance, his mother said to him, “I forgive you with goodwill, but I think that God will not forgive an affront so serious.”

1. Pondering these words, the youth entered his room sadly and with a spirit not a little agitated. With an axe, he immediately amputated the foot with which he had offended his mother.

1. As a result of this, his blood came gushing out as he writhed in pain, so that his cries were joined by those of his mother when she saw him, and with all the neighborhood together.

1. As it happened, the man of God happened to pass that place, and when he was informed of the reason for so great a gathering, and when he also remembered hearing the confession of the one who kicked his mother, he entered that house.

1. He asked to see the youth; he asked for the amputated foot.

1. Holding it in his hand and relying on the power of God, Who cures our troubles of heart and thinks to heal our wounds, he placed the foot on the place where it was cut off.

1. When this was done, the foot joined itself to the rest of the flesh and the youth saw himself healed together without pain or scar.

1. This deed emphasized the value of contrition and confession to the youth, and proved the power of Anthony’s prayer.

Paintings and frescoes of this miracle were pretty popular in Italy. The subject is usually called “The Healing of the Wrathful Son”, the “Irascible Son,” or the “Repentant Son.”