to spread among the cattle of Sant'Elia, not too far from the hermitage. So that all the cattle became sick and died.

One night it was said that a certain spiritual person of that town had a vision in which he was told: "Go to the hermitage where blessed Francis is staying and get the water with which he washed his hands and feet. Sprinkle it upon all the oxen, and they will immediately recover."

That man got up early in the morning, went to the hermitage, and told all of this to the companions of blessed Francis.

At meal time they put the water for washing his hands in a jar, and, in the evening, they asked him to allow them to wash his feet, without telling him about the matter. And so, afterwards, they gave the man the water blessed Francis used to wash his hands and feet. The man took it and with it, as if it were holy water, sprinkled the cattle stretched out on the ground almost dead and also all the others. And immediately, through the grace of God and the merits of blessed Francis, all of them were cured. At the time blessed Francis already had scars in his hands, feet, and side.

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[THE HEALING OF A CLERIC, GEDEONE, OF RIETI AND HIS MISERABLE END]

In those days, when blessed Francis was suffering from the disease of his eyes and was spending a few days in the bishop's palace in Rieti, a cleric of the curia of Rieti named Gedeone, a very worldly man, lay sick for a long time with a very serious illness with pains in his back.^a He could not move or turn around in bed without help and could not get up and walk without help from several people. When he was carried, he went about stooped and almost bent over because of the pain in his back, and he could no longer stand upright.

One day he had himself carried before blessed Francis. He threw himself at his feet and tearfully begged him to make the sign of the cross on him.

Blessed Francis said to him: "How can I make the sign on you, when you live according to the desires of the flesh, without reflecting on and fearing the judgments of God?"

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Seeing him afflicted with so much sickness and pain, blessed Francis was moved by piety for him and told him: "I sign you in the name of the Lord. But if it pleases the Lord to cure you, beware that

accidit ut quedam infirmitas boum, que vulgo dicitur basabove, de qua nullus evadere solet, veniret super boves Sancti Helie, que prope illud heremitorium consistit, ita quod omnes ceperunt infirmari et mori.

²Quadam autem nocte dictum fuit in visione cuidam homini spirituali eiusdem ville: ³«Vade ad heremitorium ubi moratur beatus Franciscus et acquiras de lavatura manuum et pedum eius, et de ipsa proicias super omnes boves, et statim liberabuntur ».

⁴Surrexit homo ille summo mane, et ivit ad heremitorium, et dixit hec omnia sociis beati Francisci.

⁵Illi vero in hora comestionis collegerunt lavaturam manuum eius in quodam vase; etiam in sero rogaverunt ipsum ut dimitteret sibi pedes ablui, non dicentes ei aliquid de illa re. ⁶Et sic dederunt postea illi homini lavaturam manuum et pedum beati Francisci; et ille apportavit, et quasi aquam benedictam aspersit super boves, qui iacebant quasi mortui, et super omnes alios. ⁷Et statim per gratiam Domini et meritis beati Francisci liberati sunt omnes, ⁸in illo tempore habebat beatus Franciscus cicatrices in manibus et pedibus et latere.

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¹Hiisdem temporibus cum beatus Franciscus esset infirmus infirmitate oculorum et per aliquot dies maneret in palatio episcopi Reate, quidam clericus episcopatus Reate, nomine Gedeon, valde mundanus homo, iacuerat per multos dies infirmus maxima infirmitate et maxime dolore renum, ²ita quod non poterat se movere et revolvere in lecto sine iuvamine nec surgere et ambulare nisi a pluribus portaretur, et cum portaretur ibat incurvatus et quasi contractus propter dolores renum: non enim poterat aliquatenus se erigere.

³Cumque quadam die coram beato Francisco faceret se portari, proiecit se ad pedes eius, rogans ipsum multis lacrimis ut signum crucis faceret ei.

⁴Dixit ei beatus Franciscus: « Quomodo te signabo, cum olim vixeris semper secundum desideria carnis, non considerans et timens iudicia Dei? ».

⁵Et videns ipsum ex magna infirmitate et doloribus ita afflictum pietate motus est super eum, dixitque ei: « Ego te signo in nomine Domini. ⁶Sed si Domino placuerit te liberare, cave tibi ne ad vomitum redeas quoniam dico tibi in veritate quod,