completely healed through the servant of God Francis, she recounted in order all ^{Est 15:9} that had happened.

Chapter IX
THE PUNISHMENT OF THOSE WHO WOULD NOT KEEP HIS FEAST
OR HONOR HIM AS A SAINT

¹In the village of Le Simon, which is in the region of Poitiers, there was a priest called Renaud who had a great devotion to Saint Francis, and who taught his parishioners to keep his feast day as a holy day. But one among the people, who did not realize the Saint's power, held his priest's command in contempt.^a He went out into his field to chop some wood, but as he prepared himself to start the work, he three times heard a voice that said: " ^{Acts 9:4} Today is a holy day; it's a sin to work!" But since neither the priest's command nor the words of a voice from heaven were enough to curb the serf's audacity, without delay the power of God added a miracle and a scourge to vindicate his Saint's honor. The man already had his forked stick^b in one hand, and was raising up an iron tool with the other one, when the divine power stuck his hands to both tools so that he was not able to open his fingers and let go of either.

He was utterly amazed at this, and had no idea what to do, so he hastened to the church, where many people gathered from all around to see the miracle. There he went before the altar, pierced to the heart by repentance, and at the suggestion of one of the priests—for many priests had been invited and had come to the celebration—he humbly consecrated himself to Saint Francis, and made three vows to him, because of the three times that he had heard the warning voice. First, that he would always keep his feast day, then that on that feast he would always come to this church in which he now was present, and finally that he would personally go on pilgrimage to the Saint's tomb.^c (During this, the great crowd which had gathered was imploring the Saint's mercy with great devotion.) Wonderful to tell, as he made his first vow, one of his fingers was set free; as he vowed the second one, another finger became unstuck; and as he vowed the third one, the third finger was freed, as well as

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perfeete se sentiens per servum Dei Franciscum esse sanatam, cuncta, quae acciderant, per ordinem enarravit.

IX
De non servantibus festum
et inhonorantibus Sanctum.

1 ¹In Pictaviae partibus, in villa quae Symo dicitur, sacerdos quidam, Reginaldus nomine, beato Francisco devotus, festum ipsius parochianis suis indixerat solemniter celebrandum. ²Unus autem de populo, ignorans Sancti virtutem, sui parvipendit sacerdotis mandatum. ³Egressus autem foras in agrum, ut ligna succideret, cum se praeparasset ad opus, vocem audivit huiusmodi ter dicentem: « Festum. est; operari non licet ». ⁴Verum, cum nec imperio sacerdotis nec supernae vocis oraculo servilis temeritas frenaretur, addidit divina virtus ad gloriam Sancti sui sine mora miraculum et flagellum. ⁵Mox enim, ut fuream una manu iam tenens, alteram cum ferreo instrumento levavit ad opus, sic divina virtute utraque manus utrique instrumento cohaesit, ut ad neutrius dimissionem digitos aliquatenus relaxare valeret.

⁶Ex quo stupefactus nimis, et quid ageret nesciens, ad ecclesiam multis undique ad videndum prodigium concurrentibus, properavit. ⁷Ubi mente compunctus ante altare, quodam ex assistentibus sacerdote monente plures quippe ad festum vocati convenerant sacerdotes beato Francisco humiliter se devovit, tria, sicut ter vocem audierat, vota vovens, quod scilicet festum ipsius coleret, quod ad illam in qua tunc erat ecclesiam in festo veniret et quod Sancti corpus personaliter visitaret. ⁸Mirum certe relatu! Uno emisso voto, unus de digitis factus est liber, ad secundi emissionem solutus est alius, sed tertio facto voto, laxatus est tertius et postmodum tota manus nec non et altera subsequenter,