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the burn is extended slowly from the ear to the eyebrow. How much pain that burning caused can best be known by the witness of the saint's words, since it was he that felt it. For when the brothers who had fled return, the father says with a smile: "Oh, you weak souls of little heart; why did you run away? Truly I say to you, I did not feel the fire's heat, nor any pain in my flesh." And turning to the doctor, he says: "If the flesh isn't well cooked, try again!" The doctor, who had experienced quite a different reaction in similar situations, exalts this as a divine miracle, saying: "I tell you, brothers; today I have seen wonderful things!"
I believe
he had returned to primeval innocence,
for when he wished the harshest things grew gentle.a
15Once blessed Francis wanted to travel to a certain hermitage so that he could more freely spend time in contemplation. Because he was very weak he got a donkey to ride from a poor man. It was summer, and as the peasant went up the mountain following the man of God, he was worn out from the journey Jn 4:6 over such a rough and long road. And before they came to the place, he was exhausted, fainting with a burning thirst. He urgently cried out after the saint, begging him to have pity on him. He swore he would die if he was not revived by something to drink. The holy one of God Lk 4:34, always compassionate to the distressed, immediately leaped down from the donkey, knelt down on the ground, and raised his hands to heaven,praying unceasingly until he understood he had been heard. "Hurry now," he said to the peasant, "and over there you will find living water which at this very hour Christ has mercifully brought forth from the rock for you to drink." How amazingly kind God is, so easily bowing to His servants! By the power of prayer a peasant drinks water from the rock and draws refreshment from the hard flint. There was no flow of water there before this; and even after a careful search, none was found there afterwards.
16Gagliano is a populous and noble town in the diocese of Valva.b A woman named Maria lived there who, through the difficult ways of this world, was converted to God and she subjected herself completely to the service of Saint Francis.
- The place of this episode as the first example of Francis's power over inanimate creatures, found at the end of 2C, exemplifies Thomas's understanding of Francis as a new Adam. Thomas, therefore, places Francis in a new perspective, i.e., that of primeval innocence.
- Now Gagliano-Aterno, a town east of Celano, in the diocese of Sulmona. In Monte Canale, above Gagliano-Aterno, the fountain mentioned is said to flow near the remains of a chapel of Saint Francis. Cf. A. Chiappini, L’Abruzzo Francescano nel secolo XIII (Rome, 1926), 23.