St. Anthony was a fair youth, as you will always see in his
portraits. As he went about preaching there was a young woman who began
to admire him very much, and her name was Sora Castitre. Whenever she
could find out in which direction he was going she would put herself
in his way and try to speak to him. St. Anthony at first kept his
eyes fixed on the ground, and took no notice of her; then he tried
to make her desist by rebuking her, but she ceased not to follow him.
Then he thought to himself, with all a saint's compunction, 'It is
not she who is to blame, and who is worthy of rebuke, but I, who have
been the occasion of sin to her. God grant that sin be not imputed
to her through loving me.'
The next time she met him, it was in a deserted part of the Campagna.
'Brother Antonio, come along with me down this path. No one will see
us there,' said Sora Castitre.
Much to her surprise, instead of pursuing the severe tone he had
always adopted towards her, St. Anthony greeted her and smiled with
a smile which filled her with a joy different from anything she had
known before. What was more, he seemed to follow her, and she led on.
But as she went the way seemed quite changed. She knew well the retired
path by which she had meant to lead him, but now everything around
looked different; not one landmark was the same. Yet 'how could it
be different?' she said within herself; and she led on.
What was her astonishment, when, instead of finding it terminate in a
rocky gorge as she had found before, there rose before her presently
an austere building surrounded with walls and gates!
St. Anthony stepped forward as they reached the gate. A nun opened to
them, and St. Anthony asked for the mother abbess. 'I have brought you
a maiden,' he said, 'whom I recommend to your affectionate and tender
care.' The mother abbess promised to make her her special charge,
and St. Anthony went his way, first calling the maiden aside and
charging her with this one petition he would have her make:
'I have sinned; have mercy on me.'
Then St. Anthony went back to his convent and called all the brethren
together, and asked them all to pray very earnestly all through the
night, and in the morning tell him what manifestation they had had.
The brethren promised to comply; and in the morning they all told
him they had seen a little spark of light shining in the darkness.
'It suffices not, my brethren!' said St. Anthony; 'continue your
charity and pray on instantly this night also.'
The brethren promised compliance; and in the morning they all told
him they had seen a pale streak of light stealing away towards heaven.
'It suffices not, my brethren!' said St. Anthony; 'of your charity
pray on yet again this night also.'
The brethren promised compliance; and in the morning they told him
they had all seen a blaze of light, and in the midst of it a bed on
which lay a most beautiful maiden, white [183] as a lily, carried up
to heaven, borne by four shining angels.
'It is well, my brethren!' replied St. Anthony; 'your prayers have
rendered a soul to the celestial quires.'
Afterwards he went to the convent where he had left Sora Castitre,
and learnt from the mother abbess that, spending three penitential
days saying only, 'I have sinned; have mercy on me,' she had rendered
up her soul to God in simplicity and fervour.
3
The legend of St. Anthony preaching to the fishes is well known
from paintings, and I do not reproduce it because it was told me
with no variation from the usual form. But another legend, which
early pictures have rendered equally familiar, I received with an
anachronistic addition which is worth putting down.
4