1
There was Padre Vincenzo too, who wasn't much less than Good Philip
himself. He was a miracle of obedience. One day when he was ill the
Father-General sent him a codfish. Padre Vincenzo sent back word to
thank him, but said he couldn't eat it. 'Nonsense!' answered the
Father-General, who thought he spoke out of regard to his love of
abstinence. 'Nonsense! tell him he is to eat it all.' The message was
given to Padre Vincenzo, who was really too ill to eat anything; but
in his simplicity thinking he ought to obey, he ate the whole fish,
head, tail, bones, and all.
By-and-by the Father-General came to see him. He seemed almost at the
last gasp, suffocated by the effort he had made, and his throat all
lacerated with swallowing the fish-bones. The Father-General praised
the simplicity of his obedience, but told the brother who took the
message that he ought to have explained it better.
But Padre Vincenzo did not lose anything by his obedience, for that
same evening he was cured of his illness altogether, and was quite
well again.
2
Padre Vincenzo worked so many miracles that all Rome was talking
about him, and the Father-General thought he would get vain, so he
told him not to work any more miracles. Padre Vincenzo therefore
worked no more miracles; but one day as he was walking along the
street, he passed under a high scaffolding of a house that was being
built. Just as he came by, a labourer missed his footing and fell
over from the top. 'Padre Vincenzo, save me!' cried the man, for
everybody knew Padre Vincenzo, and he had just seen him turn into
the street. 'Stop there!' said Padre Vincenzo; 'I mustn't save you,
as the Padre-Generale says I'm not to work miracles; but wait there,
and I'll go and ask if I may.' Then he left him suspended in the air
while he ran breathless to ask permission of the Father-General to
work the miracle of saving him.
3
One morning Padre Vincenzo had to pass through the Rotonda [217]
on business of his community. A temptation of the throat [218] took
him as he saw a pair of fine plump pigeons such as you, perhaps,
cannot see anywhere out of the Rotonda hanging up for sale. Padre
Vincenzo bought the pigeons, and took them home secretly under his
cloak. In his cell he plucked the pigeons, and cooked them over a
little fire. The unwonted smell of roast pigeon soon perfumed the
corridor, and two or three brothers, having peeped through the keyhole
and seen what was going on in Padre Vincenzo's cell, ran off to say
to the Father-General,
'What do you think Padre Vincenzo, whom we all reckon such a saint,
is doing now! He is cooking pigeons privately in his cell.'
'It's a calumny! I can't believe it of him,' answered the
Father-General indignantly.
The spying brothers bid him come and see.
'I am certain if I do, it will be to cover you with confusion in
some way or other for telling tales!' replied the Father-General as
he went with them.
As they passed along the corridor there was the smell of roast pigeon
most undeniably; but when the Father-General opened the cell door
what did they see?
Padre Vincenzo was on his knees, praying for forgiveness in a tone of
earnest contrition; round his throat were tied the two pigeons, burning
hot, as he had taken them from the fire. A spirit of compunction
had seized him as he was about to accomplish the unmortified act of
eating in his cell in contravention of his rule, and he had adopted
this penance for yielding in intention to the temptation.