The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi | Page 8

of God, provided it
be well attested." Father Thomassen, of the Oratory, in his treatise on
the Celebration of Festivals, speaks of a miraculous event which
occurred in the sixth century, and which is reported by Bollandus, and
he adds: "These sorts of miracles are by no means articles of faith, but
nevertheless, they are not to be rejected by sage and considerate
persons. Upon reading the works of St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, St.
Ambrose, and St. Jerome, and those of St. Gregory of Nyssa, of St.
Basil, and St. Athanasius, we can have no doubt that these fathers had
no difficulty in believing similar occurrences, similarly attested. St.
Augustine, indeed, has related several much more incredible; and it is
greatly to be feared that to set one's self above the Augustines, the
Jeromes, the Gregories, and the most learned Fathers of the Church,
must be the effect of a most dangerous pride."
It is objected that the multitude is credulous; that it likes the marvellous,
and should not be exposed to believe untruths. But credulity is far less
dangerous than incredulity; the one admits of cure much easier than the
other; the former, in proper limits, may be very useful, the latter
engenders nothing but evil. Some one has said, that the love of the
marvellous is the ancient malady of mankind; it would, perhaps, be
more accurate to say, that it is a remainder of their original greatness;
and that, being created to witness the marvels of the Divinity, they are
impelled, by an interior impulse, to believe whatsoever seems to them
to approach to them, until such, time as their visions shall be fully
gratified. This impulse only becomes a malady when it receives
wonderful things which are absurd, or without any foundation.
Aversion from the marvellous, which has its origin in the weakness of a
mind oppressed by sin, is a much greater malady, and may have most
dangerous consequences, in a wholly marvellous religion which we

must love. These marvels are displeasing in pious narratives, where
they are fully proved, and they are sought for in theatrical compositions,
where they are mere fictions: the distinction is dishonorable to
Christians. Finally, as to the falsehood: What risk does the pious
multitude run, in believing the miracles of the Lives of the Saints?
They find nothing in them which is not proved, or worthy of belief;
nothing but what may very prudently be believed; nothing but what is
edifying; and this, according to St. Augustine, is a sufficient guarantee
from falling into any dangerous credulity.
We should be very dangerously credulous, if we put our faith in false
and deceitful miracles, which only tend to seduce the mind, and corrupt
our belief. We are warned in the Gospel, that "there shall arise false
christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders,
insomuch as to deceive (if it be possible) even the elect;" and St. Paul
teaches us that Antichrist, "that man of perdition, will come according
to the working of Satan in all power, and signs, and lying wonders."
The father of lies has often inspired the heretics to produce miracles,
which they have asserted to have been performed by persons of their
party, living or dead, from whence they inferred that God authorized
the doctrines they taught. Ecclesiastical history furnishes many
examples of this, and there are some very recent ones.
But Jesus Christ has furnished us with a sure and infallible rule to avoid
the contagion: it is to hear the Church; it is to consider those only as
true miracles of which she approves, and of which she sanctions the
publication; it is to believe firmly that no one who is in revolt against
the Church will ever perform a miracle favorable to his sect, whatever
appearance of austerity, piety, charity, or sanctity, he may put on;
which St. Thomas bases mainly on this principle: that it is impossible
that God, who alone can give the power of working a true miracle, shall
ever communicate that power to confirm a false doctrine; from whence
it follows, that all the miracles produced by sectarians, notwithstanding
all their evidence, and all their pretended attestations, must neither be
examined nor listened to, and must only be looked upon as purely
natural effects, or as impostures, or as delusions and diabolical
operations. This is the way in which St. Augustine expresses himself on
the subject of the miracles which the Donatists claimed to have
performed, and claimed as evidence in favor of their schism. Let

Catholics, therefore, reject with horror the false prodigies of sectarians,
but let them piously give credit to the miracles of the saints, without
paying attention to the ultra-criticism which strives to throw doubts
upon them; and let them be intimately persuaded that