Caput 9
The Punishment and Healing of the Skeptic
A man who slanders the saint's body is struck with a twisted chin, repents, and is healed with a lasting scar.
So when they arrived at the city already named and were attending his burial, performing the duty of human kindness, one of the bystanders claimed his body stank, though all the others were smelling a remarkably sweet fragrance. So his chin was immediately twisted backward, and it would not bend. Realizing that he had been struck by divine vengeance, he cried out with a wretched wail, saying, "I have sinned against the holy one of God," and fell prostrate at the tomb of Saint Ladislaus the king, begging for his mercy so that he might be healed. And so the skin and flesh of his chin, which had been clinging to his back, was torn away. And he himself recovered his health, but the scar of the torn skin hardened on his chin.
God's Fear and Love, the Saint's Exaltation
Through striking and healing, God reveals both fear and love; He transforms the saint into Himself and grants him heavenly reign and intercessory power.
So in this way God, by striking him and healing him, showed that he is both to be feared and to be loved. So God, following the necessary way of making the blessed blessed—while sharing himself with his elect—transformed this elect of his into himself and raised him to royal dignity. And just as on earth he entrusted him to carry out his office, so, appointing this same man to reign with him in the heavenly kingdoms, he gave him the ability to bestow divine help on all who call upon him.1
The Saint's Miraculous Works
Through the saint, God grants sight, hearing, speech, walking, and comfort to the oppressed.
So he gave the blind their sight, the deaf their hearing, the mute their speech, and the lame their power to walk. And as a helper in times of need for defense, he gave comfort to the oppressed.2
The Poor Virgin's Sight and Simplicity
A poor blind virgin comes to the tomb, receives her sight, and gains such simplicity of soul that her spirit is believed visited by divine power.
Indeed, when word of his holiness spread, a poor young virgin came to his tomb and was granted recovery of her lost sight; and once she had regained her bodily health, she also received such simplicity of soul that people believed she had been visited even in the spirit by divine power.
The Noble Girl's Astonishing Healing
A noble blind girl left at the tomb by her parents experiences a dramatic cure as balls of flesh fall from her eyes, and she marvels with new sight.
And a certain noble girl, after she had been blinded and had lost all hope of any physical remedy, was left by her parents at his tomb and exchanged her diseased eyes for healthy ones in a way never heard of before. For when, in the anguish of pain and the loss of those organs, the grieving girl was wiping away the tears streaming down her cheeks, some fleshy balls fell into her hand—shaped like eyes, to be sure, but completely covered in clotted blood.3 And when the girl cried out—for she naturally believed she had already lost her eyes—and the astonished crowd was rushing about, eager to see her, they saw her showing the expelled balls of flesh in her hand to those who marveled, while she herself marveled with her new eyes at the astounding things she was seeing.
The Abundance of Miracles
The author passes over common miracles of healing for the mute, deaf, and lame, and turns to recount more unusual wonders.
But as for the mute, the deaf, and the lame who were healed through his merits: the commonness of such miracles, and almost their ready ease, forbids us to speak of them amid the rejoicing, and instead sends us on to recount the more unusual wonders.
Read the original Latin
Cum ergo ad predictam ciuitatem peruenissent et officium humanitatis exhibentes, sepulture ipsius assistentes, quidam de circumstantibus dicebat corpus eius fetere, reliquis omnibus suauissimam odoris fragranciam sencientibus. retortum est igitur ilico mentum eius, et flecti non poterat. qui se ipsum diuina ulcione uidens esse percussum, miserabiliter eiulando clamabat, dicens: peccaui in sanctum dei, et procidens ad sepulchrum sancti Ladislai regis, misericordiam eius ut sanaretur implorabat.
auulsa est itaque cutis cum carne menti sui, que dorso eius inherebat. et ipse quidem sanitatem recuperauit, sed cicatrix rupte cutis in mento eius occaluit. sic ergo deus illum percuciendo sanans, timendum se pariter et amandum ostendit.
necessarium itaque deus beatificandi modum obseruans, dum electis suis sese participat, hunc suum electum in se transfigurans regali sublimauit dignitate. et sicud in terris uicem suam gerendam ei commisit, sic in celestibus regnis conregnare secum eundem constituens, diuina ei suffragia cunctis ipsum inuocantibus conferre donauit. cecis itaque uisum, surdis auditum, mutis loquelam, claudis dedit gressum. et adiutor in oportunitatibus defensionis solacium oppressis impendit.
siquidem fama sanctitatis ipsius audita, quedam uirgo paupercula ueniens ad sepulchrum eius, amissum recuperare uisum promeruit, et recepta corporali sanitate tanti animi simplicitatem percepit, ut eciam in spiritu uisitata, diuinitus esse crederetur.
quedam autem nobilis puella, dum oculorum uisu priuata fuisset, et totam carnalis medicine spem amisisset, apud sepulchrum eiusdem a suis derelicta parentibus, egros oculos inaudito modo sanis commutauit. nam cum angustia doloris et dampno membrorum lugubris defluentes lacrimas abstergeret, ceciderunt in manu eius quidam globi carnis, formam quidem oculorum habentes, sed coagulato sanguine prorsus inuoluti. cumque uociferante puella, que nimirum oculos suos iam amisisse credebat, populus attonitus ad eam uidendi studio cursitaret, uident eam et elisos carnis globos in manu sua ammirantibus ostentantem et nouis oculis stupenda que uidebat ammirantem.
de mutis autem, surdis et claudis per ipsius merita sanatis uulgaritas et quasi habilitas miraculorum inter gaudia loqui prohibet et ad insueta pocius enarranda transmittit.
Notes
- 1 ↩suffragia: rendered as 'help' (divine favors granted through the saint); in hagiographic usage it can also carry the sense of intercessory aid.
- 2 ↩in oportunitatibus defensionis: taken as 'in times of need for defense' (oportunitatibus with the psalmic sense of critical moments, modified by defensionis). Alternative construal: 'the comfort of defense' if defensionis is attached to solacium.
- 3 ↩dampno membrorum: medieval spelling of damno; rendered as 'loss of those members' (the eyes as body parts).
Legenda Sancti Ladislai regis (Life of Saint Ladislaus of Hungary) companion
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