The naïve elements become almost startling at times in their childishness. For instance in No. 8 a singer, after singing a “lais” to Santa María, asked that one of the candles of her shrine light him while he ate. The candle was miraculously placed on his instrument, but a monk seeing it out of place became angry, thinking it bewitched, and put it back where it belonged. This was repeated three times until the people witnessing this repetition intervened, while the monk, convinced he had witnessed a miracle, repented.[38] Again, at Rocamador, nine pilgrims ordered nine pieces of meat prepared for their meal. When they drew near the table only eight pieces were brought in, the servant having stolen one. They prayed Santa María to show them where the ninth piece was and at once heard a noise in a chest. It was the piece of meat jumping around to attract their attention (No. 159). Even more peculiar were the actions of a paralyzed mule which was ordered killed and skinned by its master. The servant boy before beginning the task stopped to eat and upon finishing his meal was astonished to find the mule healed and going toward the shrine of the Virgin of Torena. On reaching the church it ran around it three times rapidly, entered and kneeled before the altar, then returned home with the servant (No. 228).
It is to be remarked also that while the miracles usually do contain a moral lesson—in fact some have no other purpose than to teach a moral, No. 155,—occasionally they are much less concerned with the moral than with the really important fact, the miracle, which shows the goodness, power and mercy of Santa María. Bent on emphasizing this they become at times realistic in the extreme. We must remember also that the conception of what is moral and what is immoral changes constantly and that therefore it is imposible to measure the 13th century by the standards of the 20th. But even so, we can say this for Alfonso el Sabio; whenever he does include such accounts in his collection he handles them with his accustomed brevity and never dwells upon the immoral act nor enlarges upon it. With a few strokes he paints the picture and then comes to what, for him, is the all important part, the miracle. One such, very popular thruout all Europe in the Middle Ages, is the legend of an abbess, accused by those under her of being with child, who was called to account before the authorities. She prayed earnestly to the Virgin, who during her sleep brought the child and spirited him away to Saussonna. She was then examined and found innocent.
No. 201 is even more interesting, being the story of a beautiful young woman who vowed eternal chastity and then, falling in love with a young gallant, became the mother of three of his children and killed each one soon after its birth. Later in life she repented and tried to kill herself with a knife but did not die; she then swallowed two poisonous spiders[39] and still she could not die. Finally she prayed the Holy Mother, who appeared to her and with her own divine hand cured her. The sinner obtained forgiveness by a long life of penance. In this case the immoral element of protecting the sinner from just punishment has entirely disappeared, for while the Virgin shows mercy toward her and cures her ills—the result of a self-imposed penance—yet she does not forgive her terrible sin. All she can do is to change the form of the penance.
One of the phases of the belief of the time which at first glance seems to us today to be sacrilegious, or to say the least quite startling, is the part that the breasts of the Virgin and her sacred milk played in the religion of Medieval Spain. In this belief can be seen how very real and how very human the Mother of Christ was to the people. This race, which has produced some of the greatest mystics of the world, to whom everything had a mystical meaning, saw in the sacred milk of the Virgin the symbol of healing and of life, and the breasts which had nourished the Christ-child were to them the symbol of the fountain of life.
In No. 138 Alfonso tells how San Juan Boca de Oro, exiled by the Gentiles, was first blinded and then put out on the highway and told to leave the country. Wandering, he soon fell into brambles, when, calling on “á Rëynna esperital” for aid, she came, restored his sight and led him out into the road again. In the conversation which ensued he asked her what was the thing that Jesus loved most when He came into the world. She left without answering, but appeared to him again that night with the child Jesus playing with her breasts. Turning to the him she said,
“ ... D’ esto se pagou
meu Fillo máis d’ál, et con mui gran razón.
Ca estas tetas lo criaron tan ben
como a sa carne mui nobre conuen;
et porende as amou máis d’ outra ren,
porque d’ estas tetas ouu’ él criaçon.”
The milk poured by the Blessed Virgin herself from her sacred breasts cured an infirmity of the face and neck which had caused long years of suffering to one of her faithful monks (No. 54). Similar to this is No. 93, an account of how God chastened a man of Burgos with leprosy for three years because of his sins. After he had recited a good thousand “Ave Marías” Saint Mary at last took pity on him, and bathed him in her own milk, which cured him immediately.
And after all, when considered reverently, and in the light of the fact that the Virgin was the most important and most beloved personage in the religion of the period, what more beautiful and sublime symbol could there be than this!
Possessions are constantly being restored thru the agency of the Holy Mother, who is never unmindful of the needs of her children, and who is just as quick to respond to the needs of the rich, if they are real needs, as to those of the poor. Altho such service is quite often performed in return for some gift, as indicated in the discussion of Bargaining,[40] it is by no means limited to this. Often the simple faith and earnest prayer are sufficient.
A certain Don Domingo of Santa María del Puerto lost thirty sheep in the mountains. His devout wife appealed to the local Saint to save them from the wolves. Three days later they were found surrounded by wolves, which instead of harming them were guarding them from harm (No. 398). In the incident of a woman of Toledo (No. 212) we catch a glimpse of some of the customs of the times as well as find an entertaining story. This woman had the habit of loaning a lovely string of pearls to the poor girls of her acquaintance for their wedding ceremony, because