Such vengeance as this is usually only meted out to infidels and, even tho Saint Mary loves vengeance and desires to please her followers, more than once has she to temper this very human desire on their part. One woman asked that the one who had stolen her husband’s affections be stricken with some serious illness, but the Virgin, considering the punishment too severe, by a vision caused the unlawful rival to repent and ask forgiveness of the wife, which the latter finally granted (No. 68).
In many respects more important, tho perhaps making a less lasting impression, are those miracles of prevention from harm. These are almost as numerous as the above, tho they offer less variety and less opportunity for dramatic effect. Among the most common are rescues from the sea, and in No. 236 there is the added element of walking on the water. A pious woman and her child are in a boat that sinks. She cries out to the Virgin who appears, takes her by the hand, and together they walk on the water as tho it were land until they arrive at Marseilles.
Those engaged in making objects for the glory of the Virgin, together with the products of their art, receive special protection. A stone mason working at a great height in the church of Santa María de Castrogeriz felt his legs weaken and began to fall. Calling on the local saint he miraculously caught on an edge of one of the stones and altho a very large man his fingers were strengthened, enabling him to hold on a greater part of the day until aid came (No. 242). At another time a painter who habitually drew the Devil as ugly as possible and the Virgin as beautifully as he was able received a visit from his satanic majesty in person complaining of the treatment, but the artist refused to change his pictures. The Devil, greatly offended, set loose a terrible hurricane, which entered the church; but, appealing to the Virgin, both the painter and his work escaped unharmed (No. 74). Ten instances, most of which bear a striking resemblance to similar stories in the New Testament, are told of miraculous release from prison.[33] In one of these (No. 227) Saint Mary appeared surrounded by a bright light and led the captive, invisible to his captors, from the dungeon. In nearly all such releases the victim had been unjustly imprisoned.
Those who are especially devout are saved even tho at times it is necessary to bring down the heavenly hosts. One good knight (No. 233) fleeing on a swift horse before his enemies arrives at the church of the Virgin of Pena Cova. His pursuers, unbelievers, on arriving at the church, see a battalion of heavenly soldiers drawn up in front of it and, thus admonished, they repent and naturally no longer desire his life.[34] When Bondoudar, the Sultan of Egypt, laid siege to Tortosa de Ultramar there were but few defenders within its walls, but when the Sultan arrived he saw a great host in the city. One of his advisers told him:
“ ... Per mandado
da Uirgen Madre d’ Icá
uéeron, que un eigreia
dentro en a uila á,
que está preto dos muros
da parte do aréal”.
On hearing this the Sultan withdrew, saying he would not fight against the Virgin and later even sent much money to those in the city (No. 165). No. 49 reads almost like a fairy tale. A band of pilgrims journeying to Santa María de Soissons lose their way in the mountains and in answer to their prayers she appears to them with a shining wand in her hand and leads them safely to their destination.
The idea of bargaining, one of the fundamental elements of all primitive religions,[35] and one which even yet has by no means disappeared, was present in a very striking manner. In this respect, indeed, the people were so naïve at times that they made the Blessed Mother human in the extreme and sometimes they seemed almost to lose sight entirely of her divinity. In no less than nineteen[36] cantigas is the record of wax being offered in exchange for divine favors and in ten of these the wax was promised in the prayer of supplication; and altho this may not at all times have been consciously offered as a bribe or as a kind of barter yet there is no doubt that unconsciously the feeling was there. Wax was by far the most popular of all offerings. It was offered in bulk, or in the form of an image of the Virgin or of the object desired, or often in candles. One account which is very interesting because of the well-known historical personages involved is No. 376. During a conversation with the Infante Don Manuel, Alfonso showed him a beautiful ring and offered it to him as a gift. The king sent a servant to deliver it to the house of the Infante, but on the way he lost it. He immediately appealed to Santa María del Puerto; offering her six pounds of wax for her church if she would help him recover the ring. A little later a man voluntarily handed it to the messenger saying he had found it on the street.
Altho we might consider wax a suitable offering for a miracle of the type just mentioned, it does cause some surprise to find it accepted in return for even such an important act as the restoration of life. But there was a woman of Zaragoza whose children were always stillborn, so after the third sad experience she offered a child of wax to the Virgin. The fourth child was also born dead but, confident now, she implored Santa María de Salas, and even while the prayer continued the child came to life. In addition to wax many other kinds of gifts were acceptable such as a garland of roses; or when roses were unavailable an “Ave María” might be substituted for each rose in the bouquet (No. 121); or nails were offered for a temple (No. 106); or a promise was made of the most beautiful thing captured from the enemy during a battle, which in No. 374 was a beautiful cloth of gold and scarlet.
More curious than these, and a miracle in which the moral lesson is not to be considered, is No. 214, in which two men, one very rich while the other possessed only a church building, were rolling dice. The wealthy man played high stakes, the poor man, having only the church, played it. The rich one rolled and three sixes fell. His companion, trembling, in his turn rolled. As he did so he offered the church to the Virgin should he win. To his astonishment, and to the wonder of the bystanders, one of the dice fell in two, three sixes and one ace appearing.
Aside from material gifts such as the above, offers of service such as the promise to go on a pilgrimage to some shrine are also very effective.[37]