THE PENANCE OF SAN GIULIANO.
‘Can you tell me the story of San Giovanni Bocca d’oro?’
‘Of course I know about San Giovanni Bocca d’oro, that is, I know he was a great penitent, but I couldn’t remember anything, not to tell you about him. But I know about another great penitent. Do you know about the Penitence of San Giuliano? That is a story you’ll like if you don’t know it already; but it’s not a favola, mind.’
‘I know there are seven or eight saints at least of the name of Julian, but I don’t know the acts of them all; so pray tell me your story.’
‘Here it is then.
‘San Giuliano was the only son of his parents, who lived at Albano. In his youth he was rather wild,[1] and gave his parents some anxiety; but what gave them more anxiety still on his account was that an astrologer had predicted that when he grew up he should kill both his parents.
‘“It is not only for our lives,” said the parents, “that we should be concerned—that is no such great matter; but we must put him out of the way of committing so great a crime.”
‘Therefore they gave him a horse, and his portion of money, and told him to ride forth and make himself a home in another place. So San Giuliano went forth; and thirty years passed, and his parents heard no more of him. Thirty years is a long time; many things pass out of mind in thirty years. Thus the astrologer’s prediction passed out of their minds; but what never passes out of the mind of a mother is the love of her child, and the mother of San Giuliano yearned to see him after thirty years as though he had gone away but yesterday.
‘One day when they were walking in the woods about Albano they saw a little boy come and climb into a tree and take a bird’s nest; and presently, after the little boy was gone away with the nest, the parent birds came back and fluttered all about, and uttered piercing cries for the loss of their young.
‘“See!” said San Giuliano’s mother, taking occasion by this example, “how these unreasoning creatures care for the loss of their young, and we live away from our only son and are content.”