But St. Francis when he saw them knew that they were his gold fish, and made the sign of the cross over them, and blessed them, and soon they became alive again, and he took them and put them back into the fishpond, and no one durst touch them again after that.
[1] ‘La Pescheria di San Francesco.’ Pescheria, see p. 45. Many Italian convents are provided with such. [↑]
ST. ANTHONY.
St. Anthony’s father was accused of murder, and as facts seemed against him, he was condemned to be executed.
St. Anthony was preaching in the pulpit as his father was taken to the scaffold. ‘Allow me to stop for a minute to take breath,’ he said, and he made a minute’s pause in the midst of his discourse, and then went on again.
But in that minute’s pause, though no one in church had lost sight of him, he had gone on to the scaffold.
‘What are you doing to that man?’ he asked.
‘He has committed a murder, and is going to be executed.’