I Have Already (P. 212) Given The Formidable
Number Of Its Ecclesiastics; The Number Of Saints Was Commensurate,
But - As Often Happens When The Quantity Is Excessive - The Quality
Declined.
This lazzaroni-period was the debacle of holiness.
So true it
is that our gods reflect the hearts that make them.
The Venerable Fra Egidio, a native of Taranto, is a good example of
contemporary godliness. My biography of him was printed in Naples in
1876, [Footnote: "Vita del Venerabile servo di Dio Fra Egidio da S.
Giuseppe laico professo alcantarino," Napoli, 1876.] and contains a
dedicatory epistle addressed to the Blessed Virgin by her "servant,
subject, and most loving son Rosario Frungillo" - a canon of the church
and the author of the book.
This "taumaturgo" could perform all the ordinary feats; I will not
linger over them. What has made him popular to this day are those
wonders which appealed to the taste of the poorer people, such as, for
example, that miracle of the eels. A fisherman had brought fourteen
hundredweight of these for sale in the market. Judge of his
disappointment when he discovered that they had all died during the
journey (southerners will not pay for dead eels). Fortunately, he saw
the saint arriving in a little boat, who informed him that the eels were
"not dead, but only asleep," and who woke them up again by means of a
relic of Saint Pasquale which he always carried about with him, after a
quarter of an hour's devout praying, during which the perspiration oozed
from his forehead.
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