This makes me think that
Pope Gelasius showed no small penetration in excluding, as early as the
fifth century,
Some few acta sanctorum from the use of the churches;
another step in the same direction was taken in the twelfth century when
the power of canonizing saints, which had hitherto been claimed by all
bishops, became vested in the Pope alone; and yet another, when Urban
VIII forbade the nomination of local patron saints by popular vote.
Pious legends are supposed to have their uses as an educative agency. So
be it. But such relations of imperfectly ascertained and therefore
questionable wonders suffer from one grave drawback: they tend to shake
our faith in the evidence of well-authenticated ones. Thus Saint Patrick
is also reported to have raised a cow from the dead - five cows, to be
quite accurate; but who will come forward and vouch for the fact? No
one. That is because Saint Patrick belongs to the legendary stage; he
died, it is presumed, about 490.
Here, with Saint Egidio, we are on other ground; on the ground of bald
actuality. He expired in 1812, and the contemporaries who have attested
his miraculous deeds are not misty phantoms of the Thebais; they were
creatures of flesh and blood, human, historical personages, who were
dressed and nourished and educated after the fashion of our own
grandfathers. Yet it was meet and proper that the documentary evidence
as to his divine graces should be conscientiously examined.
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