Chapters 3 to 5 - Communication with Spirits during the Post-Apostolic Period and in Modern Times

- 32 - And so it was. On another occasion Vianey sent a peasant woman who had just confessed her sins home at once, telling her that a snake had crept into her house. The woman hastened home and searched all over the house, but found nothing. Finally, it occurred to her to shake out her straw pallet, which she had laid out in the sun to air; as she did so, she saw a snake crawl out of it. He directed a young girl whom he saw standing in the church to return home without delay, as her presence there was urgently wanted; upon her arrival, she found her sister, who had hitherto been in perfect health, lying there dead. Once a woman came to Ars to confession who had gotten a bottle of an alleged miraculous remedy from a “sorcerer”. After Vianey had listened to her confession, he remarked to her: “You have told me nothing about the bottle that you hid in the bushes outside of Ars.” Even more frequent was his ability to read the secret thoughts and feelings of others. This gift invariably manifested itself in the case of particularly difficult conversions. It happened almost daily that Vianey left his confessional and beckoned to those persons who were the most pressed for time or the most unhappy, so that they might be the first to receive his attention. Among his visitors were some who merely came to test his gift.. They left greatly humiliated. One of them confessed grave sins that he had made up. Vianey listened to him quietly, then said: “You indeed have much guilt upon your soul; but the evil that you have actually done does not consist of the sins you have just recounted to me, but of the following ones,” Whereupon Vianey, to the great dismay of the impostor, revealed all of the foul deeds in the latter’s past. Those who could not visit Vianey personally and were obliged to communicate with him by gobetweens or by letter were healed, advised, consoled or reformed by him at a distance. Every hitherto mentioned individual trait in the picture of the spirit forces working in Vianey’s case also appears in kind and in extent, and, it might be added, identically, to the smallest detail, in the case of Blumhardt. It is difficult to say which one of the two, Vianey or Blumhardt, was visited by the greater number of people, who streamed to them in thousands and experienced in their own persons the miraculous workings of their powers. Another manifestation that was shared by both was what might be called a miraculous multiplication of the loaves. With Blumhardt it happened that, owing to the great influx of outsiders who were hospitably received and lodged by his parishioners, a serious food shortage developed. Yet, a special blessing presided over these meals. One family, which did not have enough food on hand for 14 people, managed to give 42 people enough to eat with food left over. In Vianey’s case an even more apparent miracle is reported, which was witnessed by everyone in his parish. He maintained a home for poor children; one day there were no provisions left except a few handfuls of breadfruit in the granary. With a heavy heart he made up his mind to send the children away, but before doing so, he offered one more prayer to God for help. When going back to the storeroom, he found it filled to the top with grain. All of his parishioners likewise climbed up to the granary to see the grain. The event caused a great sensation throughout the entire district. Even the bishop later came and had them show him how high the granary had been filled.

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