Christ Legends

he vine-dresser and his wife stood in the doorway and saw the sun set in the distant west. The slave turned out of the path, an

the slave. "She begs that with this money you will purchase a vineyard of your ow

hed for her in cleft and morass. When she did not come back to us,

I would not believe that she was dead? Did I not

ere right, not only because Faustina has become rich enough to he

not permit. "You must stop with us until morning," said they. "We can not let you go before you have told us all that has

em into the hut, and during the evening meal he told the

d the woman sat motionless-dumb with amazement. Their gaze was fixed o

said to his wife: "Don't you

rd sent us across the sea to this lonely hut. Surely this

n these words, the vine-dress

vineyard laborer from the Sabine mountains greets you. You have seen the young woman, my wife. Did she not appear fair to

se, but the vine-dresser continued

such that the lepers are driven from the cities and towns, and must live in tombs and mountain grottoes. Tell Faustina that my wife was born of disease

t Faustina will believe this? She has seen your wife in her beauty an

t I am not without witnesses. She can send inquiries over to Na

cle of some god that your wife

He is filled with the power of God's spirit, and he can cure your illness just by laying his hand upon your forehead!' But the sick, who lay in their misery, would not

toward him. But before they met, she called out to him: 'Come not near me, for I am unclean, but tell me where I can find the Prophet from Nazareth!' But the man continued to walk towards her, and when he stood directly in front of her, he said: 'Why seekest thou the Prophet of Nazareth?'-'I seek him that he may lay his hand on my fore

l me where I can find the Prophet of Nazareth!' 'What do you want of the Prophet?' asked the man, riding slowly toward her. 'I wish only that he might lay his hand on my forehead and heal me of my illness.' The man rode still nearer. 'Of what illness do you wish to be healed?' said he. 'Surely you need no physician!' 'Can't you see that I am a le

s as resonant as the spring brook's when it ripples over peb

d so, and saw a face smooth and soft as a newly-formed butterfly wing. 'What is this that I see?' she said. 'This is not my face!' 'Yes, it is your face,' said the ride

'Do you know who that man is just disap

man. Then she clasped her hands in astonishment, and tears filled her eyes. 'Oh,

. They questioned her carefully; but when they heard that the maiden was born in the wilderness of diseased parents, they would not believe that she was healed. 'Go back thith

well, for the Prophet from Nazareth

to make clean the unclean? All this is but a delusion of the evil spirits

to remain in the city. They decreed that each and every

turned to the man who had found her in the field: 'Whither shal

ions shall you go out to the lepers in their mountain caves, but we two shall travel ac

ll any more," said he. "Stand up rather and follow me on the way, you who know the mountains, so that I can begin my h

the slave, and come home again to th

l meet: he who loves all mankind, and he who hates them. Such