[Penguin Island by Anatole France]@TWC D-Link bookPenguin Island BOOK III 11/63
The Church took measures so that these graces should not remain reserved for a few children, but should be diffused throughout all Penguin Christianity.
Monks took up their quarters in the grotto, they built a monastery, a chapel, and a hostelry on the coast, and pilgrims began to flock thither. As if strengthened by a longer sojourn in heaven, the blessed Orberosia now performed still greater miracles for those who came to lay their offerings on her tomb.
She gave hopes to women who had been hitherto barren, she sent dreams to reassure jealous old men concerning the fidelity of the young wives whom they had suspected without cause, and she protected the country from plagues, murrains, famines, tempests, and dragons of Cappadocia. But during the troubles that desolated the kingdom in the time of King Collic and his successors, the tomb of St.Orberosia was plundered of its wealth, the monastery burned down, and the monks dispersed.
The road that had been so long trodden by devout pilgrims was overgrown with furze and heather, and the blue thistles of the sands.
For a hundred years the miraculous tomb had been visited by none save vipers, weasels, and bats, when, one day the saint appeared to a peasant of the neighbourhood, Momordic by name. "I am the virgin Orberosia," said she to him; "I have chosen thee to restore my sanctuary.
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