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rome’s holy child ii
ii
And so it happened that not more than sixty years
ago, this struggle was still in full operation, and
because of the impotency of that period, the monks
fought with greater zeal than ever before.
At that time there came to Rome a wealthy
English lady. She went up to Aracoeli and saw the
image, and it charmed her so, that it seemed to her
she could not live if she could not have it. Again
and again she went to Aracoeli to see the image, and
at last she begged the monk to let her buy it.
But even if she had paved the whole mosaic floor
of the great basilica with gold pieces, the monks
would not have wished to sell her this image, their
only solace.
Nevertheless the English lady was so completely
fascinated with the image, that she found neither
peace nor joy without it. And when she could not
gain her object in any other way, she decided to
steal it. She did not think of the sin she would
have committed, but felt only a great restraint and
a burning thirst and would rather risk her soul than
deny her heart the joy of possessing what she coveted.
And to accomplish her purpose, she first had an
image made exactly like the one at Aracoeli.
The image at Aracoeli is carved of olive-wood from
the garden of Gethsemane, but the English lady
presumed to have an image carved out of elm-wood,
exactly like it. The image at Aracoeli is not painted
by human hand. When the monk who carved it had
taken out brush and paints, he fell asleep over his
work and when he awoke, the image had color. It
had painted itself in token that God loved Him it
represented. But the English lady was bold enough
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