1.1 A miraculous arrival in the county of Auvergne

There was in Auvergne a peasant tending beehives whose bee colonies produced the softest (sweetest?) honeycombs. Fearing to see them fly off, die, or wither away for some reason, he sought the advice of some corrupt sorcerers. By their devilish acts, those fellows were accustomed to make use of even the gifts of God in their evil spells and –as we fear to say– would abuse the divine sacraments themselves by their magical arts. This peasant thus went to church and took the body of Our Lord into his mouth –after he had received it from the priest in accordance with Christian custom– but did not swallow it, as should happen. Returning to his beehives, he put his mouth against a hole he found on it and began to blow. It had been told to him that if he breathed on the bees with the hive with the body of our Lord still in his mouth, in the future, no bee would ever die, flee or fall ill, but rather all would stay whole and he would be able to bring in a much greater profit than he could before.

So he did it just as we described: pressing his mouth against the hole, breathing out with all his strength into the hive. So focussed on greed, he mistakenly exhaled with such force that the body of Our Lord, projected both by the tongue and air, feel to the earth next to the beehive. It was at that moment, before the eyes of that man, that a multitude of bees, rushing out of their refuge, hastened reverently towards the body of Our Lord and raising it from the earth, as rational creatures would do, brought it into their own home with great veneration. The peasant –either neglectful or ashamed of what had happened, he went off to do other jobs, that is, domestic tasks. While he was still on the way to finish his errands, he was seized by a sudden insurportable fear – as he himself later recounted – and as he began to think more rationally, he understoof that he had acted badly.

Filled with contrition, feeling better, and pushed by an interior force, it retraced his steps and to expiate his sin, he went to destroy those very bees which he had wanted to save by his impious act, by dousing them in a deluge of water. Having drowned them, he looked into the interior of the beehives to remove them but save the honey. And there –a miracle!– he saw the body of our Lord fallen from his mouth now transformed into a very beautiful child, a new born, as it were, lying between the honeycombs. Upon seeing such a miracle who would not be struck by this? He trembled in amazement. After having hesitated for some time about what he ought to do, the idea came to him to take the baby in his hands and carry him to the church; since he seemed dead, the peasant buried the body of the little Infant-God on his own, without anyone knowing. Setting himself to work, he took the child in his hands and brought himself to the church to secretly inter the child when, suddenly, he disappeared, invisibly ripped from the unworthy hands what were carrying him.

These deeds, quite recent, the peasant told himself and in this order – first to the parish priest, the parish priest, in turn, told the bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, and this last man told me, and lastly myself, I have taken pains to transmit by writing to those who will read me. The punishment of such a transgression should not be elsewhere completely diferent in the future, but in a short time [after these events] the densely populated region returned to the sate of “desert” – its inhabitants spread out for many different reasons.