1.2 About the priest who unworthily celebrated the divine mysteries

Similarly, there was in German lands a priest who seemed to live the religious life and who celebrated the holy mysteries almost every day. However, since he lacked vigilance for himself, he succumbed to the snares of the Ancient Enemy and let himself be captured in the trap so shameful –but hidden – of the sins of the flesh. He often visited a nun, always without any motivation but to render her solace until one day, entrapped by the frequency of their visits and an imprudent familiarity, together they took a lamentable fall. Since, after his transgression he had to return to his home and lift himself up later, he delighted in the mire and delayed for a long time his return to a religious way of life. Adding new sins to past ones, he made a habit of sin and by his repeated sin, he wove the long rope which bound himself all the more tightly. While he wallowed in the mud of his failures, he did not hesitate, however, to approach the alter of Our Lord without reverence and to profane thereby the sacraments of our salvation by frequently celebrating mass. For quite some time he lost completely all fear of God and did not dread act in this fashion, but in a most extraordinary way, did he see himself to then experience the anger and mercy of God, as will be manifest from the tale which follows.

Indeed, since he did not forsake his crime and continued to touch sacred things which impure hands, it happened one day that, after having celebrated the mass as usual, just at the moment of receiving the holy body of Christ, when he was just at the moment of taking hold of the sacraments themselves, suddenly both the body and the blood of Christ, unable to endure any longer so soiled a vessel, disappeared from his hands as he tried to take hold of them. Surprised and afraid, he left the alter as soon as the mass ended. In view of so obvious a sign, he recognized the indignation of the Lord had been raised against him.

Despite everything, wishing to have a pure heart, he recommenced the mass. As soon as he got to the point in the mass that he had reached the last time, everything disappeared from his sight exactly as had happened last time at the exact moment of grasping the sacraments. Again plunged into great anxiety and an easily understandable dread, but in order to be certain without any doubt of the miracle which had already been repeated, he did not fear a third attempt of what had twice previously happened.

Having begun everything again and as he observed more carefully <the holy elements> which were before his eyes, touched them with his hands, and reached out to take them in his mouth and –poof– they immediately disappeared – removed a third time from his eyes, from his hands and his mouth. At last terrified by so evident a miracle the priest, and understanding without any further doubt that he acted very badly and an incurred the formidable wrath of the Lord, he changed his heart and filled with dread, he began to think about how he might avoid from so fearful a fate.

Knowing that penitence was the ultimate remedy of sinners, he sought refuge with all his heart. Travelling to find his bishop, he revealed to him with a great profusion of tears about all that he had done and all the was coming on account of it. Then he applied all the strength of his soul (with as much devotion as perseverance) to the labour of penitence that his bishop had imposed on him. Making atonement through the blows and various torments of the young and the old inflicted on him, that is, on the body in accordance with the Apostle (Cf. 1 Cor. 9: 26-27) the lascivious brute, who had been made into a reprobate by following his base desires, worked hard to condemn them within himself so that he might number among the elect.

After having passed a long time in this contrition of body and heart, and as his conscience led his soul to believe the possibility of forgiveness with great confidence, he went to find his bishop. Explaining to him what he had done, he asked from him if he might attempt to approach again the Holy Mysteries as he had been accustomed to do in the past. The bishop, fearing that he was not fully reconciled with God and to ensure that he continued to apply himself to penance, he urged the priest to continue to offer to God the worthy fruits of penance (Matthew 7:19; Luke 3: 9) so that finally, at peace and completely purified, it might at a suitable time receive the sacraments of the alter not for his damnation, but instead for his eternal salvation. The priest agreed to this salvatory exhortation, returned to his penitential regime with all the strength of his body and soul, and knocked at the door of divine mercy and through a contrite soul(Ps. 50: 19) and unending tears, made the anger of the Lord to be turned into mercy.

What more can I say? After a new and long period of time spent in this penitence, he returned to his bishop and revealed to him in secret everything, as if he was a father, and humbly begged him to judge whether he was worthy to participate in the sacraments. By the sound and sight of him, the bishop, convinced that his conversion was already accepted by God, permitted him to take up the sacerdotal ministry. Trusting in the goodness of God and in the witness of his conscience, the priest for his part endeavoured to do things no longer with presumption but through devotion. He approached therefore the altar and made an offering to God with tears and contrition of the heart, and completed all parts of this rite and continued right up to the moment of taking the sacrament.

Indeed, this was the new and unheard of miracle, at least for our times, that the bread of the three preceding masses which were removed from he who had wished to unworthily take hold of them, were sent through the air and appeared on the altar, placed before him who was now worthy in the judgement of God to receive them. As it lifted his gaze also towards the chalice, it appeared that it was filled with the <precious> blood up to the brim and that the thing which had been taken away in the previous masses were brought to him <miraculously>. Marvelling at this, it rendered thanks to God with the complete praise of the interior man, noting that his penance had been accepted and that the majesty of God had been appeased, he finally had certainty of the mercy of the Lord. And he who had not carried more than communion bread to four, or more so to the unique body and blood of Christ with the great exultation what suited it. It was the aforesaid bishop of Clermont who told me these tidings in the presence of several people.