The Child Saint

Once there was a child who was different from other children. She

was very quiet and patient, and never spoke unless she was spoken

to. Her mother used to urge her to play in the streets with the other

children, but she always preferred to sit in the corner quietly and

without trouble to any one. When the time came for the child to enter

school, she begged her mother to get her a book of doctrines and let

her learn at home. So her mother got a book of doctrines for her,

and she was able to read at once without being taught. Day after day

she sat in the corner reading her books and meditating.

When she became a little larger she asked to have a little room built

away from the house, where she might remain free from the intrusion

of any earthly thought.

Her mother had this done, and there in the tight little room with no

one to see her she sat. She never tasted the food or drink placed at

her door, and finally her mother, becoming alarmed, made a tiny hole

and peeped through the wall. There sat the child reading her book,

with a huge man standing beside her, and all manner of beasts and

serpents filling the little room.

More frightened than ever, the mother ran to the priest, who told

her that those were devils tempting the child, but not to fear, for

she would certainly become a saint. And it was so, for afterwards the

evil shapes were gone. Then the priest and the people built a costly

shrine and placed her in it, and there the people used to go and ask

her to intercede for them. But at last the shrine was found empty,

and surely she was taken alive into heaven and is now a saint.