The innocent Frenchman who was framed for theft by a spurned innkeeper’s daughter and was hanged but did not die
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CONTENT INFORMATION
Story Type: Miracle of Mary
Story Theme(s): Fertility & Pregnancy; Conflict & Justice; Theft & Loss; Conflict & Justice; Satan & Sin; Lust & Temptation
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Earliest Attested Instance of the Story: 1434 - 1468
Earliest Manuscripts in which Story Appears: BOr (BL) 650; C-Veroli (BGV) 1; ESP (UH) DD-006; EMML (HMML) 6938; VL-Vatican (BAV) 272
Total Manuscripts in which Story Appears: 87
Total Incipits in the ITool: 33
Incipit(s): ወሀሎ፡ ፩ብእሲ፡ በሀገረ፡ አፍርጊ፡ እምአድያመ፡ አፍራንሳ፡ ዘያፈቅራ፡ ለእግዝእትነ፡ ቅድስት፡ ድንግል፡ ማርያም፡ እምንእሱ፡ ወይትለአካ፡ በኵሉ፡ ኀይሉ፡ ወሶበ፡ በጽሐ፡ አምጣነ፡ አውስቦ፡ አስተዋሰብዎ፡ አበዊሁ፡ ወለተ፡ እምአዋልደ፡ አፍርንጊ። , from EMML (HMML) 6938, f. 23r
ID Numbers: PEMM Theme ID 94; PEMM ID 5; Macomber ID 5; Beta maṣāḥǝft ID LIT5097MiracleFrenchman; Clavis ID CAe 5097; Cantigas ID 175; Poncelet ID 30
Translations & editions of this story
Amharic: Täsfa Gäbrä Śəllase. 1996. From TGS (EOTC) 1988-1996, p. 898.
Amharic: Täsfa Gäbrä Śəllase. 2014. From TGS (EOTC) 2004-2011, p. 813-827.
English: Jeremy Brown & Dawit Muluneh with Wendy Laura Belcher. 2022. From BOr (BL) 650, ff. 28r–35v.
French: Gérard Colin. 2004. From TGS (EOTC) 1988-1996, p. 898.
Italian: Enrico Cerulli. 1943. From C-Veroli (BGV) 1, ff. 13v-15v.
Manuscripts in which story appears:
1400s: BOr (BL) 650, f. 28r
1500s: C-Veroli (BGV) 1, f. 15v; ESP (UH) DD-006, s. 204; VL-Vatican (BAV) 272, f. 223v; EMML (HMML) 6938, ...
1600s: BOr (BL) 636, f. 35v; BOr (BL) 644, f. 25r; EMDA (HMML) 324, s. 222a; EMDA (HMML) 153, s. 27a; EMML ...
1700s: C-Berlin (BS) 1, f. 75v; BOr (BL) 634, f. 169r; EMDA (HMML) 237, s. 28b; d'Abbadie (BNF) 222, f. 46r...
1800s: BOr (BL) 655, f. 27v; EMDA (HMML) 10, s. 103b; EMDA (HMML) 319, s. 49a; EMML (HMML) 22, f. 8r; EMML ...
1900s: EMIP (EMIP) 601, f. 43r; EMIP (EMIP) 2609, f. 14v; EMDA (HMML) 415, s. 52b; EMML (HMML) 701, f. 16r;...
2000s: TGS (EOTC) 2004-2011, s. 181b
This story, with the short title "The Barren French Wife," is very old: the earliest PEMM manuscript* in which this story appears is from around 1451.
It appears in 87 out of 709 PEMM manuscripts (13%).
This story is sometimes illustrated, with a total of 2 painting(s).
It is a post-life miracle: it does not take place during Our Lady Mary's lifetime, but after it.
This story was originally composed in France, Europe (probably).
It is available in the following languages: French, Geʿez, Amharic, Italian, English.
If you think any of the information on this page is incorrect (e.g., the date, manuscripts, translation), please use our PEMM Feedback Form to let us know. We depend on users like you to improve the site.
* A "PEMM manuscript" is defined as any Geʿez Marian manuscript or book that PEMM has catalogued. For more information, see Using the Site.
Summary
A Frenchman and his wife grieved over their childlessness. On a feast day, they went before an icon of Mary and prayed for a child. They fell asleep and dreamt of a woman who said God would give them a son, but he would have to serve at the church of Saint James. The wife soon gave birth to a boy, and when he turned twelve, the family set off for the church of Saint James. They stopped at an inn. The innkeeper’s daughter, influenced by Satan, tried to seduce the youth, but he refused her. Angry, she framed him for stealing a gold chalice and pearls from the inn. He was arrested and executed by hanging. His parents continued to the church of Saint James and prayed there for five days. Then they returned to the tree where their son had been hanged, and they lamented. Their son called out to them, and he explained to his astonished parents how Mary had kept him alive. The people celebrated, but they wanted to execute the innkeeper’s daughter for her falsehoods. When she explained how Satan had influenced her, the youth and his parents begged the bishop to spare her. The bishop made her a nun. He then appointed James a deacon in the church of Saint James, where he served until his death.
Translation
Translated by Jeremy Brown & Dawit Muluneh with Wendy Laura Belcher from BOr (BL) 650, ff. 28r–35v, in 2022.
A man living in Europe in the region of France, loved Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, from his childhood on, and he served her with all his strength. When it came time for him to marry, his parents arranged for him to wed a young woman from among the daughters of the Europeans.
Although he lived with his wife for fifteen years, he did not father any children. Because they lacked children, he and his wife grieved.
On [a Marian] feast day—that of the Building and Consecration of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary’s [first] church [at Philippi], which happens every twenty-first of the month of Sane, [that is, on June 24]—that European man said to his wife, “My beloved sister, look, an idea has come to mind that I want to tell you about. For the holy Gospel says that, ‘a man and a woman are one flesh.’ Also, the Apostle Paul says, ‘Let not a man and a woman be separated from one another by the plan of one without consulting the other.’
And his wife replied, “My lord, what is the idea that God has placed in your mind?”
He responded to her saying, “My sister, you know that, from the day that I slept with you and you became my wife, as God is my sinful soul’s witness, I have not known any woman except for you. Now, today marks the fifteenth year in which we have not given birth to a child—leaving no one to perform our remembrance after our deaths, nor anyone who will inherit our possessions—and because of this we are grieving. Now, look, the feast of Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, draws near. If my plan seems good to you, let’s quickly go to her church, sleep in front of her icon, and trustingly implore her to ask her beloved son to give us a child, one who will make us happy and will inherit our wealth. I believe that her intercession is strong with her beloved son, and he will not reject her petition.”
His good wife said to him, “As God is my witness, my beloved brother, this thought came [to me as well] tonight. And I told myself that I would tell you in the morning. It seems God placed this good plan in our hearts together, when he saw our hearts grieving, to be a comfort [for us].”
So the two of them agreed to this plan. They prepared what they wanted to bring to the church, including candles, incense, and food as gifts for the clergy, as well as anything needed by the poor and destitute. The couple got up [to leave] with a pure heart, in complete love and without any doubt [in Mary], and then traveled to the church, which was far from their home.
When they arrived at the church, the chief deacon welcomed them with love and great joy, giving them a room in which to spend the night.
On the eve of the feast, the couple offered all their gifts to the church, giving them to the steward. After spending the night and rising on the morning of the feast, they asked the custodian to leave them alone in the church so that they might sleep in front of the icon of Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary. He accepted their request and gave them permission to sleep there.
And when everyone else went to their own places to rest, the two of them stayed in front of the icon of Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary.
There, they wept with burning hearts, saying, “Dear holy Mother of God, Mary, hope of all the poor, joy of all the sorrowful! We ask you to see our grief and our tears and to ask your beloved son to grant us good fruit, which will cause our hearts to rejoice. A girl or a boy, [either one]. [WLB: or, a girl and a boy? “They” in next sentence] And that child will perform our remembrance after we depart from this world and will inherit our wealth. Look, the covenant of God is upon us, from this day forward until the time of our deaths. We will perform your remembrance on the twenty-first of every month, as long as we have strength.”
When they had completed their prayer and their petition, they slept a little. While they slept, they saw in their dream a very luminous woman.
She said to them, “God has received your request through my petitioning on your behalf. So, God will give you a male child. But, if he gives you [a child], consecrate him as a consecration to serve at the church of the Saint James, the son of Zebedee. When your son arrives at adulthood, let him serve the church until the day of his death. This is what my son has ordered.”
When they woke up, the husband and his wife told one another their dreams, feeling overjoyed. Afterward, they partook in the Holy Mystery [of Communion], finished celebrating the feast, and returned to their home peacefully.
On the eighth day [after the feast], the wife conceived. And, when the days of her pregnancy were finished, she gave birth to a boy.
When she consulted with her husband about what they should name him, he replied, “He will be named after James, the son of Zebedee, the brother of John the Evangelist.” And they named him thus.
When the child grew up and was twelve years old, his mother recalled the vision [they had had] and said to her husband, “Look, your son has grown up and reached manhood. He is now twelve years old. Yet, regarding him, we have not completed the consecration that Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, demanded of us in the vision. Let’s get up and take him to the church of Saint James, the son of Zebedee, so that God and his mother the Holy Virgin Mary won’t be angry with us.”
He replied, “All right.”
So, they traveled to the church of Saint James, the son of Zebedee, taking many gifts and [their son] James with them. By the way, that church was about a three-days’ journey for them.
While they were traveling on the road, night fell upon them. But, they found an inn right there, a resting place for pilgrims, and they [went to] spend the night in it.
When they entered, the innkeeper happily received them, but when the innkeeper’s daughter saw them and their son, Satan placed a love for that son in her heart because he was extremely handsome.
So, the innkeeper’s daughter approached them, bringing each of them lots of drinks and food. Then, after they had eaten and drunk, they fell asleep due to their arduous travel.
While the innkeeper and all the people of his house slept, the innkeeper’s daughter approached that pure, virgin young man and woke him up from his sleep.
She asked him for something, that which ought not to be said, just as her father Satan had taught her.
But that young man said to her, “My dear sister, as God lives, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He added, “If you don’t go back to sleep near your father and mother, I will call out. Then, the people [here] will hear and you will be shamed.”
When she heard this from him, she was upset and enraged but didn’t say a single thing to him. Rather, she withdrew to her father and mother while gnashing her teeth.
Then that young man slept. Meanwhile, he had a sack with the clothes he would wear in it.
When he went out [the next day], she saw him near the [local] church. For a second time, Satan advised her and sowed an evil idea in her heart. So, she [went to his room and] opened the youth’s sack, placing among his clothes a gold chalice adorned with pearls and precious jacinth, of tremendous value. That young man had no idea she had done this.
When the next day came, the husband, wife, and son got up and went on their way.
When they had gone a little distance, about three units away, the innkeeper’s daughter said to her father, “My dear father, the gold chalice with pearls on it isn’t in its place. Truthfully, yesterday I gave those pilgrims a drink of wine in that gold chalice.”
He replied, “My dear daughter, they were rich people, they wouldn’t steal anything.”
She said to him, “Regarding his father and mother, they wouldn’t do this. But as for their son, he was an obstinate and ignorant young man. He would do something even worse than this.”
When the innkeeper heard his daughter’s account, he got up and went to pursue the young man and his parents.
But the innkeeper’s daughter [first] said to him, “I will go with you, because if you find them on the road with that pearl-encrusted gold chalice and you are alone, you won’t be able to arrest him. But if you find it on him, I will remain there, and you can go to the city administrator and get soldiers who will arrest him.”
When he heard her idea, he agreed, so he took her with him and they traveled together until they came upon the young man and his parents.
The innkeeper then said to them, “The golden chalice that was with us [last] night and from which you drank wine has not been found. Look [to see] if you have it.”
They replied, “As God lives, we have never stolen anything in all our days! For God has not deprived us of worldly wealth!”
But that daughter of Satan drew near to them, boldly and disingenuously. She opened the youth’s sack while they were watching and pulled out the golden chalice.
When they saw this, the parents were shaken and deeply shamed.
They said to their son, “Our dear son. How dare you do this thing?!”
He replied, “God knows that I didn’t do this or anything like it!”
Although the innkeeper wanted to send them on their way [without arresting them, since they had recovered the chalice,] that daughter of Satan went to the city administrator, bringing soldiers to [arrest] the son.
When they arrived there, the administrator condemned their son to death by strangulation, according to the custom of their city regarding thieves.
His father and mother despaired over this sentence.
The administrator’s soldiers took their innocent son from them and hanged him on a tree to strangle him.
As for his parents, they were so distraught that they couldn’t [bring themselves to] look at him. Rather, they turned away, weeping and declaring, “Dear Merciful Intercessor, Mother of Life, it would have been better for us if you had never granted our petition for a son rather than have our son strangled. Where is your word that you spoke to us that our son would be a servant in the church of Saint James?” With their heads buried in sorrow, they turned away [and left].
[After a little while,] the wife said to her husband, “[Let’s] turn back and go to the place where they strangled [hanged] our son. If we find his body [still] hanging there, we will give money to the city administrator and ask him to give us our son’s corpse so that we may bury him.”
They [prayed and] said, “Where is your power and wonders, dear holy Mother of God, merciful intercessor, Mary? Where is your assistance, oh, Saint James?”
The wife told her husband, “Don’t lose hope in God. But let’s go to his church first. This child was not [meant] for us, but for God and his mother the Holy Virgin, consecrated to Saint James. Whether God wants to keep him alive or kill him, he is God! And we must not cease visiting the church of Saint James so that Satan will not ridicule us.”
When he heard what she said, the husband went to the church of Saint James and threw himself on the ground before the icon of the Virgin and the portrait of Saint James. He and his wife stayed there weeping bitterly for five days.
After that, they [left and] arrived [at the execution grounds/hanging tree]. They found their son [still] hanging on that tree [even though it had been] five days [and he was dead].
Immediately, they cried out, weeping and grieving bitterly while striking their faces and beating their chests. His father pulled out [the hair of] his beard and his mother did likewise with the hair on her head.
They threw themselves on the ground, on their faces, while saying, [wailing, lamenting,] “Woe upon us! [How miserable we are! We're in big trouble! Help! It’s too late] our dear son! Woe upon us, light of our eyes! Woe upon us, dear lamp of our hearts! Why didn’t this hanging happen to your father, who got you born through numerous petitions, requests, and supplications to God, by petitioning the Lady of all of us, the Holy Virgin Mary? It’s better for your father to die than to live than to see you hanging on a tree like a thief or a robber. And [die] not due to natural causes of death. It’s better for your father to be eaten by a lion, swallowed by a crocodile, or [stamped on by] the feet of an elephant, dislodging his intestines, than to see you hanging on a tree and being strangled like a robber or a thief.”
His mother added, weeping and wailing, “Woe is me, woe is me, my dear son! Woe is me, the dear light of my eyes! Woe is me, the joy of my heart! Woe to the breasts that have nursed you, woe to the knees that have dandled you! It would be better for your mother to die than to live. [It would be better] for them to cut off pieces of my flesh, slice by slice, and give my body to the dogs, than to see you hanged and strangled on a tree like this.”
They voiced these laments and [many] others like it.
Suddenly, while the son was hanging on the tree, he cried out.
He said to them, “You of little faith, why are you wailing and mourning like this? Why are you doubting? Haven’t you heard what the prophet David said, ‘God is a wonder among his holy ones’? Or that he said, ‘God will not deprive those who walk in innocence from his blessings’? I am James, your son. I’m telling you that, at that time when they hanged me upon the tree and strangled me, Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, appeared to me in the likeness of a luminous lady, clothed in a marvelous linen of light. And there was an old man with her, [the Apostle James,] who told me, ‘Dear James, my namesake, don’t be afraid!’ For five days, the Virgin brought food to me every day. And she spoke with me, and she said to me, ‘Today your father and mother will come to you. And other people will see the miracle of God.’”
When his parents heard this account, they immediately went, rejoicing, to the city’s administrator. They told him, “Our son lives! Get up and come with us so that you can bring him down.”
When the administrator heard this report from them, he announced [to those there], “These people don’t know anything—their son has been hanging, strangled, for five days.”
But the parents insisted, in front of a large assembly, “He’s alive!”
In front of the administrator, for his lunch, was a boiled chicken. The administrator declared, “When this [dead] chicken gets up, then [I will believe] your son is also alive.”
Immediately, the chicken stretched out its wings, awoke, and stood up from the plate, declaring, “God is a wonder among his holy ones.”
When the administrator and all the people there saw this, they marveled in amazement. So, they said to his father and mother, “Tell us the story of your son.”
The parents said, “Bring him down first! And then we’ll tell you everything that has happened.”
So the administrator arose with joy, along with all the people of the city, men and women, and they went to the hanging tree. They found James alive and brought him down with great joy.
When the innkeeper’s daughter heard the roar of the crowd, and their shouting, she approached the administrator, in front of all the people, and told them the whole [true] story before they asked her. Because of what she had done to James with her false account, they condemned her to hang.
Then they asked his father to tell the story of his son[‘s life], and he told them everything that had happened, from before his birth until that very day.
They marveled in astonishment, saying, “Truly, this young man is consecrated to God and to his mother, the Virgin.” They gave many thanks to Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary.
However, when they wanted to hang the innkeeper’s daughter, the people said they shouldn’t do this without the counsel of the bishop.
So, they went together to the bishop, telling him everything that had happened. He praised God greatly.
Then he questioned and interrogated the innkeeper’s daughter. She related every detail accurately to him, from the beginning to the end, about how Satan had guided her to love the handsome young man, James. She told him, “My dear father, I will bear witness to God if, at this time, you pardon me from this [death] sentence by hanging. I will [vow to] never be married to any man. My dear father, benefit my soul and deliver me from death and eternal Sheol.”
When the young man and his parents heard her report, they prostrated themselves in front of the bishop and asked him to show the innkeeper’s daughter mercy for God’s sake. They said to the bishop, “Perhaps this has come to pass by the will of God in order to reveal a marvelous and mighty miracle by means of his mother’s intercession and his pure disciples’ petition.”
Immediately [the bishop agreed, and] he shaved her head, clothed her in nun’s clothes, gave her a severe penance, and sent her to the church of Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, where she remained serving until the day of her death.
Then, three days before the innkeeper’s daughter’s death, Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, appeared to her. She told Mary to petition her son [Christ] on her behalf, to accept her repentance, for three days, until she would depart from this world.
Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, told the innkeeper’s daughter that she had petitioned her son on her behalf and that he had accepted her repentance. [She also told her that] three days from now she would depart this world.
Then the innkeeper’s daughter told the bishop [about Mary’s message], and he released her from her penance.
After three days, the innkeeper’s daughter died, just as Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, had told her.
May the blessings of her prayers be with our King Zara Yaqob forever and ever, amen.
[Meanwhile,] the bishop had taken the pure James and led him, along with his parents, to the church of Saint James the Apostle, son of Zebedee. And the bishop appointed James as a deacon and gave him over [for training] to a teacher in the church.
When James had done many righteous deeds, the bishop appointed him as a priest in that [very] church. And he remained serving that church until the day of his death.
Have you seen, my dear beloved brothers, how James placed his trust in God and loved Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, with his whole heart? And how James protected himself with purity, just as God [protected,] saved, and rescued him from falling into the hands of his enemy, a Sataness?
May God view us, and also you [the listener], as his obedient followers and the guardians of his commandments. May he make us pure in spirit and flesh by way of the intercession of the Lady of all of us, the Holy Virgin Mary, and by the prayer of Saint James, son of Zebedee.
May her prayer and intercession be with our King Zara Yaqob forever and ever, amen.
TO CITE THIS TRANSLATION
Jeremy Brown & Dawit Muluneh with Wendy Laura Belcher, trans. "ID 5: The innocent Frenchman who was framed for theft by a spurned innkeeper’s daughter and was hanged but did not die." From BOr (BL) 650, ff. 28r–35v. Täˀammərä Maryam (Miracle of Mary) Stories, edited by Wendy Laura Belcher, Jeremy Brown, Mehari Worku, and Dawit Muluneh. Princeton: Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary project. https://pemm.princeton.edu/stories/5.
This story, with the short title "The Barren French Wife," is very old: the earliest PEMM manuscript* in which this story appears is from around 1451.
It appears in 87 out of 709 PEMM manuscripts (13%).
This story is sometimes illustrated, with a total of 2 painting(s).
It is a post-life miracle: it does not take place during Our Lady Mary's lifetime, but after it.
This story was originally composed in France, Europe (probably).
It is available in the following languages: French, Geʿez, Amharic, Italian, English.
If you think any of the information on this page is incorrect (e.g., the date, manuscripts, translation), please use our PEMM Feedback Form to let us know. We depend on users like you to improve the site.
* A "PEMM manuscript" is defined as any Geʿez Marian manuscript or book that PEMM has catalogued. For more information, see Using the Site.