The beggar

It is everywhere widespread legend of Jesus disguised as a beggar, knocking at the door of the first comer and chastising or rewarding a guest, depending on whether he was badly or well received by him.

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Jacinto Verdaguer says that in Barbazan, in the Catalonia, a beggar arrived during a stormy night and, going from door to door, sought a lodging to pass the night sheltered from the wind and the rain; everywhere they pushed him away and he began to believe that he would not find a single compassionate soul, when, knocking at the last door of the village, he was received by two brave peasants who made him eat and prepared a good fire for him.

The beggar was none other than Jesus. He destroyed the inhospitable village, respecting the only house where he had received a good welcome. A lake today occupies the place of the village of Barbazan (reminiscent of the sad adventure of Sodom and Gomorrah). We tell in Roussillon a lot of legends Of this genre.

For example, this one.

A poor wretch was going one day through the countryside seeking refuge from the bad weather. He was walking, he was still walking, when he arrived in a village: quite ashamed he knocked at the door of a rich house. The mistress of the house was a wicked housewife; she would have sent the poor man away had it not been for the husband's intervention, who, being more compassionate, made him lie down on a heap of straw, under the stairs, in the kennel.

But the mistress was seized during the night with violent pains in her stomach and we were obliged to go and fetch the best doctor in the village; While she was being attended to, her husband went to inquire about the beggar, brought him to the fire, and told him of his wife's illness. The beggar then kicked three times, saying: "Stomach ache, go into the ground, it is Our Lord who orders it." Immediately the patient was cured.

The host prostrated himself at the feet of the beggar, who was none other than Our Lord in person, and thanked him for this miracle. But Our Lord raised him up and told him that this miracle should teach his wife to have pity on poor people who ask for charity.