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A man and his wife, who lived in Rome, swore vows of chastity. The man was tempted to break his vow and, despite his wife’s remonstrations, he slept with her on the night before Easter.
The woman vowed to give the devil any offspring she conceived. She gave birth to a beautiful son, and when he was twelve years old, the devil came to claim him. The devil appeared to the woman, threatening to return in fifteen days to take the boy away for good.
In despair, the woman advised her son to visit the pope. The boy visited Pope Clement in Paris who sent him, in turn, to Syria to see the holy patriarch.
The boy crossed the sea and landed in Armenia. He delivered a letter to the patriarch and told him his problem. The patriarch sent him to a hermit who lived on the Montaña Negra. The hermit did not eat earthly food, but was given heavenly sustenance.
The boy found the hermitage and saw the hermit in his cell. An angel was giving him two loaves of bread. The hermit, hearing the boy’s story, advised him to pray to the Virgin and told him that he would say mass for him the following morning.
At dawn, when the hermit was saying the Easter mass, devils came and carried the boy away. The Virgin intercepted them, driving them away and returning the boy safely to the hermit. The hermit was very sad that the devils had seized the boy, but when he had finished the mass and had uttered the words “Pax vobiscum,” he heard the boy reply “amen.” The hermit assured the boy that he was now entirely free of the devil.
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