Omniana/Volume 1/Miraculous Combustion of wood without ashes, and oil without smoke

by Robert Southey

137. Miraculous combustion of wood without ashes, and oil without smoke.

There was in Kildare an ancient monument named the fire-house, wherein Cambrensis saith, was there continual fire kept day and night, and yet the ashes never increased. I travelled, says Stanihurst, of set purpose, to the town of Kildare to see this place, where I did see a monument like a vault, which to this day they call the fire house. (Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. 6, p. 38. Edit. 1808.)

The secret of this miracle had been lost at Kildare, but had Stanihurst (to use one of his own words) pilgrimaged to the monastery of N.  Señora de Valvanera, among the mountains of Rioja, he might have seen it in constant representation. "In many places, (says Fr. Antonio de Yepes,) the Lord works miracles annually upon a particular day; but that by which this convent is distinguished, is permanent and continual, and may be seen every month and every week, upon all days and at all hours: it is a visible and palpable miracle, seen, and as it were handled by all who chuse to witness it. For there is in this convent a kitchen, called the holy, which serves for all the travellers and guests who come there, and for all the poor who are fed there, and for all the servants of the house, so that it is never without fire, neither day nor night, and sometimes in such quantity, (being very capacious,) that many loads, and even cart-loads of wood are consumed there in a day; yet with all this consumption of fuel, there is never more ashes made than will suffice to cover the hearth. There are several other kitchens in the convent where the same wood is burnt, though not in the same quantity, and there the servants are obliged to clear away the ashes lest they choak the hearth, whereas none whatever are at any time removed from the holy kitchen. And what is more wonderful, and yet may also be experimented every day is, that if any of the ashes from the holy kitchen are taken for any ordinary uses, such as to make a lye for washing, or to scour a candlestick or to clean plate, it not only is of no use for such purposes, but stains, spots, and spoils whatever it is applied to, as if God had chosen that which he has set apart, and ordained for the signification of some great mystery, should be of no other use, neither serve for any other purpose. Concerning this miracle, which is so notorious and so well ascertained in the country of Rioja, I made particular enquiry (says Yepes) at different times, when I have been in the convent, both of the monks and of the^[1] Donados, and of the servants who assist in the kitchen, and they certified me of its truth. It is related that the Catholic Queen, D. Isabel, of glorious memory, had the patience to remain a long time in the holy kitchen, and ordered many cart-loads of wood to be brought there, and laid on the fire, and when all was consumed, she could not perceive more ashes than when she first came in, so that she was convinced by her own eyes that that which she had been told was a most certain truth. Many persons have made the same experiment as the Queen, and at this time frequently make it: but it is needless to fatigue myself in citing witnesses, for all the neighbouring villages are witnesses of this miracle, and so also are the natives of Logrono and Nagara, and St. Domingo, and a number of persons who come to the Convent in pilgrimage from Rioja, Buraba, Navarre, Castille, and many other parts. And in a matter which can so easily be seen and brought to the proof, I would not venture to stake my credit (which I shall stand in need of to its full extent for the great history before me) if it were not a thing absolutely certain, notorious, and repeatedly tried and proved."

Cor. Gen. de S. Benito, T. 1. ff. 287.

The tradition of the country was that St. Athanasius, during the time of his persecution, hid himself in a chapel or hermitage here, and in his humility served as cook to the anchorites and the poor. But as it would have taken up much time and labour to carry away the ashes, God was pleased to invent this miracle for the sake of lessening his trouble, and giving him more leisure for prayer. Upon the faith of this tradition the convent made a festival of the saint's day, when Yepes wrote, and both the custom and the miracle may very possibly have continued till this dreadful convulsion, which, dreadful as it is, has already added more glory to the Spaniards, than the most splendid of all their ancient triumphs. It would be curious to know in what manner the miracle was performed, for mere slight-of-hand, or ordinary deception, will not account for it. It is the more remarkable because at Zaragoza the Jeronimites had the secret of making oil burn without producing smoke; a fact which the Bollandists, in some gnat-straining humour, affected candidly to doubt while they related it, but which Bourgoing witnessed in our own days. This writer was puzzled by it, but instead of attempting to explain it, he contents himself with a sneer at the supposition that God, who had performed no miracle to terminate the French revolution, should condescend to work one in an underground chapel at Zaragoza, where it was as useless as the existence of the monks who exhibited it. An esprit fort may be a very weak reasoner. The fact is exceedingly curious. Thirty lamps burnt day and night in the subterranean chapel of St. Engracia where the roof was little more than twelve feet high; the roof was never in the slightest degree sullied with smoke, and M. Bourgoing, who was invited to hold a piece of white paper over one of the lamps, confessed he saw, or thought he saw, that the paper was not blackened.

1. A donada is a religioner not of the order of the Convent, but who has devoted himself to its service;.. a sort of servitor for life.