The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1883-07-28 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

JOAN GAM, THE HERMIT OF MONSERRAT. Joan Geri was a hermit of Monserritt in the ninteenth century, who had a great repute for sanctity and purity and devotion to Santa Cecilia. Naturally, Joan Geri prided himself upon his sanctity, and God determined to put it to proof. There reigned at that time at Barcelona Count Wilfredo el Yellow, the father of a beautiful and charming daughter, who, for the secret purposes of the Divine will, was afflicted with a malign spirit, which, it was de. dared, would not depart out of her and leave her in health except at the mandate of Joan Geri. And it was necessary that the maiden should seek the holy man alone in the moura tam n where he abode. Count Wilfredo, moved by his affection, and against all the dictates cf prudence, consented to this pilgrimage of his blooming daughter. She departed to the moun. tan), and never returned. Many years elapsed before her fate was known to the count. The hermit had received her, dishonoured her, murdered her to conceal his crime, and buried her body in a crevite in the rocks. Overcome at last by remorse, Joan Geri threw himself at the feet of the image of the Virgin, and begged her pity and help. In order to get an indulgence for his sins he made a journey to Rome, and the Pope absolved him on condition that he should expiate his crime by becoming a beast like Nebuchadnezzar, and roaming about on all fours. This Geri did faithfully for six years, crawling about the rocks on his hands and knees, exposed to the ele. ,ments, foraging for his food like an animal in the thickets, until he became a hairy, un. mentionable monster of the forest. One day in the year 894 Count Wilfredo, with a troop of attendants, went forth to bunt in the wilds of Monserrat. Hhs companions, beating about in the wilderness, routed out a nondescript monster, who permitted himself to be taken alive into the presence of Count Wilfredo. The count was much amused with this capture, and determined to take him as a trophy to Barcelona, whither Geri was nothing loath to go, as he was determined to suffer in silence all the punishment that God and the count might inflict. He was taken to Barcelona, and exhibited as a real monster of the forest. And there God at last saw and accepted the penitence of Geri. One day, when the count had a great feast, he ordered the monster to be brought into the banquet hall, in order to entertain his guests with the uncouth curiosity. But lo I while they made merry over him at the feast, God spoke out of the heavens, and said, "Arise, Joan Geri j God has pardoned thy sins." All beard the voice, but could hardly believe what they heard. But Geri, emboldened by the heavenly aid, arose and stood upright, and prostrating himself at the feet of the count, confessed all. And Count Wilfredo, who declared that it did not become him to withhold a forgiveness that God had granted, pardoned him on condition that he should lead them to the grave of the murdered girl. This Geri did, and when they stood by the grave of his victim, lo ! grace succeeded grace. Requilda awoke from her long and tranquil sleep in the arms of Mary the Mother of God, and rose up radiant, and kissed her wondering father. Like a true woman as she was, her first petition to her father was that be should forgive her destroyer, and the next was ' that she should be allowed to consecrate herself to the service of the Holy Virgin, at this very shrine, in the shadow of which she had been dishonoured, murdered, buried, and resurrected after a sleep of seven years. So Requilds became a nun, and Joan Gari crawled, I suppose, into his hole, where he ended a life which diffuses a sanctity over all this region. Whether he is, as I have read, the most beautiful exemplar of all the virtues, the reader must judge. It seems to me that he missed some of them. What they were his image is perhaps intended to represent him as enquiring, in his phrenological attitude of studying his own skull.—Atlantic Monthly.