WHAT CAME OF A NOVENA TO ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 27, 24 October 1884, Page 22

WHAT CAME OF A NOVENA TO ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA.

In the ancient city of Quebec, an important lawsuit had been eoine ?JU°/ a*ulon^a *u lon^ pc^ iod ; of years> The title t0 an extensive grant of land for the French Crown was disputed by a ligtigant who bore the same name as the rightful owner, foe family" in possession of thl disputed property, had, by that fact, the best side of the cause • but tuey were becoming poorer every year on account of the cost of defending their rights. The suit might bs eettled at once, if the original document conferring the grant could be produced The defendant, firmly persuaded that it existed, although he had never seen it, went to a priest and asked to have a novena of Masses celebrated for this intention. " Certainly," said the priest ; « and if you like I will say them in nonor of St. Anthony, and you and yours will in the meantime fervently invoke this graat Saint that the lost deeds be found." This was done, for the case was soon to be again called in court and the family were in great anxiety. On the last day of the novena, a fire broke out mysteriously in the house of the pious clients of St. Anthony, and for a time they seemed to be threatened with the loss of their home and its contents Bat, providentially, the flames were so promptly arrested that only one apartment of the house, and its furniture, was materially damaged. In this room, of late years nocmuch used, stood a very old-fashioned secretary. It had been brought from France in the early fames, and had been the property of grandfather after grand. father ; the moderns, however, looked upon it only as an hierloom and grudgingly gave it house-room. This secretary had one side badly scorched, and when steps were taken to have the burned portion of the house restored, it was decided that the old secretary should be sent to a cabinet-maker, to be remodeled and repaired When the workman came to remove the numerous partitions and' secret drawers he found one most ingeniously contrived, containing some old documents in French, but written so differently from any he had ever seen that he could not even decipher the label pasted on the outside. Thereupon he took them to his employer who thinking they might possibly be of some value, concluded to show lhem to the owner of the secretary without delay It happened that the gentleman soon passed by the work- shoD and he was accordingly invited in to examine the papers! Judge of the gentleman s surpiise when on opening and reading the documents he came across the very title-deeds that secured to bun and his an m ontestable claim to a vast land inheritance I — Are Man a.