"Madame Saint Mary is holding me up by my feet ..."

There once was a thief of great skill and repute. He venerated the Mother of God with such abusive confidence that, whenever he prepared for an expedition, he first placed himself under her protection, then departed with great resolve.

We must say that if he happened to meet, after a fruitful operation, a poor man or an unfortunate woman, for the sake of Our Lady, he hastened to help them by despoiling himself of a portion of his newly-acquired riches.

Eventually, he was caught in the act and sentenced to be hanged. We can imagine that he did not fail at this supreme hour to pray to the one whom he loved so much. And Our Lady, who never abandons her children, heard him. With her white hands under the feet of the wretch, she supported him in such a way that he felt neither pain nor discomfort.

On the third day, those who had hanged him came to see how things were, and could not believe their eyes: At the end of the rope, our thief was alive and well, and he greeted them with these words: "Madame Saint Mary is holding me up by my feet and she has her hand on my throat." He was promptly detached, and on the same day he became a monk, devoting himself to Our Lady.

Gautier de Coincy

Les plus beaux miracles de la Vierge (The most beautiful miracles of the Virgin), F. Lanore Editor, Paris