A simple statement of the
growth of these may throw some light on the evolution of
miraculous accounts generally. At first it was affirmed that some
people at Cape Comorin said that he had raised one person; then
it was said that there were two persons; then in various
authors--Emanuel Acosta, in his commentaries written as an
afterthought nearly twenty years after Xavier's death, De
Quadros, and others--the story wavers between one and two cases;
finally, in the time of Tursellinus, four cases had been
developed. In 1622, at the canonization proceedings, three were
mentioned; but by the time of Father Bouhours there were
fourteen--all raised from the dead by Xavier himself during his
lifetime--and the name, place, and circumstances are given with
much detail in each case.[[17]]
It seems to have been felt as somewhat strange at first that
Xavier had never alluded to any of these wonderful miracles; but
ere long a subsidiary legend was developed, to the effect that
one of the brethren asked him one day if he had raised the dead,
whereat he blushed deeply and cried out against the idea,
saying: "And so I am said to have raised the dead! What a
misleading man I am! Some men brought a youth to me just as if
he were dead, who, when I commanded him to arise in the name of
Christ, straightway arose.
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