At one time my tongue became uncomfortably swelled up, so that when I wished to speak it usually made me stutter, which was somewhat unseemly. I went to the saint’s tomb and drew my awkward tongue along the wooden lattice. The swelling went down at once and I became well. It was a serious swelling and filled the cavity where the palate is. Then three days later my lip began to have a painful beating in it. I went again to the tomb to get help and when I had touched my lip to the hanging curtain the pulsation stopped at once. And I suppose this came from an over abundance of blood; still trusting to the saint’s power I did not try to lessen the [amount of] blood and this matter caused me no further trouble. GREGORY’S UNCLE, ST. GALL (_The Lives of the Fathers_, Ch. 6) St. Gall was a servant of God from his youth up, loving the Lord with his whole heart, and he loved what he knew to be beloved by God. His father was named Georgius and his mother Leocadia, a descendant of Vectius Epagatus who, as the history of Eusebius relates, was a martyr at Lyons. They belonged among the leading senators so that no family could be found in the Gauls better born or nobler. And although Gall’s father wished to ask for a certain senator’s daughter for him, he took a single attendant and went to the monastery at Cournon, six miles from Clermont, and besought the abbot to consent to give him the tonsure. The abbot noticed the good sense and fine bearing of the youth and inquired his name, his family and native place. He replied that he was called Gall and was a citizen of Auvergne, a son of the senator Georgius. When the abbot learned that he belonged to one of the first families, he said: “My son, what you wish is good, but you must first bring it to your father’s attention and if he gives his consent, I will do what you ask.” Then the abbot sent messengers in regard to this matter to his father, asking what he wished to be done with the youth. The father was a little disappointed, but said: “He is my oldest son and I therefore wished him to marry, but if the Lord deigns to receive him into His service, let His will rather than mine be done.” And he added: “Consent to the child’s request which he made by God’s inspiration.”