John Eigenauer’s article on Bonjour Paris talks about the ‘Miracles’ of the title (and the consequent disapproval of them and the ‘Convulsionists’).
Stone-throwing at the time of the Miracles at the Tomb of the Abbe Paris in the Church-yard of St. Medard.
M. Mathieu, in his recent history of the Convulsionaries, states the following case from a statement of the time:
“On the 20th of March, 1734, a glazier named Dupoirier, living in the Rue Mouffetard, near the church of St. Medard, was at work on the windows of a chapel of that church, which looked out on the little cemetery. A circular pane of glass which he found difficult to remove, and at which he was pulling forcibly, suddenly loosening, struck him on the head. The pain which it gave him put him into an ill humour, and he began to blaspheme the holy deacon. It is said that having collected a quantity of stones and gravel in a gutter, either on that day or on some other, he began to fling them at the tomb of the saint. He had long been prejudiced against him, and it was well known that the number of miracles performed at his tomb had greatly increased his enmity.
On the very day that he flung the stones and gravel, about three o’clock in the afternoon, stones, pieces of tiles, and pots were thrown by an invisible hand, and broke repeatedly the glass not only of the window behind the house occupied by the said Dupoirier, but also those of three glass partitions in the interior of his shop, and this continued till about nine o’clock, and recommenced the next day from seven o’clock in the evening, and continued till ten o’clock the following morning.
It was exactly and very attentively noted by many persons, and especially by two able architects that between two or three of the partitions in the shop there was a staircase which completely protected two of the partitions from the stones which might have been thrown either from the street or the court. They all noticed, moreover, that any one endeavouring to perpetrate this mischief must of necessity place himself in the court of the glazier, where he would be seen, and whence he would not, after all, be able to break the glass, which as we have said, was covered by the staircase.
All the vigilance which in such a case the most intense curiosity and interest itself could excite, and all the consequent watching and searching ended only in abortive efforts. The soldiers of the company of the neighbouring guards were called in; the examinations and watchings were redoubled, but in the very face of the guards and watchers the glass continued to be broken, always by stones, which invariably came from the side of the house next to the great cemetery, and which were never seen till the very moment that they were about to strike the frames, and that they were broken.
The damage became so considerable that recourse was had to a commissary. He came; he examined; he made a vigorous search in all the houses and gardens of the neighbourhood, into the vaults of the church, and even into the vaults of the great cemetery, and still they found nothing and saw nothing till the moment the stones struck and destroyed the glass.
The glazier, who doubtless perceived well that this was the consequence of his indecent conduct towards the holy deacon, said, “See here! I have all my glass broken and my house turned topsy-turvy! I have a fine affair with the confounded saint.” This was heard by various persons who were present. The stones were so effectively launched by a hand so dexterous, that though the house was very narrow not one of them went wrong or struck the windows of the abutting houses.
This miracle must pass as incontestible after the proces verbal which the commissary instituted, joined to the evidence of the guards, of the different examiners, and of an innumerable multitude of people, who on hearing of this singular event, ran the same day and the two following days to the Rue Mouffetard, and into the house of the glazier, to assure themselves of what had taken place.
In order to divert the public mind from the invisible hand which had produced these effects, all sorts of strategems were immediately resorted to. The commissary was intimidated; the daughter of the glazier was arrested, aged about thirteen or fourteen years, and who had been absent during a part of the time, and who said to M. Herault, “I cannot say what broke the glass, for I was not there.” She was committed to prison, but nothing could be done with her. A warning was established which produced no effect. In a word, the event remains a mystery, at least we find no further mention of it.
‘Throwing of Stones and other Substances by Spirits.‘ Part 2. By William Howitt. In ‘The Spiritual Magazine’ Vol. 6, No. 2, February 1865.