Saint Anthony of Liarolles

Anthony had secretly left the camps and his father's house. His grieving parents and faithful friends went off, crossing forests, mountains, and the depths of valleys, searching everywhere for the young fugitive. For a long time, they asked for him from all the wild echoes of the solitude, when a human voice was heard, whispering a prayer. They approached and found the Saint prostrate on the ground, clinging to humanity only by a few tatters: all of heaven was in his heart. However, we will not find in Saint Anthony what has been so ridiculously called the savagery of the anchorites. The sight of his parents touched his heart and made him understand that he was still on earth; he embraced them with a flood of tears, consoled them with the sweetest words, and returned with them to the city of Agen. After paying this just tribute to paternal affection, Anthony set out again and retired to Lomagne. But solitude was no longer meant f or him. He had shone too brightly in the world to be ignored, and had done too much penance in the desert to remain hidden henceforth. The sound of his fame followed him everywhere; everywhere people ran in his footsteps. For the second time, he returned to his father's house; he crossed the Garonne, and on the other bank, at the entrance to Agen, he found a great crowd waiting for him to present a sixty-year-old paralyzed woman. Anthony was touched by so much piety and so much trust; he invoked the name of the Lord Jesus, the paralyzed woman rose, and walked as in her first youth.

This miracle dealt too sensitive a blow to th e heresy of Ari us not to awaken the anger of its supporters. The ministers of Ala ric ha d Liarolles b rought be fore their tribunal. They sought, but in vain, to win him over with promises; then they turned to threats, and from threats to torture, and the Saint rendered his soul to God in the midst of the most cruel torments. In the course of time, the body of the holy Martyr was transferred to a place located near C ondom (Gers), which took the name of Liarolles. It was deposited under the altar of the church where, every year, it attracted a great gathering of the faithful. The inhabitants of the place loved to recount the miracles performed by the virtue of the holy Martyr.

Abbé Barrière: Religious and monumental history of the d iocese of Agen .