Margaret of Cortona
[1247-1297]
Thirteen years after Margaret died, a young man was working in the fields herding his master’s cattle when suddenly the animals took to headlong flight. In a panic and rage, the shepherd called to the devil for help, and the devil obligingly led him into the woods. That night, the cattle returned to their usual stalls, but the shepherd was nowhere to be found.
The cattle’s owner searched for the shepherd for two days until he found him on the precipice of death lying near some bushes. The owner picked him up and was dragging him home when he reached a certain watery ditch. The devil awoke inside the shepherd and hurled his body face first into a puddle, trying to drown him, but the owner pulled him out. “Fine,” the devil said, “take me to Margaret’s tomb, and I'll leave him alone.”
The owner wasn’t sure — how would he know the devil had left the body? The devil said he’d spit out a piece of black coal on his way out. So down to the tomb they went, there came the coal, and the shepherd never caused trouble again.