Brewer's: Miracles

(Latin, miraculum).

Vespasian,
the Roman emperor, is said to have cured a blind man and a cripple by his touch during his stay in Alexandria.

Mahomet's
miracles. He took a scroll of the Koran from the horn of a bull; a white dove came from heaven to whisper in his ear a message from God; he opened the earth and found two jars, one of honey and one of milk, as emblems of abundance; he brought the moon from heaven, made it pass through his sleeve, and return to its place in heaven; he went to heaven on his horse Al Borak; was taught the Koran by the angel Gabriel, etc. And yet we are told that he laid no pretensions to miracles.

The Abbé Paris, or more correctly Francois de Paris, the deacon, buried at the cemetery of St. Médard. The numberless cures performed at his tomb are said by Paley to be the best authenticated of any, except those of the Bible.

Edward the Confessor
and all our sovereigns up to the time of Queen Anne are said to have cured scorbutic diseases by their touch. (See Thaumaturgus.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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