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The Marian miracle of the pregnant abbess might fit into this category. It appears in several versions (for instance, in a French Marian miracle play, in the Alphabet of Tales, and many others). Briefly, a strict abbess gets pregnant by her table servant, and disgruntled nuns report her to the bishop. Before the bishop's visit, the abbess prays to the Virgin Mary and is miraculously delivered of her child, which angels take off to be raised by a hermit. When the abbess is examined, no sign of pregnancy can be found. She does, however, confess her pregnancy to the bishop. The child is then educated in the church, and in some versions becomes the successor to the bishop. Nancy Warren Department of English University of Michigan %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%