I did track the story to Gregory the Great's Dialogues Book 1, chap.
4, where it is a diversion in the life the saintly Equitius (tempted by
the flesh, he has a vision in which he is made a eunuch by an angel,
thus removing fleshly lust and temptation). As abbot, he detects the
magician Basil masquerading as a monk. After another tortured nun
story, we come to the lettuce-eating nun, who in her greed snatched up
the tasty looking lettuce from the garden without blessing it. The
Devil immediately threw her down in a fit of pain, relieved only by
Abbot Equitius arrival. When he enters the garden, the Devil uses the
nun's voice to cry out and justify himself: "I haven't done anything! I
was sitting her on the lettuce when she came and ate me!" Equitius
indignantly orders the demon out.
I am using here the Fathers of the Church translation by Zimmerman,
since my query is shallow enough not to need the Latin. I was just
checking to see if it was another case using the sign of the cross to
ward off evil, but it isn't specified here. She really ought to have
washed the lettuce before eating it too.
As for other stories--Stith Thompson's Motif Index was full of fun
things, as usual, but I couldn't find other references to this story.
However, he had a reference to lettuce leaf leading to pregnancy!
Anyone for salad?
Karen
--
Dr. Karen Jolly
Associate Professor, History
University of Hawai`i at Manoa
[log in to unmask]
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly
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