The Secular Franciscan Home Page:http://secularfranciscans.orgThe King and the Turnip<BR>
and Stopped for Speeding<BR>
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The King and the Turnip
This is a story told to us at Our Lady of Hope morning Mass by Fr. Jetti.
It was the Feast of St. Louis IX, King of France. The story, which is suppose
to be true, is about St. Louis, who we all know was a member and is a patron
of the III Order of St. Francis. The story goes like this:
It was known that St. Louis held a meeting with the people of his kingdom
every Thursday to listen to their problems, gripes and whatever. There was
always a long receiving line and Louis, with great patience, listened to
every one.
There was a man who lived nearby who grew a very large turnip in his garden.
The man showed the turnip to his wife and said, "I think I will present
this turnip to the King next Thursday. I don't think there has ever been
a turnip grown this large in France.
His wife said, I think he will indeed enjoy the gift of the turnip, it will
break the monotony of a long tedious day for the King.
So, the man took his turnip to the king and waited in line. When he presented
the turnip to Louis, he was greatly impressed by its size and weight and
said, "it is truly the largest turnip I have ever seen."
Louis was so impressed that he said to one of his attendants, "go weigh the
turnip and bring back to me the same weight in gold." He then handed the man
the gold. The man was greatly surprised at so generous a gift.
Soon after, when word got around that the king had given the gold to the man
for the turnip, the next Thursday there was a long line of people waiting in
line with all kinds of gifts for the king. Many of the gifts were of
considerable weight.
There was one fellow who came early that Thursday morning to get close to
the front of the line. He had with him a huge horse and presented it to the
king.
When the king saw the horse he gasped, "this is the largest horse I have
ever seen. I will ride this horse wherever I go in France. It is beautiful."
Then Louis thanked him.
The man stood there waiting, expectantly, for the king to say something more.
Then after staring at each other and a moment of silence, the king turned to
the attendant nearby and said, "Give him the turnip."