Our Lady’s Juggler

Anatole France
Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-
sellers and one of his best stories in the European Middle Ages was “Our Lady’s
Juggler” This literary critique is written with the use of Marxism

In the first part, we are introduced to Barnabas, he was a poor juggler who
wandered around performing different tricks. He used his talents in order for him
to make a living, but he had a hard time. Even though Barnabas was having a hard
time. he had a strong belief in God and worshiped the Holy Virgin. Barnabas met a
monk, the prior invited Barnabas to come with him to the monastery and become
a monk. At the monastery, his fellow monks used their talents to show devotion
to the Holy Virgin. However, Barnabas felt sad because he thought that there was
nothing that he could do to show his devotion.
One evening when the monks were talking, he heard of the miracle that
happened to one of the monks. After listening to the story, Barnabas felt inspired
and one morning he woke up and joyously went into the chapel where he
remained for an hour. He would continue to do this everyday and was no longer
sad, the other monks were curios, as to what Barnabas was doing in the chapel
alone so they followed him one day and saw that he was juggling copper balls in
front of the Virgin Mary. Seeing this the monks wanted to remove Barnabas from
the chapel, but before they could do so, they witnessed a miracle happen before
their own eyes.
This story shows that no matter what your stature in life, as long as you have faith
in God, you will always be blessed by his holiness. Just like Barnabas, who a poor
juggler, but he didn’t let his social class affect his devotion to god and the Holy
Virgin. the lesson of the story for me is that no matter rich or poor, you should
always have faith in God and his plans for you.