A Close Call

Wimmer Wednesday. A close encounter with a serpent:

During my most recent stay at St. Mary’s I was almost bitten by a rattle snake; no one had ever seen one there before. I went with Brother Philipp, the carpenter, to inspect the school house near the church that had burned down. When we found the door locked, we walked around the building in order to look in through the side window. While the brother tried to get a look at the inside through the side window, I walked all the way around the house where a pile of rocks made it easier to look in through the rear window. No sooner had I put my arms on the window sill, than I heard a considerable noise to my left, something like that of large grasshoppers, only more shrill. I looked around and saw the nasty animal not two feet from me, curled up and ready to strike. With one jump I was outside of its reach and the Brother came right away. We reached for stones and threw them at the snake, who for its part, tried to hide under the rocks or to crawl under the house. When we saw that we had hit it hard a few times, but not killed it, I reached for a slat from the nearby fence and crushed its head with it.

—From Boniface Wimmer: Abbot of Saint Vincent in Pennsylvania