the Bons Homes were loved by the people they served. They didn’t charge for officiating at marriages, naming children or burying the dead. They extracted no taxes, demanded no tithes. There’s a story of a parfait coming across a farmer kneeling in the corner of his field: ‘What are you doing?’ he asked the man. ‘Giving thanks to God for bringing forth this fine crop,’ the farmer replied. The parfait smiled and helped the man to his feet: ‘This isn’t God’s work, but your own. For it was your hand that dug the soil in the spring, who tended it.’”
