Neither more nor less

As the story is told by Willibrord the monk , in 723 St. Boniface journyed from Britain to Hesse to preach to and convert the many pagans and lapsed Christians that had turned away from their faith and who in that land were wont to sacrifice to trees .

One day in a forest near Geismar in the midst of many angry pagans St. Boniface , to demonstrate dramatically his faith , chose to chop down Wotans own sacred oak tree while summoning and challenging the pagan god to strike him dead .

The lower notch was cut as the pagans cursed him . As the second upper notch was just started , miraculously a great wind blew down from the sky and lay down the great oak breaking it into four parts . St. Boniface remained alive standing before them . The pagans got the message and joined with the saint to build a new Christian church from the wood of their sacred fallen oak .

An unusually strong gust of wind blew down from the sky and lay down this sidewalk shed Sunday night . Did a Cardinal possessed of worldy things perhaps miss a message here in the occurance and consequences of this Sunday night force majeure ? ... i.e. , "clear these steps and open these doors" .