The Well of Saint Clare

eluctantly as to Death itself, and never with a smile,-the poor man of Jesus Christ, St. Francis, was gone up to the Skies. Earth, which he had perfumed with his virtues,

hrist. Men in multitudes sought in forgetfulness of self and of the world t

f Italy, Spain, the two Gauls and the Teutonic lands. In the good town of Viterbo arose a House of peculiar sanctity. In it

r and world-wise men. And ignorant and simple-minded as he was,

n. He was poor and merry-hearted. His delight was in obedience; and renouncing the making of plans of any sort for the future, he relished the bread of the heart. For the weight of

ardens the heart. He knew, moreover, that they who possess for all wealth only the riches of the spirit,

of the Monastery, the holy Brother Silvester, was less righteous than he, forasmuch as

in the name of holy obedience, to give away his garments to the poor. Now the same day this command was laid on him, Giovanni went, as his wont wa

s and captives, to take pity on the master of the fields sorely harried by the Lombard usurers, to take pity on the stags and hinds of the forest chas

ose from his knees and took the path to the Monastery. On the white, silen

me to cut it in two so as to give away the half. Therefore I cannot divide it w

he beggar promptly stripp

a linen cloth about his loins, the children who were running at play in the Great Square made mock at him. In derision, they shook the

ened to be balanced across another. Two children ran and took their places, one at each end of the beam, an

them now smi

n, will you suffer m

the beam, he see-sawed up and d

s happening to pass tha

ed the man is o

fame was great through the world, just then crossed the Great Square. And hearing the children shouting, "Look! little Brother Giovanni's here," the Priests drew near the Monk, and salute

ellow is a mere d

he did out of humility and for the love of God. And he put his joy in the scorn

being admitted, appeared among the Brethren naked,

and some children deemed m

se he had dared to pass through th

osing the Holy Order of St. Francis to derision and

apter, and made Fra Giovanni kneel humbly on his knees in the midst of them all. Then, his face blazing with anger, he chid him h

d in an iron cage from the Church steeple, while o

beaming with satis

ts, and worse ones still. I am good for nothing but foolish

a man of great sternness both

rite; that honeyed voice of his

iovanni s

eed capable of every infam

to give. And lo! as he prayed, his anger was changed into admiration. He had known St. Francis in the days when that Angel of Heaven, born o

recognized in the works of Fra Gio

tly from God. In very truth he is a better man than we. What he has done, he has done in imitation of Jesus Chr

ressed the kneel

d you go forth into the country, and the first beggar you meet, beg him to strip you of your tunic. Then, when

and, raising Fra Giovanni from the ground, fell on his own knees before hi

thren, this man is the