He was under the necessity of repeating the same injunctions in several towns in Tuscany, particularly in Florence, where similar views prevailed, and where they had already commenced building a monastery for females, who were desirous of renouncing the world. While he was yet ruminating on the mode of life he should prescribe for them, […]
At Eisenach Elizabeth built a large hospital. During a famine she daily fed nine hundred needy people. The story is told that once when she was on her way with her cloak full of good things for her dear poor and sick, she met her husband, who teasingly blocked her path until she would show […]
In the quiet little Franciscan convent at Coimbra he received a friendly reception, and in the very same year his earnest wish to be sent to the missions in Africa was fulfilled. But God had decreed otherwise. St. Anthony scarcely set foot on African soil when he was seized with a grievous illness. Even after […]
However, Cardinal Borromeo, who was then only twenty-two years old, was an exceptional young man, endowed with extraordinary gifts of mind and heart, deeply spiritual, and devoted wholeheartedly to the welfare of the Church. It was due to the young cardinal’s vigorous efforts and leadership that the Council of Trent was re-opened and carried to […]
Chapter II through IV While away from his mother, Galgano stayed in Siena to pick a home better suited to entertainment and pleasure, with a secondary sight set upon a military career. This was very dangerous, not only as it is today, but more so in that time as it was seldom separated from violence […]
We call by the name of divine providence God’s preservation and government of the world. 1. God maintains the world, i.e., He preserves all creatures in existence as long as He wills. A ball hanging from a piece of string falls to the ground as soon as the string is cut. So the whole world […]
As patriarch of Venice he wore the purple of the cardinalate for another period of nine years, always remaining a faithful son of the poor St. Francis. The death of Pope Leo XIII in 1903 brought him to Rome for the papal election. Who would be the new pope? Cardinal Sarto answered: “Leo XIII, who […]
Man can suffer in body or soul or both. The apostles, when they were scourged (Acts 5:41), suffered in body; Judas, when he threw down the pieces of silver in the Temple, suffered in his soul. Holy Job suffered in both. Suffering is either merited or unmerited. The sufferings of the prodigal son were merited, […]
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, when luxury and sensuality held sway, St. Francis of Assisi made his appearance, giving to men the example of a poor and penitential life. But God wished also to give the vain and pleasure-loving women of that period an example of contempt of the world’s vanities. For this […]
