Chapter XXII. Of his preaching at Ascoli; and how the sick were healed in his absence by things that his hand had touched

62. At the time when (as has been said) the venerable father Francis preached to the birds, as he went round about the cities and fortresses scattering seeds of blessing everywhere, he came to the city of Ascoli. Here, when according to his wont he was most fervently uttering the word of God, almost all the people, changed by the right hand of the Highest, were filled with such grace and devotion that in their eagerness to see and hear him they trod on one another. And at that time thirty men, clerks and lay-people, received from him the habit of holy Religion. Such was the faith of men and women, such their devotion of mind toward God's Saint that he who could but touch his garment called himself happy. If he entered any city the clergy were joyful, the bells were rung, the men exulted, the women rejoiced together, the children clapped their hands and often took¹ boughs of trees and went in procession to meet him singing Psalms. Heretical wickedness was confounded, the Church's faith was magnified; and while the faithful shouted for joy, the heretics slunk away. For the tokens of holiness that appeared in him were such, that no one durst speak against him; seeing that the crowds hung on him alone. Amidst and above all else he pronounced that the faith of the Holy Roman Church, wherein alone consists the salvation of all that are to be saved, must be kept, revered, and imitated. He revered the priests and embraced the whole hierarchy with exceeding affection. 63. The people would offer him loaves to bless, and would keep them for long after, and by tasting them they were healed of divers sicknesses. Many times also in their great faith in him they cut up his tunic so that he was left almost naked; and, what is more wonderful, some even recovered their health by means of objects which the holy father had touched with his hand, as happened in the case of a woman who lived in a little village near Arezzo. She was with child, and when the time of her delivery came was in labour for several days and hung between life and death in incredible suffering. Her neighbours and kinsfolk had heard that the blessed Francis was going to a certain hermitage and would pass by that way. But while they were waiting for him it chanced that he went to the place by a different way, for he was riding because he was weak and ill. When he reached the place he sent back the horse to the man who had lent it him out of charity, by a certain brother named Peter. Brother Peter, in bringing the horse back, passed through the place where the suffering woman was. The inhabitants on seeing him ran to him in haste, thinking he was the blessed Francis, but were exceedingly disappointed when they found he was not. At length they began to inquire together if anything might be found which the blessed Francis had touched with his hand; and after spending a long time over this they at last hit upon the reins which he had held in his hand when riding: so they took the bit out of the mouth of the horse on which the holy father had sat, and laid the reins which he had touched with his own hands upon the woman: and forthwith her peril was removed and she brought forth her child with joy and in safety.

64. Gualfreduccio, who lived at Castel della Pieve, a religious man fearing and worshipping God with all his house, had by him a cord wherewith the blessed Francis had once been girded. Now it came to pass that in that place many men and not a few women were suffering from various sicknesses and fevers; and this man went through the houses of the sick, and, after dipping the cord in water or mixing with water some of the strands, made the sufferers drink of it, and so, in Christ's name, they all recovered. Now these things were done in blessed Francis' absence, besides many others which we could in nowise unfold in the longest discourse. But a few of those things which the Lord our God deigned to work by means of his presence we will briefly insert in this work.