Chapter LII. How he punished a brother for speaking evil of a poor man !

85. Another day when he was preaching, a poor sick man came to the "place". Pitying the man's double misfortune, namely, want and illness, he began to discourse on poverty with his companion. And when, suffering with the sufferer, S. Francis had already entered into the feeling of his heart, the Saint's companion said: "Brother, it is true the man is poor, but perchance in all the province there is no one richer, in will, than he". The Saint rebuked him at once and said to him as he owned his guilt: "Make haste, put off thy tunic, fall down at the poor man's feet, and proclaim thyself guilty. And not only beg his pardon, but ask him to pray for thee." He obeyed, went to offer satisfaction, and returned. Then the Saint said to him: "Whenever thou seest a poor man, brother, a mirror of the Lord and of His poor Mother is set before thee. Likewise in the sick, consider the sicknesses He took on Himself for us."

Ah, there was ever a bundle of myrrh by Francis, he ever was looking on the face of his Christ, ever handling the "Man of Sorrows and acquainted with infirmities".¹