Chapter CLI. Of his devotion to the Nativity of the Lord; and how he would have all creatures cared for at that season

199. He observed with ineffable eagerness the

JL 1 Nativity of the child Jesus above all other festivals, declaring that it was the feast of feasts, whereon God, become a tiny infant, hung upon a human breast. He cherished with hungry thoughts the image of those infant limbs, and his compassion for the Child, which flooded his heart, made him even lisp words of sweetness, as infants do. When there was a talk of not eating flesh, because it was a Friday, he answered brother Morico, saying: "Thou sinnest, brother, in calling the day on which a Child has been born to us Friday. I would," said he, "that the very walls should eat flesh on such a day, or, if they cannot, that they should at any rate be greased outside!"

200. On that day he would have the poor and hungry feasted by the rich, and oxen and asses indulged with extra corn and hay. "If I can have speech of the Emperor," he said, "I will beseech him that a general ordinance may be made that all who can are to scatter corn and grain on the ways so that on a day of such high festival the little birds may have plenty, especially our sisters the larks." He would recall, not without tears, with what penury the poor Virgin was compassed about on that day. Thus while he was once sitting at dinner, a brother spoke of the blessed Virgin's poverty, and called to mind the need of Christ, her son. Straightway S. Francis rose from table, and with grievous sobbing and plenteous tears ate the rest of his bread on the bare ground.

He used to say that that was a royal virtue which shone so excellently in the King and in the Queen. And also when the brethren in private were deliberating which virtue made one the most a friend to Christ, he would answer, as though opening the secret of his heart: "Know ye, my sons, that Poverty is a special way of salvation, whose fruit is manifold, and well known to few".