Letter IV. To Sister Maria Vittoria Trievi, nun at San Pietro Martire, Florence

He sends her some rosaries.

Niece, — who art to me as a very dear daughter, — with this letter you will receive the hundred and thirty rosaries you asked me for many days ago, blessed and indulgenced by our lord the Pope. If I so long delayed doing what you asked me, it was first on account of your letter reaching me very late, and then the difficulty I had to find a reliable person with • whom they could be sent. Among these rosaries there are thirty larger than the others, meant for your superiors, olive-shaped, which appeared to me prettier than the round ones. If the nuns are not satisfied with what the rosaries are made of, they must be glad of the graces attached to them, the indulgences being the greatest ever granted by his Holiness and only to a few. Of this, they have to be most grateful to him, and are bound to pray to the Lord for him, having promised it in asking for these indulgences. I beg you will do the same for me, as it is owing to my intercession they were obtained, and you especially more than the others, not only as a niece but one for whom I never cease praying and recommending to our Lord

God, so that He may give you perseverance in the holy life you have entered, taking from your heart all earthly and worldly love, and filling it with love heavenly and divine. Thus you will preserve purity of body and soul, and mortifying your will with holy obedience, (to this I exhort you more than anything else), you will become His true spouse in name and deed. My respects to all the mothers of the monastery, and may you live happily and be blessed by our Lord God. — Your uncle, Philip Neri.

Rome, April 24, 1575.