Chapter XXXVIII. How he Caused a New Testament to be Given to the Mother of Two Friars

Another time, when he was abiding at St. Mary of the Portiuncula, a certain woman, poor and old, who had two sons in the order, came to the dwelling seeking an alms from the holy Father. Immediately blessed Francis said to Friar Peter of Catana, who was then the Minister General, "Have we aught which we can give to this our mother? " (For he was wont to say that the mother of any friar was the mother of him and of all friars.) Friar Peter answered him, "We have nothing in the house which we can give her, for she would have an alms to sustain her body. But we have in the church one only New Testament wherein we read the lessons at Matins." (For in that time the friars had no breviaries nor many psalters.) Blessed Francis said to him therefore, "Give the Testament to our mother, that she may sell it for her necessity. For I believe firmly that it will please the Lord and the Blessed Virgin more, than if we were to read in it." And so he gave it her. For that can be said and written of him, which is read of blessed Job: For from my youth (charity) was brought up with me . . . and from my mother's womb. Whence unto us who were with him not only what we have learned from others of his charity and pity toward friars and other poor men, but also those things which our eyes have seen would be very difficult to write or tell.