LIGHT FROM THE LOWLY. Series XII. ST. FRANCIS OF SIENNA, TANNER AND I. DIVINE Providence gives us in this saint a palpable proof of His infinite mercy, and of the excesses to which passions unsubdued in the beginning can lead. Before Francis's birth his mother dreamt that she brought forth a monster, which should afterwards become a man -a prognostication of the perverse disposition of the son, and of his portentous conversion. He was born of decent and Christian parents, of the farming class, in Groti, a village of Tuscany, about six miles from Sienna, on the 3rd of December, 1211. He had scarcely attained the use of reason when he began to give indications of his evil inclinations, in spite of the efforts of his parents to train him in virtue. They sent him to school, but following the wicked inclinations of his contaminated heart, he frustrated the good desires of his parents, Matthew Lipsi and Celedonia Daniel, laughed at the prudent advice of his masters, and heeding nothing but his depraved instincts, surrendered himself to idleness and corruption, so that he had to be expelled from the school as a confirmed curser and corrupter of his fellow-students. His mother's vision was already being verified, and she and her husband bewailed the early perversion of their child. Having exhausted all the means in their power to make him learn, they resolved to apprentice him to some trade to free him from idleness-the mother of all vices. They looked out for a good master-tanner to instruct him. He might well have learned among the skins the need of subjecting himself to severe discipline, in order to preserve himself intact from the corruption of the world; for as they must pass through several processes, and be submitted to the action of various chemicals to preserve them from corruption, and to soften them and make them fit for human use, so man must suffer the chemical action of tribulation, and submit to the knife of mortification, if he wishes to preserve himself free from sin, and to attain Christian perfection. But our tanner was far from this. He soon tired of the work, which would have brought him a decent competence, and threw it up, to the great annoyance of his parents. Francis was unworthy of living in their company, and God soon deprived him of both father and mother, who, in the fruitless education of their son, purified their Christian patience and piety. Free now from those who were a drag on him, he gave himself up to all kinds of licentiousness. He had familiar intercourse with men of bad life; his friends were the most dissolute youths, thieves and ruffians; he frequented the worst kind of houses and taverns; in a word, he spent day and night in the most criminal dissolution. By such a course of life he soon spent his inheritance, and having no means of subsistence, he did not hesitate to interfere with his neighbour's property in order to satisfy his appetite for gambling, rioting, and other more abominable vices. He went from sin to sin, he jumped from precipice to precipice, without heeding the counsels or warnings of friends or strangers, and he would soon have ended his days on the gallows only he lived in a time of disorder and turbulence. The towns of Sienna and Orbieto were at war, and Francis became a soldier. Though the profession of arms is not inconsistent with virtue, and amid the roar of artillery heroes have been found, not more conspicuous for their valour than their virtue, yet the circumstances surrounding armies are not the most suitable for the reformation of a corrupt youth. What might be foreseen occurred. Outrunning the disorders of the time, and despising military discipline, he gave himself up, if possible, to greater excesses than ever. Not content now with stealing, he joined other wicked men, and assassinated all who opposed him in any way, without regard to condition or sex. To cover his crimes he frequently changed his disguise, dressing sometimes as a farmer, sometimes as a student, now as an Italian, and again as a foreigner; he one day wore false whiskers, and another was without beard, availing himself of every stratagem to more readily surprise his victims. II. As may be easily imagined, cursed gambling, in which so many ruin their property, and bring misery on their families, was one of Francis's vices and one of the principal incentives to his disorders. They say that on a certain occasion he lost even his shirt, and cursing his bad luck, he said to the other gamblers that he wished he had lost his eyes, for he did not believe in Him who gave them to him. On the heels of the imprecation came the punishment. The poor wretch became blind, and he was dismissed from the army as useless, and found himself abandoned in his misfortune. His cor poral blindness served to open the eyes of his soul to the light of faith. Finding himself abandoned by all, without a friendly hand to reach him a bit of bread; he remembered his parents, his masters and preceptors, whose counsels he had despised, and realising the enormity of his sins, he burst into a flood of tears. Rarely does the Christian training of childhood fail to produce fruit even in souls as degraded as that of Francis. The instruction he got from his parents about the infinite mercy of God induced him to fly to His bosom, imploring pardon for his past transgressions. He did not now close his ears to the voice of grace; and as formerly he would, in his diabolical fury, utter blasphemies against God and the Blessed Virgin, now, on the contrary, appealing to our Lady's intercession, and bathed in tears, he publicly confessed his crimes with such marks of true sorrow, that no one could hear or see him without being moved to compassion. "If the generous lion," said he, "pardons him who throws himself at his feet, will not a God, full of goodness, forgive the truly penitent sinner who implores His mercy?" The penitent saint received torrents of that mercy; but he, in order to deserve in some way that grace, wept and fasted, and subdued his body, and left nothing in his power undone to move the Divine Heart to compassion. Blind and all as he was, he resolved, in imitation of many saints, to visit the shrine of St. James. But how could be do so, deprived of sight? He tried to get over this difficulty by associating himself with a youth named Datus, a tanner, like himself, and like him, too, recently converted. They were ready to set out on their journey when an unexpected incident occurred to stop them. Datus's parents set their face against his pilgrimage, and also induced him to dissuade Francis from his intention. When the latter heard his reasons, "No," he answered; "I have made a vow, and I must fulfil it, with God's help. The Lord is the life, the truth, and the way, and will not fail whoever seeks Him: as He is the way, He will not allow me to go astray. I know I am going to suffer a great deal; but that is just what I want, for as I offended God in word and deed, it is only just that I suffer something for my sins. And so nothing can turn me from my intention." Confiding in the protection of heaven he started on his long and weary journey, groping his way. He had scarcely entered on it when some little clouds disappeared from his eyes, and his sight partially returned, so that he could move with some security. When he reached Gascony he found himself in a wood, and knew not which of two roads to take. In his difficulty he had recourse to prayer, and he instantly heard like a child's voice, which said: "The path to the right is the proper one." Raising his eyes to heaven, he blessed the Lor for this singular providence, and took the path indicated. III. What specially engaged his thoughts was his past sins and errors. Sometimes, full of holy confidence in the divine goodness, he would exclaim: "Yes, my God, |