the sins and ingratitude of men, the sufferings of the Church, the
imperfections of the community, and her own faults. But these tears of
sublime sorrow could be understood by none but God, before whom she
shed them, and men attributed them to mere caprice, a spirit of
discontent, or some other similar cause. Her confessor had enjoined
that she should receive the holy communion more frequently than the
other nuns, because, so ardently did she hunger after the bread of
angels, that she had been more than once near dying. These heavenly
sentiments awakened feelings of jealousy in her sisters, who sometimes
even accused her of hypocrisy.

The favour which had been shown her in her admittance into the
convent, in spite of her poverty, was also made a subject of reproach.
The thought of being thus an occasion of sin to others was most painful
to her, and she continually besought God to permit her to bear herself
the penalty of this want of charity in her regard. About Christmas, of
the year 1802, she had a very severe illness, which began by a violent
pain about her heart.

This pain did not leave her even when she was cured, and she bore it
in silence until the year 1812, when the mark of a cross was imprinted
exteriorly in the same place, as we shall relate further on. Her
weakness and delicate health caused her to be looked upon more as
burdensome than useful to the community; and this, of course, told
against her in all ways, yet she was never weary of working and serving
the others, nor was she ever so happy as at this period of her life--spent
in privations and sufferings of every description.

On the 13th of November 1803, at the age of twenty-nine, she
pronounced her solemn vows, and became the spouse of Jesus Christ, in