Pole, Warscewiski, formerly ambassador to the Sultan and Secretary
of State in Poland, who first wrote a life of Stanislaus; and many
more, distinguished for birth, learning, holiness.

Most of these were a great deal older, too, than Stanislaus. Many
of them had already made their names familiar to men. Yet the boy
of seventeen, who came quietly and modestly amongst them, was
somehow soon looked up to by all. They felt the force of something
in him which made him their superior. Heaven was wonderfully near
him. He was not old-fashioned; he was always a boy, unconscious of
anything unusual in himself; not solemn nor impressive nor austere
in manner. All that he did, he did with perfect naturalness; for to
him the supernatural had become almost natural.


CHAPTER XIII

THE NOVICESHIP

Most of us, perhaps, think of the saints as men and women who
accomplished visibly great things. Saint Paul, Saint Augustine,
Saint Patrick, Saint Theresa, Saint Philip Neri, Saint Francis
Xavier: such names as these come first to our minds when we think of
"a saint." Yet the fact is that the greater number of saints are men
and women who never did anything that the world would consider great
or striking. Saint Joseph was of that sort. Even the Blessed Virgin
lived and died in obscurity, made no stir in the world.

Sanctity is measured not so much by what one does as by how one does
all things. Externally a saint may not differ at all from other