he might, by this arrangement, be at the shortest distance from St.
Mary of the Angels, where he left some of the brethren to guide the
novices whom he should send there.

Two reasons induced him to make his beginning in Italy. The first was,
that it appeared to him to be just that the Divine Word should be first
spread in that country, of which the preachers were natives, as the
Apostles had done in regard to the Jews. The second was, that he might
judge from what they should effect among the Italians, what they were
capable of effecting elsewhere: in which his judgment is to be admired.

He could not doubt but that the vocation of his children came from
God; nevertheless, he used all the precautions which prudence dictated,
because he knew that the Lord, who acts according to His good pleasure
by secret and supernatural means, chooses that men on their part should
pursue the ordinary course in all that depends on them. This is a sure
ground-work, which is not only a rule in all that relates to salvation,
but also is applicable to the affairs of this life.

The man of God, having commenced his route towards Tuscany, passed
through Perugia, where he preached in the great square, as is customary
in Italy. Some young gentlemen, of the first families of the place,
came also there for the exercises of the tournament, and made so much
noise that the preacher could be no longer heard. As they continued
their lance exercises, notwithstanding the remonstrance of the people,
the Saint, turning to the side in which they were, addressed them in
the following words with great animation:--

"Pay attention, and learn what the Lord declares to you through me,
who am His servant, and do not imagine to satisfy yourselves by saying,