loaded with honors, as a special friend of God." Then, addressing
himself to Bernard, he said: "If you will follow me, I will give you
a place in which you may serve the Lord." Bernard, having accepted the
offer, was taken to the house of his benefactor, who received him with
affection, and gave him a house, which he furnished with everything
necessary, and promised to protect him and his companions. After this,
Bernard was so highly respected in Bologna, that people considered
themselves fortunate if they could get near him, touch him, or even
see him. This truly humble man, mortified at the honor which was shown
him, went to Francis, and said, "My Father, all is in good order at
Bologna. But send any other religious thither rather than me, for I
have no longer any hopes of being useful there: it is even to be feared
that I may lose many graces on account of the great honors I receive."
This prudent mistrust of himself was as pleasing to the holy Father
as the affection of the Bolognese, to which he responded by sending
them several of his disciples, who subsequently spread the Order
throughout all Romagna.

The holy Patriarch returned some time before Lent to St. Mary of the
Angels, where his first care was to examine rigidly whether in his
Evangelical progress some worldly dust might not have adhered to him
in consequence of his communications with seculars; and in those
instances in which the extreme delicacy of his conscience gave him
room for self-reproach, he purified himself by very severe penitential
observances. He then applied himself carefully to the formation of the
novices, whom he had collected from various places, and he preached
during the Lent at Assisi.

His discourses, backed by his example, and his prayers and exhortations,
animated by an ardent zeal, were so efficacious, that in the town and