an excellent discourse on the love of God; after which, in presence
of the whole audience, he restored the sight of a blind girl by putting
spittle three times on her eyes in the name of the Blessed Trinity.
This miracle had a salutary effect on a number of sinners, who were
converted; and many of them joined him who was the instrument of the
Divine Power.

So many souls gained to Jesus Christ in one place, stimulated him to
carry the faith into the Levant. The triumph of martyrs, whose charity
could not be extinguished by the violence of persecutions, excited in
him a holy jealousy. Burning with similar fire, he wished to offer
himself, as they had done, a sacrifice, in order to mark his gratitude
in some measure, by the effusion of his blood, for the goodness of
Jesus Christ, who vouchsafed to die for our salvation, thus the better
to excite others to love Him. But he desired to have the sanction of
the Sovereign Pontiff for this undertaking, and therefore bent his
steps to Rome, preaching as he went the truths of salvation, which God
confirmed by miracles.

Arrived at Rome, he sought an audience with the Pope. Innocent III
still filled the Papal throne; he first communicated to him the
wonderful extension of his Order, the holy lives of his brethren, and
the design which God had to bring about a reformation of morals in the
world, which was growing old, and was visibly in a state of decay.
Then he disclosed the project he had of transporting himself to the
lands of the Mahometans and Tartars, to endeavor to give them some
knowledge of the Gospel. It must be remarked, that the Saint attributed
to the world that decay which is the effect of old age, but he did not
extend this to the Church, because he well knew that, although old,
she was not infirm. St. Augustine says, that her old age is always