by the devil--A voice from heaven commands him to restore the Church
of S. Peter Damian--His devotion to the passion of Jesus Christ--He
takes some pieces of cloth from his father's house, and sells them,
to restore the Church of S. Damian--He escapes from the anger of his
father, and retires to a cave--He appears in Assisi, where he is
ill-treated--His father confines him--His mother delivers him, and he
returns to S. Damian--He manifests his intention to his father, who
appeals to justice, and cites him before the Bishop of Assisi--He
renounces his inheritance, and gives back his clothes to his father--The
poverty of his clothing--He is beaten by robbers--Retires to a
monastery--They give him a hermit's habit--He devotes himself to the
leprous--Receives the gift of healing, and returns to Assisi, where
he searches for stone to restore the Church of Assisi--He toils at
building as a laborer--He lives on alms--His father and brother exercise
his patience--The victories he gains over himself--People begin to
esteem and honor him--He predicts something which is fulfilled--He
restores the Church of S. Peter and that of S. Mary of the Angels, or
the Portiuncula--Dwells at S. Mary of the Angels, and is favored there
with heavenly apparitions--He is called to the apostolical
life--Renounces money and goes discalced--His poor and humble habit--God
inspires him to preach--He weeps bitterly over the sufferings of Jesus
Christ--Receives three disciples, and retires with them to a deserted
cottage--He goes on a mission, and his disciples accompany him--the
way they are treated--He receives three other disciples--He makes them
beg for alms--What he said to the Bishop of Assisi, on renouncing all
his possessions--He predicts to the Emperor Otho the short duration
of his glory--It is revealed to him that his sins are remitted--He is
rapt in ecstasy, and predicts the extension of his Order--He makes
several other predictions, and receives a seventh disciple--He proposes
a new mission to them--The address he makes them on their preparation