brethren, as St. Bonaventure tells us.

Nevertheless, the powerful protection which he received from heaven
for the repair of the church of St. Damian, was an indication that the
same words were to be understood to relate to that building also: as
the sacred oracles had a twofold literal sense in the mouths of the
Prophets, one of which related to events which were at hand, and the
other to a distant time, and to mysteries wholly spiritual.

Francis came to himself; he left the church fully resolved to undertake
its repair, and left money in the hands of a priest named Peter, who
did the parochial duties of it, to keep a lamp burning before the
crucifix, promising to give more, and to employ all he had for the use
of this holy place.

The voice which had issued from the crucifix renewed in his mind and
heart the impression of the mystery of the Passion. He felt himself
interiorly wounded through the wounds of Jesus Christ, and he shed
such burning tears, that his eyes were quite inflamed, and, as it were,
full of blood, when he returned from prayer. To make his body
participate in the sufferings which penetrated his very soul, and to
punish himself for the levities of his youth, he imposed on himself
a very rigorous abstinence, with various other kinds of mortification.

The eagerness he felt to commence the repair of St. Damian's church,
suggested to him means by which the work might be begun. After having
fortified himself by the sign of the cross, he took from his father's
stores several pieces of cloth, which he sold at Foligno, together
with his horse. He came back on foot, and offered the money respectfully
to the priest of St. Damian for the repair of the church, and in aid