accomplishment of which was witnessed five years afterwards, when he
placed there the holy virgin Clare and her companions, whom he had
consecrated to Jesus Christ. This prophecy was so well known, that
Saint Clare inserted its very words in the will she made in the year
1253.

At the beginning of the year 1207, Francis, not to remain idle,
undertook a new work. He proposed to restore the church of St. Peter,
which was at a little distance from the town, in consequence of the
devotion with which the purity of his faith inspired him towards the
Prince of the Apostles; and this intention was soon put in force,
because, it having been seen how carefully he had made use of the
donations he had received for his first work, he was now furnished
with what he required, more readily and more abundantly. He now was
desirous of effecting some essential repairs to a third church or
chapel, about a mile from Assisi, which was very ancient, but so
deserted and in such a state of ruin, that it only served as a refuge
for herdsmen in bad weather: its name was St. Mary of the Angels, and
Ottavio, Bishop of Assisi, thus describes its foundation:

"In the year of 352, a year after the appearance in the heavens of a
luminous cross on the 7th of May, in broad daylight, over the City of
Jerusalem, which extended from Mount Calvary to the Mountain of Olives,
a cross which was more brilliant than the sun, as St. Cyril, then
bishop of that city, and one of the eye-witnesses of the phenomenon,
relates in his letter to the Emperor Constantius,--four holy hermits
came from Palestine into Italy, and obtained from Pope Liberius leave
to remain in the Valley of Spoleto, and settled themselves in the
vicinity of Assisi, with the permission of the authorities of the town.
There they built a chapel which was called St. Mary of Josaphat, because