internam et supernaturalem magis pandit quam narrat actiones
suas mere humanas" (Bollandists, n. 2).



Chapter I.


Childhood and Early Impressions. The Blessing of Pious Parents.
Desire of Martyrdom. Death of the Saint's Mother.


1. I had a father and mother, who were devout and feared God.
Our Lord also helped me with His grace. All this would have been
enough to make me good, if I had not been so wicked. My father
was very much given to the reading of good books; and so he had
them in Spanish, that his children might read them. These books,
with my mother's carefulness to make us say our prayers, and to
bring us up devout to our Lady and to certain Saints, began to
make me think seriously when I was, I believe, six or seven years
old. It helped me, too, that I never saw my father and mother
respect anything but goodness. They were very good themselves.
My father was a man of great charity towards the poor, and
compassion for the sick, and also for servants; so much so, that
he never could be persuaded to keep slaves, for he pitied them so
much: and a slave belonging to one of his brothers being once in
his house, was treated by him with as much tenderness as his own
children. He used to say that he could not endure the pain of
seeing that she was not free. He was a man of great
truthfulness; nobody ever heard him swear or speak ill of any