Since our Blessed Father was not, like the martyrs, privileged to offer his
body, both by living and dying, as a victim for God, he found out, with the
ingenuity of love, a method of self-humiliation and self-sacrifice to be
carried out after his death.
When quite young and still pursuing his studies at Padua, falling
dangerously ill, and his life being despaired of, he begged his tutor to
see that when he was dead his body should be given into the hands of the
surgeons for dissection. "Having been of so little use to my neighbour in
life," he said, "I shall thus at least, after my death, be able to render
him some small service."
Happily for us, God in His great mercy spared this precious life, being
contented, as in the case of the sacrifice of Isaac, with the offering of
His faithful servant's will and with his generous contempt for his own
flesh.
A motive which urged Blessed Francis to the above resolution, besides his
desire of self-humiliation and immolation, was the hope of putting an end
to the scandalous practice then prevailing among the surgical and medical
students at Padua of secretly by night going to the cemeteries to disinter
newly-buried bodies. This they did when they had failed to obtain those
of criminals from the officers of justice. Innumerable evils, quarrels,
and even murders resulted from this practice, and the indignation of the
relatives and friends of the deceased persons whose corpses were stolen may
be imagined. By setting the example of a voluntary surrender of his own
body for dissection our Blessed Father hoped to diminish such orders.