Our Blessed Father held in the very highest esteem the odour of sanctity,
and revered those who by their good example shed it abroad through the
world, not for their own glory, but for the glory of God.
On another occasion when some morose and captious person was finding fault
with the Visitation Order, and after taking exception to it because of its
newness, wound up by saying to Blessed Francis, "And then of what use will
it be to the Church?" The holy Prelate answered pleasantly: "To play the
part of the Queen of Sheba." "And what part is that?" returned the man, "To
render homage to Him who is greater than Solomon, and to fill the whole
militant Jerusalem with perfumes and sweet odours."
In one of his Conferences he expresses the same thought as follows: "In
my opinion the divine Majesty has made choice of you to go forth as
perfume-bearers, seeing that He has commissioned you to go and scatter far
and wide the sweet odours of the virtues of your Institute. And as young
maidens love sweet odours (for the Bride in the Canticle of Canticles says
that the name of her Beloved is _as oil_, or balm, shedding on all sides
the sweetest perfumes, and _therefore_, she adds, the _young maidens_
have followed Him, attracted by His divine perfumes), so do you, my dear
sisters, as perfume-bearers of the Divine Goodness, go forth, shedding
all around the incomparable sweetness of sincere humility, gentleness,
and charity, so that many young maidens may be attracted thereby, and may
embrace your manner of life, and that they may even in this world enjoy,
like you, a holy loving peace and tranquillity of soul, and in the world to
come eternal happiness."