St. Felix, [213] St. Vincent, [214] and St. Philip went together once
upon a time to the Pardon of Asisi.
As they were three great saints, the Pope sent for them as soon as
they came back, saying he had a question to ask them. It was Innocent
IX. or X., I am not sure which; but I know it was an Innocent. [215]
He took them one by one, separately, and began with St. Felix.
'Were there a great many people at the Pardon?' said the Pope.
'Oh yes, an immense number,' answered simple St. Felix; 'I had not
thought the whole world contained such a number.'
'Then a vast number of sins must have been remitted that day?' said
the Pope.
St. Felix only sighed in reply.
'Why do you sigh?' asked the Pope.
St. Felix hesitated to reply, but the Pope bade him tell him what
was in his mind.
'There were but few who gained the indulgence in all that multitude,'
replied the Saint; 'for among them all were few who came with the
contrition required.'
'How many were there who did receive it?' again asked the Pope.
Once more St. Felix hesitated till the Pope ordered him to speak.
'There were only four,' he then said.
'Only four!' exclaimed the Pope. 'And who were they?'
St. Felix showed even more reluctance to answer this question than the
others; but the Pope made it a matter of obedience, and then he said,
'The four were Father Philip, Father Vincent, one old man, and one
other.' [216]
The Pope next called for Father Vincent, and went through nearly the
same dialogue with him, and his list was
'Father Philip, Father Felix, one old man, and one other.'
Then the Pope sent for St. Philip, and held the same discourse with
him, and his list was
'Father Vincent, Father Felix, one old man, and one other.'
And the Pope saw that their testimony agreed together, and that each
out of humility had abstained from naming that he was one of the four.
But when the people heard the story, they all began demanding that
the three fathers should be canonized.
[Concerning St. Philip's devotion to the Portiuncula, Cancellieri,
'Mercato,' § xxi. note 7, records that he never missed attending it
every August at the little Church of S. Salvatore, in Onda, near Ponte
Sisto, now a hospice for infirm priests (he gives a curious inscription
in note * * *), then in the hands of the Franciscans for many years,
while he lived in the neighbouring Palazzo Caccia.]