for Christ's message to him had been 'Go ye into all the world.' He had
set out many times, but always something had prevented him from getting
far, until at last he succeeded in reaching the land of the Saracens
where the Crusaders were fighting. His great hope was that he might see
the Sultan and teach him about Christ, so that all his people might
become Christians. He had no fear at all, and when every one warned him
that he would certainly be put to death, he said that would be a small
matter if only he could teach the heathen about God.
But although the Sultan received Francis, and listened to all he had to
say, he only shook his head and refused to believe without a sign.
Then Francis grew more and more eager to convince him, and asked that a
great fire should be made, and that he and the heathen priests should
pass through it, saying that whoever came out unharmed should be held to
be the servant of the true God. But the heathen priests all refused to
do this, and so poor Francis had to return home, having, he feared, done
no good, but hoping the good might follow afterwards.
These weary journeys and all the toil and hardship of his daily life
began to make Francis weak and ill. Many things troubled him too; for
the brothers did not love poverty as he did, and they began to make new
rules and to forget what he had taught them. But in the midst of all
trouble, he remained the same humble servant of Christ, always thinking
of new ways to serve his Master.
[Illustration: HE CHANTED THE GOSPEL AT THE FIRST CHRISTMAS MASS.]
There was no time Francis loved so much as Christmas. He loved to feel
that all living things were happy on that day. He used to say that he
wished that all governors and lords of the town and country might be
obliged to scatter corn over the roads and fields, so that 'our sisters
the larks,' and all the birds might feast as well. And because the ox
and the ass shared the stable with the Holy Child, he thought they
should be provided with more than ordinary food each Christmas Eve.
He wished every one to remember how poor and lowly our Lord was on that
night when He came as a little child; and so on Christmas Eve he made a
stable in the chapel, and brought in an ox and an ass and a tiny crib
and manger. In the manger he placed the figure of a baby to represent
the infant Christ, and there in the early hours of the Christmas
morning, he chanted the gospel at the first Christmas Mass.
It was in the spring of the year that Francis first went to the
hermitage among the mountains, which he loved better than any other
place. It was a small hut high among the Apennines, among crags and
rocks far away from any other place. Here he could wander about the
woods, which were carpeted with spring flowers, and hear his little
sisters the birds singing all day long.
And here one day, as he knelt thinking of all his dear Lord had
suffered, a wonderful thing happened. The thought of all that trouble
and pain seemed more than he could bear, and he prayed that he might be
allowed to suffer as his Master had done. And as he prayed, seeing only
before him the crucified Christ with nail-pierced hands and wounded
side, God sent the answer to his prayer, and in his hands and feet deep
marks appeared, as though there had been nails driven through them, and
in his side a wound as if from the cruel thrust of a spear.
And so Francis learned to suffer as his Master had suffered, and through
all the pain he only gave God thanks that he had been thought worthy to
bear the marks that Jesus bore.
Francis did not live very long after this for he grew weaker and weaker,
and they carried him back to the old house at Saint Mary of the Angels.
There the Little Poor Brothers gathered round him, and he spoke his last
words to them, bidding them live always as he had taught them to live,
in poverty and lowliness. And when evening came, and the birds he loved
so much were singing their vesper hymns, his voice joined in their
praise until his soul passed away to the Lord whom he had tried to serve
so humbly, and in whose footsteps he had sought to place his own.