he bier to testify
to the truth of their teaching. Curing the cripple and restoring health
to the sick were of ordinary occurrence. Our blessed Lord told the
messengers who came to enquire about him to report his miracles as
a proof of his divinity: the blind see, the lame walk, the sick are
restored to health; but greater than all his reversions of the natural
laws were the humility and the mysterious arrangement of his providence
which he prophetically announced when he told his disciples that those
who should come after him would perform greater miracles than he.
There are few of the Thaumaturgi more celebrated than the humble father
who has just issued from the Gesu to thunder forth with superhuman
eloquence the truths of God and religion.

No sooner had the people heard the little bell of the attendant and
seen the venerable priest leave the college than they gathered from
various quarters, and seemed to vie with each other in getting nearest
to him.

He was a tall, thin man, his hair gray, shading a majestic forehead,
and but slightly wrinkled with the summers of over sixty years; his
eyes were partly closed, but when preaching they glowed with animation,
and were brightened by the tears that dimmed them; his long, wiry
fingers were interlocked and raised towards his breast in the attitude
of deep contemplation. The rough soutane and leather belt, the beads
and missionary cross partly hid in his breast, declared him to be a
follower of St. Ignatius. In the hallowed austerity of his whole
appearance, in the sweetness blended with religious gravity, and in
the respect and love manifested in the ever increasing crowd, one
easily learned he was more than an ordinary man. The people of Naples
knew him by the endearing name of Brother Francis; history has since
written his name in letters of gold on the alters of the Catholic
Church as St. Francis of Jerome.

It must have been a treat to the people who heard such saints as Francis
of Jerome preach. Natural eloquences is a rare and powerful gift;
when guided by education and study, the talent exercises a marvellous
influence on man; but add to these two a zeal and fervor of spirit
such as burned in the mortified spirit of the man of God, and we have
a power that is nothing short of supernatural and irresistible.

From a heart all aglow with divine love he soon enkindled in his hearers
that fire his divine Master came to kindle on earth. His sermons were
mira