f his companions, he reproached
himself as for a grave sin against modesty. He cultivated silence, as
preserving from sins of the tongue; and his greatest penance was the
limit which his superiors set to his bodily penances. He sought after
false accusations and unjust reprimands as opportunities of humility;
and such was his obedience that, when a room-mate, having no more
paper, asked him for a sheet, he did not feel free to give it to him
without first obtaining the permission of the superior, who, as such,
stood in the place of God, and transmitted his orders.

[213] In his boyish note-book he praises the monastic life for its
freedom from sin, and for the imperishable treasures, which it enables
us to store up, "of merit in God's eyes which makes of Him our debtor
for all Eternity." Loc. cit., p. 62.

I can find no other sorts of fruit than these of Louis's saintship. He
died in 1591, in his twenty-ninth year, and is known in the Church as
the patron of all young people. On his festival, the altar in the
chapel devoted to him in a certain church in Rome "is embosomed in
flowers, arranged with exquisite taste; and a pile of letters may be
seen at its foot, written to the Saint by young men and women, and
directed to 'Paradiso.' They are supposed to be burnt unread except by
San Luigi, who must find singular petitions in these pretty little
missives, tied up now with a green ribbon, expressive of hope, now with
a red one, emblematic of love," etc.[214]

[214] Mademoiselle Mori, a novel quoted in Hare's Walks in Rome, 1900,
i. 55.

I cannot resist the temptation to quote from Starbuck's book, p. 388,
another case of purification by elimination. It runs as follows:--

"The signs of abnormality which sanctified persons show are of frequent
occurrence. They get out of tune with other people; often they will
have nothing to do with churches, which they regard as worldly; they
become hypercritical towards others; they grow careless of their
social, political, and financial obligations. As an instance of this
type may be mentioned a woman of sixty-eight of whom the writer made a
special study. She had been a member of one of the most active and
progressive churches in a busy part of a large city. Her pastor
described her as having reached the censorious stage. She had grown
more and more out of sympathy with the church; her connection with it
finally consisted simply in attendance at prayer-meeting,