as a suitable candidate for his Order,
bidding him present the letter to the superior, who lived at a
distance. The young man, desirous of joining the Order, started on his
journey with a companion named Mathias, who had no notion of becoming
a religious. On the way, the would-be religious changed his mind, and
abandoning his project, gave the letter to Mathias, who was ignorant
of its contents, requesting him to bring it to the superior. The
superior read the letter, and thinking the recommendation referred to
Mathias, said to him, "Very well, you may go to the novitiate, and put
on the habit." Mathias wondered, but obeyed, entered the novitiate,
and became a holy religious.

St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, and the foremost man of his age, was
so handsome and attractive in youth, that the evil-minded laid snares
against his chastity. To escape their wiles he determined to enter the
Cistercian monastery of Citeaux. His father and brothers endeavored to
dissuade him from his purpose, but instead, by his fervid
exhortations, he induced four of his brothers and others, to the
number of thirty, to enter with him. As the party was leaving home,
little Nivard, the sole remaining boy of the family, was at play with
some companions. Guido, the eldest of the brothers, embraced him and
said, "My dear Nivard, we are going, and this castle and lands will
all be yours." The child, "with wisdom beyond his years," the
chronicler tells us, "replied, 'what, are you taking heaven for
yourselves, and leaving earth to me? The division is not fair.'" And
from that day nothing could pacify the boy, until he was permitted to
join his brothers.

St. Alphonsus Liguori, who is said to have always preserved his
baptismal innocence, was so brilliant a student that at the age of
sixteen he had obtained two degrees in the University of Naples.
Entering on the practice of the law, he one day in a trial before the
court, by an oversight, misstated the evidence. His attention being
called to his error, he was so overwhelmed with shame and confusion at
his apparent lack of truthfulness, that on returning home he
exclaimed, "World, I know you now, Courts, you shall never see me
more." And for three days he refused food. He then determined to
become a priest, and in the ministry he attained great sanctity. He
founded the well-known Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,
commonly called the Redemptorists; and for his voluminous doctrinal
writings, Pi