69, and was baptized John, in
honor of St. John the Baptist. His mother dedicated him to God by a vow
from his infancy. His father, Euphemius, sent him to Aix, where he
learned grammar, fencing, riding, and other exercises fit for a young
nobleman. But his chief attention was to advance in virtue. He gave the
poor a considerable part of the money his parents sent him for his own
use: he visited the hospital every Friday, assisting the poor sick,
dressing and cleansing their sores, and affording them all the comfort
in his power.

Being returned home, he begged his father's leave to continue the pious
exercises he had begun, and retired to a little hermitage not far from
Faucon, with the view of living at a distance from the world, and united
to God alone by mortification and prayer. But finding his solitude
interrupted by the frequent visits of his friends, he desired his
father's consent to go to Paris to study divinity, which he easily
obtained. He went through these more sublime studies with extraordinary
success, and proceeded doctor of divinity with uncommon applause, though
his modesty gave him a reluctancy in that honor. He was soon after
ordained priest, and said his first mass in the bishop of Paris's
chapel, at which the bishop himself, Maurice de Sully, the abbots of St.
Victor and of St. Genevieve. and the rector of the {380} university,
assisted; admiring the graces of heaven in him, which appeared in his
extraordinary devotion on this occasion, as well as at his ordination.

On the day he said his first mass, by a particular inspiration from God,
he came to a resolution of devoting himself to the occupation of
ransoming Christian slaves from the captivity they groaned under among
the infidels: considering it as one of the highest acts of charity with
respect both to their souls and bodies. But before he entered upon so
important a work, he thought it needful to spend some time in
retirement, prayer, and mortification. And having heard of a holy
hermit, St. Felix Valois, living in a great wood near Gandelu, in the
diocese of Meux, he repaired to him and begged he would admit him into
his solitude, and instruct him in the practice of perfection. Felix soon
discovered him to be no novice, and would not treat him as a disciple,
but as a companion. It is incredible what progress these two holy
solitaries made in the paths of virtue, by perpetual prayer,
contemplation, fasting, and watching.

One day, sitting