process of her
canonization {552} attest. She was extremely affected by meditating on
our Saviour's passion, which she had always present to her mind. At mass
she was so absorbed in God as to seem immoveable, especially after holy
communion: she often fell into ecstasies of love and devotion. She was
particularly devout to St. John the Evangelist, and above all to our
Lady, under whose singular protection she put her Order. Going out to
see her son John Baptist, who was dangerously sick, she fell so ill
herself that she could not return to her monastery at night. After
having foretold her death, and received the sacraments, she expired on
the 9th of March, in the year 1440, and of her age the fifty-sixth. God
attested her sanctity by miracles: she was honored among the saints
immediately after her death, and solemnly canonized by Paul V. in 1608.
Her shrine in Rome is most magnificent and rich: and her festival is
kept as a holyday in the city, with great solemnity. The Oblates make no
solemn vows, only a promise of obedience to the mother-president, enjoy
pensions, inherit estates, and go abroad with leave. Their abbey in Rome
is filled with ladies of the first rank.

In a religious life, in which a regular distribution of holy employments
and duties takes up the whole day, and leaves no interstices of time for
idleness, sloth, or the world, hours pass in these exercises with the
rapidity of moments, and moments by fervor of the desires bear the value
of years. There is not an instant in which a soul is not employed for
God, and studies not with her whole heart to please him. Every step,
every thought and desire, is a sacrifice of fidelity, obedience, and
love offered to him. Even meals, recreation, and rest, are sanctified by
this intention; and from the religious vows and habitual purpose of the
soul of consecrating herself entirely to God in time and eternity, every
action, as St. Thomas teaches, renews and contains the fervor and merit
of this entire consecration, of which it is a part. In a secular life, a
person by regularity in the employment of his time, and fervor in
devoting himself to God in all his actions and designs, may in some
degree enjoy the same happiness and advantage. This St. Frances
perfectly practised, even before she renounced the world. She lived
forty years with her husband without ever giving him the least occasion
of offence; and by the fervor with which she conversed of heaven, she
seemed