nsen, who seems already to have been well-disposed toward the
Church, and who had always been known for a wonderful purity of heart
and simplicity of character, listened very willingly to the naive
words of the {151} old religious, who might very well have been his
mother.

Many years later, by the command of her confessor, the good Sister
related the detailed story of his conversion. She began very simply by
telling him one day that if he did not accept the true Catholic faith,
he would surely go to hell. He listened to this without any
impatience, and she said it a number of other times, half jokingly
perhaps, but much more than half in earnest. As he listened so kindly,
she said to him one day that he must pray every day to God to let him
know the truth. This he promised to do and, as she found out from his
servant (what is it these nuns do not find out?) he did pray every
evening. One day, while he was in the apothecary shop, the Angelus
bell rang, and she asked him to say the Angelus. He was perfectly
willing to say the first part of the Hail Mary, but he did not want to
say the second part, as he did not believe in the invocation of the
Blessed Virgin and the saints. Then she asked him to visit the Church
of the Blessed Virgin, the Santissima Nunziata, which he did. After
this she suggested to him that he should abstain from meat on Fridays
and Saturdays, which he promised to do, and which the good nun found
out once more from his servant, he actually did do. And then the
religious thought it was time to suggest that he should consult a
clergyman, and his conversion was not long delayed.

Young Stensen seems to have been the object {152} of solicitude on the
part of a number of the good, elderly women with whom he was brought
in contact. He discussed with Signora Arnolfini the great difficulty
he had in believing the mystery of the Eucharist. Another good woman,
the Signora Lavinia Felice, seeing how interested he was in things
Catholic, succeeded in bringing him to the notice of a prominent
Jesuit in Florence. As his friend, Sister Maria Flavia, had
recommended the same Father to him, he followed the advice all the
more readily, and it was not long before his last doubts were solved.

It was after his conversion that Stensen received his invitation to
become the professor of anatomy at the University of Copenhagen. Much
as he had become attached to Florence, the thought of returning to his
native city was swee