two or three months in that manner: for, though there was no
appearance that any vessel should set sail for the Holy Land, yet
Ignatius and his disciples, who had obliged themselves to wait one year
in expectation of any such opportunity, would not depart from the
territories of the republic till it was totally expired, that they might
have nothing to upbraid themselves, in relation to the vow which they had
made.

Xavier being thus disposed, both by his retirement, and his exterior
employments, at length said his first mass at Vicenza; to which place
Ignatius had caused all his company to resort; and he said it with tears
flowing in such abundance, that his audience could not refrain from
mixing their own with his.

His austere, laborious life, joined with so sensible a devotion, which
often makes too great an impression on the body, so much impaired the
strength of his constitution, that he fell sick, not long after his first
mass. He was carried into one of the own hospitals, which was so crowded,
and so poor, that Xavier had in it but the one half of a wretched bed,
and that too in a chamber which was open on every side. His victuals were
no better than his lodging, and never was sick man more destitute of
human succours. But, in requital, heaven was not wanting to him.

He was wonderfully devoted to St Jerome; and had often had recourse to
that blessed doctor of the church for the understanding of difficult
places in the scripture. The saint appeared to him one night, refulgent
in his beams of glory, and gave him consolation in his sickness; yet, at
the same time, declaring to him, that a far greater affliction than the
present was waiting for him at Bolognia, where himself and one of his
companions were to pass the winter; that some of them should go to Padua,
some to Rome, others to Ferrara, and the remainder of them to Sienna.

This apparition fortified Xavier so much, that he recovered suddenly; yet
whether he had some doubts concerning it, or was of opinion that he
ought to keep it secret, he said nothing of it at that time. But that
which then happened to him made it evident, that the vision was of God:
for Ignatius, who was ignorant of what had been revealed to Xavier,
having assembled his disciples, gave them to understand, that since the
gate of the Holy Land was shut against them, they ought not any longer to
defer the offering of their service to the Pope; that it was sufficient
if some of them went t