cked
leper; "May God give thee peace, my most dear brother," he said
to him as he drew near.

"And what peace," asked the leper, "can I receive from God, who
has taken away my peace and every good thing, and has made my
body a mass of stinking and corruption?"

St. Francis said to him: "My brother, be patient, for God gives
us diseases in this world for the salvation of our souls, and
when we endure them patiently they are the fountain of great
merit to us."

"How can I endure patiently continual pains which torture me day
and night? And it is not only my disease that I suffer from, but
the friars that you gave me to wait upon me are unendurable, and
do not take care of me as they ought."

Then St. Francis perceived that this leper was possessed by the
spirit of evil, and he betook himself to his knees in order to
pray for him. Then returning he said to him: "My son, since you
are not satisfied with the others, I will wait upon you."

"That is all very well, but what can you do for me more than
they?"

"I will do whatever you wish."

"Very well; I wish you to wash me from head to foot, for I smell
so badly that I disgust myself."

Then St. Francis made haste to heat some water with many
sweet-smelling herbs; next he took off the leper's clothes and
began to bathe him, while a Brother poured out the water. And
behold, by a divine miracle, wherever St. Francis touched him
with his holy hands the leprosy disappeared and the flesh became
perfectly sound. And in proportion as the flesh was healed the
soul of the wretched man was also healed, and he began to feel a
lively sorrow for his sins, and to weep bitterly.... And being
completely healed both in body and soul, he cried with all his
might: "Woe unto me, for I have deserved hell for the abuses and
outrages which I have said and done to the Brothers, for my
impatience and my blasphemies."

One day, Brother John, whose simplicity we have already seen, and who
had been especially put in charge of a certain leper, took him for a
walk to Portiuncula, as if he had not been the victim of a contagious
malady. Reproaches were not spared him; the leper heard them and could
not hide his sadness and distress; it seemed to him like being a second
time banished from the world. Francis was quick to remark all this and
to feel sharp remorse