Friends!
At last here is this book which I told you about so long ago. Theresult is small indeed in relation to the endeavor, as I, alas! seebetter than anyone. The widow of the Gospel put only one mite into thealms-box of the temple, but this mite, they tell us, won her Paradise.Accept the mite that I offer you to-day as God accepted that of the poorwoman, looking not at her offering, but at her love, Feci quod potui,omnia dedi.
Do not chide me too severely for this long delay, for you are somewhatits cause. Many times a day at Florence, at Assisi, at Rome, I haveforgotten the document I had to study. Something in me seemed to havegone to flutter at your windows, and sometimes they opened.... Oneevening at St. Damian I forgot myself and remained long after sunset. Anold monk came to warn me that the sanctuary was closed. "Per Bacco!"he gently murmured as he led me away, all ready to receive myconfidence, "sognava d'amore o di tristitia?" Well, yes. I wasdreaming of love and of sadness, for I was dreaming of Strasbourg.- v -
| PAGE | |
| Introduction, | xi |
CHAPTER I. | |
| Youth, | 1 |
CHAPTER II. | |
| Stages of Conversion, | 15 |
CHAPTER III. | |
| The Church about 1209, | 28 |
CHAPTER IV. | |
| Struggles and Triumphs, | 53 |
CHAPTER V. | |
| First Year of Apostolate, | 71 |
CHAPTER VI. | |
| St. Francis and Innocent III., | 88 |
CHAPTER VII. | |
| Rivo-Torto, | 103 | ...