¹⁵²A woman in the Marittima^a had lost her mind for five years and was unable to see or hear. She tore her clothes with her teeth and had no fear of the dangers of fire or water. And lately she suffered terribly from falling sickness she had contracted.

One night, as divine mercy prepared to show her mercy, she drifted into a healing sleep. She saw blessed Francis seated on a ^{Is 6:1} beautiful throne, and prostrate before him she humbly begged for her health. As he still had not granted her request, she made a vow, promising for love of him never to refuse alms, as long as she had them, to anyone who asked. The saint immediately recognized the same pact he had once made with God,^b and signing her with the sign of the cross he restored her to full health.

¹⁵³A girl of Norcia appeared listless for some time and it was eventually clear she was troubled by a devil. For she would often gnash her teeth and tear at herself. She would not avoid dangerous heights, nor did she fear any hazard. Then she lost her speech and was deprived of the use of her limbs, and became totally irrational.

Her parents were tormented by the confusion of their offspring; they tied her on a stretcher mounted on a draft animal and took her to Assisi. During the celebration of Mass on the feast of the Lord's Circumcision, she lay prone before the altar of Saint Francis. Suddenly she vomited some damnable thing—I can't say what—and then got up on her feet. She kissed the altar of Saint Francis, and now fully free of her illness she shouted, "Praise the Lord and His holy one!"

¹⁵⁴The son of a nobleman was tormented by falling sickness, no less horrible than painful. He foamed at the mouth and he looked at everything with a wild expression, and from his abused limbs he would spit out—I can't say what—something diabolical. His parents cried out to the saint of God, begging a cure, and offering their pitiful son to his feelings of pity. So the friend of mercy appeared one night to the mother while she slept and said to her, "See, I have come now to save your son." The woman was awakened by his voice and got up trembling, and found her son fully cured.

¹⁵⁵What great power Francis demonstrated over demons in his lifetime, should not, in my judgment, be kept secret.

One time the man of God was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God in a village of San Gemini. He received hospitality from a God-fearing man whose wife was troubled by a demon, as all were aware. When blessed Francis was asked to help her, he refused, because he feared the peoples' applause. ^{Mt 15:22} Since so many

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