¹⁷⁴He also performed many such powerful signs while he was still living in the flesh.

Thus when he was once passing through the diocese of Rieti he came to a village where a tearful woman carried her eight year old son in her arms and laid him at his feet. The boy for four years had been so hugely swollen that he could not see his legs. The saint took him kindly and passed his truly holy hands over his abdomen. The swelling went down at his touch and the boy was soon healthy. He joined his joyous mother in giving boundless thanks to God and to his saint.

¹⁷⁵A knight of the city of Tuscanella took in blessed Francis as his guest. The man had only one son, who was lame and had no bodily strength. ^{Lk 7:12} Although the young boy was no longer being breast fed, he was still sleeping in a cradle. The knight humbly fell down at his feet, begging him for his son's health. The saint considered himself unworthy of such grace, and said so, but at last was overcome by the persistence of the father's entreaties, he prayed, he signed the boy and blessed him. Immediately the boy stood up and, with the onlookers rejoicing, began to walk all around.

¹⁷⁶Another time when he came to Narni, a man of that city named Pietro was bedridden as a paralytic. Hearing that God's saint had come to Narni, he sent a message to the bishop of the city requesting him to send the servant of the most high God to heal him. This man had been so deprived of the use of all his members, that he could only move his tongue and blink his eyes. The blessed Francis came to him, made the sign of the cross over him from head to toe, and, as the affliction vanished, immediately restored him to his earlier health.

¹⁷⁷At Gubbio, there was a woman with both hands so crippled that she was unable to handle anything with them. When she knew that the man of God had entered the city, she immediately ran to him. With a sad and mournful face, she showed him her crippled hands and begged him to touch them. He was moved by great pity. He touched her hands and healed them. The woman immediately returned home full of joy, made a cheesecake with her own hands, and offered it to the holy man. He kindly took a little of that cake because of the woman's friendly devotion and told her to eat the rest of it with her family.

¹⁷⁸One time Francis went to stay as a guest in the city of Orte. There a boy named Giacomo, who had lain curled up for a long time, came to him with his parents and begged a healing from the saint. After his long infirmity the boy's head was bent to his knees and

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