16
HOW HE DID NOT WANT TO SATISFY HIS BODY WITH THINGS
THAT HE THOUGHT OTHER BROTHERS WERE LACKING

One time blessed Francis was staying at the hermitage of Sant'Eleuterio in the district of Rieti. Since he was wearing only one tunic, as was his custom, one day because of the extreme cold, he patched his tunic and that of his companion with scraps of cloth on the inside, so that his body began to be comforted a little.

A short while afterwards, when he was returning from prayer, he said with great joy to his companion: "I must be the form and example of all the brothers; so, although it is necessary for my body to have a tunic with patches, nevertheless I must take into consideration my other brothers who have the same need, but perhaps do not and cannot have this. Therefore, in this I must stay down with them and I must suffer those same necessities they suffer so that in seeing this in me, they may be able to bear them more patiently."

We who were with him cannot express in words or in writing how many and how great were the necessities that he denied his body to give good example to the brothers and so that they would endure their necessities in greater patience. For after the brothers began to multiply, his highest and principal goal was to teach the brothers, more by actions than by words, what they ought to do and what they ought to avoid.

17
HOW HE WAS ASHAMED TO SEE ANYONE POORER THAN HIMSELF

Once when he met a poor man, noticing his dire poverty, he said to his companion: "This man's poverty brings great shame on us; it passes judgment on our poverty. For I am most ashamed when I find someone poorer than myself. I chose holy poverty as my Lady, my delight, and my riches of spirit and body. And the whole world has heard this news, that I professed poverty before God and people."

18
HOW HE MOTIVATED AND TAUGHT THE FIRST BROTHERS
WHO WERE ASHAMED TO GO BEGGING

When Francis began to have brothers, he was so happy about their conversion and that the Lord had given him good company, that he loved and revered them so much that he did not tell them to

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Quod nolebat satisfacere suo corpori de iis quibus
putabat alios fratres indigere.
Caput 16.

¹Cum maneret beatus Franciscus apud eremitorium Sancti Eleutherii de contra Reate, propter magnum frigus repetiavit tunicam suam et tunicam socii sui interius quibusdam petiis, ²quia non portabat nisi unam tunicam, scilicet habitualem; ita quod corpus ejus inde coepit aliquantulum consolari.

³Et parum post, cum reverteretur ab oratione, cum magna laetitia dixit socio suo: « Me oportet esse formam et exemplum omnium fratrum, ⁴et ideo, licet corpori meo sit necesse habere tunicam repetiatam, tamen considerare me oportet alios fratres meos, quibus istud idem necesse est, et ipsi forsitan non habent nec habere possunt. ⁵Unde in hoc me oportet condescendere eis ut ego patiar easdem necessitates quas et ipsi patiuntur, ut hoc videntes in me, magis patienter valeant sustinere ».

⁶Quot enim et quantas necessitates suo corpori denegaverit, ut fratribus daret bonum exemplum, et ipsi magis patienter suas indigentias tolerarent, nos qui cum eo fuimus non possumus verbis vel litteris explicare. ⁷Nam postquam fratres coeperunt multiplicari, in hoc summum et praecipuum studium habuit ut magis operibus quam verbis fratres doceret quid deberent agere vel vitare.

Quod verecundabatur videre aliquem pauperiorem se.
Caput 17.

¹Cum semel obviasset cuidam pauperculo homini, considerans ejus paupertatem, dixit socio suo: « Magnam verecundiam intulit nobis paupertas istius et multum reprehendit paupertatem nostram; ²nam maxima verecundia est mihi cum invenio aliquem pauperiorem me, cum sanctam paupertatem elegerim pro mea domina et pro meis deliciis et divitiis, spiritualibus et corporalibus, ³et vox ista insonuerit toti mundo, scilicet quod professus sum paupertatem coram Deo et hominibus ».

Qualiter induxit et docuit primos fratres
ut irent pro eleemosyna quia verecundabantur.
Caput 18.

¹Cum coepisset beatus Franciscus habere fratres, tantum laetabatur de conversione illorum et quod Dominus dederat ei societatem bonam, atque in tantum diligebat et venerabatur eos quod non dicebat eis ut irent pro eleemosynis;