the agency of Isabel,
both in the reformation of morals and in the many who were converted
from their blind paganism, the fathers sent her to preach in the
streets and open places where the people gathered to hear her--some
through curiosity, and others carried away by her wonderful grace in
speaking. By that means many souls were captured and entreated baptism,
for she was a zealous worker and an apostolic coadjutor in that flock
of the Lord. She also entered the houses of the obstinate ones who
did not go to hear her in the streets. There, with mild discourses
and full of charity, she softened their hearts and inclined them to
receive the faith.

After some years of employment in that kind of apostolic life her
husband died. Upon being freed from the conjugal yoke she desired
to subject her neck to that of religion. Father Fray Jacinto de San
Fulgencio, at that time vicar-provincial of that province, gave her
our habit of mantelata or beata. She recognized, as she was very
intelligent and experienced in the road to perfection, that her
obligations to make herself useful were stricter, that she must live
a better life and employ the talent which she had received from God
for the benefit of her neighbor, and she did so. One cannot easily
imagine the diligence with which she sought souls; the means that
she contrived to draw them from the darkness of heathendom. What
paths did she not take! What hardships did she not suffer! She went
from one part to another discussing with the spirit and strength,
not of a weak woman, but of a strong man. The Lord whose cause she
was advancing aided her; for the solicitation of souls for God is a
service much to His satisfaction.

She finally saw all that province of Butuan converted to the faith
of Jesus Christ, for which she very joyfully gave thanks. She retired
then to give herself to divine contemplation, for she thought that she
ought to get ready to leave the world as she had devoted so much time
to the welfare of her neighbor. She sought instruction from Sister
Clara Caliman (whose life we have written above), and imitated her
in her penitences, her fastings, and her mode of life, so that she
became an example of virtues.

For long hours did Isabel pray devoutly; she visited the sick; she
served them; she exhorted them to repentance for their sins and to bear
their sorrows with patience. She devoted herself so entirely to those
works of charity that it seemed best to our fat