ecial admiration in this race,
for they abhor visiting hospitals. The sodality members, although poor,
offer the usual alms to the church and to those who are in need. They
are given to hearing sermons and to fasting, being content for whole
weeks with bread and water. They are glad to go to our churches for
confession and spiritual instruction, and obtain great spiritual
benefit and edification.

A certain Christian woman who was for a long time held in slavery to
the infidels in the islands of Mindanao and Borneo, which are given
to the faith of Mahomet, could not be torn from the true belief,
or be persuaded to the worship of idols, although she visited many
of their places.

An Indian man, who along with some others had made his confession
that he might receive the holy communion, declares that he had kept
silent as to the circumstances of some sins; and that in a vision he
saw a beautiful child offering to him the holy eucharist. But when
he answered that he was a great sinner, the child replied: "Thou
are indeed not worthy of the communion, for in thy confession thou
hast hidden such and such a circumstance." Therefore when he awoke
he hurried to our church, revealed the vision to one of the fathers,
and desired to repeat his confession.

Another had so accustomed himself to the scourging of his body that
one day when he was required to march with a troop of soldiers,
he withdrew from it in the night, in order that he might not omit
this holy exercise. When the officer of the infantry, going his
rounds at night, secretly perceived this, he thought the man was
meditating some mischief, and silently followed him. At last he saw
him enter the cemetery of a church, and after pouring forth prayers
to God, beat his back severely. When the scourging was finished, the
officer approached; and when he recognized this Indian, he was even
more edified. And when he asked him where he was from, he answered
that he came from the city of Manila, and said that he was in the
habit of confessing to Ours. The captain, marveling that a tyro in
the Christian religion should take such care of his soul's health,
gave him some money and told him to go back home, that he might not
be perverted by the habits of the soldiery.

A priest with a brother as his companion was sent off as on a
mission to some Seilan villages, which, being without parish priests,
needed instruction. When they reached there the plague was raging;
and the fathe