leasure was to read the lives of the saints,
converse with pious persons or to pray. When not at home or at school
he was in church, either kneeling or lying prostrate before a crucifix,
"with a perseverance that astonished everybody". S. Dominic himself,
preaching at Fiesole, made him a Dominican, his answers to an
examination of the whole decree of Gratian being the deciding cause,
although Little Antony was then but sixteen. As a priest he was
"never seen at the altar but bathed in tears". After being prior of
a number of convents and a counsellor of much weight in convocation,
he was made Archbishop of Florence: but was so anxious to avoid the
honour and responsibility that he hid in the island of Sardinia. On
being discovered he wrote a letter praying to be excused and watered it
with his tears; but at last he consented and was consecrated in 1446.

As archbishop his life was a model of simplicity and solicitude. He
thought only of his duties and the well-being of the poor. His purse
was open to all in need, and he "often sold" his single mule in order
to relieve some necessitous person. He gave up his garden to the growth
of vegetables for the poor, and kept an ungrateful leper whose sores
he dressed with his own hands. He died in 1459 and was canonized in
1523. His body was still free from corruption in 1559, when it was
translated to the chapel in S. Marco prepared for it by the Salviati.

But perhaps the good Antonino's finest work was the foundation of a
philanthropic society of Florentines which still carries on its good
work. Antonino's sympathy lay in particular with the reduced families
of Florence, and it was to bring help secretly to them--too proud to
beg--that he called for volunteers. The society was known in the city
as the Buonuomini (good men) of S. Martino, the little church close to
Dante's house, behind the Badia: S. Martin being famous among saints
for his impulsive yet wise generosity with his cloak.

The other and most famous prior of S. Marco was Savonarola. Girolamo
Savonarola was born of noble family at Ferrara in 1452, and after a
profound education, in which he concentrated chiefly upon religion and
philosophy, he entered the Dominican order at the age of twenty-two. He
first came to S. Marco at the age of thirty and preached there in
Lent in 1482, but without attracting much notice. When, however, he
returned to S. Marco seven years later it was to be instantly hailed
both as a powerf