-for he felt there was some mysterious
reason why God had made him come up this mountain and dwell apart. Then
he told Leo to open the book of the Gospels three times, and see what it
said. And each place Leo opened on was about Christ's Passion.

Then St. Francis felt quite sure that it was God's will that somehow he
should share his Lord's pain, and reach the kingdom of God through
suffering. And he longed very much for this, and also to have in his
heart the love which made Christ so willing to suffer for men.

It was a few days after this that the strange and wonderful thing
happened. St. Francis was kneeling, absorbed in prayer, when suddenly a
wonderful Form came towards him, and stood on a stone a little above
him. Bright and shining was the Form, with the most beautiful, beautiful
face; and His arms were stretched out upon a cross, and feet joined
together. And He had two great wings with which He flew, and two
stretched up above His head, and two covered His body. And as St.
Francis gazed upon this crucified Seraph with the beautiful face full of
pain, a great throb of intense agony shot through his soul and his body,
so that he had never felt such pain or sorrow before. And then the
Seraph spoke to him as to a friend and revealed many mysteries. When He
had gone St. Francis rose from his knees and wondered what it could
mean; and then he saw what it meant. For in his own hands and feet had
come the marks of the crucified Christ: his hands and his feet were
pierced right through with red wounds, and in the palms of the hands and
on the instep of his feet were the round black heads of the nails, and
their points came out the other side, bent back. And in his side was a
big wound, as if made by a spear. And the pain of them all was very
great. And St. Francis understood that he had been allowed by God to
share in Our Lord's Passion.

At first he said nothing to the Friars; but after a while he told them,
but he did not show them the wounds, but kept his hands hidden in his
big sleeves. Only to Leo did he show them, so that he might wash and
bandage them because of the pain and the bleeding.

Then, leaving the Friars on the holy mountain, St. Francis went down
with Leo; but he rode on a donkey, because of the nails in his feet.

He scarcely noticed the places he passed through or the people he saw,
though he did several wonderful miracles. And at last he came home to
his beloved Portiuncola.

St. Francis's b