COLLOQUY XXI
How great should be the Patience of the Friars Minor under Afflictions,
One of his companions once asked the Saint how much the Friars Minor should suffer with patience, and praised him as ab perfect model of this virtue. The holy Father replied : ‘I should not consider myself a Friar Minor unless I acted in the manner I will describe to thee. Supposing that in virtue of my office, and according to the custom of Superiors, I go to the Chapter, I assemble the Brethren, I propose to them the Word of God, and I admonish them of their faults. This being done, the Brethren rise up against me, and say : ” Thou dost not suit us ; thou art not fit for the office of General, or Superior ; how canst thou guide us rightly, how canst thou govern us, since thou art only a poor foolish, ignorant, and illiterate man? Therefore in future presume not to call thyself our Superior.” Thus I am rejected with insults and derision, and turned out by all the Brethren. I tell thee that unless I could hear these words with the same serenity of countenance, the same joy of soul, and the same desire of perfection, as I should hear others pleasing and honourable to me, I should by no means consider myself to be a true Friar Minor. For if I rejoice and exult when they honour me for their own profit, virtue, and devotion, in which nevertheless there is danger for my own soul, how much more ought I to rejoice and be delighted when they abuse me to my own profit and welfare, for this is certainly most advantageous to me. For in governing others there is danger, in praise there is a snare, in humble submission of the soul there is profit.’