COLLOQUY II
The Friars Minor ought not to Reserve for themselves any of the Goods of the Novices.
When there was such great poverty at St. Mary of the Angels that they could not provide for the necessities of the guests who came, the Vicar went to the man of God, and representing to him the extreme want of the Brethren, begged him to allow them to reserve some of the goods of novices who entered, as a fund to which they might have recourse in time of need. To which the Saint, enlightened from above, replied : ‘Far be it from us, dearest Brother, to act contrary to our Rule for the sake of any man. I would rather strip the altar of the glorious Virgin if necessity required it, than allow the least thing against our vow of Poverty, and the regular observance of our evangelical profession. For it would be more pleasing to the Blessed Virgin that we should observe the holy Gospel perfectly, and leave her altar unadorned, than that we should decorate her altar, and fail in fulfilling the evangelical counsel which we have promised to her Son’