Chapter 38

Of the New Testament that he had given to a poor woman, the mother of two brothers

One day, while he was staying at Saint Mary of the Portiuncula, an old poor woman, the mother of two brothers of the Order, came to ask alms from the blessed Francis.

Immediately he said to Brother Peter of Catania, who was then Minister General:

“Do we have anything to give to our mother?”

For he called mother every mother of a brother, as mother of all the brothers. Peter replied:

“In the house, there is nothing that we can give her to provide for her bodily needs. In the church, we have only one New Testament, from which we read the readings at Matins.”

At that time, the brothers had neither breviaries nor many psalters. Then the blessed Francis said:

“Give the Testament to our mother so that she may sell it according to her need. I firmly believe that this will please the Lord and the Blessed Virgin more than if we kept it to read from.”

And he gave it to her.

It may be said of him what is written of the blessed Job:

“From his mother’s womb, compassion went forth with him and grew within him.”

For us who lived with him, to recount everything we heard said about his charity and his piety toward the brothers and other poor people, and even more what we saw with our own eyes, would be long and very difficult to write or to tell.