Page:Goldenlegendlive00jaco.djvu/252

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
238
S. Clare

truth; it is read that as soon as S. Clare heard the renomee of S. Francis—it was spread over all the world as it were a new man sent into the world, showing how we ought to follow the new way of Jesu Christ—she never might have rest in her heart till she was come to him, and that to him she had opened her heart. Then after she had sweetly understood him, and had received of him many a holy, sweet, and angelic word, S. Francis exhorted her above all other things to flee the world both with heart and her body. And to this he enjoined her that on Palm Sunday she should hallow the feast with the other people, but the night following, in remembrance of the passion of Jesu Christ, she should turn her joy into weeping and afflictions, for in such wise to weep the passion of Jesu Christ, finally she might come to heaven as virgin and espouse of God, well eurous and happy. Fourthly, how she had no quietness in her heart till she had accomplished her thought and purpose; it is read that S. Clare, thus informed of S. Francis, could have no rest in her heart till that, the night assigned and the hour, she issued out of the city of Assisi, in which she dwelled, and came to the church of our Lady of Portiuncula. And there the friars received her, which awoke in the said church, and abode for her tofore the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And there her hair was cut off, and after, they led her into an abbey of nuns and there left her. Fifthly, how her friends despised this work ordained by our Lord; it is read when this lady was thus ordained, she laboured and did so much