to render her sufficient corporal strength to go to the relief of this unhappy woman. She arose before daylight, ran over the house, filled a little sack with meal, took a large bottle of wine, a jug of oil, all the aliments that she could find prepared. She succeeded in gathering these articles together into her cell; but it appeared impossible for her to carry them, all at once to the widow's house. She succeeded however in her pious undertaking assisted by a supernatural strength.
Her maladies followed not the order of nature; God governed them according to his will, as we shall see in the sequel. Catherine imitated several times, notwithstanding her infirmities, the maternal charity of St. Nicholas. In the following incidents we shall see how she renewed the beautiful alms of Saint Martin.
One day while she was in the Church of the Friar Preachers of Sienna, a poor man came to beg an alms "for the love of God." She had not at that moment any thing to give him, as she carried neither gold nor silver. She besought the poor person to accompany her as far as the house, promising to assist him as much as she could But he, who was undoubtedly poor in appearance, answered her: "If you have any thing to give me, give it directly, I entreat you, for it is impossible for me to wait." Catherine would not afflict him more, and sought some means of relieving him. Her eyes fell upon a little silver Cross which was attached to one of those little cords trimmed with knots, on which the Lord's Prayer is recited, and called on that account a "Pater Noster." Catherine instantly broke the cord and offered the little silver Cross to the poor person, who joyfully accepted it, and withdrew at once as though he had not come to ask anything else. The night following, whilst Catharine
