CHAPTER XXIV.

How he went forth to succour and to save his neighbour.

AFTER he had spent many years in attending to his interior life, God urged him, by manifold revelations, to apply himself also to the salvation of his neighbour. The great sufferings which befell him in this work were beyond number and measure. But how many souls were succoured by him was once shown by God to one of His chosen friends named Anna, who was, more over, a spiritual daughter of the Servitor. She was one day rapt in ecstasy at prayer, and she saw the Servitor saying Mass upon a lofty mountain. An innumerable multitude of children were hanging in and on him, but each differently from the rest; for the more any one had of God, the more firmly he rested on the Servitor; and the more inwardly he was drawn into the Servitor, the more perfectly God turned Himself to him. She saw, moreover, that the Servitor was praying earnestly for them all to the ever lasting God, whom he held in his priestly hands. Upon this, she besought God to make known to her what the vision meant. And God answered her in this wise:—The innumerable multitude 101of children who hang upon him are all those who are his penitents or disciples, or are in other ways bound to him by ties of special love and faithfulness. All these he has commended to Me in such sort, that I will guide their life to a good end, and they shall never be parted from My gladsome countenance. What ever heavy sufferings may on this account be fall him, shall be all fully made up to him by the joys which I will give him.

Before the above-named noble maiden be came acquainted with the Servitor of the Eternal Wisdom, she had received from God an interior drawing and desire to see him. Now it happened once that she was rapt in ecstasy, and in the vision a voice bade her go to the place where the Servitor then was, and see him. She answered:—I do not know him among the multitude of the brothers. The voice replied:—It is easy to know him among the others. He has around his head a green ring, entwined round and round with red and white roses, like a garland of roses. The white roses signify his purity, and the red roses his patience amid the manifold sufferings which he must endure; and just as the ring of gold, which it is the custom to paint round the heads of Saints, represents 102the everlasting bliss which they now possess in God, even so the ring of roses indicates the multiplicity of sufferings which God’s dear friends must bear while they are still serving Him in this world with knightly exercises. Then the angel led her in the vision to where he was, and she soon recognised him by the ring of roses which was round his head.

During this same period of suffering, the Servitor’s greatest interior support came from the continual help which the holy angels gave him.

Once upon a time, when his outward senses were absorbed in ecstasy, it seemed to him in a vision that he was carried to a place in which there was a very great number of the angelic host, and that one of those who stood nearest to him said:—Put forth thy hand and look. He put forth his hand and looked; and out of the middle of his hand there sprung up a beautiful red rose, with lovely green leaves. The rose was so large that it covered his hand to his fingers, and it was so beautiful and resplendent that it gave great pleasure to his eyes. He turned his hand round outside and inside, and on both sides it was ravishing to look at. Greatly marvelling in his heart at this, he said:—Dear 103comrade, what means this vision? The youth answered:—It means sufferings upon sufferings, and over again sufferings upon sufferings, which God intends to give thee. This is what is signified by the four roses on thy two hands and thy two feet. The Servitor, with a deep sigh, said:—Alas, gentle Lord! it is a singular ordinance of God that sufferings should cause such pain to men, and yet be so beautiful an adornment to them spiritually.