The Treatise on the Miracles of Saint Francis - 443 

the feast out of divine reverence. She answered, "I only have a little of my work left to finish: Let the Lord see whether I'm doing wrong!" She soon saw the harsh judgment, in her daughter, who was sitting nearby. The girl's mouth twisted back to her ears and her eyes bulged, pitifully distorted. Women gathered quickly from all around and cursed the mother's ungodliness on account of the innocent daughter. The mother was overcome with sorrow and fell to the ground, promising to observe the feast annually, and further to feed the poor on that day out of reverence for the saint. Her daughter's troubles subsided without delay, once the mother had repented of her offense.

104Matteo of Tolentino had a daughter named Francesca. He was quite upset when the brothers moved to another place, and he took to calling his daughter Mattea, depriving her of Francis's name. Soon she lost her health as well as her name. Because his action involved contempt for the father and hatred for his sons, his daughter fell gravely ill to the point of being in danger of death. Thereupon the man suffered bitter sorrow over the passing of his daughter. When his wife rebuked him for his hatred of the servants of God and his contempt of the saint's name, he quickly returned devoutly to the first name and reinstated to the daughter the title of which she had been deprived. Then, with fatherly tears, he took his daughter to the place of the brothers where she recovered her health as well as her name.

105A woman of Pisa, unaware that she was pregnant, put in a hard day of work on a church of Saint Francis being built in that city. Saint Francis, led by two brothers carrying candles, appeared to her in the night and said, "Daughter, behold: you have conceived and are bearing a son. You will rejoice over him if you give him my name." When her time for delivery arrived, she gave birth to a son."He will be named Enrico," said her mother-in-law, "after one of our relatives." "No," said his mother, "he is to be called Francesco." The mother-in-law scoffed at this noble name as if it were for peasants. A few days later when the baby was to be baptized, he became weak almost to the point of death. The whole household was saddened, their joy turned into sorrow. Jas 4:9 The mother's distress kept her awake that night. Saint Francis came with the two brothers as before and, as if disturbed, said to her, "Did I not tell you that you would not rejoice over this son unless you gave him my name?" She began to shout and swear that she would give him no other name. In the end the boy, graced with the name Francesco, was both baptized and healed. The boy was given the grace of not crying; his infant years passed happily.

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Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 2, p. 443