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323 ST. FRANCES 323 parents, sbe married Lorenzo PoDzianiy 1396. He encouraged her in the striot observance of religions duties and in all good works. During the forty years of their married life no dispute or unkind- ness ever arose to mar the harmony of their union. Some historians say that she took the Third Order of St. Francis on her marriage, or on her recovery from a serious illness, which she had immediately after her marriage, but this is denied by Baillet and some other esteemed writers. She avoided places of gaiety and amusement, and gave all her spare time and money to works of charity. She wore a hair shirt, and used a dis- cipline made of six cords each armed with a sharp-pointed rowel. She dressed in the coarsest serge and used no linen. She took an affectionate interest in the temporal and spiritual welfare of her servants, and arranged the affairs of her house with the greatest economy and order. She never allowed her religious observances to interfere with her domestic duties, saying that " a wife must when necessary leave her devotions at the altar and find God in her household affairs." So that when called away from her prayers by her husband or any of the servants, she always obeyed the summons without a murmur. Once when she was reciting the office of the Virgin Mary, she was called away four times at the beginning of the passage, '* Tenu- isti manum dexteram meam et in volun- tate tua deduxisti me, et cum gloria suscepisti me " (Ps. Ixxiii. 23, 24). On returning to her devotions for the fifth time, she found the words written in letters of golden light by her guardian angel. She used to go into her vineyards outside the Porta San Paolo to gather faggots for the poor, which she some- times carried home in her arms, or if they were too large and heavy, she used to lay them on an ass and walk beside it. On these expeditions she wore the coarse rough dress of the poorest class. Her example and influence caused several Roman ladies to withdraw from the luxury, idleness, and vanity of their ordinary life. They joined the con- gregation of Mount Olivet, of which Frances was already a member. This was a brotherhood to which laymen and women were admitted without renouncing their secular condition and worldly duties. They were only bound to lead a godly and virtuous life, and to observe certain devotional practices. About 1413, at the time of the Council of Constance, and during the schism which divided the Church, Ladislas, king of Naples, invaded Bome. In one of the fights in the streets, Lorenzo Ponziani was stabbed in the back, as had been foretold by his little son Evangelist. He was afterwards banished with his brother Paoluccio ; his property was confiscated, and his eldest son, John Baptist, was imprisoned. All these trials were bome by St. Frances with patience and cheer- fulness. After the return of her hus- band, the liberation of her son, and the restitution of their goods, about 1425, with the consent of Lorenzo, she founded the Order of Oblates, which was at first a branch of that of Mount Olivet already mentioned, and was instituted for women who wished to withdraw entirely from the world and lead a religious life. It was placed under the special protection of iJie Virgin Mary, and under the direction of the Olivetan brothers. Frances wished to retire from worldly cares, and become a nun in her own order; but though her husband would have consented to this arrangement, she was retained in her family by two cir- cumstances. One was the death of the only person on whom she could depend to supply her place, her dear friend Vanoccia, wife of her brother-in-law, Paoluccio Ponziani. The other hindrance to her vocation was her daughter-in-law, a woman of a proud, capricious, and overbearing disposition, whom she suc- ceeded in rendering pious and docile. In 1436, on the death of Lorenzo, she found herself at liberty to join the Oblates, and instead of claiming the right of a founder to be received into her own order, she threw herself at the feet of the sisters, and begged the favour of admission to their community. They joyfully received her, and offered her all the honour their respect and affection could bestow. The superior, Agnes de