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324 324 B. FRANCES Lellis, wished to resign her office to the saint ; bat Frances wonld not consent to this, and insisted on being treated as the humblest of the sisters, with whom she shared the meanest offices, often going to the vineyards for firewood for the honse, carrying it on her shoulders or putting it on an ass which she led. She could not avoid being appointed superior, as all the Oblates refused to accept the command during her life. Notwithstanding the responsibilities of this post, she did not neglect to visit the hospitals and minister to the poor. After living as a nun for four years, she died at the house of her only surviving son, Giambattista, after an illness of seven days, March 9, 1440, in the fifty-sixth year of her age. Her canonization began to be discussed throughout the Church immediately after her death. Permission was given to worship her in Bome, where her festival was observed without positive command, and was very popular long before her formal canonization. Her worship was made universal in 1622. Among the miracles related of her, it is said that her father-in-law gave her a cask of wine to put by in the cellar, and she gave it little by little to th^ poor. He found it empty, and scolded her and her husband. She went to the cellar, and prayed that Christ would turn not water, as at Cana, but air into wine, that her alms might not be forbidden. The cask was found to be full of much better wine than what was missing. A similar thing occurred with a quantity of flour placed under her care. B,M. Butler. Baillet. Mrs. Jameson. AA.SS.y March 9; and an Italian Life, Bagatta, Admiramla. These authorities derive their information chiefly from her Life by Mattiotti, hor confessor, and that by Magdalen dell' Anguillara, superin- tendent of the Oblates, 210 years later ; both, says Baillet, full of incredible and extravagant things. Both Lives are given by Henschenius ; the first includes her ninety-seven visions. She was buried in the chapel belonging to her order, in the Franciscan church of Santa Maria Nuova, the scene of her visions and ecstatic trances. Her room, with its worm-eaten rafters and table, was long preserved as she left it, but has been transformed into a ohapel. Helyot, Ordr€9 ManastiqueSj voL t5, ch. 26, says the congregation of the Oblates of St. Frances are not nuns. They promise at their profession to obey the superior according to custom, but they do not take solemn vows, and they are at liberty to leave the community and marry. They are called Oblates because they call their profession an oblation, and use in the ceremony the word offero instead of profitear. Their seclusion and their &sts are less strict than those of most of the religious orders. Prisoners are among the favourite objects of their immense liberality. They send them food on certain days of the week, and on the great festivals. B. Frances (6) de Ugolino da Castel Durante, Feb. 2. + 1484. Founded, in 1468, the monastery of St. Spirito, in Gubbio, where she was abbess many years. Jacobilli, Santi delV Umhria. B. Frances (7), Nov. 4, 5, 1427- 1485, of the Order of Mount Carmel. Duchess of Brittany. Founder of the Carmelites in Brittany. Fran^ise d* Am- boide was daughter of Louis, prince de Talmont, vicomte de Thouars, seigneur d'Amboise ; her mother was Marie de Rieux, daughter of the Marechal of France. As soon as Frances was bom, a great number of suitors applied for her hand, as she was considered a great heiress. When she was two years old, she was affianced to Prince Peter, count of Guingamp, second son of John V., the Good, duke of Brittany. The in&nt bride was received very affectionately by her future family, particularly by the duchess, Madame Jeanne de France, a disciple of St. Vincent Ferrer, and daughter of King Charles YI. She died 1433, but during the two years that the young Frances was under her care, she had carefully imbued her with pious sentiments. One day the little girl saw in church the picture of St. Francis barefooted ; she at once took off her own shoes, and wished to give them to the saint. At the age of seven, Frances desired to withdraw from the world into