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197 ST. ROSE 197 her finger ; she uttered not a cry of pain 4md she dissembled her suffering so well that no one knew she was hurt until the finger became so sore that surgical treat- ment, both with knife and fire, was necessary ; this also she bore with unchanging countenance and in brave silence, her hand remaining disfigured for life. In the matter of food she began her mortifications at a very early age, always refusing to eat fruit, although she had the same natural taste for it as other children* Three days in the week she lived on bread and water. At five years old she took St. Catherine of Siena for her pattern ; made a vow of perpetual virginity and cut off all her hair to consecrate herself to her divine Master. She was christened Isabel, but her mother soon called her Bose, either on account of her bright colour or, according to a legend, because a rose appeared over her cradle as she slept, and miraculously disappeared. As she had scruples about being called by a different name from that she received in her baptism, she applied to the B. Y. Mart to have her doubts resolved. Bose believed that the Virgin answered that the name of Bose was particularly pleasing to her divine Son, but that she should add to it that of His mother and call herself Bose of Saint Mary. She was scrupulously obedient to her parents. Once her mother, who was always severe to her, insisted on her wearing a wreath of flowers, and she, with her plan of perpetual self-torture, wore the wreath but pinned it into her head with a large strong needle. To please her mother, she one night wore gloves to make her hands soft, but feeling the skin burning, she pulled the gloves off and saw flames and sparks on her hands ; next morning she showed the marks of burning to her mother, who then per- ceived that she must not bring this child up for the vanities of the world. Once a neighbour admired the whiteness and delicacy of Bose's hands, and she, think- ing she had sinned in hearing any praise of herself and fearing a tempta- tion to vanity, rushed to some quicklime and burned her hands in it until they were so ulcerated that she was unable to use them for thirty days. She made a vow never to taste animal food unless expressly commanded by her parents to do so. When compelled by excessive pains in her sides to which she was sub- ject, to take soup, she put cinders in it, which made her mouth sore and pre- vented her having any sensuous pleasure in this necessary indulgence. On Fridays she ate gall with her bread, and that only in the evening. These fasts, says the Leggendario, did not reduce or disfigure her, but she grew fatter and fairer. For some time, her habit was to pray for twelve hours, during which she was obliged to resort to most extraordi- nary methods to keep herself awake, hanging herself up by the hair, so that only the tips of her toes rested on the ground ; or tying her hands to a cross. She worked for her family ten hours and slept only two hours, and that upon a bed as uncomfortable as stones, bricks and thorns could make it. From that place of rest, she afiirmed that the Virgin Mary used to shake her when it was time to r^mmence her prayers. Sometimes the Infant Christ appeared to her and filled her with such great delight that she fainted. She was advised by her confessor to take the veil ; she did not wish it, but in deference to his advice, she went to a convent where the nuns prepared with great joy to receive her, but she had no sooner entered the Chapel of the Madonna del Bosario than she found herself rooted to the spot and unable to move. <She understood that she was not to become a nun and resolved, in imitation of Catherine of Siena, to lead a life of religious retirement in the midst of the world, and to take the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic. No sooner had she so decided than she found herself able to leave the church. As an exercise of humility and an opportunity of suffering, she submitted to the rudest ill-usage from a native servant, often throwing herself at her feet and refusing to rise from the ground until consoled with blows and kicks from the Indian. She frequently said if she had been a man she would have been a missionary, and often exhorted others to go and preach Christianity to the Indians, and