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 ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI 79 tions literally, except in those cases where the authorities of the Church, after a scrutiny, which is always deliberate and searching, declare that a miracle was wrought. But every Catholic, by the very nature of his belief in the actual presence of the Divinity among men, must acknowledge and maintain that miracles have been wrought by that supernatural power constantly, ever since apostolic times ; that they may and do occur, through the same power, at any moment to- day ; and always will occur. In the ordinary gossip of the world, men hold to the maxim that if reports are current, all pointing to one particular fact, there must be truth in them. "Where there is so much smoke there is sure to be some fire." We should at least accord the same, if not a greater, degree of probability and of credence to stories of the saints which have been carefully, competently exam- ined. "The love of the marvellous," says Chavin de Malin, in his book on St. Francis, " is but a remnant of our original greatness. Man was created to contemplate the wonders of the Divinity ; and, until he clearly beholds them, he is borne onward by an interior desire to love and admire everything which bears the slightest resemblance to them. . . . . A person utterly ignorant of the practices of a spiritual life can no more do justice to the life of a saint, than a blind man could adjudicate on the merits or demerits of a painting." He adds that, with regard to the religious occupations of the Middle Ages, "the positive bounds of history could not be kept, digressions were made on all sides, and thus around the true history of saints, like a poetic wreath, wonder and amazement were both entwined. Christianity has had its denominated legendary tales, which invariably are based on truth, and should not be rejected by the historian without serious reflection and profound study." There is still another way of regarding the saints ; the purely material view, which denies the immediate action of supernatural power upon the details of natural daily life, mental or physical. This view or rather, this abstention from seeing is futile ; because, without a particle of actual proof to sustain its nega- tive, it refuses to admit possibilities of truth to which the really comprehensive and perceptive mind must always hold itself open. Saint Francis was borp at Assisi, in Umbria, in 1182; near the close of the twelfth century, which has been called a "century of mud and blood, when dark- ness prevailed over light, evil over good, the flesh over the spirit." Umbria was then, as it is now, a beautiful and fertile valley, rich in citron, almond, aloe, with forest trees of oak and pine and fir, to which long cultivation has added grape- vines, engarlanding the elms, and orchards of the pale-leaved olive-tree, that give the landscape a somewhat transparent, aerial effect. The province is encircled on one hand by the yellow Tiber ; on the other, by the bluish foot-hills of the Ap- ennines ; and it is full of ancient little towns, nestled in the vales, or perched upon the airy hill-crests, with crenelated towers and terraces which command far-reaching and inspiring views. Old Perugia guards the northern entrance to this exquisite region ; and five leagues to the northeast of that town is the saint's birthplace, Assisi. His father was Peter Bernard of Moriconi, better known as " Bernardone," a