194 The Little Bedesman of Christ

This was the perfect joy of the Saint most
like to Christ of all the Saints that the world
has seen. And of all joys this was the most
perfect, seeing that it was by the patient way
of tears and tribulation, of bodily pain and
anguish of spirit, of humiliation and rejec-
tion, that a man might come most nearly to
a likeness to Christ.

Through all his gaiety and gladness and
benignity he carried in his heart one sorrow,
and that was the memory of the Passion of
our Lord. Once he was found weeping in
the country, and when he was asked whether
he was in grievous pain that he wept, “Ah!”
he replied, “it is for the Passion of my Lord
Jesus that I weep; and for that I should
think little shame to go weeping through the
whole world.”

Two years before his death there befell
him that miraculous transfiguration, which,
so far as it may be with a sinful son of Adam,
made perfect the resemblance between him
and the Saviour crucified. And it was after
this manner.

In the upper valley of the Arno stream
there towers above the pines and giant
beeches of the hills a great basalt rock,