“I pray much for each member of the community, and for light to guide it in the way of God.  Within a short period much light has been given to me, and the importance of our work and its greatness have impressed me greatly, more than ever before.  Yesterday I went to the Basilica of St. Paul, being the feast of his conversion, especially to invoke his aid.  I felt that my visit was not in vain. . . .  I forgot no one of our dear community. . . .  On the 21st I said Mass in the catacombs of St. Agnes; it was the day of her feast.  More than twenty persons were present, friends and acquaintances.  I gave eleven communions, and made a little discourse at the close of the Holy Sacrifice.  The scene was most solemn and affecting.

“What did I pray for? [during my Mass in St. Agnes’s Catacomb].  For you all, especially for the future.  What future?  How shall I name it?  The association of women in our country to aid the work of God through the Holy Church for its conversion.  My convictions become fixed, and my determination to begin the enterprise consecrated.

“At the close of the Mass I made a short discourse.  Think of it, preaching once more in the Catacombs, surrounded with the tombs where the martyrs are laid and where the voice of the martyrs had spoken!  You can imagine that the impression was profound and solemn on us all.  It was a piece of foolhardiness on my part to open my lips and speak, when everything around us spoke so impressively and solemnly to our heads.  I will attempt to interpret this speech:  In the days of Agnes, Christians were called upon to resist and conquer physical persecution.  In our day we are called upon to overcome intellectual and social opposition.  They conquered!  We shall conquer!  Agnes tells us there is no excuse for cowardice.  Agnes was young, Agnes was weak, Agnes was a girl, and she conquered!  One Agnes can conquer the opposition of the nineteenth century.  Such in substance was my discourse.  The whole scene caused every one to be bathed in tears.”

After leaving Rome he went straight to Assisi, for whose saint he had ever felt a very powerful attraction.  He thus describes his impressions: 

“The people that I have seen about here have a milder countenance and a more cheerful look, more refined and human than the Italians around Rome.  They are to the other Italians what the Swabians are to the other Germans.  It is easy for the Minnesinger of the human, to become the Minnesinger of Divine love.

“I could have kissed the stones of the streets of the town when I remembered that St. Francis had trodden these same streets, and the love and heroism which beat in his heart. . . .  I said Holy Mass at the tomb of St. Francis, and in presence of his body this morning—­a votive Mass of the Saint.  It seems I could linger weeks and weeks around this holy spot. . . .  What St. Francis did for his age one might do for one’s own.  He touched the chords of feeling and of aspiration