ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



reverence in which the memory of Francis is held that 

 La Vernia has been one of the few convents spared 

 by the Italian Government. The present community 

 numbers about a hundred Franciscan monks, all use- 

 fully and actively engaged. Many are sent out to 

 preach in the neighbouring villages and travel about 

 Umbria and Tuscany teaching the poor peasantry 

 and ministering to their wants in health and sickness. 

 Some are sent to preach Lent and Advent sermons 

 in Florence and other large towns, while of those who 

 remain at home some are engaged in theological 

 studies, and others the lay portion of the community 

 we may suppose are employed in the Farmacia and 

 go out as doctors among the poor, or else work as 

 woodcutters, carpenters, blacksmiths and shoemakers, 

 besides performing the necessary labour of the large 

 establishment and attending to the duties of hospi- 

 tality, no light task at those seasons when pilgrims 

 from all parts flock to La Vernia. In the week of the 

 festival of the Stigmata, which had taken place about 

 a fortnight before our visit, our peasant guides in- 

 formed us that the number of pilgrims had been as 

 many as two thousand. 



A day rarely passes without some pilgrimage of 

 Tuscan or Umbrian peasants visiting the shrine, and 

 the day we arrived we found a party of contadini, who 



had climbed the hill before us, attending mass in the 



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