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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