33 He was beaten by savage blows in an undignified manner by impure men because of his attempt to restore abused women to a secure life.

35 Absorbed in prayer and four cubits off the floor, his face shining in a marvelous way, he was heard to cry frequently: "O Lord if they only knew you."

40 An assassin attacking him with a drawn sword was stopped by a voice: "What are you doing, you scoundrel?" Terrified, he abandoned his crime.

41 In a suburban chapel of the Blessed Virgin he and his nine companions took their vows, especially to go to Jerusalem and seek the palm of martyrdom. Each year they repeated this vow.

42 In an effort to dissuade a man from an impure life he stood in freezing water in the middle of winter and thus converted the man who was frightened by this sound and the sight.


From Company Magazine come several more interesting features on Jesuit history:

FEW JESUIT MISSIONS IN THE WORLD are as remote and difficult to reach as the 17th and 18th century reductions of Chiquitos, Bolivia. The proportions of their construction were related to musical harmonies, and they remain astonishing for the splendor of their carved altars, pulpits, and confessionals.

IN CHINA, THE TOMBSTONES of Matteo Ricci and other Jesuits of the 17th and 18th centuries are tucked away on the grounds of Beijing's Communist Party School.

WITH A HERITAGE OF SCHOLARSHIP that dates back to 1603, the Society of Bollandists have been determining fact and fiction in the lives of the saints for centuries.

The first volume of the Acta Sanctorum, containing the saints remembered in January, was published in 1643.