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Chapter 3

On the feast of Saint Francis in his church in Trastevere in Rome, Saint Francis appeared to the same bride of Christ and said to her, ”Come into my chamber to eat and to drink with me.” When she heard this, she at once prepared for a journey in order to visit him in Assisi. After she had stayed there five days, she decided to return to Rome and entered the church to recommend herself and her loved ones to Saint Francis. He then appeared to her and said: ”Welcome! For I invited you into my chamber to eat and to drink with me. Know now that this building is not the chamber that I mentioned to you. No, my chamber is true obedience, to which I always so held that I never endured to be without an instructor. For I continually had with me a priest whose every instruction I humbly obeyed, and this was my chamber. Therefore do likewise, for this is pleasing to God.

My food, however, whereby I was refreshed with delight, was the fact that I most willingly drew my neighbors away from the vanities of worldly life to serve God with the whole of their hearts; and I then swallowed that joy as if it were the sweetest morsels. My drink, however, was that joy I had while I saw some whom I had converted loving God, devoting themselves with all their strength to prayer and contemplation, teaching others to live good lives, and imitating true poverty. Behold, daughter: that drink so gladdened my soul that, for me, all things in the world lost their taste. Enter, therefore, into this chamber of mine; and eat this, my food; and drink this drink with me. Drink it so that you may be refreshed with God eternally.”

Lady Bridget had this revelation in the city of Ortona, in the kingdom of Naples. Christ speaks to her and assures her that there are relics of the body of Saint Thomas the Apostle on the altar there and that he takes a most sweet delight in these relics and in those of his other saints, counting such relics as his precious treasure on earth and promising great merit and reward to those who honor them with due devotion.

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