_ 82 _ eat by day or sleep by night, everyone wanted me. What was most troubling was not being able to do everything, I had to give up confessions: the Moors and the Jews and the heathen, all thought that I was a saint and that their salvation depended on me. If I went into a house, everyone, including women, fell on their knees to kiss my robe, and some did not dare kiss my hand so I always had to go with my hand stretched out and my biretta in it. O Brethren, I did this not through my own merits but as a member of this most holy Society of Jesus although unworthy. The wives of the Portuguese run when they see me coming with my companion for Christian doctrine, and are very surprised by my poverty. I went about very ragged and half naked, but the poverty of the Society of Jesus is very highly praised in this country. One day I had to beg them not to take my biretta any more, because I had always to go around bareheaded. O dearest brethren, you should be amazed that I am not condemned by vanity, being so imperfect, but I must tell you this: Our Lord, who does not regard who we are but observes that we are of his Congregation, takes care to increase and preserve His own, and He provided me with a great remedy so that I should not lose through vanity what He has won through humility.
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