Note 146 — Chapter IX · THE PORTICO DE GLORIA

“Now on a certain day it came to pass that as she sat in the church and read, a poor man drew nigh to pray, and beholding a woman robed in black raiment and already stricken in years, he took her for one of the needy, and drawing forth a cake of bread, he placed it on her lap and went away. But she, despising not the gift of the poor man, who had not recognised her rank, accepted the bread and thanked him; and she placed it before her on the table, and every day she used it for the prayer of benediction until no more of it remained.” See op. cit.