I am called Charity and I am the main road leading to God. Follow me, for I am the goal toward which you all must strive.

This morning, I went on my usual rounds, and with an afflicted heart I have come to tell you: Oh! My friends: such misery, so many tears and so much you must do to dry them all! In vain, I tried to console poor mothers, telling them: “Courage! There are good hearts watching over you; you will not be forsaken. Patience! God is there; you are his beloved; you are his elect.” They seemed to hear me and turned toward me their big, worried eyes. I read on their poor faces that their body – that tyrant over the spirit – was hungry, and even though my words might have brought a little peace to their heart, it did not fill their stomach. I told them again: “Courage! Courage!” Then a very young, poor mother, who was nursing a baby, took it in her arms and held it out into empty space as if to ask me to watch over that little being who had received only insufficient nourishment from barren breasts.

Elsewhere,  my friends, I saw poor elderly people out of work, and, consequently, homeless, tormented by all sorts of suffering arising from necessity,  and, ashamed of their poverty and having never begged, they did not dare implore the mercy of passers-by. With a heart full of compassion, I, who have nothing, have made myself a  beggar for them, and  I  go everywhere, encouraging beneficence and inspiring good thoughts in generous and compassionate souls. That  is why I have come here, my friends, and I say to you: Everywhere abound unfortunates, whose cupboards are without bread, whose hearths are without fire and whose beds are without blankets. I do not tell you what you should do; I leave the initiative to your good hearts. If I were to tell you how to proceed, you would derive no merit from your good deed. I will tell you only: I am Charity, and I hold out my hand to you on behalf of your suffering brothers and sisters.

But if I ask, I also give and I give much. I invite you to a great banquet and I furnish you with the tree from which you will all be filled! Behold how beautiful it is, how it is loaded with blossoms and fruit! Go; go, pick and take all the fruit off that lovely tree called beneficence. In place of the branches you have left bare I will attach all the good deeds you have done and will take this tree to God so that he may load it up again, for beneficence is inexhaustible. So, follow me, my friends, so that I may count you among those who rally around my banner. Fear not; I will lead you along the way of salvation, for I am Charity.

Caritas, martyred in Rome (Lyons, 1861)