Many a time when succoring the poor he had asked himself if he himself was able to endure poverty; no one knows the weight of a burden until he has carried it, at least for a moment, upon his own shoulders.

He desired to know what it is like to have nothing, and to depend for bread upon the charity or the caprice of the passer by.[13] There were swarms of beggars crowding the Piazza before the great basilica.

He borrowed the rags of one of them, lending him his garment in exchange, and a whole day he stood there, fasting, with outstretched hand.

The act was a great victory, the triumph of compassion over natural pride.

Returning to Assisi, he doubled his kindnesses to those of whom he had truly the right to call himself the brother.