Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE TRUE HISTORY OF ST.ALEJO. In the Spanish edition of the " Christian Year," a book published by the Church of Rome, and containing the history of all its Saints, we find the following concerning this man's life and death: " On the seventeenth of July the Church celebrates the feast of this Saint, so well known for the generous sacrifice he made of the pleasures and conveni- encies of this life, and for the heroic victory he gained over his own flesh and blood." He was born, according to the authority we quote, of rich parents, and married to a lady of the " very first quality ," as virtuous as she was beautiful; but deserted her before, or immediately after, the marriage party reached the house prepared for them, on account of his great virtue, and for the pleasure of mortifying himself, and asking alms at a certain church door; the which honorable mode of gaining a livelihood he quitted a short time after in disgust, not on account of its degradation, but oecause the image of the Virgin Mary (to whom he was especially devoted), became too talkative, informing the congregation at times that he was in great favor with God, and that his prayers had much influence in heaven; at others calling out in a loud voice to the doorkeeper of the church to " come and open the door and let the favorite servant of Goes enter." These proceedings on the part of the Virgin caused such fame to grow about Alejo that he felt his humility in danger, and therefore determined to retire from public life; so, in the guise of a mendicant, he begged to be allowed a dirty corner below the stairs in his own house, which request was granted. "He was thus enabled daily to see his wife and family, and know how much misery they suffered by his absence, and once more gain a victory ewer himself by resistin... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.