Depriving Ourselves Of Necessary Things

Saint Francis deprived himself of necessary things, which the brothers procured for him with great difficulty but most willingly; and after having cajoled us not to be angry, he gave away the great interior and external joy what he had denied his own body. That is why the minister general and his guardian forbade him to give his tunic to any brother without their permission. Some brothers, in fact, sometimes would ask him for it out of devotion, and he would immediately give it to them. It also sometimes happened that when he saw a sick or poorly clad brother, he would cut his habit in half and give him one part and keep the other for himself, for he had and wanted to have only one tunic.

St. Francis of Assisi

Legend of Perugia 53