Gossipers Are "Biting Fleas"

 

Hating detractors deeply and more than any other kind of wicked men, Francis said that they carried poison on their tongues and infected others with their poison. Gossipers, therefore, those biting fleas, he avoided when they were speaking, and he averted his ears, as we ourselves have seen, lest they be defiled by hearing such things.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Celano, Second Life
CHAPTER CXXXVIII

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