THE PEARL AMONG THE VIRTUES
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purity. It is said that saints, especially St. Philip Neri, could detect the pure from the impure, by their peculiar odor. The special mark of this virtue is, that it reminds one of Paradise, and makes its possessor an object of envy (so to speak) in the sight of the angels. And when you see this lily, this emblem of purity, in the hands of a St. Joseph, a St. Aloysius, then resolve: "I will be a lily, to the joy of Heaven, to the adornment of this earth, to my own glory."
Example. It is related, that one day some boys, one of whom was Bernard, a San Maurizio, were returning from a pious pilgrimage, they came near the sea-shore where
