“With a tenacious will and great energy, which earn the admiration of anyone who considers them for a moment, they worked to form Jesus Christ in themselves like a sculptor who carves a masterpiece from a rough and shapeless stone with a hammer and chisel. To achieve this likeness with Christ, think of how much violence they had to do to themselves, how many difficulties they had to overcome, how much suffering and pain they had to endure in the journey of life! Some of them had to correct bad habits, suppress perverse inclinations, such as Augustine, Mary Magdalen, Margaret of Cortona; but they resolved once and for all to embrace a new life and they became great Saints. Others possessed an impulsive character, such as Francis de Sales, Giovanni Gualberto and Camillus de Lellis, but they achieved such a degree of self-control as to seem the personification of gentleness and meekness. Others felt excessive attachment to earthly goods, to that shining metal that hardens the heart and makes it cruel towards self and neighbor, but then, conquered by the fascination of Christ’s love, they savored the pure joy of helping the brothers and sacrificed themselves for them, like John of God. Not a few were dominated by vanity and, in the search for human praise, they caressed dreams of earthly greatness, like Francis Xavier, but they then directed the mind and the heart to more noble ideals, to greater undertakings and, forgetful of self, they became apostles of the Divine glory to which they consecrated all their energies.”» (1930, 23 November, Parma, Panegyric on Blessed Claudio de la Colombiere; FCT 28, 199)