Poverty, Sickness

He and his fellow-students had “the pleasure of poisoning themselves” (as one of them wryly admitted) with wretched and poorly-cooked food. So primitive were the conditions under which they tried to study, work, and pray, that Louis soon became seriously ill. (Not long before he had earned a small stipend by keeping watch over the parish dead, and had spent almost the entire night—three or four times a week—in study, spiritual reading, and prayer.)