While Thomas was writing his articles on the fourth Sacrament, he was praying one day in a chapel dedicated to S. Nicolas, when, as the story goes, the figure on the crucifix turned towards him and said, "Thomas, Thou hast written well of Me; what reward desirest thou?" "Nought, save Thyself, Lord," was the saint's spontaneous reply. At length he became so absorbed in Divine things, that even the "Summa" itself failed to interest him. He ceased to write, after a marvellous rapture which seized him whilst celebrating mass in the chapel of S. Nicolas. After this mass, he did not sit down to his desk, nor would he consent to dictate anything. When Rainald urged him to finish the "Summa," he replied, "I cannot, for everything that I have written appears to me worthless compared with what I have seen, and what has been revealed to me." Gregory X. wishing to carry out the union of the Greek and Latin churches, summoned S. Thomas, by special bull, to the Second Council of Lyons, and requested him to bring his famous treatise with him. Our saint set out with Rainald for Lyons, towards the end of January, 1274. His health was feeble, and his mind was still fixed on the visions of another world. They travelled by way of the Campagna, and called at the castle of Maienza, in the diocese of Terracina, where Frances, wife of Hannibal Ceccano, niece of the Angelic Doctor, resided. Here the saint became much weaker, and did not rally. He wholly lost his appetite. After a while he felt himself a little stronger. The rumour of his proximity reached the Benedictine Abbey of Fossa Nuova, six miles from the castle. The monks came to invite him thither, and he gladly accepted the invitation, saying, "If the Lord means to take me away, it were better that I should die in a religious house, than in the midst of seculars." He rode in their midst to the abbey; the monks helped him to dismount, and sustained him to the Church, where he knelt in silent adoration. Then rising, the abbot conducted him through the church into the cloister. Then the whole past seemed to break in upon him like a burst of overpowering sunlight; the calm abbey, the meditative corridor, the gentle Benedictine monks, recalled to him Monte Cassino, as in his boyish days. Completely overcome by the memories of the past, he turned to the monks accompanying him, and exclaimed, "_This_ is the place where I shall find repose;" and to Rainald he said, "This shall be my rest for ever and ever: here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein." (Ps. cxxxi. 14, A.V., cxxxii. 15.)