[2] He was grave in demeanour and apparently without any sense of humour, yet had a gentle and sweet disposition that greatly endeared him to those with whom he came in contact.

[2] He was appointed to the office of master of novices in the convent at Valencia, the duties of which he discharged at different intervals for an aggregate of thirty years.

[2] When the plague broke out in Valencia in 1557 he devoted himself to the sick and dying; he prepared the dead for burial and interred them with his own hands.

[3] When the plague had subsided, the zeal of the holy novice master sought to extend the scope of his already large ministry into the apostolate of preaching.

[4] The cathedral and the most spacious churches were placed at his disposal, but they proved wholly inadequate to accommodate the multitude that desired to hear him.

It was probably the fame of his preaching that brought him to the attention of St. Teresa, who at this time sought his counsel in the matter of reforming her order.

[5] The bull of canonization asserts that he was favored with the gift of miracles and while preaching in his native Spanish, was understood in various languages.

From this unfruitful soil Bertrand withdrew to the province of Santa Marta, where his former successes were repeated, yielding 15,000 souls.

[8] The festival known as La Tomatina is held in Buñol, Valencia, in honor of the town's patron saints, Louis Bertrand and the Mare de Déu dels Desemparats (Mother of God of the Defenseless), a title of the Virgin Mary.