Stories

After a beautiful confession, we walked past St. James Church and looked up. What we saw was a miracle of the sun, its shape morphing before our eyes.

There the Blessed Virgin said to the guards, "Tell the bishop from me to give this man an honorable burial in such a church, for he was my faithful servant." It was done; and from that time, says Cesarius, the people of that region began to fast on Saturdays.

In the morning she went to confess to St. Dominic, gave all she had to the poor, and afterward lived so holy a life that she reached great perfection, and Mary often appeared to her.

St. Dominic then had the people recite the Rosary, and at every Hail Mary the demons came out of the man like burning coals, until by the end he was wholly freed; and many who had strayed into heresy were converted.

Stories of Mary’s Seven Sorrows, as told by St. Alphonsus Liguori.

Our Lord revealed to St. Bridget that this sinner was saved and was in purgatory, and that he had been saved through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary; for, sinful as his life had been, he had always kept a devotion to her sorrows, and whenever he remembered them he felt pity for her.

Mary was willing to grant his wish and again consoled him with her presence; but because this loving queen can never do harm to anyone, when she appeared the second time she not only did not take his other eye, she even restored to him the eye he had lost.

The confessor revived him, finished the confession, and absolved him, finding him truly contrite and resolved to change his life. He returned to his own country, having freely given the priest leave to make known everywhere the great mercy Mary had shown him.

At the bottom was the signature of the Virgin Mary. We can easily imagine the thanks those good friars gave to the Mother of God, and how strongly they were stirred to love and serve her for the rest of their lives.

As he reached the door of her house, where he was in plain danger of falling back into sin, he felt himself pushed back by an unseen force, and suddenly found himself the whole length of the street away, standing before his own door. He understood clearly that Mary had saved him from his ruin.