Stories

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.

Then the scene changed: the woman appeared robed as a queen and surrounded with light, and the child shone like a sun. He took the flowers and scattered them over her head. She understood at once that these were Jesus and Mary, and fell down to adore them, and the vision ended. Domenica later took the Dominican habit and died in 1553 with the reputation of a saint.

Then the Blessed Virgin began to sing with such sweetness that the monk lost his senses and fell face down on the ground. When the matins bell rang and the monks gathered, Thomas was missing; they searched his cell and the rest of the monastery, and at last found him in the garden, seemingly lifeless. When his superior commanded him to tell what had happened, he came to himself and, under obedience, recounted all the favors the Mother of God had shown him.

Fifteen days later Alexandra's soul appeared to St. Dominic, beautiful and shining like a star, and told him that one of the greatest reliefs for the souls in purgatory is the rosary said for them, and that as soon as those souls reach paradise they pray for whoever offered them these prayers. With that, St. Dominic saw her happy soul rise in triumph to heaven.

From then on he lived an exemplary life, went to India to preach the faith, passed from there to Japan, and at last had the grace of dying a martyr for Jesus Christ, burned alive.

At these words the lawyer fell to his knees and begged the friar's help. The friar reassured him and ordered the devil to leave the house without doing any harm, allowing him only, as proof that he had truly gone, to break a piece of the wall. No sooner had he spoken than a hole was torn in the wall with a great crash. The lawyer changed his life, and we may hope he held to his new course until death.

Benedetta faithfully did as she was told, and one day Jesus himself appeared to her, showed her the book, and said, "See, your sins are wiped away. The book is white. Now write in it acts of love and virtue." Benedetta did so, lived a holy life, and died a holy death.

Beatrice went back into the monastery, took up the religious habit again, and, grateful for Mary's mercy, lived the rest of her life like a saint. Before she died she told the whole story, to the glory of Our Lady.

At this wonder the people shouted, "Pardon, pardon," and he was pardoned. He went home, lived an upright life ever after, and was always devoted to Mary, who had saved him from both a temporal and an eternal death.

Theophilus went back to the church, and there, three days later, he died in peace, with thanks to Jesus and his holy mother on his lips.

He went inside, knelt before her altar, and wept, begging her to obtain pardon for his sins. Mary at once began to plead with her Son for the wretched young man. Jesus said at first, "But this ungrateful youth has denied me, mother." Yet seeing that she kept on interceding, he finally said, "Oh, my mother, I have never refused you anything.

Then, seeing the Virgin beckon him to follow her, he said, "I come, oh Lady, I come." He tried to rise, and though his body could not follow her, he gently breathed his last and followed her with his soul, as we may hope, to the kingdom of glory.