Stories

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.

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.