Alexandra and the Rosary That Kept Her Alive

Related by Father Eusebius Nieremberg.

In the city of Aragon there lived a noble and very beautiful girl named Alexandra, who was loved by two young men. Out of jealousy the two fought and killed each other. Their enraged relatives, blaming Alexandra for the deaths, killed her and threw her into a well. A few days later St. Dominic was passing through that place, and, moved by God, he went to the well and called, "Alexandra, come forth."

At once the dead girl rose and begged St. Dominic to hear her confession. Before a great crowd that had gathered to see the wonder, the saint heard her confession and gave her communion. Then he told her to explain why she had received such a grace. Alexandra answered that when she was killed she had been in a state of mortal sin, but that the Blessed Virgin Mary, because of the rosary she had been in the habit of saying, had preserved her in this way to give her time to repent.

For two days she remained alive in everyone's sight, and then her soul went to purgatory. 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.

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Source:

Simplified retellings of the "example" stories that St. Alphonsus Liguori placed at the end of each section of The Glories of Mary. These are paraphrased in plain modern prose, faithful to the substance of the 1888 English translation. Liguori himself, in his author's "Protest," noted that the miracles and apparitions in the book are offered on human authority only, not as articles of faith.