Benedetta and the Book of Sins

Related by Rupensis and Boniface.

In Florence there lived a young woman named Benedetta, whose name meant "the blessed," though the scandalous life she led made the opposite name seem fitter. It happened that St. Dominic came to preach in the city, and out of mere curiosity she went one day to hear him. During the sermon the Lord touched her heart, and weeping bitterly she went to confess to the saint. He heard her confession, absolved her, and told her to say the rosary. But the pull of her old habits drew her back into her former life. When St. Dominic heard of it, he went to her and persuaded her to confess again.

To strengthen her, God one day showed her hell, and among the lost some who had been damned on her account, and then, opening a book, let her read the dreadful record of her own sins. Shaken, she turned with full confidence to the Blessed Virgin Mary, begged her help, and learned that Our Lady had already won for her from God enough time to weep for her many sins. The vision faded, and Benedetta gave herself to a good life. But that dark list of her sins stayed always before her eyes, so one day she prayed, "Oh Mother, it is true that for my sins I should already be deep in hell. But since you have freed me from it by winning me time for repentance, I ask one more favor. I will never stop weeping for my sins, but obtain for me that they be wiped from that book."

Mary appeared and told her that to obtain this she must keep an everlasting memory of her sins and of God's mercy to her, must meditate on the passion her Son suffered for love of her, and must remember that many had been lost who had sinned less than she. 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.

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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.