Blessed Thomas of St. John, rescued at his deathbed

Attribution: recorded among the accounts of the early Rosary preachers.

Blessed Thomas of St. John was famous for his sermons on the holy Rosary, and the devil, jealous of all the good he did, tormented him until he fell gravely ill. He was sick so long that the doctors gave him up, and one night, when he truly believed he was dying, the devil appeared to him in the most terrifying form imaginable.

There was a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary near his bed. Thomas turned to it and cried out with all his strength, "Help me, save me, my dearest Mother." At once the picture seemed to come alive. Our Lady stretched out her hand, took him by the arm, and said, "Do not be afraid, Thomas my son. Here I am, and I am going to save you. Get up now and go on preaching my Rosary as you used to do. I promise to shield you from your enemies."

At her words the devil fled, and Thomas rose from his bed in perfect health. Weeping for joy, he thanked Our Lady, took up his preaching again, and his sermons bore more fruit than ever.

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Source:

Simplified retellings of the miracle and conversion stories that St. Louis de Montfort gathered in The Secret of the Rosary, written in the early eighteenth century. These are paraphrased in plain modern prose, faithful to the substance of the traditional English translation but not word for word. Montfort himself called them "ancient but authentic stories about the holy Rosary," collected from earlier authors such as Blessed Alan de la Roche, and offered on human authority, not as articles of faith.