Sister Domenica and the Wounded Child

From the life of Sister Domenica of Paradise, written by Father Ignatius of Niente, a Dominican; she died in 1553.

In a village called Paradise, near Florence, a little girl named Domenica was born to poor parents. From her infancy she was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She fasted every day of the week in Our Lady's honor, and on Saturdays she gave to the poor the food she had gone without; every Saturday, too, she went into the garden or the nearby fields, gathered all the flowers she could find, and set them before a statue she kept at home of the holy Virgin holding the infant Jesus.

One Sunday, when she was about ten, she was standing at her window and saw in the street a woman of lovely face with a little child, both holding out their hands as if begging alms. She went to fetch some bread, but before she could open the door the two were already beside her, and she saw wounds on the child's hands, feet, and breast. "Who wounded this child?" she asked. "It was love," answered the mother. Charmed by the child's beauty and gentleness, Domenica asked whether the wounds hurt him, and he only answered with a smile.

Standing near the images of Jesus and Mary, the woman asked, "Tell me, little girl, why do you crown these images with flowers?" "Because I love Jesus and Mary," she said. "And how much do you love them?" "As much as I can." "And how much can you love them?" "As much as they help me." "Then keep loving them," said the woman, "for they will repay your love richly in paradise." A heavenly fragrance came from the child's wounds, and Domenica asked what ointment had been put on them and whether it could be bought. "It is bought with faith and good works," the woman answered. Domenica offered them the bread, but the woman said, "This child's food is love; tell him you love Jesus, and he will be satisfied."

At the word love the child showed great joy and asked her how much she loved Jesus. She said she loved him so much that day and night she thought only of him and wished for nothing but to please him. "Then love him," he said, "and love will teach you what to do to please him." As the fragrance grew stronger, Domenica cried, "Oh God, this scent makes me faint with love; if a child's scent is so sweet, what must the scent of paradise be?"

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.

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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.