The Friars and the Lady's Letter

Related in the Franciscan chronicles.

Two Franciscan friars were on their way to visit a shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary when night overtook them in a great forest. They lost their way and grew so bewildered that they did not know what to do. Going on a little farther, they made out in the darkness what seemed to be a house. Groping along with outstretched hands, they touched a wall, found the door, and knocked. A voice inside asked who they were, and they answered that they were two poor religious who had lost their way by accident in the wood and were looking for shelter, so that at least they would not be devoured by wolves.

At once the door opened, and two richly dressed pages received them with great courtesy. The friars asked who lived in the palace, and the pages answered that a very kind and good Lady lived there. "We should like to pay our respects to her and thank her for her kindness," they said. "We will take you to her," answered the pages, "for she also wishes to speak with you." They climbed the stairs and found the rooms all lit up, richly furnished, and filled with a fragrance like that of paradise. At last they entered the room of the Lady, who was majestic and most lovely, and who welcomed them very kindly and asked where they were going. They said they were going to visit a certain church of the Blessed Virgin. "If that is so," said the Lady, "when you go I will give you a letter of my own that will help you greatly." While she spoke they felt themselves all aflame with the love of God and filled with a joy they had never known before. They went to rest, if they could even sleep amid so much happiness, and in the morning they came again to take their leave, thank her, and receive the letter.

They did so and set out. But when they had gone a little way from the house, they noticed that the letter had no address on it; they turned back to ask, but they could no longer find the house. At last they opened the letter to see to whom it was written and what it said, and they found that it was from the Blessed Virgin Mary, written to themselves. She let them know that she was the Lady they had seen the night before, that because of their devotion to her she had provided them with shelter and refreshment in that wood, and she urged them to keep serving and loving her, for she would reward their devotion well and would help them in life and in death. At the bottom was the signature of the Virgin Mary. We can easily imagine the thanks those good friars gave to the Mother of God, and how strongly they were stirred to love and serve her for the rest of their lives.

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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.