truth, since, besides being conformable to the words of Holy Scripture, Let him pass from the snow waters to excessive heat, [1] Venerable Bede relates it as a recent and well-known event. More than this, it was followed by the conversion of a great number of sinners, the sign of the work of God, who is accustomed to work prodigies in order to produce fruit in souls.
CHAPTER XII.
Pains of Purgatory — Bellarmine and St. Christine the Admirable.
The learned and pious Cardinal then proceeds to relate the history of St. Christine the Admirable, [2] who lived in Belgium at the close of the twelfth century, and whose body is preserved to-day in St. Trond, in the church of the Redemptorist Fathers. The Life of this illustrious virgin was, he says, written by Thomas de Cantimpre, a Religious of the Order of St. Dominic, an author worthy of credit and contemporary with the saint. Cardinal James de Vitry, in the preface to the Life of Maria d'Ognies, speaks of a great number of holy women and illustrious virgins; but the one whom he admires above all others is St. Christine.
This servant of God, having passed the first years of her life in humility and patience, died at the age of thirty-two. When she was about to be buried, and the body was already in the church resting in an open coffin, according to the custom of the time, she arose full of vigour, stupefying with amazement the whole city of St. Trond, which had witnessed this wonder. The astonishment increased when
