alleviate the intolerable sufferings which the fire of Divine Justice caused her to endure, the holy man asked her if this fire was more painful than that of earth? " Ah! " she cried, " all the fires of earth compared to that of Purgatory are like a refreshing breeze" (Ignes alii levis aurae locum tenent si cum ardore meo comparentur). Stanislaus could scarcely believe it. " I wish," he said, " to have a proof. If God will permit, for your relief, and for the good of my soul, I consent to suffer a part of your pains." " Alas! you could not do this. Know that no human being could endure such torment and live. However, God will permit you to feel it in a light degree. Stretch forth your hand." Chocosca extended his hand, and the departed let fall a drop of sweat, or at least of a liquid which resembled it. At the same instant the Religious uttered a piercing cry and fell fainting to the ground, so frightfully intense was the pain. His brethren ran to the spot and hastened to give him the assistance which his condition required. When restored to consciousness, he related the terrible event which had occurred, and of which they had a visible proof. " Ah! my dear Fathers," he continued, " if we knew the severity of the Divine chastisements, we should never commit sin, nor should we cease to do penance in this life, in order to avoid expiation in the next."
Stanislaus was confined to his bed from that moment. He lived one year longer in the most cruel suffering caused by his terrible wound; then, for the last time, exhorting his brethren to remember the rigours of Divine Justice, he peacefully slept in the Lord. The historian adds that this example reanimated fervour in all the monasteries of that province.
We read of a similar fact in the Life of B. Catherine de Racconigi.[1] One day, when suffering so intensely as to need the assistance of her sisters in religion, she thought of the souls in Purgatory, and, to temper the heat of their flames, she
- ↑ Diario Dominicano, Septemb. 4; cf. Rossig., Merv., 63.
