Page 67 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

LIFE OF SAINT GERARD MAJELLA

Lacedogna she had come to him, inconsolable with grief, and asked
him about the soul of her mother, for whose recent death she was
then mourning. The Saint had received a Divine light, by which he
was able to tell her that her mother was in Purgatory, but that she
would be delivered if her daughter would offer forty Communions
for her eternal repose. She did as she was asked, and after making the
Communions, her mother appeared to her, thanked her, and told her
that she was on her way to Heaven.
Gerard remembered all this, and was grieved indeed to hear of the
poor girl's afflicted state. He went straight to her house. On his
arrival, according to his usual custom, he made the sign of the Cross,
and at once she recovered the use of her reason. The recovery was
both complete and permanent.
Such favours as these, published as they were throughout the city,
were most effectual in persuading all to listen to the spiritual
admonitions of God's holy servant. It was said of him that he had but
to look at a sinner, and he could do what he pleased with him. Soon
the whole face of the little city was changed. Scandals disappeared.
The grace of God triumphed on every side. We will here mention
one of the most remarkable of the conversions effected at this time
by Saint Gerard.
There was a man dying at Lacedogna whose conscience was
loaded with sins. Standing on the threshold of eternity, he had
rejected the advances of Priest after Priest who had had the charity to
proffer him the consolations of religion.
The whole town was horror-stricken at the spectacle of his
obduracy. As everything else had failed, Gerard was at length brought
to his bedside. Having first cast one glance at the sick man, he
immediately fell on his knees, and, turning to Her whom we all love
to salute as the hope of the hopeless, said aloud one “Hail, Mary.” He
then rose and turned to address the poor sinner. But grace had
already done its blessed work. Gerard's look, Gerard's voice, above
all, Gerard's prayer, had won the day at last. Satan was driven, routed
from the field. The dying man asked earnestly for a Priest, and was
happily reconciled with his Eternal Judge.
Whilst he was at Lacedogna, many sick persons were brought to
the Saint from Bisaccia, a little town in the immediate
neighbourhood, that, if it so pleased God, they might be released
from their maladies. But such inhabitants of Bisaccia as were

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