The Blessed Virgin Mary saves a soul from going to hell
We will begin with the testimony of Blessed Richard of St Ann- A Franciscan priest who was martyred by being burned at the stake in Nagasaki, Japan in 1622. This celebrated apparition of a damned soul which we are about to relate was attested by Blessed Richard as the primary reason which prompted him to enter the Franciscans. The testimony is related in three works: Adrian Lyroeus documented it in his “Trisagium Marianum, Book III"; Saint Alphonsus Liguori, who also cites the same facts in his “Glories of Mary”, and lastly the same occurrence is related in the authentic documents known as “The Annals of Franciscan Missions, for the years 1866-67.”
While Blessed Richard was living in Brussels in 1604 there were two young students who instead of applying themselves to study, thought only of how to live in pleasure and sin. One night, among others, when they had gone to indulge in sin in a house of prostitution, one of the two left the place after some time, leaving his companion in sin behind him.
Having reached home, he was about to lie down in bed, when he remembered that he had not recited that day the few “Hail Mary’s” which he had the habit of saying every day since childhood in honor of the Holy Virgin. As he was overpowered by sleep, it was very difficult for him to recite the short prayers; however, he made an effort and said them, although without devotion; then he fell fast asleep. Not long afterwards he heard a sudden, a rude knocking at the door; and immediately afterwards he saw before him his companion, disfigured and hideous. "Who are you?" he said to him. "What? Don't you recognise me?" replied the unhappy youth. "But how are you so changed? You look like a devil?" "Oh, take pity upon me, for I am damned!" "How is that?" "Well, know that upon leaving that accursed house a evil person sprang upon me and strangled me. My body has remained in the middle of the street, and my soul is in Hell. Know, moreover, that the same chastisement awaited you, but the Virgin preserved you from it, thanks to your practice of reciting every day the three Hail Mary’s in her honor. And blessed are you if you know how to profit by this information, which the Mother of God gives you through me."
While finishing these words, the damned soul partly opened his garment, allowed the flames and evil spirits that were tormenting him to be seen, and he vanished. Then the young man, sobbing uncontrollably, threw himself on his face on the floor and prayed for a long time, thanking the Holy Virgin Mary, his deliverer. Now, while he was praying in this manner he began reflecting upon what he ought to do next to change his life, and at that moment he heard the Matins bell ring at the Franciscan Monastery.
That very moment he cried out, "So there is where God is calling me to do penance."
Very early the next morning he went to the convent and begged the Father Guardian to receive him. The Father Guardian, who was well aware of his bad life, was not at all interested in accepting him. The young student, shedding a torrent of tears, related to him all that had taken place. The good priest immediately sent two religious to the street indicated, and there they found the corpse of the wretched youth. The young man was soon admitted as a postulant among the Brothers, whom he soon edified by a life completely devoted to penance and reparation.
It was these terrible facts that struck a deep chord of both the holy fear of hell, and the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary into Blessed Richard himself, so he too immediately consecrated himself entirely to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary in the same Order into which the young student, so wonderfully protected by Mary, had just been received.
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