my surprise, and shall never forget the tone of authority, with which Catherine spoke to that great Pontiff.
It often happened to me and to those who accompanied her in journeys, to be found in her company in places that we had never seen, and also to see for the first time, persons of honorable and respectable appearance, but, who were in reality addicted to vice. Catherine knew their interior directly, and refused to look at them or give any answer when they addressed us: and if they would insist, she would say: "first, let us purify ourselves from our faults and become delivered from the bondage of Satan, then we will converse about God." She would by this means soon disencumber us of their presence, and we would very soon discover that these persons were plunged in incorrigible profligacy.
The enemy of mankind, beholding the great merit that Catherine was acquiring, and the good she effected in souls, by taking care of the sick, sought new means of turning her from it; but his malice was again defeated. He desired to render sterile that tree planted by the running waters, yet never, on the contrary, did its branches bear more fruit. There was at that time a Sister of Penance of St. Dominic, called Andrea, who was extremely ill with a cancer in the breast which consumed and gnawed away gradually her whole chest; the odor from this wound was so disgusting that it was impossible to approach her without closing firmly the nostrils, and there was scarcely any one to be found that was willing to pay the unfortunate Sister a friendly visit. Directly Catherine knew this, she comprehended that God reserved to her this poor forsaken one; she hastened to comfort her with cheerful countenance, and offered to
