Page:Purgatory00scho.djvu/110

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you of the presence of that man, ask in the name of God who he is, the time of his death, where he lived, and why he returns."

The following day they returned, carrying the paper on which was written the answers which they had received. "We saw," they said, "the man that appears to the child." They described him as an old man, of whom they could but see the bust, and he wore a costume of the olden times. He told them his name, and the house in which he had dwelt in Antwerp. He had died in 1636, had followed the profession of banker in that same house, which in his time comprised the two houses which to-day may be seen situated to the right and left of it. Let us remark here that certain documents which prove the accuracy of these indications have since been discovered in the archives of the city of Antwerp. He added that he was in Purgatory, and that few prayers had been said for him. He then begged the persons of the house to offer Holy Communion for him, and finally asked that a pilgrimage might be made for him to Notre Dame des Fievres, and another to Notre Dame de la Chapelle in Brussels. "You will do well to comply with all these requests," said Father Schoofs, " and if the spirit returns, before speaking to him, require him to say the Pater, Ave, and Credo"

They accomplished the good works indicated with all possible piety, and many conversions were effected. When all was finished, the young men returned. " Father, he prayed," they said to Father Schoofs, "but in a tone of indescribable faith and piety. We never heard any one pray thus. What reverence in the Our Father! What love in the Hail Mary! What fervour in the I Believe! Now we know what it is to pray. Then he thanked us for our prayers; he was greatly relieved, and would have been entirely delivered had not an assistant in our shop made a sacrilegious Communion. We have," they continued, "reported these words to the person. She turned pale,