and said, " Sir, do you see the same spectacle which presents itself to my view?" "Yes," replied the governor, who had the same vision, " I see a procession of the dead, advancing from their graves towards the church; and I avow that until you spoke I could not believe my eyes." Assured of the reality of the apparition, the Archpriest added, " They are probably the recent victims of the pest, who wish to make known that they are in need of our prayers." He immediately caused the bells to be rung, and invited the parishioners to assemble on the following morning for a solemn service for the dead. [1]
We see here two persons whose sound judgment guarded them against all danger of illusion, and who, both struck at the same time, seeing the same apparition, hesitate to give credence to it until they were convinced that their eyes saw the same phenomenon. There is not the least room for hallucination, and every sensible man must admit the reality of a supernatural occurrence, attested by such witnesses. Nor can we call in question those apparitions based upon the testimony of a St. Thomas of Aquin, as related above. We must also guard against too easily rejecting other facts of the same nature, from the moment they are attested by persons of recognised sanctity and truly worthy of belief. We must be prudent, no doubt, but ours must be a Christian prudence, equally removed from credulity and from that proud, conceited spirit with which, as we have remarked elsewhere, Jesus repr ached His Apostles, "Noli esse incredulus, sed fidelis. " [2]
Monseigneur Languet, Bishop of Soissons, makes the same remark with reference to a circumstance which he relates in the Life of Blessed Margaret Alacoque. Madame Billet, wife of the doctor of the house — that is to say, of the convent of Paray — where the blessed sister resided, had just died. The soul of the deceased appeared to the
