One day as the servant of God uncovered the horrid ulcer, to wash it, the infected odor which arose from it, inspired a violent disgust which the devil strove to increase. Her stomach bounded with nausea. This repulse was so much the more painful to her, as, just then, the new victories which she had gained by the grace of the Holy Spirit had helped her to acquire new virtues. Filled with a holy anger against herself, she said: "thou shall swallow what inspires thee with such horror, and immediately, collecting in a saucer the water in which she had washed what flowed from the wound, she went aside and drank the whole. I recollect that one day, when others related this circumstance in her presence, she said to me, in an undertone: "Father, I assure you, that in my whole life, I never tasted any thing so sweet and so agreeable."
I found in the writings or Friar Thomas, her first Confessor, that the same thing happened to her, when her mouth was applied to the ulcer; she acknowledged to him that she then perceived a delicious odor. In the night that followed this last victory, the Saviour of men appeared to Catherine while she was praying; he showed her the five sacred wounds that he received for our salvation on the Cross. "Beloved," said he to her, "thou has sustained for me great combats, and, with my assistance, you have remained victorious. Never has thou been dearer or more pleasing to me, — yesterday in particular thou ravished my heart. Not only did thou despise sensual pleasures, disdain the opinions of men, and surmount the temptations of Satan, but thou overcame nature, by joyfully drinking for my sake a loathsome, horrible beverage. Well ! since you have accomplished an action so superior to nature, I will bestow
