But as she was conversing on the subject, her brother, whose name also was Bartholomew, passed by: his shadow or the noise he made in passing by, attracted during an instant, Catherine's attention, who scarcely turned her eyes, but yet sufficiently to recognize him; she afterwards resumed her position, but suddenly her moans and tears prevented her from speaking.
The Religious waited some time before engaging her to continue what she had commenced; but her sobs rendered it impossible for her to continue. At length, after a tedious interval, she began to utter these interrupted phrases: "Alas, wretch that I am, who will take vengeance on me for my iniquities ? who will punish me for such an enormous fault?" And as the Religious inquired what sin she had committed: "Did you not see," said she, "that at the very moment in which God was showing me his wonders, I turned my head and eves to look at a person passing by ?" "But," said the Religious, " you looked so short a time that I did not even perceive it." "If you knew," replied she, "the reproaches that the Blessed Virgin made to me, you would assist me to weep for my fault !" She immediately ceased speaking of her vision, wept until she had confessed, and then retired to her cell, still weeping.
St. Paul appeared to her, according to what she told her Confessor, and rebuked her severely for the time she had lost in turning her head. She afterwards declared that she preferred confusion before the whole world, rather than experiencing the shame excited by the reproach of the blessed Apostle. She said to her Confessor; " Imagine what it will be to bear the reproaches of Jesus Christ at the last judgment, if the reproach of his Apostle occasioned me so much shame." She added
