never transgressed one of my commandments, never violated the virginity of either soul or body, and always preserved the grace of Baptism which regenerated him. My Son by nature, who is the eternal Word from my mouth, preached publicly to the world whatever I charged him to say, and he rendered testimony to the Truth as he himself declared to Pilate. My adopted Son Dominic also preached to the world the verity of my words; he spoke to heretics and to Catholics, not only personally but by others. His preaching continued in his successors, he still preaches and will always preach. My Son by nature sent his disciples, my son by adoption sent his religious; my Son by nature is my Word, my son by adoption is the herald, the minister of my Word. Therefore I have given a quite particular intelligence of my words to him and to his religious with fidelity to follow them. My Son by nature did all things in order to promote by his teaching and his example the salvation of souls. Dominic my son by adoption, used all his endeavors to draw souls from vice and error. The salvation of the neighbor was his principal thought in the establishment and development of his Order. Hence I have compared him to my Son by nature, whose life he imitated, and thou see that even his body resembles the sacred Body of my divine Son." It was while Catherine related this vision to friar Bartholomew that the circumstance above related transpired. Let us now pass to the vision which must terminate this chapter.
Abundance of graces and revelations so filled the soul of Catherine, at this epoch, that the excess of her love threw her into a state of real languor. This languor augmented so that she could not rise from her bed; and her illness was ardor for her holy Spouse, whom she continually
