all of whom still live, wept and prayed around the expiring Catherine.
At the moment in which Catherine was breathing her last sigh, Brother John felt such an intense grief, that the force of his sobs and cries ruptured a vein in his breast. He was immediately attacked with a violent cough and such a large hemorrhage that his state appeared desperate. This spectacle augmented the sorrow of the assistants: those who were grieving for Catherine's death, were soon also to be called to mourn that of the poor lay-brother. Then Friar Thomas, Catherine's Confessor, said, with strong faith, to Brother John: "I know the influence of that holy woman with God, you need only apply her hand to the place in which you suffer such violent pain, and you will certainly be cured." The Brother did it before the eyes of all present, and at the same moment he was as perfectly cured as if he had experienced no accident. Brother John related this incident to all who wish to hear it, and affirms it by an oath. Besides the Brothers whom I have just named, there were for witnesses her companion and her spiritual daughter Alessia, who now dwells with her in Heaven, whither she followed her shortly after her death. Nearly all the neighbors also saw Catherine dead, as well as the numbers of men and women who commonly present themselves in such circumstances, and no one had a doubt but that she had truly exhaled her last breath. As to the fact of the elevation of her body, which we described at the beginning of this chapter, it had for witnesses several Sisters of Penance of St, Dominic, among others, Catherine, daughter of Ghetto of Sienna, who was during a long time her inseparable companion.
