for a priest, because I wish to confess. I see my Lord and Saviour who is inviting me to do so." The assistants filled with joy hastened to obey. The priest came, he performed all his last duties calmly, confessed perfectly, and died in wonderful sentiments of contrition and repentance.
These, Lord, are the works that display thee in thy saints. To show the favor Catherine had before thee, thou made known to her the danger of a man with whom she was not acquainted, but who had received from you the same country and the same baptism. You did not grant the prayers of the others, because you would grant all to those of thy beloved Spouse. Oh ! who would not love thee !
There were at Sienna, two notorious brigands that justice had decreed to arrest — and they were condemned to expiate their crime in the most fearful torments. They were going to death, attached to a stake, on a cart, and the executioners, armed with red hot pincers, tore their flesh in every part of their bodies. Neither in prison, nor at the approach of death, could they be induced to repent, nor persuaded to listen to a clergyman; and at the very moment in which they were led through the town in order to inspire a wholesome dread of the laws, instead of recommending themselves to the prayers of the faithful, they blasphemed against God and his Saints. The fiery tortures which these wretched men endured were but a prelude to the torments that awaited them in hell; but that Infinite Goodness who wills the death of none, and who does not twice punish the same faults, delivered these poor souls, by means of his faithful handmaid.
Providence permitted that on that very day, Catherine
