Page:Lifeofsaintcatha.djvu/203

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enter thy soul. " Catherine said: " If God allow it: for I know that thou canst do naught without his permission, and I refrain from opposing his holy will in the least."

Then the spirit of pride, overcome by this trait of sincere humility, lost his power over that child; however he held her by the throat and provoked a swelling in it: Catherine raising her hand to the neck, made over it the blessed sign of Redemption; the devil then lost his grasp entirely.

The following miracle will exhibit more clearly to what a degree the blessed Catherine had received from God the power of driving out Satan; I was not present, for she had sent me to the Vicar of Jesus Christ, Pope Gregory XI., on affairs relative to the church; but brother ' Saint,' the hermit whose cure I related above, Alessia and other accompanying friends are witnesses,

Catherine had gone with the noble, and venerable Lady Bianchina, widow of John Agnolino Salimbeni, to la Roche Castle, where I had passed several weeks with her: a woman near this castle was seized with the demon, who tormented her shockingly. When Lady Bianchina knew this, she, through compassion, wished that Catherine would succor the unhappy victim: but she knew her humility and her annoyance, when they spoke to her of such subjects. Having taken counsel from her companions, she had the possessed person brought into Catherine's presence, in order that the sight of her might inspire charity and excite her to deliver her. When they conducted her there, our blessed Catherine was laboring to reconcile two enemies who were at war, and she was disposing herself to go into the neighborhood to terminate the quarrel. As