dinary penances. Besides the austerities prescribed by the Order, he wore day and night a hair-shirt made of horsehair, the sharp points of which constantly wounded his body; in the winter time he clothed himself with an old, ill-mended mantle, that he might feel the cold more severely; he slept only for three hours, and spent the remainder of the night in meditation; his food was generally dry bread; for a long time he ate nothing more than four ounces of dried figs; as he advanced in years he increased his mortifications to such an extent that during a whole week he would eat only three times a little bread and water. Every night he disciplined himself to blood in honor of the Passion and death of Our Lord, and once a year he prolonged the scourging for five whole hours. In a word, according to his biographer, “he had determined not to allow himself any repose in this life.[1] You might perhaps imagine, my dear brethren, that this man was a notorious robber or murderer, or at all events a great sinner before entering the Order, and that he must have had fearful crimes to atone for, since he was so terribly severe towards himself. But quite the contrary; he brought his baptismal innocence with him into religion. His humility was so great that he thought himself worthy of nothing but to be trodden under foot by all. God gave him such a great grace of contemplation that he was often rapt into ecstasy out of himself, and could only sigh forth seraphic aspirations of love to God. Would you, not think, my dear brethren, that such an innocent, holy, and at the same time so mortified a soul must at once after death be carried by the angels into heaven? But you must know that he had to suffer a great deal in purgatory. For he appeared to the infirmarian of the convent, and being asked how he was, said: “I have indeed saved my soul; but I am condemned to purgatory till I have fully atoned; my fault was against holy poverty; for when the convent was being founded I sought for certain means of support without having first asked permission to do so. I did not look on it then as a sin, although I had a doubt about it now and then; but through carelessness I disregarded the doubt, and this carelessness is now severely punished by the divine Judge, who so strictly examines each and every fault.”
Further examples. Well known is what St. Peter Damian writes of St. Severinus, Archbishop of Cologne. His holiness of life was known everywhere, as well as the miracles he wrought; yet he was detained
- ↑ Pactum inierat, ne ullam in hoc sæculo requiem ei præberet.
