Blessed Bartolo Longo

 Blessed Bartolo Longo

 Blessed Bartolo was raised in a faithful Catholic family. Unlike most saints, Bartolo spent his misbegotten 20's as a Satanic priest.

Born in 1841, Bartolo Longo lost his mother when he was only 10. From that time, he grew more and more distant from his Catholic faith. When he began university studies in Naples, at the University where St. Thomas Aquinas himself had studied, he was eager to enter fully into the experience of a secular university. In mid-19th-century Italy, that meant anti-clericalism, atheism, and ultimately the occult. 

Bartolo began attending séances, experimented with drugs, and even got involved in orgies. He lured people away from the Catholic faith, publicly ridiculing the Church of his childhood. Before long, the newly minted lawyer was “ordained” a priest of Satan. As a Satanic bishop intoned blasphemous words, the walls of the room shook and disembodied screams terrified those in attendance.

Because of the influnce of the evil one, Bartolo soon became mired in paranoia and dark visions. Mercilessly driven to madness by the infernal spirits who tormented him night and day Bartolo bgan to desire death over life.  Even with these hellish attacks Bartolo clung to his Satanic practices.  Thankfully for him his family was relentless in their daily prayers for his deliverance from the enemy. 

As with the great Saint Augustine, the faithful prayers of Bartolo’s family finally tore down the wall of anger and sin that Bartolo had built around himself. One night, he heard the voice of his dead father crying out to him, “My dear son return to the one true and Almighty God!” 

 

Shaken, Bartolo visited a friend who lived nearby, Professor Vincenzo Pepe. When Pepe realized what had become of Bartolo, he cried, “Are you mad? Do you want to die in an insane asylum and be damned forever?”  Pepe’s courage in pointing out the self-inflicted mortal danger his friend was in woke Bartolo from his demonic fog. It was only then that he agreed to meet with a Dominican priest, Fr. Alberto Radente.

Fr. Alberto worked slowly on the young lawyer, encouraging him to make a thorough confession. 

After a month of stringent moral and spiritual direction, Bartolo was finally absolved and began his work of drawing people back to Christ. He stood up in the middle of cafés and student parties and denounced occult practices. He served the poor and instructed the ignorant; after six years of such work, he pronounced vows as a lay Dominican, on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Then, cleansed and consecrated, Bartolo visited one last séance. He walked in, held up a rosary and called out, “I renounce spiritualism because it is nothing but a maze of error and falsehood.”

But for all he had been absolved, Bartolo, like most of us, struggled with memories of his past. He felt unworthy of God’s forgiveness, certain that he was impure, permanently marred by his sin. One day, while collecting rent from the destitute farmers around Pompeii, Bartolo  felt hounded by his former way of life. Privately, to himself Bortolo despaired...

“Despite my repentance, I thought: I am still consecrated to Satan, and I am still his slave and property as he awaits me in Hell. As I pondered over my condition, I experienced a deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide.”

In that moment, Bartolo was reminded of the simple and pure rosary of his childhood. He was reminded of the love of the Blessed Mother. He felt Our Lady tell him that his path to heaven was through teaching others to pray the Rosary.

 

 

Bartolo moved to Pompeii, where he began Rosary groups, organized Marian processions, and began work on a shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary. His work was funded by the Countess di Fusco, with whom he worked so closely that rumors began to spread about the nature of their relationship. Though Bartolo had taken a private vow of chastity, he was encouraged by Pope Leo XIII to marry the countess for the sake of the work; the two entered into a celibate marriage and continued to serve the poor.

For more than 50 years, Bartolo preached the Rosary, founded schools for the poor, established orphanages for the children of criminals, and transformed a city of death to a city dedicated to the living Mother of God. At his beatification, St. John Paul II, himself perhaps the most Marian pope since St. Peter, proclaimed Blessed Bartolo Longo “a Man of Mary.”

Blessed Bartolo Longo was a vile, degenerate, blasphemous Satanic priest. But this is his legacy: blessed, soon canonized. 

 

 

On October 5, his feast day, let’s ask Bartolo's intercession for all those who think they’re beyond hope, or that their purity can never be restored and their lives never be made whole, or that they’ve lost their chance at holiness. 

May they join the ranks of murderers, addicts, and Satanists whose halos shine undimmed around the throne of the unblemished Lamb of God. Blessed Bartolo Longo, pray for us.

A Life Worth Emulating Isaac Hecker

Born in New York City in 1819, Isaac Hecker grew up in a German-Methodist household. He would stick with this religion only until his teenage years, when he started to distance himself from the Christian denomination. 

At the time Hecker was more interested in work and politics, though he still considered himself a Christian. Together with his two brothers, Hecker devoted all of his time to a political campaign during 1837. However, the campaign failed and left Hecker with a sour taste for politics.

He continued to struggle with God’s plan for his life, and tried to search for his place in the world. At first he turned to philosophy and studied such figures as Hegel and Kant. Then in 1842 Hecker started to have mystical visions. He wrote about one such heavenly vision that changed his approach to the world.

I saw (I cannot say I dreamt for it was quite different from dreaming since I was seated on the side of my bed) a beautiful angelic, pure being and myself standing alongside of her, feeling a most heavenly pure joy. And it was if our bodies were luminous and they gave forth a moon-like light, which I felt sprang from the joy that we experienced. 

The vision only made him more restless and he turned to a popular Christian preacher and philosopher at the time named Orestes Brownson. Brownson mentored Hecker for several years, but then started to question his own religion and began investigating the Catholic Church.

Influenced by Brownson’s change of direction, Hecker also researched the Catholic Church and felt drawn to it. Through a series of events and encounters, Hecker felt God calling him to be a Catholic priest.

In the meantime Brownson converted to the Catholic faith, marking the final straw in Hecker’s search for God. Hecker met with a local bishop who helped him make the final leap of faith.

After a few weeks of religious instruction Hecker was baptized in the Catholic Church in 1844. He wrote afterwards, “The Catholic Church is my star, which will lead me to my life, my destiny, my purpose.”

Hecker eventually joined the Redemptorists and was ordained a priest in 1849. After spending several years abroad, Hecker returned to New York City and gave parish missions across the nation. He was an excellent preacher, attracting thousands of people wherever he went.

A few years later Hecker felt called to establish a new Redemptorist house in America. His request was denied and his apparent “disobedience” resulted in an expulsion from the order. At first he fought the expulsion in Rome, but then discussed with the Holy Father the founding of a new order that would work for the conversion of America.

Upon his return to the United States in 1858 Hecker gathered his friends and established the Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle, more commonly known as the Paulists. It was a new congregation devoted to preaching missions and featured an apostolate to non-Catholics.

For the rest of his life Hecker devoted himself to preaching and spreading the Gospel through the modern means of technology. He died on December 22, 1888, in Manhattan.

Hecker’s extraordinary life inspired many after his death, and his cause for canonization was officially opened on January 25, 2008.

muslim meets Jesus in dream

muslim meets Jesus in dream and gets marked with an incredible sign for the rest of his life.  He meets Jesus in a dream while on a pilgrimage to Kaaba, Mecca. This event has changed his whole life and wherever he goes, he is marked with this special sign after this mighty meeting! God is truly amazing and works greater then our wildest imagination. 

Acts 18:9-10

'And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."

Possessed Saints by author Marco Tosatti

History relates many cases in which a saint or a blessed has been forced to confront the devil, and has suffered physical torture. Sometimes, Satan has possessed their body; other times, he has vexed or obsessed them.

In his book Santi indemoniati (Possessed Saints), author Marco Tosatti lists numerous such cases.

 

1) JUAN DEL CASTILLO’S BLASPHEMY

Fr. Juan del Castillo, a 16th century Jesuit, blasphemed—against his own will—because he was obsessed by the devil. “The devil,” writes fellow Jesuit, Fr. Auguste Poulain, “also used the hands of that holy religious to strike or burn images of the Blessed Virgin.”

 

2) MARY MAGDALENE DE PAZZI’S KNIFE

Many saints and beati, afflicted by the devil, have been tempted to commit suicide. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, who lived in the second half of the 16th century and was known for her ecstasies, left the choir on the night of the feast of St. Andrew (November 30), and ran into the kitchen to grab a knife and try to kill herself. On another occasion, fearing she might once again yield to that impulse, she had herself tied up.

 

3) EGIDIUS OF PORTUGAL’S BLOOD PACT

Blessed Egidius of Portugal, who loved science and necromancy, made a pact with the devil during one of his voyages. “He renounced his faith with an abominable oath, and he sold his soul with a pact written with his own hand, and signed with his blood,” wrote his biographer, Dominican friar André de Resende.

One day, a ghost appeared to him in the form of a knight in armor who commanded him to change his life. Egidius, terrified, asked the Lord for forgiveness, and from then on, he embarked on a spiritual journey that led him to become a friar.

For seven years this beato, who lived in the 13th century, was tormented by demons who reminded him of his past and of the pact he had signed and not fulfilled. One day, at last, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the pact was dissolved, and the demons left Egidius in peace forever.

4) COLETTE OF CORBIE’S VEXATIONS

 Diabolic vexations infested the life of St. Colette of Corbie, who was born in 1380. She, the great reformer of the Poor Clares, was the hostage of demons who used natural means to disturb her throughout her mystical relationship with God.

 

Pierre de Valles, the holy woman’s confessor, recounts: “She felt an instinctive revulsion towards ants. At the convent of Besancon, the demons persecuted her, often filling the places she frequented and the things she liked, such as the oratory and her books, with those bothersome little insects. 

Thousands of these bugs would gather, and would then disappear with the same speed with which they had appeared.”

In Languedoc, these persecutions took the form of flies. In Picardy, her bed and oratory were invaded by snails, turtles, and other reptiles. Among these persecutions, the most intense lasted for the seven years leading up to her death. When she prayed, demons appeared to her under the appearance of flies, leopards, lions, and other beasts of every kind. Many of her sisters in religion also saw those figures.

5) NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO’S BEATING

St. Nicholas of Tolentino, of the Hermits of Saint Augustine, was the worker of many miracles—30 of which were judged authentic by the commission that investigated his cause of beatification. Not even he was free of remarkable annoyances of demonic origin. One evening, while at prayer in his oratory, he saw the devil blow out the lamp, throw it to the ground, and smash it.

His contemporary and biographer, Friar Peter of Monte Rubiano, recounts these vexations. He tells how the evil spirit set up residence on the roof of Saint Nicholas’ oratory, imitating the cries of various wild beasts, and turning over the tiles on the roof as if wanting to turn the entire thing upside-down.

Seeing that the saint continued to pray, the demon beat him fiercely, to the point where the bruises were visible all over his body for days. Once, the demon who tormented him declared, “I am Belial, and I have been sent to you as a prod for your holiness.” St. Nicholas, who died in 1305, was canonized in 1446.

6) SAINT ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ

St. Alphonsus Rodriguez is the patron saint of porters and ushers. After having received great blessings, he was attacked, both by violent temptations and by physical assaults, starting around the age of 50 and continuing for seven years. “At times,” writes Alban Butler, his biographer, “he was so oppressed, and pursued so closely, that it was impossible to describe his suffering.” Sometimes, he heard infernal conversations, and witnessed demons blaspheming against God. Other times, he was at the point of dying from suffocation, because the evil spirits were squeezing his throat.

Generally, these events started at midnight, while he was asleep. St. Alphonsus would be awakened by the great din. Then, the demons would begin to dance around him, jump on top of him, and grab him by the arm to try to force him to do evil, without him being able to get rid of them. Those were years of great suffering.

 

7) SAINT IGNATIUS’ STRANGULATION

St. Ignatius of Loyola also had to fight against Satan. Paul Verdun writes, “Giampaolo was Saint Ignatius’ roommate for many years. Once, while sleeping one night in a bed near the saint’s, he was woken up by the sound of blows, and of cries from the founder of the Company of Jesus. He arose, and asked his roommate what was happening. But St. Ignatius, without speaking, ordered him to go back to bed and sleep. The spirit of darkness had tried, on that occasion, to strangle the saint, who was left voiceless for many days.”

Fr. Gabriele Amorth Interview from www.aleteia.org

Here follows excerpts from private dialogues between Satan and Fr. Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in Rome who died recently at the age of 91. Satan and this priest confronted each other on many occasions. Fr. Amorth heard it all—difficult, harsh discussions, and of course full of lies, because the devil’s action is based on lies.

 

THE DEVIL’S REPLY

Fabio Marchese Ragona, who is the curator of the Stanze Vaticane blog, wrote, “During an exorcism, Fr. Amorth had asked the devil when he would leave the possessed girl’s body. The devil replied that he would remain until December 8. This turned out not to be true, and when Fr. Gabriele reproached him for the lie, the devil said in reply, ‘Haven’t they ever told you I’m a liar?” (Faro di Roma, September 2016).

HOW CAN THE DEVIL BE INTERROGATED?

Fr. Gabriele Amorth confided “exorcists interrogate the devil and get answers out of him.” But if the devil is the prince of lies, what use is it to interrogate him?

“It’s true that we sift through the devil’s answers afterwards; perhaps the Lord forces the devil to tell the truth to demonstrate that Satan has been defeated by Christ, and is also forced to obey Christ’s followers when they act in His name.”

THE WORST HUMILIATION

According to Fr. Amorth, the evil one often “expressly declares that he is being forced to speak, which is something he will do everything to avoid. But, for example, when he is forced to reveal his name, it is a great humiliation for him—a sign of defeat. But woe to the exorcist who gets lost in questions of curiosity (which the Rite expressly forbids) or if he lets himself be guided by the devil in a conversation! Precisely because he is a master of lies, Satan is humiliated when God forces him to tell the truth.”

“I AM STRONGER THAN GOD”

 “Once, it happened that Fr Amorth asked a demon why, despite his being created perfectly and the Fallen Angel's superior intelligence, it preferred to descend into hell; he answered, ‘I willfully rebelled against Almighty God the Supreme Creator; thus, I showed that I am stronger than He is.’ Therefore, for the Demons, rebellion is a sign of victory and superiority.”

“I AM AFRAID WHEN YOU USE THE MADONNA’S NAME…”

In his book The Last Exorcist—composed of texts from various blogs, Fr. Amorth reports an entire dialogue he had, in his role as exorcist, with the devil.

Father Amorth: “What are the virtues of the Madonna that make you angriest?”

Demon: “She makes me angry because she is the humblest of all creatures, and because I am the proudest; because she is the purest of all creatures, and I am not; because, of all creatures, she is the most obedient to God, and I am a rebel!”

Father Amorth: “Tell me the fourth characteristic of the Madonna that makes you so afraid of her that you are more afraid when I say the Madonna’s name than when I say the name of Jesus Christ!”

Demon: “I am more afraid when you say the Madonna’s name, because I am more humiliated by being beaten by a simple creature, than by Him…”

Father Amorth: “Tell me the fourth characteristic of the Madonna that makes you most angry!”

Demon: “Because she always defeats me, because she was never compromised by any taint of sin!”

“During an exorcism,” Father Amorth remembers, “Satan told me, through the possessed person, ‘Every Hail Mary of the Rosary is a blow to the head for me; if Christians knew the power of the Rosary, it would be the end of me!'”

 

THE FIRST ENCOUNTER

 Father Amorth speaks on his first encounter with Satan's demons. It happened during an exorcism:

“Suddenly, I had the clear sensation of a demonic presence before me. I felt this demon that was looking at me intently. Scrutinizing me. Moving around me. The air became cold. It was terribly cold. Father Candido had also warned me ahead of time about these sudden changes in temperature, but it’s one thing to hear certain things talked about, and another to experience them yourself. I tried to concentrate. I closed my eyes and continued my prayer by rote. ‘Leave, therefore, you rebel. Leave, seducer, full of every kind of fraud and falsehood, enemy of virtue, persecutor of the innocent. 

Angels at Our Side

1) “When Mass is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar.” – St. John Chrysostom

 

2) “Beside each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life.” – St. Basil the Great

 

 

3) “Those closest to God in heaven, the seraphim, are called the fiery ones because more than the other angels they take their fervor and ardor from the intense fire of God.” – St. Robert Bellarmine

 

4) “When tempted, invoke your Angel. He is more eager to help you than you are to be helped! Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him: He trembles and flees at the sight of your Guardian Angel.” – St. John Bosco

 

 

5) “How happy is that guardian angel who accompanies a soul to Holy Mass!” – St. John Vianney

 

 

6) “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” – G. K. Chesterton

 

7) “If the Angels could envy, they would envy us for Holy Communion.” – Pope St. Pius X

 

 

8) “We should show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father.” – St. Bernard of Clairvaux

 

 

9) “Make yourself familiar with the Angels, and behold them frequently in spirit. Without being seen, they are present with you.” – St. Francis de Sales

 

10) “I have great reverence for Saint Michael the Archangel; he had no example to follow in doing the will of God, and yet he fulfilled God’s will faithfully.” – St. Faustina Kowalska

 

 

11) “The powers of hell will assail the dying Christian; but his angel guardian will come to console him. His patrons, and St. Michael, who has been appointed by God to defend his faithful servants in their last combat with the devils, will come to his aid.” – St. Alphonsus Liguori

 

 

12) “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” – St. Augustine

 

 

13) “Ask your angel to console and assist you in your last moments.” – St. John Bosco

 

It is vastly more beneficial to stop and pray than to sit and complain

Kathleen Beckman was right when she said..."My Brothers and Sisters is always more beneficial to stop and pray, than to complain about the fiery trial."

Ephesians has a multitude of Spiritual Weapons to use when fighting/Praying against the Devil.

Ephesians 6:10: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Lord, I’ve never felt weaker or more defeated in the battle against the evil spirits. In your mercy, hold me upright in the strength of your might. Protect me from this evil onslaught and increase my faith that I may not succumb to diabolical temptations. O Incarnate Mercy, embrace your suffering servant with tender strength.

 

Ephesians 6:11: Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Lord Jesus, you are the whole armor of the Christian soldier—cover me please. Wherever there is a weak link in my spiritual armor, please heal and restore its integrity. The wiles of the devil are manifold leading me into darkness, discouragement, doubt, and division—even against my self, friends and family. I need your light to see, your encouragement to persevere, and affirmation that, with your grace, I can resist and the enemy will flee.

Ephesians 6:12: For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Eternal Father, what defense do I, a poor sinner, have against powers and principalities, and their wickedness? You have given me your Son Jesus Christ as spiritual armor. Father, graciously place me into the depths of the Sacred Heart, my refuge against this present darkness. If I have succumbed to evil, lead me to repentance, reparation and restoration. I am your unworthy child but the Blood of your Son Jesus is my garment because you willed it. Thank you for your loving, perpetual care. 

Ephesians 6:13: Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eternal Father, I reach for you like a child who seeks to be picked up into the arms of his or her loving daddy. Only in your arms am I safe from the evil one. Have I done all, to stand for Christ against the evil day? I’m sure that I have not. Therefore, have pity on me and supply what is lacking in your servant please.

Ephesians 6:14: Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

Jesus, Incarnate Truth, please build me up in the truth that I may stand against my soul’s enemy. You, the only Righteous One, be my breastplate, shield and protection in this present spiritual battle. With Incarnate Truth, I can stand, am safe, and able to proclaim the victory that you won on the cross. My only righteousness is your Precious Blood; and because of it, the devil is defeated. Consecrate me in this truth, I beg you.

Ephesians 6:15: and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace;

Lord Jesus, the gospel of peace rests in my heart but my feet feel the hot coals of the fire set by the evil one. Teach me please, the way of surrender, strength and suffering wherein I do not lose my peace of soul. Did you lose your peace on the Via Dolorosa? No! You entered into the fiery ordeal with confidence in Your Father’s plan. Teach me this way of wise confidence, I beg you. I admit my faith, hope, love are too small. Increase it, I pray.

Ephesians 6:16: above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.

Mother Mary, first disciple of the Lord Jesus, I implore your maternal help to strengthen my faith so it becomes an impenetrable shield. When the flaming darts of the evil one raged against you, they could not mortally wound you. You who where privileged to see God’s glory with greatest clarity also saw the unimaginable depths of evil at work all around you. You were not afraid, you believed, and proclaimed God’s victory in the greatest battle at the foot of the cross. You stood in valiantly in faith. Please strengthen the faith of your battle worn child now.

Ephesians 6:17: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

 Lord Jesus, please renew my mind, that I may think the holy and good thoughts of a redeemed child. Please secure the helmet of salvation upon me so I am never without protection.
 Holy Spirit, come and fill me now. Graciously release your gifts of faith, hope and love, discernment and praise. Help me to pick up the sword of the Spirit to cut down and clear away all that is not of you. Keep me rooted in your living Word that is sharper than a two-edged sword against my enemy.

Ephesians 6:18: Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Most Holy Trinity, as a member of your Church militant, I have recourse to the Church triumphant. On earth I can look to, count on, and pray to saints as my heavenly family. In the midst of spiritual battles I have saint friends who passed the test, and their witness strengthens me to fight the good fight. Thank you, my Triune God, for your loving mercy, assurance, protection and blessing.
 St. Michael the Archangel, most powerful against Satan and his cohorts, defend me in battle now, and until I am safely home with the Church triumphant. Archangel Michael and beloved guardian angel, please aid me in wearing the full armor of God. 

Marie Rose Ferron –American Mystic

A few years before, Rose met a priest who taught her how to suffer and sacrifice out of love for God, so that by the time Bishop Hickey called on her, when she was twenty-five, she had completely accepted the mystery of suffering for herself, and could even say that she hungered and thirsted after it, and that suffering was to be her state of life. And, by this time she had been bed-ridden for five years.


And so, the bishop called on the Ferron home because he knew he would meet there a victim who would be willing to offer herself as a living holocaust for his diocese. On her part, Rose recognized "a good heart" in the bishop. He felt so much at ease in her presence that all resistance broke down and he wept bitterly. "My child," he pleaded, "will you suffer for the Diocese of Providence, for its priests, and for those I was obliged to punish?"
"I will do whatever you ask," answered Rose without hesitation. "I am willing to suffer as you wish and for the return of those you have excommunicated. I accept at once. It will be my mission to pray for their return."

The bishop thought that Rose should reflect some time before complying with what might become a veritable martyrdom. He accordingly left the room for a few minutes, in order that she might consider the full import of her acceptance. When he came back, Rose reiterated her consent.
Calm began to settle slowly over the Sentinelliste battlefield. Many thought it was the calm before a fresh storm. A lone victim was however obtaining graces for an entire diocese through unusual, mystical suffering. Once in ecstasy, she was heard to plead: "Take away my speech, if that will help. Take my eyes! Take my mind!" And with her eyes glistening with tears, she added: "Take everything I have and cherish. I am ready to suffer until the last one is converted, even one hundred years if You so wish it!" And later she said- "This affair will bear good fruit for both sides, and with Jesus I rejoice because of it."
Remarkably, one by one, all fifty-six rebel children of the Church bowed in submission and obedience to their Bishop.
One day, when Rose was twenty-two, the house was filled with the odor of freshly baked bread. Her younger sister, who was munching a crumb, invited her to have some: "Oh, Rose, it is delicious!"
"I can't," answered Rose, who already knew the exigencies of her stomach. "If I do, I may die." "To die from eating or from hunger-what's the difference? Try at least."
Rose tried and suffered as if she were actually to die.
When all was over, her left hand was deformed. It was to remain crippled until her death.
What is even more remarkable is that thereafter she partook of no more solid food. Rose herself attested to this fact, as did also her mother. For eleven years, until her death, Rose took only liquid food and even this she was at times unable to keep. Realizing that she could receive Holy Communion, a priest once gave her some tiny unconsecrated particles. They promptly made her ill. Moreover, four years before her death, she did not even drink water during a period of three months. But Rose felt hunger and thirst, as all who dwelt in contact with her very well knew. It was at the price of long and protracted craving for food that she was able to subsist on a diet that would have been insufficient for an ordinary person.
 

"Little Rose," had begun her role of victim without foreseeing what type of suffering was in store for her, nor what unusual signs God was to work in her martyred body. Her abstinence from food and drink was only the beginning of many extraordinary mystical phenomena and of deep suffering. Throughout it all, she remained docile to authority, both medical and spiritual, and with delicate discretion tried ever to avoid publicity.
A detailed biography is not the object of this brief sketch of the life of Marie Rose Ferron. Her trials, her love for suffering, her stigmata and the content of her ecstasies and visions will be treated somewhat in detail, because they alone bring into relief her intimacy with Christ crucified. Other phenomena of her mystic life can be found in the excellent biography "She Wears a Crown of Thorns" by the Reverend O. A. Boyer. Suffice it to state here in passing that while in ecstasy she could not be lifted, even by 4 grown men, although she weighed not more than seventy-five pounds. Moreover, her body remained rigid, except when she spoke or wanted to use her hands while in conversation with Christ.
 

Her Devotion to the Eucharist
Bishop Hickey authorized a private oratory next to Rose's room. When Mass was said there, especially on the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, Rose would drop into ecstasy at the opening prayers but she always revived at the moment of Communion. Generally, the instant she received the Sacred Host, her head fell back and she again drifted into ecstasy. Not the slightest movement of her throat muscles indicated that she was swallowing the Host, although It disappeared instantaneously. Many priests noted this fact, even one who did not to believe in the mystical authenticity of Rose's experiences.

In fact, Rose's love for the Eucharist was intense. She had been accustomed to the daily reception of Communion, when suddenly it became impossible for her to communicate more than once a week. Rose suffered acutely from this isolation from her Eucharistic Lord. Once the priest was absent for two weeks. She was counting the days one by one until the Saturday when he was again to bring her the Blessed Sacrament, only to be told that morning that he was not coming. "When later she spoke of the incident," writes her biographer, "her eyes filled with tears and as they ran down her cheeks, the intense pain that they betrayed was revealed in her words. The words were simple and few, but they could move a dead man's bones. I am not sensitive, but this time I felt an acute pain all through me. . . . I shall never need a greater proof of the martyrdom that girl suffered when deprived of the Blessed Sacrament."
When the priest learned that Rose lay constantly on a board to which she was tied, he was so profoundly impressed that he made arrangements for bringing her Holy Communion twice a week. During this same period, Rose became completely separated from the three priests from whom she had sought spiritual direction. Her isolation from them and the infrequency of the Eucharistic visits of her Spouse lasted several years. They were years of living by pure faith, amid deep sufferings, both physical and mental. For the remainder of her life, she was to wonder how she had been able to survive without having lost her mind. But she clung to the anchor of Faith and the Providence of God and found security in utter docility to her confessor's authority.

Her Stigmata and wounds of the Scourging
Rose Ferron was one of the most completely stigmatized persons on record. Whereas perhaps only thirty or so have borne the five wounds and the crowning of thorns, Rose had all of these, as well as the shoulder wound and the bleeding from the eyes.
The wounds of Christ's scourging had appeared now and then during the latter part of 1926. But it was during Lent of 1927, a few months before Bishop Hickey sought in Rose a victim for his diocese, that these wounds began to appear regularly every Friday. The red and purple stripes were clearly visible on her arm, which seemed to have been lashed with whips. The wounds swelled and hurt like burns.
Two days later, before the eyes of her biographer and another priest, the wounds of the nails appeared in her hands. Her feet too bore the marks of the nails. Rose had the sensation that her blood did not circulate beyond the stigmata in her feet, but the blood "streamed forth" from them. In describing the piercing of the muscles of her hands, Rose explained: "I feel them tearing apart; they seem to separate into shreds and to be drawn aside."
 

A priest who examined these wounds in 1930 wrote: "The blood gave a sweet-smelling odor unknown to me, somewhat like a perfume; my hands became saturated with it....It was not a transitory smell, since the odor persisted till the following morning."
The stigmata of the heart began during the Lenten season of 1929. They brought such sharp pains to Rose that she sometimes fainted into unconsciousness. She said that the interior pain was "frightful." At times the pain was felt intensely in her back, "where the lance seems to have stopped.", she said.
The wounds of the crown of thorns resembled, in the mother's words, "two heavy cords that encircle her head." The holes made by the thorns themselves made Rose feel "as if her head were breaking open." These thorn stigmata never disappeared completely. They were still visible after her death, as shown in the photograph to the left
Finally Rose suffered from the shoulder wound, which likewise brought her acute pain.

 

The five wounds and the crown "came to stay," but the others appeared every Friday and disappeared on Saturday as rapidly as they had come, without leaving a trace. On Fridays, when the bleeding would begin, Mrs. Ferron would lock the doors of the house and would admit only a few visitors who had obtained special permission.
Rose was embarrassed at feeling herself an object of study and would keep the stigmata under cover. Some of the visitors fainted upon seeing Rose in agony. Such incidents caused great annoyance to the bereaved mother. "It is hard to keep the people out," she once remarked, "but when they faint, it's far worse to nurse them back."
The capacity for victim-suffering in this poor little Rose, crushed under foot as it were by her divine Gardener, was not yet filled. Like Him she had suffered from a scourging, from being pierced as if by nails, wounded in her heart, crowned with the piercing of thorns, and bruised on her shoulder. Yet had she to shed still more blood in order to fulfill her mission as victim in union with Him. But then, He had preceded her. Meek as a lamb, He Himself had been led to slaughter. In Him therefore Rose found strength. She found even love for the passion He was completing in her reduced body. As the story of pain unfolded with the months and the years, the realization that she was a victim grew more vivid. She knew that she was being tortured in the place of others and she accepted her vocation of bearing in her own body the physical pain spared them. In that, too, she resembled her Master, whose love prompted Him to bear mankind's punishment in its stead.
"Dear Rose," a priest once asked her in a lapse during her Friday ecstasy, "you suffer so much! How is it that Jesus whom you love so much, as you told me yesterday, treats you in such a severe way?""
"The caresses of Heaven are not like those of earth," she said simply, and then fell back into ecstasy and "in indescribable suffering."
And on another occasion Little Rose exclaimed "Oh Jesus, the happiness I have in loving You far outweighs the martyrdom that I endure". And in a letter to a friend Marie Rose wrote: "I will pray hard and my suffering will always be for souls," she vowed to a close friend. "I give myself to our dear Jesus to do with me Just as He pleases... I must ask you to pray for a very important intention. It is for souls, and at any price I must have these. They are so dear to God. Pray, pray, pray!" and again another time she said: "To save souls one should do anything. So together let us help Him, the One that we love, to give Him many souls!"

 
The flow of blood from her eyes and mouth- her conformity to the Holy Face "Tell Father Boyer that the night before last, for the first time, Rose's eyes bled and the blood dropped like tears." Thus spoke Rose's sister to a friend to whom she telephoned one day in August, 1929, referring to the most impressive, the most heart-rending, sufferings of Little Rose.
In the same month, the physician attending Rose was overwhelmed with emotion at this sight and exclaimed to all present: "It is terrible! Believe all you see! She is a wonder." Rose was also bleeding profusely from her mouth at the time.
Rose once asked of her mother and a couple of visitors near the bed: "How is it that I lose so much blood, when I have so little?"
Hardly had she uttered this question when she lapsed into ecstasy and began to speak: "Oh! It is Your Blood that gushes from me! As for me, I am nothing, nothing, my Jesus!"

At the end of this month of August, a friend wrote in testimony of these unnatural hemorrhages: "After seeing my dear little Rose this morning, my heart is oppressed and I am thinking only of her. Oh, if you were to see her! This morning at seven o'clock, her mother called me and asked if I could come over. I arrived at 7:45 A.M .... , and I heard her say to me: 'Don't fear, Madame.' She was simply one blot of blood; her poor eyes were bleeding; her entire face was unrecognisable ... ; she suffered so much that she could not keep her head still. It is the assistant who brings her Communion. He is so affected that he cannot speak and leaves right away. . . . Recognizing the doctor who substituted for the regular physician, I told him before he entered: 'You will be surprised at seeing her this morning; she is all covered with blood.'

How surprised he was! He could not speak and Rose told him: 'Don't talk about it, Doctor, please.'
'No, certainly, don't fear,'he answered, and she removed her headdress to show him her head. . . He could not and did not want to speak to her. It was all he could do to tell me a few words.... This evening I returned at eight o'clock.
. . . She was worse than this morning. . .. Rose represents the Holy Face-it is the same thing!"

A few days later, a gentleman who had visited Rose put his experience into writing: "I have never been so surprised in my life. It was truly Christ's face, such as it is seen in the pictures of the Holy Face. Her face was covered with blood; a person could not see anything more pitiful. One feels like dropping on one's knees when seeing her."

In June, 1930, the same man wrote again: "I was there last Saturday. She was in a frightening state; she had been like that since Friday. . .. I had never seen her like this before. There was so much blood on her face that one could not see the cavity of her eyes. All she could say was: 'My Jesus!' ... I cannot write about it without weeping. . .. I wanted my wife to see her in that state. So Sunday at about three o'clock, we went to see her. ... When we arrived, she was as beautiful as she could be, but very weak."
 

There are various descriptions of Rose's sufferings on Fridays, during which the progress of the crucifixion could be followed. She would repeatedly ask the time, clearly awaiting the hour of deliverance. As three o'clock approached, she would begin to tremble and ask all to leave the room in order that she might be alone with her dying Savior.

Father Boyer has described Rose's agony on a Friday of November, 1929: "At 11:00 A.M., the cavities of both eyes were filled to the brim .... The night before, I asked her why she did not wipe it away. She answered, 'By wiping it off, the skin is often taken along with it; but, if I leave it, the blood dries and scales off the following day.' And still by leaving it, she felt the blood burning, as though it were an acid."

"The right eyebrow was split open while I was there, and as the wound enlarged, the surroundings of the eye became blue, yellow and black .... I have seen many bruised eyes; but that one was the worst I have ever seen. The very sight of it was painful. The right side of the lower lip, also, was split open, and as the swelling increased, new wounds were formed on the chin ....

"After dinner time, she entered into ecstacy, her right arm straightened out; if her left arm, which was tied to her body, had stretched out in the same way, she would have been in the form of a cross. Shortly afterward, she writhed with pain, her lips clenched and trembled and I could hear the muscles snap, as the arms seemed to be pulled out of their sockets .... Suddenly the movements stopped, her head jerked backward and while she was gasping for breath, I heard the sound, "krish, kroosh,...krish, kroosh," at short intervals .... Was it the tearing of the muscles that made that sound, as if the limbs were pulled out of their joints? As I heard them, they seemed to me as though the pains of Christ echoed from Calvary .... Rose felt as though her bones were out of their sockets, but still touching one another on ends. To avoid the pain, she did not dare move. . . . At times, Rose would clench her teeth to overcome the torture. The chill of death made her shiver, and cold sweat would appear. At that moment, she said: 'I thirst.' They gave her water to drink .... Rose repeated a second time: 'I thirst,' and the third time she added: 'I thirst for souls.'
"Finally ... her chin dropped, her mouth remained open and the pallor of death suggested a corpse."
A physician from Massachusetts assisted Rose at a number of these crucifixion sufferings. After the ecstasy, he helped her bring the dislocated arm back into its natural position, for the joints were out of their sockets. Explaining the situation in his own words he stated:
"This sometimes took half an hour to perform and was accompanied with excruciating pains. Two weeks before her death I did this three times the same afternoon. . . . I never could understand how that girl could suffer so much!"

The inevitable question of official medical observation finally arose. We have Rose's own description of her acceptance of this proposal in August, 1931:
"In July, I bled every day as on Friday. It was terrible! I felt that if the authorities were to do something, it was the time. I had no repugnance to being examined at the time and was willing to submit to the ordeal. But on the first of the month, the Friday on which I bled so regularly and for so long a time, on that very day, there was no trace of blood and even the wounds could hardly be seen. That day, Father called to tell me that I would be examined in two weeks. On seeing me, he said, 'What! Today, Friday, and there is nothing?' It's strange, but since then my wounds have not bled."

 

Rose was pleased at the temporary relief afforded her parents, for their helplessness over their daughter's torments allowed them little peace of mind. She had even asked her director if it were wrong for her to pray for the removal of all exterior signs of the stigmata. During an ecstasy she had prayed: "Oh my Jesus, I wish to suffer more and more, but spare my parents. Increase my sufferings, if You will, but allow no one to see them. Put a smile on my lips and a ray of Your glory in my eyes and show them that I am happy."

Her sincere and humble prayer was answered. During her last five years on earth, she bore no stigmata, except those of the head. But her sufferings did not cease. Every Friday, the blood rushed to the members that had borne the wounds and caused even greater pain "than before. Rose wondered if she should not ask for the wounds to reappear, to which a priest replied, "God has brought them about and God has taken them away. If God wants their return, He can do so without being asked."
The official medical investigation was never made.

But Providence has seen fit to leave ample medical pronouncements on Rose Ferron's case to convince persons of open mind. A truly valuable testimony is that of one physician who died before Rose:
"I have had all kinds of doctors examine Rose," he averred, "and none of them can explain her case on natural grounds. To me her case is supernatural, because no one could have lost so much blood during the years and live." Referring to the very small quantities of liquid food which were her sole nourishment, he added, "She is sustained by God alone. I am thoroughly convinced the manifestations are supernatural."
 

Equally valuable is the statement of one of Rose's physicians seven years after her death. Having in the meantime made a thorough study of Bremond, Tanquerey and other masters of mystical science, he stated in a letter composed at his own initiative, "Would that I had had the preparation when I treated Rose Ferron. However, I feel honored when I think of the many phenomena I witnessed, and it is with pleasure that I now can affirm that Rose was a genuine mystic. I can see the stages she went through to the ultimate spiritual marriage and complete union with her Jesus. I now admire her complete abandonment to God and her simple humility. Her stigmata are ever fresh in my memory, as well as her great thirst for souls."

The little victim of the diocese of Providence knew no more repose here below. Not only was her body and mind racked with pain, but she seems not to have slept for years, except perhaps when she would swoon into unconsciousness from sheer pain. From midnight until one o'clock, Rose kept her "Hour of Reparation." Then for three hours she busied herself as well as she could with her little crafts. She had learned to make book marks, to braid, and to repair rosaries. "I cannot remain idle," she once remarked. "My little Jesus wants me to work."

And when someone questioned how she performed her tasks with but two fingers and her mouth, she replied, "My little Jesus comes and helps me." After four o'clock, she "dozed" for two hours. But Rose insisted that she did not sleep. In fact, she was aware of all that happened in the room.

Such a life of hunger, pain, and helplessness, with no promise of early relief in sight, was a supreme test of patience. The most providential of witnesses to Rose's spirit of long-suffering was perhaps a Protestant friend who attended her faithfully to the end. Two days before Rose's death, she wrote as follows:
"Little Rose was truly a martyr; she always wore a smile, however great the pain and agony she suffered. I have cared for her day after day, week after week, year
after year . . . ; I have seen the wounds she carried, the wounds which resembled the wounds of the crucified body of Christ.

"On Friday, the wounds were more prominent and would always bleed. During the Lenten season, as Holy Week and Good Friday approached, her sufferings were much greater and the agony which she suffered at times was beyond human endurance and the bleeding during this period was much greater.
"... I can say that she never complained, she always smiled, although in agony.... I have been blessed beyond expression by her friendship."




Her humility
Such patience is hardly conceivable in a stigmatist without deep-rooted humility. Rose's humility shone forth not only in her constant effort to avoid popularity and exhibition, but in many details of her life, as for example in her simple acceptance of complete poverty during the Depression, when her aging father had no work, when doctor bills could not be paid, and when she depended entirely upon public charity. Even in her ecstasies, she remained a little Rose. In one of them, our Lord seems to have proposed that He raise her to the honors of the altar, for she responded: "Be on the altars? I am too little for that!"

Rose's humility, her reserve, her smile amid agony, "a smile full of frankness, a childlike smile which ravished one's heart," were so many tones vibrating into an ensemble of noble charm that was not unlike the attractiveness of Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower. In fact, a priest, who had lived in Lisieux and as a boy had known the Carmelite saint, testified that "Rose has not only the physical resemblance of the Little Flower, but she has also her power of attraction; when we are with Rose, we don't know when to leave and when we are gone our hearts irresistibly cling to her memory. That is why the Little Flower influenced me and all the children of my age who visited the Carmel. Her personality impressed us so that she seemed to follow us wherever we went.... During and after my visits with Rose, I went through the same experience as I did years ago when I visited the Little Flower. She inspired me with the same confidence and I really have the same veneration for both of them."

 
Many visitors to Rose's home shared this priest's impression. If some came out of mere curiosity to see her sufferings, still more came to meet "a soul of crystal" in which they perceived the most beaming reflections of the supernatural they had ever encountered. They loved hearing her speak because of the mingled serenity and abundance of heart that filtered through her words. While she was in ecstasy, her prayers aroused in the bystanders deep emotions of contact with the supernatural. This crippled girl, who had formerly felt herself an outcast because she had no education, expressed her thoughts with a careful apropos that astonished visitors. Her constant and intimate union with God had supplied whatever human education had failed to furnish her.

However as with all mystics, her lot was not without its brunt of calumny, gossip, and ridicule. But she was too generous of heart to retaliate. "Even were I to try to hate and blame those who work against me, I could not do it," she explained. "It seems that I love them still more; and I have a desire to pray for them."

The true explanation of Rose's tenderness towards others, even those who slandered her, was her tremendous love of God. "0h Jesus, the happiness I have in loving You outweighs the martyrdom that I endure," she once exclaimed.
 


Her ecstasies
Little Rose was joyful amidst her sufferings, and she was radiant in the intimacy with her Divine Spouse. "How sweet it is to rest at Your side, 0 my Jesus!" she repeated during an ecstasy in 1934. "You know that I love You!"

At times during her ecstasies, often in the middle of the night, Rose sang hymns in French to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. They were not hymns that others knew. She composed the melody and words in rhythmic prose as the emotions of her soul progressed. Several of these hymns were copied by her friends. In 1929, a priest from Montreal recorded the following in French:
"Oh Jesus, yes, I love You,
and I want without a cloud to love You more than myself.
Oh! It is for You, my Jesus, that I wish to suffer.
O Jesus, it is for You alone,
for that would be my heavenly Father's will."
This lifelong love for Christ in suffering led Rose instinctively to prefer devotions that honored His Passion. The month of the Precious Blood was for her, who had bled so much in her own victimized body, replete with inspiration. "It would take so many lives like mine and others," she said admiringly, "to make up for just one precious drop of His Blood."

Rose's preference among pictures and statues of Christ was definitely for those that depicted Him in suffering. She loved above all a statue of the Scourging, because it held graphically before her eyes the price of wounds and blood that the Man of Sorrows had paid to redeem mankind. Blessed Brother Andre Besette, the Brother of the Congregation of the Holy Cross who radiated sanctity far and wide from his porter's room at Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, Canada, was likewise impressed by this statue on a visit he paid to Rose in 1931. For twenty minutes he studied it thoughtfully. That evening he expressed to a friend his desire to have a statue just like it. When Rose heard of it, she reflected in prayer over Brother Andre's wishes. "If giving my statue to Frere Andre would give Jesus more souls, why should His Little Rose not make the big sacrifice?" she concluded. On the Brother's next visit, Rose made "the big sacrifice."

While in ecstasy on April 13, 1929, in the presence of six visitors, Rose asked her Saviour how long she had still to suffer, and then she repeated aloud the answer, "Seven years!" She began to count the age she would have after seven more years, and stopped at thirty-three. Christ seemed to ask her if that were too long, for she said with great eagerness: "Oh, no! Come and get me whenever You want. I am ready to suffer one hundred years, if You want it. It is my sacrifice to stay."


As was revealed to her previously, Marie-Rose Ferron died in 1936 at the age of thirty-three. Death alone released her from the suffering that pursued her day after day. "God and the victims are the only ones who know what is meant by the word 'Cross,' " she had remarked, and her last two weeks were filled with the overwhelming realization of the truth of this statement. Rose could no longer see. She suffered such pains in her head that the least sound was like a blow, and any noise caused her to faint. On the last day of April, 1936, she lost her hearing and speech completely. There was no way of knowing what she wanted.

On May 6, Father Boyer called at one o'clock in the morning. "I walked into the room," he wrote in his biography, "and when I saw the condition in which she was, I was moved with pity. I could not recognize her, she was so changed; her face was not only disfigured, but wrenched out of shape. Her eyes were half-closed and in their corners thick blood was gathering; her complexion was copper red and her skin appeared coarse and swollen; her breathing was painful; her mouth was open and twisted with a heart-rending expression. She was like a dying crucifix, waiting for the consummation of her martyrdom."

Rose lived five more days. In death she still had "the expression of anguish embedded in her face." But as the women, whom she herself had appointed for preparing her body for the coffin, were washing her face, its frightful distortions disappeared. A change came over her features at each stroke of the towel. Her countenance emerged wreathed with a charming smile. She was so natural that a doctor was called specifically to ascertain her death.

In fact, Little Rose's beauty had long impressed her visitors. In their testimonials of her phenomena, they repeatedly commented upon it. When they saw her writhing and bleeding in the atrocious sufferings of the Passion, they failed to note the beauty of her features. "Yesterday she was so beautiful," wrote one priest, "today she is covered with blood."
Surely it was the inner beauty of her virtues that radiated in her external countenance.

After an intense period of suffering in union with Jesus for the conversion of sinners, Marie Rose Ferron took flight to heaven on May 11, 1936, at age 33, just as she was told by Jesus in ecstasy some seven years before. She was clothed in the habit of the religious congregation she had founded after her Lord's directions, although she died without seeing it progress beyond the approbation of Bishop Hickey under the name of the Sisters of Reparation of the Sacred Wounds of Jesus. "Jesus will need this community before long," she had said. As the thousands now filed past her body, nearly fifteen thousand signed the guest book, they broke out in admiration at her chaste beauty. The editorial writer of a newspaper wrote:
"There are things one can never forget; for us it is the radiant face of Rose Ferron. She was beautiful, but hers was not a natural beauty, but rather a mystifying one: a slight luminous emanation seemed to escape continually from that angelic face."