Part 5 (1/2)
”Sweet nurslings of the vernal skies, Bathed with soft airs and fed with dew”
A still more wonderful miracle than these occurred about this time
Francesca and her faithful co several churches in that part of Ro before asobs and cries Stopping to inquire into the cause of this despair, they found aover the body of a child, who had died a few hours after its birth without having received baptisently reproved the woered her son's salvation; then, taking the little corpse into her arave back the baby to its mother, fully restored to life and health She desired her to have it instantly baptised, and thenthat she should remain undiscovered; and indeed the wo had never seen her, and wondered awhile if an angel had visited her in disguise; but the description of her dress, and the miracle she had worked, convinced all who heard of it that the visitor was no other than the wife of Lorenzo Ponziano
Compassionate to others, Francesca was mercilessly severe to herself; her austerities kept pace with her increasing sanctity She was enabled to carry on a mode of life which must have ruined her health had it not been miraculously sustained She slept only for two hours, and that on a narrow plank covered with nothing but a bit of rough carpet The continual warfare which she waged against her body brought it more and more into subjection to the spirit; and her senses were under such perfect control, that natural repugnances vanished, and the superior part of the soul reigned supremely over the meaner instincts and inclinations of the flesh Such was her spiritual proficiency at the early age of twenty-nine CHAPTER VII
EVANGELISTA APPEARS TO HIS MOTHER-AN ARCHANGEL IS assIGNED TO HER AS A VISIBLE GUARDIAN THROUGHOUT HER LIFE,
EVANGELISTA had been dead about a year His ie was ever present to his mother's heart; she saw him in spirit at the feet of his Lord
Never, even in her inmost soul, was she conscious of a wish to recall him from the heaven he had reached to the earthly home which he had left desolate; but not for one et the child of her love, or cease to invoke hi hovered about her path Her faith and resignation were richly rewarded God gave her a sight of her child in heaven, and he was sent to announce to her one of the hter of Ada in her oratory, when she became conscious that the little room was suddenly illuht shone on every side, and its radiance seemed to pervade not only her outward senses, but the ine sensation of joy She raised her eyes, and Evangelista stood before her; his faured and bea with ineffable splendour
By his side was another of the saht as himself, but more beautiful still Francesca's lips move, but in vain she seeks to articulate; the joy and the terror of that moment are too intense
Her son draws near to her, and with an angelic expression of love and respect he bon his head and salutes her Then thebut his presence, and opens her arms to him; but it is no earthly forlorified body escapes her grasp And now she gains courage and addresses hierness
”Is it you, indeed? (she cries) O son of my heart! Whence do you coel of God, hast thou thought of thy mother, of thy poor father? Amidst the joys of Paradise hast thou reelista looked up to heaven with an unutterable expression of peace and of joy; and then, fixing his eyes on his mother, he said, ”My abode is with God; els; our sole occupation the contemplation of the Divine perfections,--the endless source of all happiness Eternally united with God, we have no will but His; and our peace is as co is infinite He is Himself our joy, and that joy knows no liher orders of angelic spirits instruct in the Divine ences If you wish to know reat goodness, has appointed it in the second choir of angels, and the first hierarchy of archangels This ht and fair in aspect The Divine Majesty has assigned hi the reht and day by your side, he will assist you in every way Never aotten you, or any of ned; but I also knew that your heart would rejoice at beholding ladden your eyes But I have a nese: shewith you; her place is ready in the New Jerusaleood comfort, nay, rather rejoice that your children are safely housed in heaven” Evangelista co her tenderly farewell, disappeared; but the archangel remained, and to the day of her death was ever present to her sight
She now understood the sense of the vision that had been sent her at the tinese's birth It was not for the cloister, but for heaven itself, that God clai days of her earthly life she waited upon her with a tendernessupon her as one who scarcely belonged to the rough world she was so soon to leave And the chosen child of God, the little ht, soon drooped like a flower in an ungenial air,--soon gave her fond entle spirit went to seek her brother's kindred soul They were buried together; and the day was now coether vanishes, when life has its duties but has lost all its joys,--and then, what a lesson is in the story! God's angel henceforward stands visibly by her side, and never leaves her!
When Evangelista had parted froround, and blessed God for His great mercy to her, the most worthless of sinners, for such she deeel, who stood near her, she iuide and director; to point out the way she was to tread; to coainst Satan and his ministers; and to teach her every day to become more like in spirit to his and her Lord When she left the oratory, the archangel followed her, and, enveloped in a halo of light, reh imperceptible to others The radiance that surrounded hi, that she could seldoht, and in the most profound darkness, she could alrite and read by the light of that supernatural brightness
Sometimes, however, when in prayer, or in conference with her director, or engaged in struggles with the Evil One, she was enabled to see his form with perfect distinctness, and by Don Antonio's orders thus described him:--”His stature,” she said, ”is that of a child of about nine years old; his aspect full of sweetness and enerally turned towards heaven: words cannot describe the divine purity of that gaze His brow is always serene; his glances kindle in the soul the flame of ardent devotion When I look upon hiraded condition of our own He wears a long shi+ning robe, and over it a tunic, either as white as the lilies of the field, or of the colour of a red rose, or of the hue of the sky when it is most deeply blue When he walks by my side, his feet are never soiled by the mud of the streets or the dust of the road”
Francesca's conduct was now directed in the e, a coned to her from the heavenly hierarchy; and if she committed any faults, error could not now be pleaded in excuse Her actions, her words, and her thoughts, were to be ever on a par with those of the sinless Being as to be her guide throughout her earthly pilgri favour; but trusting in God's grace, though fully aware of her oeakness, she did not shrink froreatest wish had always been to attain a perfect conforuidance furnished her with thethat Will in its les with the Evil One, the archangel becaht which darted fro on their way Thus protected, she feared neither the wiles nor the violence of Satan
The presence of her heavenly guide was also to Francesca a mirror, in which she could see reflected every ireat extent renewed, nature Much as she had discerned, even from her earliest childhood, of the innate corruption of her heart, yet she often told her director, that it was only since she had been continually in the presence of an angelic companion that she had realised its a her in her own eyes, served to maintain her in the deepest huel seemed to disappear; and it was only after she had carefully exa, lamented and humbly confessed it, that he returned On the other hand, when she was only disturbed by a doubt or a scruple, he ont to bestow on her a kind look, which dissipated at once her uneasiness When he spoke, she used to see his lips move; and a voice of indescribable sweetness, but which seeuidance enlightened her chiefly with regard to the difficulty she felt in subed to her position as ine that the hours thus euardian corrected her judght her to discern the Divine will in every little irkso contradiction, as well as in great trials and on iave her also a hts of others Their sins, their errors, their evil inclinations, were supernaturally revealed to her, and often caused her the Keenest sorrow She was enabled through this gift to bring back to God ns, and reconcile the most inveterate enemies Francesca used sometimes, to say to Don Antonio, when she requested his permission for so, ”Be not afraid, father; the archangel will not allow me to proceed too far in that course He always checks ress the bounds of prudence” And Don Antonio believed it, for his penitent always spoke the exact truth; and in the ain read his hts, and e of her veracity, as well as of her extraordinary sanctity
CHAPTER VIII
FRANCESCA'S ILLNESS AND RECOVERY--HER VISION OF hell--RESTORATION OF TRANQUILLITY III ROME--RETURN OF FRANCESCA'S HUSBAND--HER POWER IN CONVERTING SINNERS
Four long years had elapsed, during which Roiven up to dissensions and civil discord, while epide each other, and carrying off isreed to convene a council at Constance; and the faithful were beginning to cherish a hope that the schis to a close But this distant prospect of relief was not sufficient to counterbalance the actual sufferings of thepain the amount of sin and of misery which filled the city of her birth Her exertions, her labours, her bodily and mental trials, told at last upon her enfeebled fraerously ill Almost all her acquaintances, and even her own family, fled froion Vannozza alone remained, and never left her bed-side Some there ho ca her; on the contrary, it was to reproach the dying saint hat they called her absurd infatuation, which had introduced the plague into her abode, and endangered her own life, for the sake of a set of worthless wretches She listened with her accusto to defend herself froe Her soul was perfectly at peace; she could joyfully accept the death that now appeared inevitable; she could thank God earnestly that the struggle was past, and Evangelista and Agnese safely lodged in His arms She looked forward to a speedy reunion with these beloved ones; and ress of her disease as the prisoner watches the process by which his chains are riven A feords or love and faith she now and then whispered to Vannozza; at other times she remained absorbed in divine conte, cal, she perforth perave up painful penances by the express order of her director She who had healed so many sick persons cared not to be healed herself
It was not, however, God's will that she should die so soon After passing several s, her health was suddenly restored It was at this period of her life that she had the awful and detailed visions of hell which have remained on record, and in which many salutary and fearful lessons are conveyed She was rapt in spirit, and carried through the realenius of h ”the st that lost people” [Footnote: Per ente”--DANTE]
--was given to the saint in h these terrific scenes; and an intuitive perception was given to her of the various sufferings of the condemned souls So deep was the impression which this tremendous vision left on Francesca's soul, that never afterwards, as long as she lived, could she speak of it without tears and tre; and she would often e too iot in their reckless security the terrors of His justice Sos in the convent of Tor di Specchi represent this vision, and are visible to this day The Pope John XXIII, and Sigis a league, with the object of delivering Italy fro of Naples This tyrant had assena; but the measure of his iniquities was now full, and the hand of death arrested him on his way An illness, occasioned by his incredible excesses, seized hiust, 1414 The sovereign Pontiff, free from the terrors which this fierce usurper had inspired, and yielding to the importunities of the cardinal, set out for Constance, where he was to ismund This same Council of Constance was eventually to be the reat schis in the chair of St Peter the illustrious Pontiff Martin V The death of Ladislas restored peace to the states of the Church, and in particular to the city of Rome With the cessation of civil broils the farievous pestilence that had so long accompanied it The fields were cultivated once radually returned to their farreen pastures of the Caain under the influence of returning prosperity
The sufferings of the Ponziani were also at an end They were recalled from banishment, and their property was restored Lorenzo and his son--now his only son--Baptista returned to their hoain But mixed with sorroas the cup of joy which that hour seemed to offer Lorenzo, who a few years back was in the prietic,--he who had , was now broken by long sufferings; aged h years We are told that when he entered his palace and looked upon his wife, deep sobs shook his breast, and he burst into an agony of tears The two beautiful children which he had left by her side, where were they? Gone! never to gladden his eyes again, or make music in his home by the sound of their sweet voices And Francesca herself, pale with recent illness, spent with ceaseless labours, she stood before him the perfect picture of a woman and a saint, with the divine expression of her beloved face unchanged; but how changed in for but that beauty which holiness gives and ti and bitterly he wept, and Francesca gently consoled hielista had appeared to her; how their children were only gone before theels they had so resembled upon earth She whispered to him that one of these was ever at her side; and when he looked upon her, and remembered all she had been to hiht by adversity, more than ever influenced by his adhly Christian mode of life than he had hitherto followed
Not content with praising her virtues, he sought to iion with the utmost strictness On one point alone his conduct was inconsistent with the principles he professed, and this hile it lasted, a source of keen anxiety to Francesca There was a Rorievously offended the lord of Ponziano, and hom he absolutely refused to be reconciled This had forain after his return, an occasion of scandal to ious profession, theappeared such an evident inconsistency Francesca herself was blamed for it; and people used to wonder that she as so often successful in reconciling strangers and pro an enmity discreditable to her husband and at variance with the dictates of religion At last, however, by dint of patience and gentleness, she acco time a hopeless endeavour The hearts of both parties were touched with reranted his enemy a full and free pardon, and a perfect reconciliation ensued This triumph over himself on the one point where the stubborn natural will had so long held out, resulted, as is almost always the case, in a rapid advance towards perfection
Lorenzo, from this time forth, withdrew more and more from public life, refused those posts of honour and of responsibility which a friendly government pressed upon him, and surrendered himself alious life In his conversations with his wife, he daily gained a deeper insight into the secrets of the spiritual life Far fro of the amount of money which she spent in charity, of the existence of an hospital within the walls of his palace, of her various and laborious works of th of time which she spent in prayer, he renewed his request that she would, in every respect, follohat seemed to her the will of God, and the ratefully complied with this his desire She watched more strictly than ever over the conduct of those coe, and recommended to them by her example even more than by her precepts an exact observance of the commandments of God and of the Church What ularly divided into two parts: with one-half she bought food for the poor, with the other clothing and ; she continued to wear her old green gown patched-up with any odd bits of cloth that fell in her way Alathered wood for the faggots which she gave away on her return Her relations, her friends, and even her servants, were annoyed at her e herself in such labour, and bitterly complained of the humiliation it occasioned them to meet her so meanly dressed and so s; on the contrary, he used to look upon her on these occasions with an increase of affection and veneration; and supported by his approval, by the approbation of her director, and the dictates of her own conscience, she cared little for the comments of others
The kind of apostolate which by this time she exercised in Rome was very remarkable; and her power over men's minds and hearts scarcely short ofcharm, an irresistible influence in her words and in her manner, which told on every variety of persons