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 precious organs that they contain, and without a miracle this displacing must necessarily produce death. Catherine endured this torture during several days; her corporeal energies became enfeebled, but the ardor of her love only increased. She experienced in a sensible manner, how deeply the Saviour had loved her, and had loved all mankind, by undergoing such a painful Passion, and this produced such a vehement love, that the heart of Catherine was separated or literally broken and the links that bound it to life were supernatually destroyed.

The reader of these pages may perhaps doubt that such a death really took place, but let him know that it occurred in presence of several witnesses who have affirmed it. I also doubted; I went to Catherine in order to examine what she had experienced, and I requested her to manifest the whole truth. She then broke forth into sobs and moans, and after having obliged me to wait for her answer a considerable time, she at last said: "Father, would you not pity a soul that had been delivered from an obscure prison, and then plunged anew into darkness, after having enjoyed an extraordinary light ? This misfortune happened to me; divine Providence willed it on account of my faults."

These circumstances increased my desire of learning these details from her, and I added: " Mother, then your soul has been really separated from your body?" "Yes," said she to me, "the ardor of divine love was so vehement, the desire that I felt of being united to my Beloved was so forcible, that no heart, had it been composed of stone or of iron, could possibly have resisted, nothing created is sufficiently powerful to counteract such a force. Yes, be sure of it, the heart that beats in this poor frame was sundered by charity. I feel the place