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 and this sight had inundated her soul with comfort, because a few days previous she had tasted the bliss of celestial glory.

Here let us admire the wisdom of divine Providence: the soul of Jacomo could certainly have been purified in another way and have been immediately admitted to glory, like the soul of the good thief on Calvary, who confessed our Lord on the Cross; but God willed that Catherine should request it, not to try her, but to augment her merits and her crown. Hence Catherine always spoke of her sweet, dear sufferings; and she was correct, because sufferings augment the consolations of grace in this life and the delights of the glory to come.

Having admired what Catherine did for the soul of a just man, let us see what happened in the soul of a sinner. In 1370, there was at Sienna a citizen named Andrea of Naddino; a man rich in worldly and perishable goods, but poor in interior and eternal wealth. Without either the love or the fear of God, he subjected himself to the slavery of every vice. Gaming was his predominant passion, and he had a habit of blaspheming horribly. In the month of December of that same year, the fortieth of his age, he was attacked with a serious malady; the physicians entertained no hope of his cure, and death threatened both the soul and body of this wretched impenitent. The curate of the parish came to visit him, hoping to prepare him for his last great change, but the sick man, who had never frequented the Church, nor respected its priests, despised his charitable warnings and repulsed him who gave them. Then his wife and children, who ardently desired his salvation, invited several pious persons to come, who all endeavored to overcome his hardness of heart; but neither the threats