Page:Lifeofsaintcatha.djvu/232



Dear reader, God knows I would willingly conclude this biography, particularly on account of the numerous occupations which press me on every side; but when I meditate on Catherine's life, so many wonderful circumstances present themselves to my mind, that I am conscientiously obliged to add daily new facts, and extend this volume beyond the limits that I primarily prescribed to it. It is well known to all who were acquainted with Catherine what profound respect and devotion she entertained for the Body of our Lord in the Blessed Eucharist. It was publicly rumored that Catherine communicated every day, and that she could live without taking any other nourishment. That, was not perfectly exact; but those who said so, piously believed it, and glorified God who is always wonderful in his Saints. Catherine did not receive holy communion daily, but very often; and some haughty persons, more heathenish than Christian, murmured at these frequent communions. In consequence I defended the " Blessed," and they found naught to reply to the arguments that I offered, because they were all drawn from the lives and writings of the Saints, and from the tenets of the Church.

It was proved in the work of St. Dennis on the ecclesiastical Hierarchy, that in the primitive church, when the fervor of the Holy Ghost abounded, the faithful