Page:Purgatory00scho.djvu/221

 a Christian can accomplish, I mean Holy Communion? When St. Magdalen de Pazzi saw her brother in the sufferings of Purgatory, touched with compassion, she melted into tears and cried in a lamentable voice, " Oh, afflicted soul, how terrible are your pains! Why are they not understood by those who lack the courage to carry their cross here below? Whilst you were still in this world, my dear brother, you would not listen to me, and now you desire so ardently that I should hear you. Poor victim! what do you require of me?" Here she stopped and was heard to count up to the number one hundred and seven; then she said aloud that this was the number of Communions which he begged in a tone of supplication. "Yes," she said to him, "I can easily do what you ask, but, alas! what a length of time it will take me to pay that debt! Oh, if God permitted, how willingly would I go where you are, to deliver you, or to prevent others from descending into it."

The saint, without omitting her prayers and other suffrages, made with the greatest fervour all the Communions which her brother desired for his deliverance.

It is, says Father Rossignoli, a pious custom established in the churches of the Society of Jesus to offer each month a general Communion for the benefit of the souls in Purgatory, and God has deigned to show by a prodigy how agreeable this practice is to Him.

In the year 1615, when the Fathers in Rome celebrated this monthly Communion in the church of Our Lady in Trastevere, a crowd of persons was present. Amongst the fervent Christians there was one great sinner, who, although taking part in the pious ceremonies of religion, had for a long time led a very wicked life. This man, before entering the church, saw coming out and advancing towards him a man of humble appearance, who asked of him an alms for the love of God. He at first refused, but the poor man, as is customary