A REMARKABLE CHAPTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 71, 5 September 1874, Page 12

A REMARKABLE CHAPTER.

(Continued} Caedinax BABBEHrta and Maria Luisa, the Queen of Etruria, were both indebted to Anna Maria for an unexpected restoration to health. The former, to whose illness we have already alluded, was in a very dangerous state, and the doctors with good reason feared a fatal termination. Anna Maria knew the peril he was in with a higher kind of certainty, for she read it in her sun, and moreover saw that this prelate s death had been decreed iv the counsels of God. The decree however, as the result proved, was conditional, not absolute. He would have died had not Anna Maria prayed for him, and prayed perseveringly Far f rom being discouraged, she besieged the throne of grace night and day, although the only answer she received for some was that all must submit themselves to the will of God. But her feith was to triumph as heretofore that of the Syrophenician, when similarly tried and apparently repulsed by our Blessed Lord. Anna Maria insisted, and obtained hat reqnrst. But, before granting it, God told her that this cure would not be attributed to her, but to the physicians and to the prayers of other persons. She replied that she was well content to remain unknown to creatures, only she implored J# c ?T£® Go ° dne i 8 t0 heal the sick man. All hope of the Cardinal's life had been abandoned, when an unlooked-for crisis took place : he rallied and recovered. Whatever others may have thought, there was 4>ne, as we have seen, who recognised Anna Maria's share in obtaining tins favor, and that was the Cardinal's sister-in-law, the Princess of Palestnna, whose name appears among the witnesses in the process. The Queen s cure took place at the time when General Miollis, then occupying Some with the French Imperial troops, had confined that princess in the Convent of Dominico c Sisto along with her youn* SSJfVi. Mano ; i Lui9a wa ! Bub i e <* to occasional epileptic seizure* 9 , which used to throw her into Irightful convulsions. Accordingly, it was necessary to have her rooms doubly carpeted, for she would fall ouddenly to the ground, where she would struggle and knock herself Wth^^ OUt) 1^ fea J fully Bnd ****>$* the mouth, unti U length Sde lay exhausted and as one dead, like the possessed youth in JSrS^rt lfc , may be Bu PP° 9ed » no medical advice had been spared in the case of a person of her rank. She had consulted Italian i°s°n rr tt B h 6l^ C ° nSUlt i d f ? rei S n doctors ' and tho y had consulted each other. Every remedy which art could devise had been adopted without success. The princess was at this time going through one of £rr S nSi a a rr M yy T 3 ' AnD / Mark ™ 9 Bent f0r ' Shetoucheaherwith JJL S •aV ? iTi a> nnd a ? Bured her thafc .he would never more suffer from this frightful complaint. The convulsions, in fact, entirely disap?hTs^ 1 l neVerretUl<ned -- Xt ma y roa^J be imagined how mnSi l^nlfi m ? acure . e *Penenced in her own person, contributed to Sly rnefot.tr°ess. a "^ M& ™ L ™* re S arded her Anna Maria worked several cures in her own family. One of indTZF STTi the case of little Peppina, her grand-daughter, To nor n«^ latedb yDomimco,who wa 8 certainly neither enthusias' tic nor over-credulous. Indeed, while competent to observe and ToZ^S > reP ° rt ' f r\ he , Seemed t0 llaTe a Btran S e Competence inti £-TBT B . su P^ raat ": al character, however patent this might be, ?ti£t Pm^XTr '* 7 ? ther8 1 ' ' r remember sa J* this good man ihennnS^ i ♦ B J daU^ ht f' hart her > the surgeoni said that she was able to go to school at the Maestre Pie of the Gesu The TascTrtain tbeH^ it ' and r hed^ maU ""^ experimens JadLal onTtn V ? °°" ld - ee< This miracul o«9 cure, which was a ££iffisa SS gffiSP when the risor of tbe seasoa would f nn ,ilt n^ th^ n A ira ° le ° f h / aliD g Performed by Anna Maria in her own ij^l 7 A ? 6 ?f 8e u f - lier hußband - Domenioo is again the nar. rfSmW^^ llolll6 ? 1111^ iIV h08 °yy 8 ' '^ the Church ««•?.?? MarCel i°;, X 4 had scarcely cashed home when I lost all consciousness, and they told me afterwards that it was (God preserve us from the same) an apoplectic seizure, not to say stroke, which I had. When I came to myself, with no recollection of what had occurred, I SvfoXnH edsidethe P riC3t and *7 wife, who had laid her hand on my forehead and was praying to the Blessed Virgin for me. It was true miracle to get the better of such an attack without it B leaving any bad result, especially in the head ; and I have^o doubt but that the servant of God obtained for me this marvellous and instantaneous dnThad^TentVato^ioS' 636 P«^ cease beatIt must Botbo concluded, because Domenico, trhon civine-his evidence, u.es the word < miracle' in both these ease^ and although a? the fame he no doubt was persuaded that a great •«•«&' as the Italians say, had been obtained in answer to his wife's fervent prayers 2S irf TV 6 ° ?••? re f Used the fact thafc his wife had a B«pernaturai gift of healing, which she exercised on these occasions, or that she terally performed a miracle On the contrary, his simple statement «s to his ohghtenmeiit after her death, througli the hwtrumentality of ethers bespeaks entire failure to discern while she lived the wonders which he was almost daily galled to witness. He says, it i, true, « I leheyo that the servant of God was favored with many supernatural fiL Jf G Wa t e^P ressi , n ? , his ac^ired conviction upon a retroepec *,f he P st ' not " that which he entertained at the time. Had he Si fJZ t° WI J S tI ' c reci Pient of such exalted divine favors, how could he possibly, for instance, lie remained so blind in the case of her raptures and ecstacies? With respect to these latter he makes this singular and candid avowal : «As for the ecstacies, I never could 5^Jm5T 5 after < WWch he proCeedß MTMtbeiesi to describe the outward appearance they presented. Ko sooner, however, had

mevL°Z vS 2 h6r> rCgardin " hor a * one wh ° was replenished w°th should have his eyes kept from discerning the brightness of his wife'« ffiaSa w-? dd ° Wme T ' that ?6? 6 mi * hfc be all the mor:imparSa7and San virtues w ft" 1° he f, P"! 60 * P OBse3 »°n of those humble Christhe tS«?f 1 ? ' aftC 1 r all> and UOfc her Bublimer g ift a» went to form faUhfS lon M w nly crown and her <^<« to the%eneration of theinfthat hh Trltt ff 0 -™ 18 "J 1 " the 8i S htesfc ground for suspectthf IltimSJ w T< TaßT a 8 dazzled or hiß judgment influenced in he had Tewd W^ d ° f h ? r character ' Each word, each act of hers, behaviors m^ c /° Ol T 8 , With Wllich we "Sard the ordinary inthXh?nf? an ? relatives: he had not° Been 8 een her conduct afterward! frl If BU PP°f d « a^tity, but had to learn her sanctity from Z I,- } f 9Um ,°. f ler aet3 when she had ™ Q her course, and tiom the tram of glory which she left behind.

A •»/r A^ lfA MABIA>S CLOSING DAXB ASD DEATH. « Imitation rf?? -^ lke n f. U hw dayß P whafc fche auth <* of «» da^htor ' ?i 'S f' S th - e rosral roa(i of the Cl ° 33 ' 'O mv dear &I am t£T lA t0 r u a * Tißi ° n With Which h0 one day f^orod nSnwTri. V W if*° f , he fidds; r ara all tMne « a 9 ala o in like, walk fn £f? Mjße il tO f , 77 h ° cou rageou S ly take up their cross and , rr n dtheir^ u ff ?S> The °¥ dr T en of «ie Cross are My beloved one 9 ,. would '!; J" gS C ° n9tr f n Me to loro them more and m °«- He wh» bJtad™ Ustßuffer ' and whosoever suffers is not subject to illusion, Maria Zr^T 17 ? th ° "F ° f "d^W In this way Anna durW ST 11 d '- and Waß advan °ing at an ever-accelerated pace re2inl°- e fJ c "» g 7 T Ta When a dispensation from rigor and a 2iu S , tne m " tter of modification and penance seems so allow,'JS was no 7 «*«»* upon that evening of life of which wa lelnnth- " *** thlng * Lookin S only at what » external, weofstrenSX « tl " B ,. unwelconi -« reason but gradual decay, the failure th« Hpn 8 ?' the / adlu ? away of «H tbatf adorned and embellished life, the lo£ a^ Ur fi 0f f leaiureß a " d ' wl 'at is generally still more bewailed, outwSi P°We-rP ° We - r to rehsh the little that « maiG9 - Such are-the beS accom P an "»ents of advanced age : joy and sunshine left MariS r^f 6pening ShadeS g athe ' iQ S front; while in Anna inSLi-? T? an accumula tion of the most painful maladies, the t? fT ? °l t&l na J U - e - But if Buch be tlie as P ect Presented to mlZf fleS^- u7u 7 - Bufferln g humanity, the eye of faith has other piospects, on which its gaze is ever fixed. For there is an inner mau which is being renewed in everlasting youth day by day as the outTalT a I ma J. 1 ?l ia Walkin S in aaother re S ion > wMoh has other 2SL« «" 6d by - ,° ther BUns ' ' The P ath of tho J u < saysSolomon, 'as a shining light, goes forwards and increased to perfect day. Such was the path of the holy woman whose life we are nowaccompanying to its blessed close. Besides the sun of grace, which illuminates the path of every true Christian, the brightness of which is proportioned to his own fidelity to its light, Anna Maria had her supernatural sun, tho splendour of which, as we have said, increased with her own increasing perfection, till it attained a seven-fold lustre. Every day she beheld its brilliance become more dazzling, as does that of the orb of day when nearing it* summer solstice— the same, but O, how different from the veiled luminary of the winter season ! How could this gifted soul pause or think, of rest with such an horizon around her, illuminated by so diviae a light? Walking m the still dearer presence of the invisible God and 1 in close union with the soul of her Beloved, Anua Maria pressed on 1 not knowing what it -was to seek a dispensation from any pain or penance which her mortal frame could bear or which holy obedience would permit her to lay upon it. She hastened towards the sm\ never pausing or reposing, as if she had attained to perfection ; tor like the great Apostle, she also counred not herself to have apprehended, but was ever following after to apprehend that wherein she had been apprehended by Christ Jesus, pressing forward to the prize ot her supernatural vocation. Kb worthier object of ambition can r H ,n,? r an: T sou1 ' nono so w orthy as this apprehending and perfect fulfilling ot its vocation ; and, blessed be God, it is attainable by all with the Help of His grace, which He gives liberally in proportion to the work allotted by Him to each. Anna Maria's vocation was indeed a lolty and exceptional one, and for its accomolUhment she received immense graces, but she nobly and faithfully corresponded therewith. Hers were the ten pounds, but she had so traded with those ten pounds as not only to deserve more than thoae who have received a lesser deposit, but proportionately more than do by far the greater number, on account of her rare correspondence to grace • for such perfect correspondence to grace as she exhibited is quite as rare we may say, as were her exceponal graces. * Take the pound away from him, saith the Lord in the parable, ' and give it to him that has. pounds. And they said to him, « Lord', he hath ten pounds.' Then the Lord replied, • But I say to you, that to every one that hath shall bo gived, and ho shall abound j and from that hath not, even that which he _ hath shall be taken from, him.' Memorable words these. Anna Maria, then, abounded j poor, despoiled, and suffering externally, withm she was overflowing with riches and with the joy which noman can take away. She abounded in grace, she was full of merits and she was now going home with juyfulness, like the laborer described by the royal Psalmist, • carrying her sheaves.'