The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and Others | Page 9

then, being thus subdued, and taught to be the
obedient servant of the sanctified will, the history of the Catholic
Church records a long series of instances in which the soul has been
brought into direct communion with God, with angels, and with devils,
more or less through the sensible instrumentality of the bodily senses,
thus spiritualised and exalted to a new office. The ineffable glories of
the life of Christ are renewed in those who have thus endured the cross
of Christ. The death of the body is the life of the soul; and the Son of
God is, as it were, again visibly incarnate in the world which He has
redeemed.
The phenomena of this miraculous state are as various as they are
wonderful. There is scarcely a natural law of our being which is not
found to be frequently suspended. Such is the odour of sanctity, a
celestial perfume that exhales from the person of the Saint, in
conditions where any such delicious fragrance could not possibly
spring from natural causes, and where even, as in the case of a dead
body, nature would send forth scents of the most repulsive kind. In
such instances, sometimes in life, sometimes in death, sometimes in
health, sometimes in loathsome diseases, there issues from the physical
frame an odour of unearthly sweetness, perhaps communicating itself
to objects which touch the saintly form.
Or a strange supernatural warmth pervades the entire body, wholly
independent of the condition of the atmosphere, and in circumstances
when by the laws of nature the limbs would be cold; sometimes, while
sickness has reduced the system to such a degree of exhaustion, and
brought on so morbid an action of the functions, that the stomach
rejects, with a sort of abhorrence, every species of food, the most holy
Eucharist is received without difficulty, and seems not only to be thus
received, but to furnish sufficient sustenance for the attenuated frame.
Not unfrequently corruption has no power over a sacred corpse; and
without the employment of any of the common processes for
embalming, centuries pass away, and the body of the Saint remains
untouched by decay, bearing the impress of life in death, and not

crumbling to dust, as in cases of natural preservation, when exposed to
the action of the atmosphere. Add to these, the supernatural flexibility
and lightness with which at times the living body is endowed by Divine
power; the physical accompaniment of ecstasy; the elevation of the
entire body from the ground, and its suspension in the air for a
considerable space of time; and we have sufficient examples of the
mysterious ways in which the bodies of Saints bespeak the purity
which dwells within them, and in a degree anticipate the corporeal
perfections of those glorified habitations in which the souls of the just
will dwell after the resurrection.
By another class of miraculous powers possessed by Christian Saints,
they are enabled to recognise the true nature or presence of purely
spiritual objects by the instrumentality of their natural organs of sense.
Thus, a mere touch at times reveals to them the moral condition of the
person on whom they lay their hands. A singular distaste for natural
food is accompanied by a perception of a celestial sweetness in the holy
Eucharist. Gross sinners appear to the sight in the form of hideous
monsters, demoniacal in their aspect, or as wearing the look of the most
repulsive of the brute creation. The sense of smell, in like manner,
detects the state of the soul, while the ear is opened to heavenly sounds
and voices, and Almighty God speaks to the inner consciousness in a
manner which, inexplicable as it is when defined in the language of
human science, is shown by incontestable proofs to be a real
communication from heaven to the enlightened intelligence.
In certain cases the animal creation are taught to do homage to the
presence of a Saint. As God opened the eyes of Balaam's ass, and it
beheld the messenger of Divine wrath standing with a sword in his
hand, so birds, fishes, insects, sheep, and the wildest beasts of the
forests, have at times saluted the Saints with joy and sweetness, laying
aside their natural timidity or their natural ferocity, and recalling the
hour when Adam dwelt in sinless peace in Eden, surrounded by the
creatures which the hand of God had made. All nature is bid thus to
arise to welcome the elect of the Lord of nature. Flowers spring up
beneath their feet; fruits suddenly ripen, and invite them to gather and
eat; storms cease, and gentle winds refresh the sky. Every where the
presence of Him who lulled the tempest with a word is recognised in
the souls in whom He dwells, and in whom