Chapter VIII
Of Catherine's Admirable Progress In The Ways Of God, And Of Some Particular Graces She Received.
Catherine did not pronounce the three vows of Religion on taking the habit of Saint Dominic, but she took the resolution of observing them perfectly: there could be no deliberation concerning that of chastity, because she had already taken the Yow of virginity. She promised to obey all that the father Master of the Sisters of Penance prescribed her, and also the orders of their Prioress. During her whole life she was so faithful to this engagement, that she was able to declare to her Confessor on her death-bed: that she could not remember having failed even once in obedience.
Catherine also observed the vow of Poverty perfectly. When she lived in her father's house and plenty reigned in it, she took nothing for herself; only she bestowed alms on the poor, for her father had given her full latitude on this point. She loved poverty so much, that she acknowledged, that nothing could console her for not finding it in her family. She asked God ardently to deign to render her parents poor: "Lord,"' said she, "is it not better that I ask for my parents and brothers, the goods of eternity: I know that those of earth are accompanied with ills and dangers, and I wish that they may not be exposed to them." God heard her prayer: extraordinary circumstances reduced her parents to extreme poverty, without any fault on their part, as can be
