Page:Purgatory00scho.djvu/211

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Sacrifice. Under the altar is seen Purgatory, and the souls receiving the benefit of the suffrages. Above, two angels pour forth from costly vases a shower of gold, which indicates the blessings, graces, and ransoms granted to the poor souls in virtue of the Holy Sacrifice. We also see the mantle spoken of, and an inscription in verse, which translated reads: "O miraculous garment, given as a protection against the severity of the cold, and which afterwards served to temper the heat of fire. It is thus that charity gives warmth or refreshment according to the sufferings which it relieves."


CHAPTER XX.

Relief of the Souls through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — St. Teresa and Bernardino de Mendoza — Multiplicity of Masses — Pomp of the Obsequies.

Let us conclude what we have said relative to the Holy Sacrifice by what St. Teresa relates concerning Bernardino de Mendoza. She gives this fact in the " Book of Foundations," chapter x.

"On the Feast of All Souls, Don Bernardino de Mendoza had given a house and beautiful garden, situated in Madrid, to St. Teresa, that she might found a monastery in honour of the Mother of God." Two months after this, he was suddenly taken ill, and lost the power of speech, so that he could not make a confession, though he gave many signs of contrition. "He died," says St. Teresa, "very shortly afterwards, and far from the place where I then was. But our Lord spoke to me, and told me he was saved, though he had run a great risk; that mercy had been shown to him because of the donation to the convent of His Blessed