Saint Catherine De Ricci And The Poor Souls In Purgatory
Santa Catalina de Ricci constantly prayed for the liberation of the Suffering Souls from Purgatory. She performed acts of charity; she offered her Masses and Communions in her name. She even was willing to suffer in her place, and there are many accounts in which the Lord allowed her to do so. The Poor Souls were allowed into the Kingdom before they had suffered for their allotted period, as Catherine suffered incredible pain on her behalf.
An incident of Saint Catherine de Ricci’s involvement with the Poor Souls in Purgatory, well known in the life of Saint Catherine, relates to the Granduke Francesco de’ Medici. As we mentioned before, Catherine was an adviser and friend to the Medicis and other nobility; one could almost call her Saint of the Nobility. Francesco’s wife, the Grand Duchess (also Princess of Austria) was Catherine’s spiritual daughter. She was holy and virtuous, while her husband was cruel and totally insensitive to his wife’s suffering. She even had a mistress who lived in the same house with him and his wife! This hurts the Grand Duchess terribly. The entire court of hers knew about it! She didn’t care. But though he hurt her deeply, the grand duchess never stopped praying for her soul. She asked Catalina to pray for her conversion, so that he would not be condemned to hell. She also asked him to plead with God that when her husband died, she would not suffer horribly in Purgatory. The grand duchess died before her husband, and he married her lover. Although Catherine did not approve of her behavior, she showed the new Grand Duchess her respect due to her new position in her life.
Now, as far as the Granduke was concerned, the Church, the Lord, his immortal soul were all things that lay far back in the recesses of his heart and mind. Catherine prayed for her conversion for twenty years. She begged him to convert. He didn’t pay attention to her. The Granduke died. Due to all his prayers, on his deathbed, he asked for a priest, confessed his sins and received absolution before dying. He was saved from the eternal fires and pains of Hell; but he was sent to the pits of Purgatory to suffer the temporary punishment due to his sins. There, he would undergo the cleansing of his soul to such a state that it would be acceptable to enter into the presence of God.
Saint Catherine de Ricci kept her promise to the Grand Duchess and begged the Lord to allow her to assume the temporary punishment due to the Grand Duke. The Lord agreed, and the Granduke was led through the gates of Heaven.
One must believe that Saint Catherine of Ricci had a great love for the poor suffering souls in Purgatory, to be willing to assume the type of horrendous reparation due for her acts on earth. She was given to understand that she would have to endure forty days of excruciating, excruciating pain, virtually impossible to describe. In exchange, the Granduke would enter Heaven without suffering the agony that had been prepared for him. She said yes!
The following account comes from eyewitnesses who stayed with St. Catherine of Ricci during those forty nightmarish days of anguish and torment. Her body was covered in blisters, all over her skin. The heat emanating from the fire within her made her so warm that her room was described as hot as an oven. Those who tried to help her, who wanted to pray with her in her room, could only stay for brief intervals, as the heat was so intense that they could not breathe. There were times when the blisters stopped. Then, her skin took on the appearance of being roasted. As the fire within her began to rage again, her blisters began to discharge such unbearable heat that her followers were forced to leave the room.