it is far heavier than thine!" This sight so revived her spirits and strength that she felt nothing of the weariness which she had experienced up to that moment.

CHAPTER IX.

HER SOLEMN PROFESSION.-HER VIRTUE IS STRENGTHENED, NOTWITHSTANDING THE ASSAULTS OF THE DEVIL, BY SPECIAL GRACES WHICH SHE RECEIVES FROM GOD DURING THE EARLY YEARS OF HER RELIGIOUS LIFE.

THROUGHOUT the entire year of her noviciate Veronica had given proofs of such exalted virtue, and the promise of such surpassing excellence, that the religious did not for a moment hesitate to admit her to her solemn profession. She was accordingly professed on the feast of All Saints, in the year 1678, four days after the completion of her twelve months' noviciate. Although, in the process of her canonization, we find no express mention made of the fervour with which she performed this sacred function, whereby she consummated in the most perfect and acceptable manner the sacrifice of her whole being to God, we can easily infer what was her holy ardour on the occasion, not only from the earnest desires which she had cherished from the earliest age to consecrate herself unreservedly to her heavenly Spouse, but also from the saintly dispositions with which she had prepared herself for this great event throughout the entire year of her noviciate, and lastly from the

extraordinary devotion with which she was accustomed during each succeeding year of her life to commemorate the two days of her clothing and profession.

For this latter ceremony she endeavoured to prepare herself by prolonging her prayers, and practising severer penances and humiliations, which indeed she carried so far as to appear before the abbess even on the day on which she had made her vows, without the black veil on her head, as though she had been still a novice; for she wished to be treated as the last and least in the convent.

We may learn from her own written recollections what profit she derived from this exercise. On the day of which we speak, she was recalling to mind the readiness with which Jesus Christ in the garden accepted from the hands of His Divine Father the bitter chalice of His Passion, notwithstanding the repugnance felt by His Sacred Humanity. "Herein," she declares, "I found a lesson so striking, that at that moment I too seemed to become firmly united to the Will of God, and gathered from the mystery sufficient instruction to last the whole of my life . . . . . From time to time it appeared to me that Jesus turned His eyes on me with love, and said, 'Come to Me, come to Me,' implying that He desired to enrich my soul with all His divine graces. It is impossible to describe the feelings and lights which were granted me on that day. I spent twenty-four hours without knowing whether I was in heaven or on earth." Especially at the time of holy Communion, for which she had taken more than usual pains to prepare herself, a rich supply of graces was conferred upon her; and she re

ceived light and strength wherewith to advance still higher in religious perfection. She writes thus of an anniversary of her profession:-"In holy Communion I found my senses enraptured, and myself absorbed in the sea of divine love." Speaking of another of these anniversaries, she says: “ After holy Communion it suddenly appeared to me that from a state of recollection I passed to one of rapture. In one moment the soul thus favoured becomes united to God in mutual love. It seems as though God deified the soul; I know not how otherwise to express it. I believe that my soul was separated from my body. I am not sure that what I say is intelligible. I do not know if I am talking nonsense; for it is impossible to describe what I then felt. I believe that in that hour my soul was truly espoused to God."

It

In order that the reader may not suspect any delusion or excitement of the imagination in these accounts, he shall hear how Veronica conducted herself when she was thus exalted in spirit. She writes about the anniversary of her profession in the year 1701-"This morning, shortly after communicating, I was suddenly in rapture, and beheld a vision of our Lord risen from the dead. seems to me that I despised it as an invention of the devil, and was firmly resolved to give him no such advantage over me, but rather to die than offend God, desiring nothing but the accomplishment of His holy Will. I prayed to Him to deliver me from such devices of the enemy; protesting at the same time that I did not seek visions or consolations, but only to do the Will of God, and to avoid offend ing Him. But the vision only presented itself

more clearly, producing within me a sense of compunction for my sins against God, throwing fresh light on my faults, and convincing me that it was not the work of Satan, but that of the Almighty, Who was thus pleased to give me new instructions in the path of virtue. I understood in one moment by this communication in what manner each virtue should be practised, how each should be accompanied by detachment from ourselves, by faith and hope in God, by the exercise of the presence of God, by perfect love and purely for God, by holy resignation to the Divine Will, by such entire mortification that the soul enjoys nothing but God alone, by constant diligence, by endeavours to avoid the notice of creatures so as to be known by none but God, by voluntarily embracing all occasions of being treated. contemptuously by others, and by going readily where we are likely to be humbled. Whenever we prac

tise any virtue, it should be accompanied by all these things, especially by the grace of holy humility which renders all our actions acceptable to God."

The visions and ecstasies of Veronica were invariably followed by the holy fruits of contrition, horror for sin, love and hope in God, entire resignation to the divine Will, desire for suffering, and a willing endurance of every description of humiliation. It would be absurd to suppose that such admirable dispositions could have been produced by a heated fancy, or by him who is the deadly enemy of all virtue.

But to return to her profession. This event was not with Veronica, as it sometimes is with lukewarm characters, the commencement of a course of relaxation

and indulgence; on the contrary she felt herself bound, as indeed she was, to a stricter observance of the rule than ever, in order that by the most perfect rule of life, the union between herself and her heavenly Spouse might be the more strongly cemented. In order to effect this, she not only submitted cheerfully to the custom of the convent, which required her to spend two more years under the direction of the mistress of the novices, in as complete obedience as though she had been a novice of merely a few days' standing, but she would fain have continued in that position all her life if her superiors would have permitted her to do so. All the witnesses who were examined in the preliminary as well as in the apostolic process of her canonization (and they had been for the most part her companions in the cloister), have unanimously deposed as follows; namely, that even from the earliest period of her religious career, she was remarkable for her practice of every kind of virtue, especially for mortification, humility, obedience, and charity, in all which she attained to the heroic degree. One proof of this was the vehement zeal with which she ceased not to thirst for the conversion of sinners, so much that she desired by means of her prayers and sufferings to constitute herself an intercessor between sinners and their God, in order that sin might be destroyed in the world. This was so displeasing to the devil that on these occasions he manifested his special resentment by striking her heavily.

Two instances are mentioned in the account drawn up by her for her directors, which occurred in the early years of her religious life. "I was one day in prayer," she writes, "before the most holy Sac