A Vile Lord Repents

St. Alphonsus Liguori

 
As a youth, the noble entered a pact with the devil

We read in the revelations of St. Bridget that there was once a lord as noble by birth as he was low and sinful in his habits. He had given himself by an express compact as a slave to the Devil and had served him for 60 years, leading such a bad life as may easily be imagined and never approaching the Sacraments.  

Now, this prince was about to die and Jesus Christ, in His compassion, commanded St. Bridget to tell his confessor to visit him and exhort him to make his confession. The confessor went and the sick man told him that he had no need of a confessor. The confessor visited him a second time and that poor slave of Hell persevered in his obstinate determination not to make his confession.

Our Lord again directed the Saint to tell the confessor to go to him. He obeyed, and this third time related to him the revelation made to the Saint and explained that he had returned so many times because Our Lord, who desired to show him mercy, had directed him to do so.

On hearing this, the dying man was moved and began to weep. "But how," he exclaimed, "can I be pardoned when for 60 years I have served the Devil, made myself his slave and have laden my soul with innumerable sins?"

"Son," answered the priest, encouraging him, "do not doubt. If you repent of them, in the name of God I promise you pardon."

Then, beginning to gain confidence, he said to the confessor: "Father, I believed myself lost and despaired of salvation, but now I feel a sorrow for my sins, which encourages me to trust. And, as God has not yet abandoned me, I wish to make my confession."

And in fact on that day he made his confession with great sorrow. The next day he received Communion, and on the sixth day he died, contrite and entirely resigned.

After his death, Jesus Christ further revealed to St. Bridget that this sinner had saved and was in Purgatory, and that he had been saved by the intercession of the Virgin, His mother. For the deceased, although he had led so sinful a life, had always maintained devotion to her dolors and, whenever he remembered them, he pitied her.