Friday, December 15, 2017

St. Hermenegilde to Marie Julie Jahenny – Holiness is Produced by Suffering

St. Hermenegilde to Marie Julie Jahenny – Holiness is Produced by Suffering

Ecstasy date December 2, 1878

“I am Saint Hermenegilde, I suffered martyrdom for God and His Holy Cause. I was born to a high condition, a family of nobility. There are penalties and crosses everywhere, in the homes of the rich as in the homes of the poor.

They tried to shake my faith and courage in threatening me with torture and death. I stood up and I told my tormentors: "I am a Christian and a soldier of Jesus Christ. My life is in your power, but my soul will never deny my faith and my God!" It was decided to pronounce my death and I heard my conviction. I remained inflexible, my faith and my courage inspired me and strengthened me. I was bound and dragged on the pavement and was torn apart by blows and instruments of torture. Then, this demand was made to me:

"Have you decided to obey to save your life? You are from a high scion, we hope that you will hold on to your title."

Immediately, I opened my tunic, I took the Crucifix that I had since my youth and I told them:

“This is my title! My Glory! Here is my Good!”

These three words strongly irritated the tyrant and he ordered that my head be cut off. I climbed to the scaffold and singing in my heart about the departure from this life and the entrance into glory. I received several blows on my body that were very terrible and on the most sensitive parts. Nothing shook me, I persevered and I died a Christian, a child of God and of His Church. I was beheaded amidst blaspheming and mocking. But all these blasphemies and ridicules could not give me any thought of distraction. They let fall the instrument of death and my head was separated from my body. Never was there a joy and a happiness so sweet. Never had so much peace reigned in my soul.

The hangman and the chief of my executioners ordered that my body be cast out of this place because he looked upon me like a foul poison. My body was dragged to a remote place and there I remained for weeks, when an unknown and disguised traveller passed this place. O Sweet Providence! He collected my body, wrapped it in some of his clothes and laid it to rest under a stone that was in this place. This is where the Lord had manifested His glory more than once. (I.e. miraculous marvels took place there.) Later, when all these times of confusion had passed, my body was taken away by the hands of Christians and laid in consecrated ground in the place where they bury all Christians. The Lord rewarded my martyrdom by making signs and wonders about my courage and my faith.

Now a word on behalf of Our Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters, that still live on this earth, keep your courage, die rather than deliver (I.e. lose) your soul that is a Divine Temple. Oh! He who draws sublime strength in the Christian Faith! … Oh! He who draws sublime rewards and riches in the suffering of this life! It is a crowning glory of this mortal life! ... Suffering is a fountain that washes us and cleanses us, and it develops the immortal seed that death can not destroy. This immortal seed that death will not take is holiness produced by suffering.

All of you, dear brothers and sisters, you are prisoners of Calvary, the prisoners of the word of Mary, the prisoners of the dew of the fertile Sacred Wounds of the Saviour. Your jail is not built of stones and earth. It is built of pearls mixed with diamonds. These are the walls of your prison. It is closed and covered by the Supreme and Divine Will of God. It is furnished as suffering, hardship, persecution and sacrifice and of merits ... Your prison is paved by the thoughts, words of Our Divine Lord. It is fragrant with the perfume of the Heart of Mary and the fire that warms you is not produced by the wood of the earth, it is the Love of Jesus that is the foyer of your jail, it is the love of Cross that is wood to the wood of the flame, it is the love for the Heart of Mary that embalms this

asylum after Jesus …

At the foot of the Cross, it is there as at all times the Divine appoints you, where all souls receive the preparation of the immortal crown. It is at the foot of the Cross that the crown is given. I leave you, courage! ...”

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Notes: Saint Hermenegilde was the son of Leovigild, King of the Visigoths of Spain in the sixth century. He was raised an Arian at the court of Seville. Despite his father's opposition, he became a Catholic when he married the daughter of King Sigebert of Austrasia, (then King of the Franks). After his conversion, his father disinherited him. Hermenegild took up arms to reclaim his rightful inheritance, was defeated, captured, and when he refused to give up his Catholic faith, was martyred at the instigation of his stepmother in 585 AD. Feast Day, April 13.