Maria Paola Daud
This beloved story from Northern Italy tells of a miraculous apparition when Our Lady came to the aid of a little girl.
This story of faith comes to us from Porzus, a small town in northern Italy, almost bordering Slovenia. The protagonist is a well-behaved little girl named Teresa Dush.
Teresa was born on September 11, 1845, in Porzus, and was baptized on the same day. Her parents, Giuseppe Dush and Caterina Grimaz, had been married for 18 years before the child arrived, so they considered her a great gift from God.
They were a very poor family and lived on a steep and rocky land where the harvest was scarce and the landscape was only meadows and pastures.
Although Teresa had very fragile health, she never complained about the fatigue caused by the work she had to do with her parents. At the age of 9, she began to take catechism lessons with the pastor of her church, and was always attentive to what he taught.
An event that changed the whole town
On September 8, 1855, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (a holy day of obligation at the time), three days short of Teresa’s 10th birthday, an extraordinary event took place that would forever mark the entire city of Porzus.
Caterina, the girl’s mother, had completely forgotten about that holy day of obligation, which in that year fell on Saturday. The complication was that the next day was Sunday, and both were days on which, by Church teaching, they should abstain from labor – but they had not collected enough hay to feed the animals.
Obviously they could not leave the poor animals without food for two days, so Caterina called Teresa and told her to go and cut some hay in the meadow.
The girl timidly reminded her mother that she had learned in catechism that Catholics should not work on holy days. Her mother understood, but replied, “If we eat, the animals must also eat.”
Full of doubts, the girl obeyed her mother and went to the meadow, asking for guidance from the Virgin Mary whom she loved so much. As soon as she raised the sickle to cut the hay, she felt someone take it out of her hand.
She looked up and saw a beautiful Lady, who with a sweet voice said to her:
“You shouldn’t work on this holy day! Here, this will do,” cutting some hay and handing it to the girl.
Then she added, “Tell everyone to sanctify the name of the Lord and not to blaspheme, because in doing so they offend my Son and wound my maternal Heart. Moreover, I want days of fasting and vigils to be observed.”
Quickly the news spread throughout the city. She answered the villagers who did not believe what she said: “Tell Our Lady to give you another sign.”
The “other sign” was not long in coming
The following Sunday, while Teresa was in church, the Virgin Mary appeared to her again. She was next to the altar wearing a dress covered with roses, and she called to the girl.
The girl fearfully approached her. All her friends and everyone who was in the church saw the girl participate in a long conversation, but didn’t see anything else.
She left the church in ecstasy and later said that the Virgin had accompanied her home, and that before leaving, she left her a gift. This gift was the sign that the villagers had asked for: the mark of a cross shining like gold, about 2 inches long, imprinted on the back of the girl’s left hand.
This sign could be seen by everyone, and no matter how hard they tried to clean the cross off Teresa’s hand, it would not go away; in fact, it became even brighter.
The Virgin Mary later continued to give private revelations to Teresa, who eventually became a religious, living a life of devotion, humility, and obedience.
Her health had always been precarious, but eventually she was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. During the “Calvary” of her illness, the cross on her hand became red, and when she died (she was not yet 25 years old), it became white.
The sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of Health
After the first apparition, the people began to observe an unusual phenomenon at the site of the vision: The meadow was always in bloom, and in the winter when it snowed, it melted at that spot before anywhere else. They started gathering there every Sunday to pray the Holy Rosary.
In 1885 they decided to build a small chapel, and in 1886 they put up a picture depicting the scene of the apparition, with a message written on the top: “Keep the feast days holy. Do not blaspheme, and observe fasts and vigils.”
THE TRUTH ABOUT PURGATORY
In 1870, Belgium fought as an ally with France against Germany.
In September of that year, Sister Maria Serafina, a Redemptorist nun in Malines, Belgium, was suddenly seized with inexplicable sadness.
Soon after, she received the news that her father had died in that war.
From that day on, Sister Maria repeatedly heard distressing groans and a voice saying, "My dear daughter, have mercy on me!"
Subsequently, she was besieged with torments, which included unbearable headaches. While laying down one day, she saw her father surrounded with flames and immersed in profound sadness.
He was suffering in Purgatory and had received permission from God to beseech prayers from his daughter and relate Purgatory's suffering to her. Thus he said:
I want you to have Masses, prayers and indulgences said on my behalf. Look how I am immersed in this fire-filled hole! Oh! If people knew what Purgatory is, they would suffer anything to avoid it and alleviate the suffering of souls here. Be very holy, my daughter, and observe the Holy Rule, even in its most insignificant points. Purgatory for religious is a terrible thing!
Sister Maria saw a pit full of flames, spewing black clouds of smoke. Her father was immersed in the pit where he was burning, horribly suffocated and thirsty. Opening his mouth she saw that his tongue was entirely shriveled.
"I am thirsty, my daughter, I am thirsty."
The next day, her father visited her again saying, "My daughter, it has been a long time since I saw you last."
"My father, it was just yesterday . . ."
"Oh! It seems like an eternity to me. If I stay in Purgatory three months, it will be an eternity. I was condemned for many years, but, due to Our Lady's intercession, my sentence was reduced to only a few months."
The grace of coming to earth was granted to him through his good works during his life and because he had been devoted to Our Lady receiving communion on all her feast days.
During these visions, Sister Maria Serafina asked her father several questions:
"Do souls in Purgatory know who is praying for them, and can they pray for us?"
"Yes, my daughter."
"Do these souls suffer, knowing that God is offended in their families and in the world?"
"Yes."
Directed by her confessor and her superior, she continued to question her father:
"Is it true that the sufferings of Purgatory are much greater than all the torments of earth and even of the martyrs?"
"Yes, my daughter, all this is very true."
Sister Serafina then asked if everyone who belongs to the Scapular Confraternity of Carmel (those who wear the scapular), is freed from Purgatory on the first Saturday after death:
"Yes," he answered, "but only if they are faithful to the Confraternity's obligations."
"Is it true that some souls must stay in Purgatory for as long as five hundred years?"
"Yes. Some are condemned until the end of the world. These souls are very guilty and entirely abandoned."
"Three main things draw God's malediction over men: failure to observe the Lord's Day through work, the very widespread vice of impurity, and blasphemy. Oh my daughter, how these blasphemies provoke the wrath of God!"
For over three months, Sister Serafina and her community prayed and offered penance for the soul of her tormented father who often appeared to her. During the elevation of the Host at Christmas Mass, Sister Maria saw her father shining like a sun with matchless beauty.
"I finished my sentence, and have come to thank you and your sisters for your prayers and pious exercises. I will pray for you in Heaven."
If Purgatory did not exist to remove the stain of sin from imperfect souls, the only alternative would be Hell. Therefore, Purgatory is a necessary place of expiation.
All personal sin carries two consequences: blame (which, in the case of mortal sin, destroys sanctifying grace and leads to Hell) and temporal punishment warranted by the offense to God. Although Confession frees us from blame and part of the punishment, we must still make additional reparation to God. In this life, this can be done through prayer, Mass intentions, alms, penance and acquiring indulgences. One who dies in a state of venial sin or without sufficient reparation goes to Purgatory.
