BLESSED
Alexandrina Maria da Costa
1904-1955
From the age of 14, Maria da Costa was paralyzed until her
death on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima on October 13, 1955. Her handicap
resulted from jumping out of a window was escaping a man who was trying to
molest her. Offering herself as a victim soul while paralyzed, she had visions
and locutions from Jesus and Mary, over and above being physically attacked by
the devil for 10 years.
ALEXANDRINA (1904-1955 A.D.)
Fr Umberto Pasquale SDB
Acknowledgements
This first English language book on the
Blessed Alexandrina da Costa owes much to the excellent Italian biography
Alexandrina, Libreria Dottrina Cristiana, Turin, 1960, by Fr Umberto Pasquale
SDB, the noted Salesian writer, to whom grateful acknowledgement is made for
permission to use selected excerpts including passages from Alexandrina's
autobiography. Fr Pasquale was uniquely qualified to undertake this work, having
been Alexandrina's spiritual director for a number of years, besides being a
close friend of Sister Lucia, the last survivor of the three children to whom
the Mother of God appeared at Fatima in 1917. The translations were effected by
Mrs. Anne Croshaw for whose invaluable assistance I am deeply grateful.
Francis Johnston
Declaration
In accordance with the decree of Pope
Urban VIII, we declare that in speaking of events, prodigies and revelations in
this work, we wish to accord them no other authority or belief than that which
is usually given to narratives resting on merely human evidence and we in no way
presume to pronounce on their authenticity or supernatural character, or to
anticipate the judgement of the Holy See.
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Alexandrina's life of suffering in expiation for sin was now
to be challenged by the
powers of darkness. From 1934 onwards, she began to be
assailed by hideous visions and howling, blasphemous taunts that God had
abandoned her, that suicide was the imperative alternative to a life of
agonising futility. Realising that the spirit of Satan is primarily one of
rebellion, she placed her will entirely in the hands of her spiritual director
and never once took it back, even when it cost her a great deal.
Whenever Fr Pinho was unable to visit her, he asked
Alexandrina to inform him of everything that happened to her. On 14 September
1934 she wrote to him as follows :
« Do you want to know what that "black face from Hell"
recently beat into my head? Here it is: "Whatever I write to you will be the
cause of my condemnation… and that if I do not obey him… the worst will happen."
It makes me weep. »
Seeing her so afflicted, Our Lord reportedly appeared to her
a month later and said, "Whom do you wish to obey, me and your director — or the
devil ?" His words reassured Alexandrina, but the devil returned to the attack.
He raved :
« Excommunication, a thousand excommunications if you
continue to write to your spiritual director! Already you are burning in Hell.
Be converted, unhappy one! Be converted, miserable wretch! It is the affection I
have for you that makes me speak in this way. I come now from your Christ who
told me to take you, because he can no longer save you. He was distressed… by
your writings. »
The devil added that it was useless for her to pray, that
there was no salvation for her, that nobody would be able to help her, that she
would be condemned.
Alexandrina recalled :
« One moonlit night after prayers I felt a need to sleep,
when suddenly into my room came a great darkness... I perceived a black shadow
and saw it jump towards me, and it said to me, "I come on behalf of your Christ
to carry you to Hell, bed and all." I kissed the crucifix and the voice
continued, "You kiss that wicked thing!" He then ordered me to do things that I
cannot speak of... It was only when I took holy water that I was left in
peace. »
She continued :
« Every now and then I see a rapid light. Twice I have seen
two very big eyes, wide open, staring at me, but they disappeared quickly. On
Sunday, I heard a very sweet voice saying, "My daughter, I come to tell you not
to write anything of what you see: your sight is deceiving you. Don't you feel
how weak you are ? You displease me with this; it is your Jesus who speaks to
you, not Satan." I was suspicious and began to kiss the crucifix. The voice
became enraged and thundered, "If you continue to write I will destroy your
body. Do you think I could not do this ?" »
In a letter to Fr Pinho dated 14 February 1935, Alexandrina
wrote, "The demon wanted me to remove the sacred objects which I wore and the
crucifix which I held in my hand. He told me that he had secrets to confide to
me, but first I must take off those objects which he hates."
For long periods, while she endured fresh sufferings, Our
Lord seemed to have abandoned her, for she no longer heard the reassurance of
his voice. The devil exploited this opportunity to the utmost by sowing in her
soul the seeds of immense doubt as to the value of her sufferings, by striving
to convince her that she would be damned, and by again trying to induce her to
commit suicide. "I took holy water, as I have done on similar occasions", she
told Fr Pinho. "I prayed long and earnestly, 'O my Jesus, never, never do I wish
to offend you. I resolve in advance not to say or do anything which could offend
you."
She went on :
« There are days when the devil makes me feel so exhausted
and puts so many evil suggestions and doubts into my mind, that were it not for
the goodness of God, he would have won me already... He has tempted me so much
that on some days I feel that Hell itself is about to engulf me. He urges me to
kill myself, and says he will give me the means to do this without any cost. He
adds that I am suffering here for no recompense, that Our Lord does not love me
at all, that my spiritual director does not believe a word of what I write to
him, that what I feel in myself when Our Lord speaks to me is caused by the
weather, or by my illness. »
Frequently when the seer pressed the crucifix to her lips,
the devil would sneer in a threatening voice. Once he raged :
« If it were not for that imposter which you have in your
hand, I would put a foot on your neck. I would reduce your body to a pulp. But
you will see that he will do this to you himself. You will then wish to come to
me, but I will not accept you. Thank that object of superstition... I don't fear
it any more, but I hate it! »
Alexandrina's courage was repeatedly tested to the full. On 2
February 1935 she spoke of seeing "red beings that I do not know how to
describe" and went on, "Alas! If only I had a priest to open my heart to... How
can I avoid such distress ? I weep, but they are tears of resignation to the
holy Will of God."
All this time her physical sufferings continued and her
ecstasies grew more numerous and profound. Finally on the feast of the Most Holy
Trinity 1936, she passed through her first mystical death — a paroxysm of the
most dreadful agony. Fr Mateus was now convinced of the genuineness of her
mysticism and as her condition steadily deteriorated, he agreed to bring her
Holy Communion every morning.
During this period, she was entrusted by Our Lord with the
propagation of the message of Our Lady of Fatima. After she had received
Communion one morning Jesus reportedly told her, "Through the love which you
have for my blessed Mother, tell your spiritual director that as I asked
Margaret Mary [St Margaret Mary Alacoque] for devotion to my divine Heart, so I
ask you to urge the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of my
Mother." From that day, Alexandrina offered herself as a victim to achieve this
expressed wish of Our Lord.
In September 1936, Fr Pinho forwarded to Cardinal Pacelli
[later Pope Pius XII] in Rome, Alexandrina's request for the consecration of the
world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The former was strongly influenced by Our
Lord's reported words to the sick woman,
« I reveal to you how the consecration of the world to the
Mother of men will occur. It will be effected first by the Holy Father in Rome,
and then by priests in all the churches. If the world is converted she will
reign, and through her victory will be obtained. »
The following year, and again in 1939 the Holy See sent a
noted theologian, Fr Paul Durao, to examine Alexandrina and question her closely
regarding her reported mysticism and messages. On 5 May 1938, Alexandrina wrote
to Fr Pinho, who was preaching the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius to the
Portuguese bishops assembled at Fatima : "Jesus has told me, 'I give you the
treasures of my Heart overflowing with love; distribute them to the world.' "
She added, "I offer everything for the successful outcome of the exercises of
the bishops. I help them with the sufferings of my body and soul, which are
many."
Significantly, at the end of the exercises, the Portuguese
bishops, at the invitation of Fr Pinho, addressed themselves to the Holy Father
as follows : "Humbly prostrate at the feet of your Holiness, we earnestly
implore you to consecrate the entire world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as
soon as you judge the moment opportune, so that through her mediation, the world
can be liberated from the dangers that threaten it on every side."
When news of this petition reached Alexandrina, she was
greatly consoled, but shortly after Our Lord told her, "As a sign that it is my
Will that the world be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of my Mother, I will
make you suffer my Passion until the Holy Father has decided to implement this
consecration." The words mystified Alexandrina, but a few weeks later they were
clarified by an awesome event, described in the following chapter.
The war clouds were now gathering all over Europe and in
March 1939, Cardinal Pacelli was elected to the papacy as Pope Pius XII. Our
Lord told Alexandrina, "This is the pope who will consecrate the world to the
Heart of my Mother. "In anguished sorrow he went on to deplore the numberless
grave sins" committed all over the world and how Divine Justice had no choice
but to "punish mankind". Alexandrina immediately offered herself as a victim for
peace "in union with Our Lady". Our Lord accepted her offering and promised that
"Portugal will be saved from the war" and that the Holy Father would be
"physically spared", but would have to suffer morally a great deal.
Meanwhile the devil continued to assail Alexandrina without
respite. Seeing his assaults were making no impression on the sick woman, he
redoubled his efforts, resorting even to physical violence, as he had done to
the Cure of Ars a century earlier. She describes the harrowing ordeal as
follows :
« It was in July 1937 that the devil, finding he was making
no headway by tormenting my conscience and making vile suggestions, began to
hurl me from the bed, sometimes at night and sometimes during the day. In the
beginning I concealed these attacks from my family with the exception of
Deolinda. But as the violence of the evil one increased, I felt obliged to tell
my mother and the girl we had at home. Those who saw my bruises after the falls
were distressed, but they had no idea of the true cause. As the days passed,
things went from bad to worse. Deolinda was compelled to sleep on a mattress
near my bed, and one night the devil hurled me against the wall so that I fell
onto my sister's couch. Deolinda rose and taking hold of me, ordered
imperiously, "Up up to bed!" and put me back to bed. I arose again and gave a
shrill whistle. Then realising what I had done, I began to weep. Deolinda
quietened me. "Don't upset yourself, it is not you", she said. The following
night the same thing happened again and when my sister tried to put me back to
bed, I shouted "I don't want to !" and pushed her away from me.
One night, when the devil flung me into different corners of
the room without my sister being able to grasp me, words, which I didn't
understand, continued to whirl around in my mind. I cried bitterly then and
thought I should not receive Communion until I had confessed. My sister tried
hard to soothe me, but as my tears continued to flow she offered to go and speak
to Fr Pinho, who was preaching in a nearby parish.
Not daring to tell Deolinda all that was happening inside me,
I asked her for a postcard with a picture of Our Lady on it, and I wrote him an
account of what was happening. I placed this under my pillow until Deolinda was
ready to leave. Suddenly Fr Pinho arrived with a seminarian. He had come to
bring me Holy Communion as he knew that the parish priest was absent. When he
told me that he had Jesus with him, I explained at once that I could not receive
him without confession, but my tears and shame prevented me from adding anything
else. Finally, after much effort, I managed to tell him that I had written the
postcard. He took it and read it and understood everything. He tried to calm me
then, affirming that he had foreseen all this, but had felt it prudent not to
mention it to me.
This tribulation was repeated many times in an even more
violent manner. My body became covered with purple bruises from the blows I
received.... My one consolation was that the many people who came to assist me
in these attacks were given such dramatic proof of the existence of Hell that
they would surely not offend Our Lord any more." »
Fr Pinho graphically describes the assaults as follows :
« For a long time the demon tormented Alexandrina in various
ways but he never touched her physically. Having threatened to ruin her, he
launched the most furious attacks against her. There was scarcely an hour of the
day when she did not feel persecuted by him. The worst moments occurred from
midday until three in the afternoon (while she was praying for priests), and
after nine in the evening (when she was praying for those sinning against
purity). At these times, she not only had diabolical obsession, but even moments
of true possession. During her violent struggles with the fiend, this paralysed
woman with no strength and a weight of only 33 kilos, tried very violently to
hurl herself against the irons of the bed and bite herself, so that not even
four people could hold her down completely. On 7 October 1937, the devil made
her swear and utter unseemly words, of whose meaning she was totally ignorant. »
When in the name of God Fr Pinho demanded the identity of her
invisible assailant, everyone in the quivering room heard the fearful reply. "I
am Satan. Do not doubt that it is I." The devil cursed the priest and threatened
to tear him to pieces.
Tearfully, Alexandrina begged Our Lord to intervene and end
the attacks. Gently and compassionately, he explained how he needed this further
suffering of hers to help more sinners. He reputedly told her in a number of
ecstasies :
« My daughter, suffering is the key to Heaven. I have endured
so much to open Heaven to all mankind, but for many it was in vain. They say "I
want to enjoy life, I have come into the world only for enjoyment." They say
"Hell does not exist." I have died for them, and they say they did not ask me to
do so. They have formed heresies against me. In order to save them, I select
certain souls and lay the cross on their shoulders. Happy the soul who
understands the value of suffering! My cross is sweet if carried for love of
me... I chose you from your mother's womb. I watch over you in your great
difficulties. It was I who chose them for you, that I might have a victim to
offer me much reparation. Lean on my Sacred Heart and find therein strength to
suffer everything. »
During the ecstasies, Our Lord went on to plead for
Eucharistic reparation :
« Keep me company in the Blessed Sacrament. I remain in the
tabernacle night and day, waiting to give my love and grace to all who would
visit me. But so few come. I am so abandoned, so lonely, so offended.... Pray
for the unhappy sinners who, slaves of their passions, do not remember that they
have a soul to save and that an eternity awaits them in a short while... Many
men do not believe in my existence, they do not believe that I live in the
tabernacle. They curse me. Others believe, but do not love me and do not visit
me; they live as if I were not there. I have chosen you to keep me company in
those little refuges. Many of them are so wretched, but what riches inside !…
Like Mary Magdalene, you have chosen the better part. You have chosen to love me
in the tabernacles where you can contemplate me, not with the eyes of the body,
but with those of the soul. I am truly present there as in Heaven — Body, Blood,
Soul and Divinity. You have chosen that which is most sublime. »
One day Fr Pinho celebrated Mass in the little room with the
intention that God would release Alexandrina from the diabolical attacks. He
said nothing to the seer about his prayer but immediately Mass was over she told
him that God could not grant what he had asked for. "And what did I ask from Our
Lord ?" the priest enquired. "That he would free me from these attacks of the
devil," she replied. Astonished, Fr Pinho responded, "And would you not wish to
have this grace and receive other sufferings in their place?" The sick woman
shook her head. "No, father. Pray rather that I do the Will of God in
everything."
On one occasion, shaken witnesses claimed to have seen
Alexandrina's bed enveloped in black, billowing smoke from which issued an
insufferable stench . When Fr Pinho questioned them about it, they were willing
to swear to the truth of their story.
Years later when Fr Pasquale sdb became her spiritual
director, he gave Deolinda authority to order the devil to retreat, using holy
water at the same time. By this means, Alexandrina was frequently freed from the
attacks almost instantaneously.
After some ten years of unremitting savagery, the devil
finally abandoned her and acted only on her imagination in the distance, as if
he were chained down and threshing about in impotent rage, unable or forbidden
to reach her again.
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The sublime vision of Our Lord which Alexandrina had
reputedly seen on 6
September 1934 marked the beginning of a series of
revelations in which Jesus reportedly instructed the seer step by step in the
sorrows of his life and Passion. She had repeated revelations on the eternal
loss of many souls and the crimes of peoples and nations blinded by sin. To a
world plunging down the broad road to perdition, Our Lord seemed to be crying
out in anguish : "Implore pardon… do what you preach! I am very much offended...
What dreadful criminals populate Hell! I warned Sodom and Gomorrah, but it had
no effect. Unhappy ones… the same punishment will be meted out to you."
At these words, Alexandrina would turn pale and multiply her
offerings in an attempt to hold back the arm of divine justice from punishing
mankind with a second world war. She was given to understand that the war could
only be averted by the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary. To obtain this unprecedented grace, Alexandrina offered herself anew as a
victim for peace. Our Lord welcomed her prayer and again promised to give her
his sorrowful Passion as a sign that the consecration would ultimately be
effected and the days of tribulation shortened.
During this period Alexandrina entered into the phase of
obscure contemplation. She recalled in her autobiography :
« If Jesus increased his graces and favours towards me, at
the same time my doubts multiplied and the fear of deceiving myself and those
who lived with me continually grew.... It seemed to me that they were all false
and of my own invention. My God, what torment! The darkness closed on me and
there was no one to show me the way. However hard my spiritual director worked
to inculcate confidence in me, there was nothing that served to comfort me. »
Despite her distress, the revelations continued. There were
awful disclosures on the state of perdition of many souls. She seemed to hear
Our Lord say :
« Every moment countless sinners are provoking the wrath of
God on the world—the most tremendous wrath. Unhappy ones if they are not
converted! Poor world, whatever will become of it! Penitence, penitence
throughout the world! Penitence! Oh world, acknowledge your crimes or you will
be destroyed! Woe to the world! Divine Justice cannot support it any more. »
The warnings were followed by searing visions of World War
II.
In a spate of tears, Alexandrina cried out, "O my Jesus, I
want to suffer all! I want to be crushed by you ! I am your victim… but do not
punish the world. I wish to be the lightning conductor of your wrath." At the
same time, she felt the acute need to fortify her soul for the awesome trials
which she instinctively knew lay ahead. She asked for and was able to make a
retreat under the direction of Fr Pinho. She wrote of this period :
« For a long time I was feeling great agony in my soul, and
often seemed to be on the brink of falling into the fearful abyss. But in the
days of my retreat, my suffering redoubled. The abyss opened to threaten me. The
Justice of the Eternal Father was falling on me crying out, "Vengeance !…
Vengeance !…" increasing my sorrows of soul and body. It is impossible to
describe them ; only one who has felt and seen them can understand. At the
terrible voice of the Eternal Father, I spent days and nights tossing and
turning in bed. »
She continues :
« On the morning of 2 October 1938, Our Lord told me that I
would have to pass through all of his Passion from Gethsemane to Calvary, but
that I would not arrive at the Consummatum Est. He confirmed that I would begin
on the following day and that I would repeat these sufferings every Friday
immediately after midday, until three o'clock in the afternoon. I did not say no
to the Lord. I warned my spiritual director of everything and waited anxiously
for the morrow because neither of us could imagine what was going to happen.
During the night of 2-3 October, my agony of soul was intense, but the suffering
of my body was even greater. I began to lose blood and felt fearful pains. And
it was in this suffering that I entered into my first crucifixion. That horror I
felt deep inside. Oh, how unspeakable were my afflictions! »
Each ecstasy of the Passion (she had some 180 of them) was
preceded by many hours of increasing dread which became overwhelming as midday
Friday approached. The fear was often accompanied by an immense sadness, nausea,
and a sensation of terrifying isolation. The times given here are Portuguese,
one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
The frightful experience scarred Alexandrina's memory. Seven
years later she was still living in her mind that first crucifixion. "Everything
seemed to be present to me", she wrote. "I felt the fear and horror of those
bitter hours, the anxiety of my spiritual director beside me, and the tears of
my family who were terrified and weeping."
Shortly after midday on 3 October 1938, Our Lord invited her
to undergo his Passion. ''See, my daughter, Calvary is ready. Do you accept?"
Alexandrina bravely consented. Awed witnesses held their breath as she entered
into ecstasy and recovering the use of her paralysed limbs, almost levitated
from the bed and underwent the agonising motions of Gethsemane to Calvary. The
Passion ecstasies were filmed and the pictures form an important part of the
deposition of her cause for beatification in Rome.
An eyewitness, Signorina Concetta, who taught in the village
school, has left a vivid account of one of these extraordinary ecstasies.
« At the hour fixed by Jesus, our "seraph of love" began to
suffer for us and for many sinners whom she wanted to save. I assisted at that
agony, but I do not know how to describe it. She suffered from the Garden to the
Cross. Oh how everything was reproduced in that frail body of Alexandrina !
When Jesus told her that the hour was drawing near that
everything was prepared for her via dolorosa, step by step, as far as Calvary,
she replied very courageously, "Yes Jesus, for you and to save sinners, I will
do everything." It was then that she suffered the agony, the scourging, the
crowning with thorns, the prison and the meeting with Our Lady at whom she gazed
with a sorrow such as my eyes have never before seen.
The falls under the cross were so visible that they left no
room for any doubt... In my opinion, her agony intensified when she presented
her little white hands and then her feet to be nailed. Then the cross was fixed
in the earth… what a heart-rending scene ! What sadness flooded our souls !
There followed the agony on the cross with her sad and penetrating groans. And
her gaze! It was indescribable ! She sighed repeatedly and in the end, closed
her hollow eyes in the violet sockets, bent her head and died. What a faithful
copy of the death of Jesus ! »
After the first Passion ecstasy, Fr Pinho requested
Alexandrina not to leave her bed again, but Our Lord insisted to the seer that
she should be left alone and the priest subsequently withdrew his order.
When the ecstasy ended at 3.00 pm. Alexandrina raised her
hands as if in thanksgiving, then suddenly gasped in — horror. She cried :
« No Jesus ! No Jesus ! Crucify me ! Pardon ! Pardon!
Pardon ! They have the same right as I have, because you died on the cross for
them as well as for me. Jesus, I want no soul to go to Hell, neither in my
parish nor in the entire world. I love you for them. Forget the sinners, Jesus.
Remember me through my crucifixion. Hell is the most terrifying inferno,
Jesus. » [This dialogue bears a striking resemblance to what took place between
Our Lord and the mystic St Gemma Galgani at the end of the nineteenth century.]
A few days later Alexandrina felt atrocious pains. She began
to vomit blood and was tortured by a thirst of such burning intensity that water
was useless; she was unable to swallow a drop. At the same time, she was
overcome by the appalling "smell of sin". "I began to smell odours incredibly
repugnant", she recalled in her autobiography. "They bought me violets and
perfumes to hold to my nose, but I pushed them away because I was still
tormented by the same vile smell. Just the memory of these things makes me
suffer."
With the onset of the second Passion ecstasy, Fr Pinho felt
it prudent to keep the mysterious trances secret. For three years only a select
number of people were aware of them. In 1941 however, a visiting missionary (Fr
Terças, of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit) witnessed one of them and wrote
an account of it in a popular Portuguese magazine. The publication caused
Alexandrina much suffering as it made her a focus of attention. Thousands from
all over the country thronged to see the "Victim of Balasar", as she became
widely known. Besides its untimely publication, the article contained several
minor inaccuracies which gave rise to erroneous interpretations in the medical
and scientific fields. The narrative had, however, much value for its vivid
description and accurate chronological sequence. It reads as follows:
"On 29 August 1941, I entered the room accompanied by four
other priests with the necessary authority. It was just 1.00 p.m. I went across
to the bed of the sick woman and saw in her eyes the signs of a deep sadness. I
asked 'Alexandrina, how do you feel ?' 'I am afraid', she replied with a voice
full of bitterness... 'The hour is approaching.' The light in her eyes faded and
at eight minutes past one she closed her eyelids. She had entered into ecstasy.
A few minutes after 1.10 p.m. she became agitated; still on
the bed, she stretched out her left hand and made a light gesture as if to ward
off an approaching enemy.
1.12 p.m. She groans many times in distress. Then turning
towards the floor of the room, she frees herself from the bed-covering almost in
levitation and falling on her knees with a rapid movement, remains face down on
the floor.[Alexandrina was in uninterrupted ecstasy for three and a half hours
during the Passion ecstasies. She did not see or hear, but only contemplated the
Passion of Jesus. At the same time she obeyed her spiritual director or his
delegate and responded not only to explicit orders, but even to those given
mentally.] The left hand stretches out while with the right hand, she attempts
to hide her face which is tortured and afflicted.
1.14 p.m. She leans on her elbows, hides her face with her
hands and emits anguished sighs.
1.15 p.m. She is seized by an indescribable distress. She
rolls on the ground, remaining in the position in which St. Cecilia was found in
the catacombs, her face above her joined hands.
1.16 p.m. Light movement of the arms, a sigh of affliction.
She presses her face between her hands and one hears acute groans. The breathing
is slow and deep.
1.18 p.m. She extends her arms in the attitude of one who
tries to repel an assailant. Again she turns on one side and crosses and clasps
her fingers with distress.
1.20 p.m. More pronounced groans. She rolls twice along the
bed. Her distress seems to be increased at seeing the suffering of Jesus in the
Garden. Greatly afflicted, she rolls again in the direction of the wall, like a
worm. Five times the sorrowful groans are accompanied by painful muscular
contractions.
1.25 p.m. Alexandrina kneels down and then takes a sitting
position, supporting herself on her feet, but always with tormented distress.
Then she rises, turns towards the door of the room and exclaims bitterly, "Could
you not watch one hour with me? Watch and pray that you enter not into
temptation."
1.28 p.m. The seer raises her arms high, then folds them in a
cross. She falls again on her knees, and then face down with the elbows somewhat
separated and the face between her hands.
1.29 p.m. She rolls painfully towards the right and groans.
She raises her hand a little, then lets it fall on the floor beside the mat.
[Deolinda attempted to mitigate the pains of these falls by spreading a mat on
the floor in advance. At the spot where Alexandrina would rest her head,
Deolinda placed a pillow.]
1.32 p.m. With unspeakable suffering, she makes two turns
towards the left, remaining face down.
1.34 p.m. She assists at the struggle of Jesus with the
temptor and suffers the sorrows of the Saviour. Her face appears inflamed and
after two series of contractions, as if trembling with fear, she falls prostrate
to the ground, striking her head beside the mat. [Her doctor, Dr Azevedo, was
most attentive. He took notes of everything that happened during the ecstasies.
Other doctors sent by the ecclesiastical authorities to discover if there was
any fraud or the existence of natural forces, examined the seer many times and
violently goaded her while she was suffering in ecstasy. There was never once
the slightest reaction from her. The unanimous verdict of the priests and
doctors was that the phenomenon was inexplicable.]
1.38 p.m. She kneels down with pain. She rises, goes to sit
near the bed and repeats the words of the Saviour, "Watch and pray, the hour is
at hand." She raises her hands high and says the words of Jesus, "My Father,
sacrifice me, but save the world, the world which is yours."
1.43 p.m. She rises, goes a step forward and kneels down,
then falls to the ground, moaning sorrowfully. She turns her face towards the
left as if fearing a second assault from the enemy and still moaning, hides her
face with her hands.
1.50 p.m. Prostrate on the ground, she rolls twice towards
the bed and lets her head fall on the floor.
1.53 p.m. Oppressed by atrocious suffering, she rolls again,
but towards the left, remaining face down and with the right arm extended on the
mat.
1.54 p.m. She continues to groan painfully and leaning on her
elbows, supports her head between her hands and contemplates Jesus in his agony
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
1.55 p.m. She rolls again towards the door and extending her
elbows, leans her head on the floor. She remains silent for a little while.
1.59 p.m. She emits more tortured groans and is agitated from
head to foot by the violence of the torments. Then comes a period of quiet rest.
2.02 p.m. Grievously afflicted, she lets her head fall on the
floor twice and sighs with intense agony. Between the groans, she remains
sitting on the floor, but near the bed.
2.04 p.m. Raising her hands to Heaven, she repeats the words
which were pronounced by Jesus, "My Father, I want to save the world; sacrifice
me now. I want to give my life for men. Do not spare me from the sacrifice."
At this point, Alexandrina crosses her hands on her breast,
and bends forward as if to see more clearly what is happening in the gloom. In
the distance she sees soldiers with Judas at the head of them and she calls the
apostles. Then she sits on the side of the bed where she rests for a while.
Suddenly, she raises her left hand in an attitude of repulsion and hearing the
soldiers approaching, she exclaims to the disciples, "Get up, the hour has come.
Come, let us go."
2.06 p.m. She says the words of Judas, "Hail, Master." She
feels with repugnance the kiss of the traitor. After several moments, she makes
a sign with her left hand to the soldiers who had fallen to the ground. But
seeing the Lord imprisoned, she also offers her hands to receive the fetters.
When Jesus is conducted to the house of Annas, he exclaims,
"They have all abandoned me, even those who were my friends." Alexandrina
repeats these words with an expression of intense bitterness. When the Saviour
is dragged from one place to another, the seer, following his steps, makes
several turns in the room on her knees with much weariness. Referring to Annas,
Alexandrina paints a moral picture of him saying, "He is a cunning, arrogant old
man. He is the same man who was confused many times when Jesus was preaching in
the Temple."
2.10 p.m. Jesus is before the tribunal. Alexandrina, seated
on the floor, takes the attitude of one who listens attentively and repeats the
words of the Saviour, "I have taught in the synagogue and in the Temple. Why do
you interrogate me ? Question those who heard what I taught."
2.12 p.m. When the soldier says, "Is that the way you reply
to the High Priest ?" Alexandrina, getting up, gives herself a violent slap on
her left cheek with her right hand. One of those present murmurs, "In truth, it
was with the right hand that the soldier slapped Christ and on the left cheek
that Jesus felt the blow."
2.13 p.m. While Jesus is conducted to the tribunal of
Caiphas, he meets Peter and says to him, "Peter, you have sworn fidelity to me.
You were the most loved disciple, the friend of my heart."
In the tribunal, after being insidiously questioned by
Caiphas, Jesus says, "How far you are from seeing the light !" Alexandrina
repeats these words of the Savior and the preceding ones, seated on the floor
and facing the west as one who is observing everything from a distance.
Thwarted and wearied by the lack of proof against Jesus
Caiphas turns to his colleagues in the tribunal and exclaims, "We must deal with
this man as soon as possible." It was then that he asked Jesus this question :
"Are you the Christ the Son of God ?" "You have said it", Jesus replied.
From the house of Caiphas Jesus is brought to the tribunal of
Pilate, and from there to the house of Herod. This journey is followed by the
seer who drags herself on her knees across the room. On the return from Herod to
the tribunal of Pilate, Alexandrina repeats the following reflection of the
Saviour : "To be treated like a madman is of little importance if I have souls
to save."
In the tribunal of Pilate, the seer repeats the words of the
multitude and among others, the following : "Crucify him! Crucify him!" And
those of Claudia, the wife of the Governor: "Have nothing to do with this just
man."
2.24 p.m. When Jesus is led to the column, Alexandrina moves
towards the bed and there leans on her hands. At the sight of Jesus being
scourged, she receives on herself the quivering blows against the Lord and from
the violent contractions produced by the whips and the anguished groans that
escape her lips, one can infer how much she is suffering. [The punishment of
scourging normally preceded the execution of a condemned man. Alexandrina later
described the instruments of the Scourging of Christ very precisely to Fr
Pasquale, SDB. The back, the breast, the stomach and the face of the condemned
man, she disclosed, were struck at will by the soldiers.] The second group of
soldiers come to relieve the first who are tired of hurling blows on their
victim. The scourging of Jesus, already horribly tortured, strikes the poor
martyr as well. During these torments, Alexandrina who impersonates the Saviour,
raises her eyes to Heaven and exclaims, "For love of you, O Father, I want and
embrace your cross." One then hears anguished groans from the lips of
Alexandrina, and she repeats the words of the Saviour, "Father, this is for you,
and to give you souls."
The blows of the whips on the body of the Lord rebound on the
seer, forcing her to twist herself and to moan in a heart-rending manner. Jesus
exclaims through her mouth, "For you, O Father.... It is for your love !"
2.32 p.m. Alexandrina falls on her knees with her face
resting on the bed. She groans again, with painful contractions on account of
her unspeakable torture.
2.36 p.m. The Lord is again scourged and the seer is again
martyred.
2.38 p.m. She repeats the words which she hears from the
Saviour, "Father, it is for you and for souls." She rises, falls on her knees
again near the bed, almost exhausted by the violence of the torments. At last
she takes a brief rest on the bed.
2.39 p.m. The scourging of the Lord continues and she suffers
violent contractions again all over her frail body and finally falls to the
ground exhausted. Soon, however, she gets up, and very tired sits on the floor
between her sister and the bed on which she leans. Raising her eyes to Heaven
she repeats the words of Jesus, "My Father, my Father, who will not love you ?"
In this manner the scourging of the shoulders ends. Alexandrina moves to the
head of the bed and leaning on it, rests her face on the back of her right hand.
She does not suffer; it is a relief that Jesus gives her to enable her to bear
the remainder of the Passion. (She affirmed that sometimes Our Lady appeared to
her at this juncture.) Finally Jesus is untied from the pillar and re-tied so
that he can be scourged on the breast.
2.41 p.m. There are other scourgings, and while the blows
fall on the Lord, she has violent contractions, so great are the wounds which
reach her from Jesus.
2.44 p.m. The last scourging ends ; she falls prostrate on
the floor with her head resting on the bed.
2.45 p.m. To accompany the Lord towards the place of the
crowning, Alexandrina moves to the wall of the room on her knees and sits down.
She participates in the torments of the Lord, receiving in a mysterious manner
the crown of thorns. She suffers and moans painfully with Jesus. Her head
trembles with the sharpness of the pains produced by the thorns driven into the
head of the Saviour. This torture lasts for 28 minutes. [Alexandrina later
explained to Fr Pasquale SDB that it was not just a crown around the head, it
was a helmet of thorns which covered all the head. She added that Our Lord's
face closely resembled that on the Shroud of Turin.]
3.13 p m. While they place the wood of the cross on the
shoulders of Jesus, Alexandrina hears these words of the Saviour when he stands
before the Roman governor. "Pilate I will have compassion for the weakness of
your soul." Then, on her knees, she goes to the door of the room and sits down.
3.21 pm. Alexandrina carries the cross on her shoulders and
follows the Saviour on her knees. [At this moment, while the seer was carrying
the cross to Calvary Dr Azevedo invited one of the priests present to try to
lift the seer from the floor. The strongest priest was chosen. He took her by
her armpits and strained his utmost, but was unable to move her. She then
weighed only 40 kilos. One day, the renowned psychiatrist Dr E. de Moura was
present. Removing his jacket he took Alexandrina under the armpits in a brusque
manner and exerting all his strength tried to lift her. He could not displace
her by one centimetre. A sudden movement of the seer then sent him reeling back
with his legs in the air. During the ascent to Calvary, Fr Pinho remembered one
time when he asked Alexandrina if she could tell him the weight of the cross.
Still in ecstasy, she replied that it had the weight of the whole world. "A
profound theological reply", commented Fr Pasquale later.]
3.25 p.m. Alexandrina follows Jesus in the first fall and her
head strikes the floor. When the soldiers drag Jesus with the ropes, Alexandrina
is also dragged across the floor, face down, until she takes the cross again.
3.28 p.m. At the second fall of the Saviour, Alexandrina also
falls, receiving a painful bruise on her forehead. She is then dragged to the
door of the room to take up the share of the cross again which the Heavenly
Bridegroom gives her. Jesus resumes the walk of the execution and meets his holy
Mother. Alexandrina repeats his words, "My Mother, my Heart is united with
yours." The look of compassion which the seer gives when she sees the face of
the Holy Virgin is infinitely touching. Mary meets her Divine Son, almost
fainting, without support or comfort.
3.31 p.m. Alexandrina suffers a new torture in the arms and
head when she falls again on the floor. After the third fall, Simon of Cyrene is
obliged to carry the cross. [The priest mentioned in the note above was again
invited by the doctor to try and raise the seer, who was dragging herself along
on her knees. He succeeded without any effort. The explanation is patent: the
first time there was also the weight of the cross.] The Saviour was barefoot and
walking along stony ground. The violent wrenching of the ropes, together with
his physical exhaustion, made him stumble and fall.
Seeing Jesus reach Calvary and being stripped of his
garments, Alexandrina mimes the scene expressively and after kneeling down,
fixes the cross and stretches herself on it. She then presents her right hand to
be nailed to the wood and then the left hand and the feet, suffering
excruciating tortures. [Fr Pasquale asked Alexandrina why she painfully
stretched her fingers to touch her wrists and not the palms of her hands. She
replied, "Because Our Lord was nailed on the wrists, not the hands." It was
found impossible to detach her arm from the floor after she had been nailed to
the cross . Another detail worthy of note: just as she was nailed, she tuned
over for a few seconds and then took a supine position again. When asked the
reason for this she explained "Because at that moment they tuned over the cross
of Jesus, to beat the nails in further "] While she is on the cross, the High
Priest and the people swear at Jesus, saying, "If you are the king of the Jews,
come down from that cross!" Jesus then says the following words which the seer
repeats with gentle grief :
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Since
the bad thief was swearing, the good thief made himself the advocate of the Lord
saying, "We are being punished for our crimes, but this man has not harmed
anyone." Alexandrina then repeats these words of Jesus to the good thief, "In
truth I say to you, this day you will be with me in Paradise." Raising her eyes
to Heaven the seer continues to repeat what she hears from the mouth of Our Lord
regarding the good thief : "Father, I wish that where I am he may also be, and
that my reign may be your reign."
3.37 p.m. With atrocious suffering, Alexandrina continues to
be stretched on the floor with her arms open, nailed to that mysterious cross.
Repeatedly she groans in agony. Then staring fixedly at someone whom she loves
much she says, "Woman, behold your son." And then to John, "Behold your Mother."
3.40 p.m. She gives a painful and prolonged groan and
exclaims with indescribable bitterness, "My Father, why have you forsaken me ?"
She breathes deeply and groans, then remains silent for some while. The breast
of Alexandrina expands in anguish and it seems that the breathing is paralysed.
3.50 p.m. Soon after she groans again. Her cries are so
moving and soul-stirring that they can never be forgotten. Then the tortured
woman exclaims, "All is consummated." The breathing remains suspended for some
seconds and finally, the breast is expanded in the struggle of death. One hears
prolonged cries of anguish. It is the last agony. With a feeble voice she utters
the last sad groans and exclaims, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."
Her head falls gently on the left side. To the eyes of a watcher, Alexandrina is
dead. Not a movement, not a sign of breathing. She is dead — or seems to be
dead, and remains so for about thirty seconds."
Thus ends the eyewitness account of one of these historically
unprecedented ecstasies. Those privileged to witness them were overwhelmed with
emotion, feeling themselves at the very gates of Jerusalem and seeing the
Passion of Jesus. The contusions caused by Alexandrina's falls and the purple
bruises visible on many parts of her body disappeared in a short time. It is
significant that, out of humility, Alexandrina prayed to Our Lord not to give
her the stigmata or any other visible signs of her mysterious sufferings.
During the early months of 1942, her little room was besieged
daily by crowds of pilgrims. Though her suffering between each Passion ecstasy
was severe and continuous, she never tired urging frequent Communion and the
devout daily recitation of the rosary as the cure for the world's ills. Penance
was her constant refrain, and she repeatedly advocated consecration to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary through the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
whose picture hung above her bed. To her left hung another picture of little
Jacinta Marto, the youngest of the three children who saw Our Lady at Fatima in
1917. Frequently she would draw attention to this picture and urge that
Jacinta's heroic example of sacrifice be imitated.
As for sin, Alexandrina would plead in a heartbreaking voice
for its permanent renouncement, cost what it might. in prayer and mortification.
To offend God, she stressed to the pilgrims, was the supreme evil in life and
the most resolute personal efforts must be made towards its total elimination.
"O sinners," she would weep, "I am enduring a life of terrible suffering on your
behalf. Convert yourselves! Sin no more! Sin no more !" Great numbers responded,
as indicated by the long queues at the confessional in the village church. "Your
house", Our Lord told her, "has become the Calvary of sinners."
|
During Holy Week of 1942, Alexandrina's condition
deteriorated alarmingly. Her interminable pain, shot through with acute spasms
of nausea, grew so agonising that it seemed her chalice of sorrow would overflow
and her martyred soul take its flight to eternity. Despite a ravenous hunger and
burning thirst, she was unable to retain any nourishment except a little milk
and mineral water. On Palm Sunday evening she asked to be anointed, fearing that
she would lose consciousness before receiving the sacrament As soon as it had
been administered she stammered, "I am so happy now. All my faults have been
removed."
By Maundy Thursday her agony was almost unendurable. When
Deolinda touched her burning lips with a glass of water, Alexandrina gasped, "O
my God! My thirst can only be satisfied by you! On earth there is no remedy."
Hour after fiery hour her frightful torment continued. "Oh what nausea!" she
groaned. "It is really of the damned in Hell. It cannot be but the fruit of
sin." As the evening closed in, she rallied slightly and murmured that she did
not have the usual fear of the Friday Passion. When asked the reason she
confided, "I do not know how it is, but I feel certain that Our Lord will not
give it to me."
She was right. And a great sigh of joy escaped her as she
realised that the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary had
been decided on. Early on Good Friday morning she heard Jesus announce to her in
a tone of triumph, "Glory to Mary ! The world will be consecrated to her. It
belongs to Jesus and to the Mother of Jesus." [The consecration was effected by
Pope Pius XII on 31 October 1942, using the very titles that had been revealed
to Alexandrina: "Queen of the Universe, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, Refuge of
the human race, Victress in all God's battles." Days later came the "turning
point" of the war, according to Sir Winston Churchill.]
In a blaze of agony and adoring love, Alexandrina cried out
to Jesus in the tabernacle of the nearby church, "O my Eucharistic Love, I
cannot live without you! O Jesus, transform me into your Eucharist! Mother, my
dearest Mother, I wish to be of Jesus, I wish to be entirely yours !"
Deep in her soul she heard his profound reply :
« You will not take food again on earth. Your food will be my
Flesh ; your blood will be my Divine Blood, your life will be my Life. You
receive it from me when I unite my Heart to your heart. Do not fear, my
daughter. You will not be crucified any more as in the past... And now a new
trial awaits you, which will be the most painful of all. [The last Passion
ecstasy occurred on 27 March 1942 which was then the feast of Our Lady of
Sorrows.] But in the end I will carry you to Heaven and the Holy Mother will
accompany you. »
And so it was on Good Friday 1942 that Alexandrina began an
absolute fast which was to last more than thirteen years until her death, her
sole nourishment being Holy Communion which she received with moving devotion
every morning. Meanwhile, her agonising pain continued without respite. "My body
seems to have no bones", she panted. "It seems a pulp. I am like a statue of
chalk which must not be touched or it will crumble."
Her family and friends, believing her to be dying, never left
her sick-bed; not could they explain an existence which was only pain. Visions
of the Holy Family and her guardian angel gave her fleeting relief from her
appalling suffering. But as the days without nourishment lengthened into weeks
and months, the suspense of her watchful family steadily grew.
Alexandrina became convinced that the end was near. "O Our
Lady !" she wept, "Come to take me ! I cannot bear this suffering any more… O
Jesus, my love, do not abandon the one who loves you so much O days which never
end ! O Heaven which never approaches !" Turning to her relatives she groaned,
"When you hear the bells sound for my death, go down on your knees, pray and
thank Jesus and Our Lady for coming to take me."
Every Friday, she felt a wave of nostalgia for the Passion
she had suffered for the last four years. "One esteems something only when one
has lost it", she sighed. "If I had the Passion now, I would embrace it with an
eternal embrace and would never separate myself from it." To ease her yearning,
she had brought to her the long gown which she had worn during the Passion
ecstasies. She would gaze at it with a faraway look and then tearfully embrace
it. At other times, she would reverently kiss the large mat on which took place
the successive stations of her mysterious martyrdom.
Her longing for that mystical Calvary was only tempered by
her greater longing for death. She begged God to take her on the first Friday of
May, to enable her to celebrate in heaven the first Saturday she loved so much.
But the first week in May passed and her agony continued to rack her day and
night without respite. On 24 May, feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, after
almost two months of absolute fasting "with a burning thirst and a longing for
food", Alexandrina cried out in anguish, "I sigh, I die, I long to satisfy my
soul with the food of Paradise!"
As the months passed, news of Alexandrina's fast spread far
and wide. Crowds of pilgrims again besieged her sickroom, imploring her prayers
and favours. Their endless importunity seemed to heighten her ferocious
suffering, but panting on her bed of pain she promised to remember everyone in
her prayers. Of this period she wrote later :
« Day by day, moment by moment, my life became more and more
painful. On the one hand, obedience obliges me to live hidden and to receive
people in such a way as to be soon forgotten. O my God, if I had my will that is
how I would live But what deceit ! The more I want to be hidden, the more they
make me known. Visitors arrive from everywhere — what torment for me. »
One afternoon, a number of important-looking men entered the
sickroom to investigate reports of Alexandrina's total fast. She relates the
event as follows :
« At half past two in the afternoon, five men entered the
room. At once I had a presentiment that one of them was a doctor. They began to
question me. For some reason, I found my attention drawn to one of them and
after they had gone, I knew instinctively that he was a doctor. I answered their
questions calmly and firmly, for truth has only one reply. When they asked me
incredulously if it was true that I ate and drank nothing, not knowing whether
they were believers or not, I answered : "I receive Holy Communion every day."
They remained silent and non-committal for a while and shortly afterwards they
respectfully withdrew. »
Not everyone, however, treated Alexandrina with the same
courtesy. Doubts and suspicions about her fast circulated; some openly accused
Deolinda and her mother of perpetrating a monstrous fraud. These accusations,
and the indignation of many zealous people, were the cause of much sorrow for
Alexandrina and her family. Finally, her friends appealed to the medical
authorities to intervene and establish the authenticity of the prodigy once and
for all.
Alexandrina vividly describes all that followed. She wrote on
27 May 1943 : "In order to satisfy the desires and the will of the Archbishop, I
subjected myself once more to a medical examination. When they told me about
this, a new suffering took possession of my spirit, but seeing in everything the
holy Will of God, I accepted, as always through obedience. When they told me the
day on which the doctors would come, I prayed with great fervour to Our Lady to
give me the necessary composure to bear everything with courage and resignation
for Jesus and for souls.
"On the appointed day, the doctor in attendance came to our
house with Dr Enrico Gomes di Araujo and Dr Carlo Lima. Fortunately I was calm
and serene; God had heard my prayer. One of the doctors asked me if I suffered
much and for whom I offered my sufferings. He also asked whether I suffered
willingly and if I would be happy if God released me from my sorrows. I replied
that, in truth, I suffered much and that I offered everything for the love of
God and for the conversion of sinners. "
They then asked me what was my greatest aspiration and I
answered, 'It is Heaven.' They then enquired if I wanted to be a saint like St
Teresa or St Clare and to arrive in Heaven leaving behind a name famous
throughout the world. 'I am not in the least interested in that', I replied.
They then asked, 'If it were necessary to lose your soul to save sinners, what
would you do ?' I answered, 'I trust that I would also be saved, but if I had to
lose my soul I would say no, because God would never ask such a thing.'
"'Why do you not eat ?' they then asked. And I replied, 'I do
not eat because I cannot. I feel full. I do not need it. However, I have a
longing for food.'
"The doctors then began the examination which I bore with
good disposition. At the end, seeing that I was in no condition to make a
journey, they decided to call two nuns to verify the truth of my fast. After
they left, I remained waiting for their decision. On 4 June my confessor came to
give me Communion, accompanied by my doctor, who afterwards explained that I was
being given the opportunity to enter a hospital in Oporto to have the fast
medically certified. I would be isolated for a month and under constant
observation. I immediately said 'No' — but at once I was sorry, thinking of the
obedience I owed the Archbishop and the difficult situation of my spiritual
director, my doctor and my relatives and friends. So I accepted the proposal,
subject to three conditions — I would be able to receive Holy Communion every
day, I would be accompanied by my sister, and I would not be subjected to any
more medical examinations because I was only entering the hospital for
observation.
"By 10 June all was ready for my journey to the hospital of
Foce del Duro in Oporto. My grief was great, but I had such faith in Jesus that
I felt he would, if necessary, send his angels to help me. When my doctor
arrived, he hesitated for some while, as if loath to tell me I had to leave.
Finally I managed to say, 'Let's go, doctor. He who does not leave does not
return !'
"I embraced my family and friends and only Jesus knew the
sorrow it cost me to separate myself from them. I looked only into his Sacred
Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and implored them to give me courage and
strength to bear this new affliction. As they levered my stretcher downstairs I
murmured to my weeping family, 'Courage ! All for Jesus and for souls !' I was
unable to say more. There was such a tightening of my heart that I felt it would
be impossible to keep back the tears.
"Over a hundred people were surrounding the ambulance. I saw
tears in the eyes of almost all. The sorrow I felt then was indescribable. My
heart was beating with such violence that it seemed about to burst my ribs.
Inwardly I prayed, 'Accept these throbbings, my dear Jesus, for your love and
for the salvation of souls.'
"The journey was difficult; it seemed to me that my heart
would not hold out. [The road from Balasar to Povoa is still badly broken and
rutted and the ambulance journey must have caused Alexandrina severe pain.]
Every now and then, I looked at my sister and saw how desolate she was. By the
grace of God, I was able to keep the smile on my lips. But the constant shaking
of the ambulance was sheer torture and I prayed repeatedly, 'All for your love,
my dear Jesus, and may the darkening of my spirit serve to give light to other
spirits.'
"When we arrived at Matozinhos, the doctor raised the
curtains so that I could look at the sea. An enormous silence filled my spirit,
and observing the continuous movement of the waves, I asked Jesus to let my love
beat like them without interruption."
|
"At length we reached the hospital, but before they withdrew
me from the
ambulance, my face was covered with a cloth so that no one would
recognise me. Going up the stairs was a martyrdom as they carried me up head
down. When they reached a small room, my face was uncovered and I found myself
surrounded by doctors and nurses. I was dismayed to discover that Deolinda had
been allocated an adjoining room, contrary to what I had asked for. I did not
know how I could manage without her experienced help and constant words of
encouragement. Dr Araujo then arrived and began to give instructions to the
nurses and assistants.
"After he had gone, my own doctor remained for some while and
two nurses charged with watching all my movements took up their station by my
bed. When Dr Azevedo finally left that evening, I could not restrain my tears
any longer. For a long time I wept, offering my tears and grief to Jesus. On
seeing me so desolate, the nurses permitted Deolinda to remain near me that
night, together with another nurse who learned from her the correct way of
turning me.
"The following day, a Friday, I began my true Calvary in that
place. I had an ecstasy in the morning (I have one every Friday), and the
doctors and nurses gathered round my bed. Dr Azevedo was there and after writing
the words of the ecstasy he passed them round for the other doctors to read.
Nothing escaped their watchful gaze, not even the most insignificant detail
which was commented on at once.... Dr Araujo was very strict, even to the point
of harshness. He sternly forbade any nurse to question me in the slightest way.
When one of the nurses tried to comfort Deolinda, who was weeping because of my
condition, Dr Araujo immediately dismissed her and forbade her to enter my room
again.
"During the night of Friday to Saturday, I had a great crisis
of vomiting which made me suffer severely and which was made worse by the
absence of my sister who knew how to sustain me. Dr Araujo arrived in the
morning, but my prostration was such that I did not hear him knock at the door.
I heard him whisper to one of the nurses by my bed, 'It is all over with her.'
"At these words, I opened my eyes and said, 'Doctor, I have
had these crises at home.' He replied curtly, 'Miss, don't think that you have
come here to fast.' I understood what he meant and felt deeply wounded.
"When he was informed of the ecstasy of the previous day, he
asked for the notes of it and having read them, commented, 'It seems impossible
that Dr Azevedo, so intelligent, lets himself be deceived by these things. It is
necessary to make an end of this nonsense. From now on, take away all the clocks
so that the sick woman will be ignorant of the time.' (As if the Lord had need
of clocks !)
"Dr Araujo then tried to treat me with medication, but I
would not consent. Several times the nurse came near me, convinced that I was
dead. For five days I underwent a continuous agony, more in the spirit than in
the body, because in those crises, they never permitted Deolinda to come near
me, while at home two people were frequently necessary to sustain me. All were
persuaded that the crises were due to a lack of nourishment and they kept me
isolated, convinced that I would ultimately be compelled to ask for food, or
else die of starvation. How they deceived themselves ! They did not know that
nourishment came to me from the Sacred Host which I received every day.
"When Dr Azevedo returned and learnt of the attempts to make
me take medicine and nourishment, he said to the hospital staff, 'This sick
woman has only come so that the reality of her fast and the normality of her
mental faculties can be ascertained — nothing more. I trust that Dr Araujo will
abide by these terms. I do not permit anyone to give her injections or
medication, unless she specifically requests them, or I consent to it. You will
see that after each crisis she has, the dark rings under her eyes disappear, her
colour returns and her pulse becomes normal.' He paused and then added,
pointedly, 'I can assure you of one thing: without nourishment, you would die, I
would die, but the sick woman here will not die.'
"His kind words on my behalf did much to rally my flagging
spirits. Five days later, the vomiting stopped completely, the colour reappeared
on my face and my pulse became normal.
"The strict surveillance by relays of doctors and nurses
continued. Never for one moment was I left alone. The door of my room opened
only to admit doctors and nurses. The improvement in my condition failed to
convince any of them. They said it was impossible to live without nourishment
and they tried to intimidate me, using soothing, persuasive tones to induce me
to take food. But all their efforts were in vain. On one occasion I heard them
affirm that my case could be one of hysteria, or a phenomenon still unknown to
medical science.
"Dr Araujo visited me several times each day, occasionally
taking me by surprise at night, as if to discover something... Even if I live
until the end of the world, I will never forget the apprehension I felt whenever
he opened the door, and my anxious suspense of waiting for his words. So many
times I prayed, 'May this night serve to give light to him, to the people who
surround me and to all the souls who find themselves in darkness.'
"During his frequent interrogations of me, he tried in every
possible way to persuade me to take food and end the fast. A nurse even tried,
on many occasions, to take away my Faith. She used interminable arguments to
discourage me and to convince me that what was happening to me was not the work
of God. Once Dr Araujo said to me with a malicious expression, 'You convince
yourself, Miss, that God does not want you to suffer. If you wish to save souls,
he can save them himself if it is true that he has the power to do so.' At other
times when he questioned me, I seemed to see in front of me a wolf in sheep's
clothing. I had the impression of seeing Satan himself trying to destroy my
Faith and convince me that my immolation for souls was all an illusion.
"On one occasion I replied to him, 'The things of God are so
great, so great, and we are so small, so small. At least, I am, doctor.' He
stiffened and then said scornfully, 'You are right, but I am far greater than
you — and by how much!' So saying, he took himself off.
"How far Dr Araujo was from comprehending this law of love
for souls! If he knew the value of a soul, he would realise that everything is
too small to save it. My stay in the hospital was a constant rain of humiliation
and sacrifice. Oh, if I had known how to suffer for Jesus! To this end, I turned
to little Jacinta of Fatima whose picture I keep at the foot of my bed, and said
to her, 'Dear Jacinta, you who were so small have proved all this. You know how
hard it is.' Only through prayer and the prayers of many good souls was I able
to gain the strength to climb this sorrowful Calvary with such a heavy cross.
"One day, Dr Araujo sat down by my bed and tried to convince
me that I was a victim of delusion. He began with an involved discourse on
medicine and spoke of one of his professors to whom he had presented a long
work, painstakingly put together during many days and nights of study. The
professor read the work and asked him if he was certain that it was accurate.
The doctor replied 'yes' and cited the arguments supporting his case. As the
conversation lengthened, I looked at him, pretending that I did not understand,
but thinking, 'You go so far to fall so near ?' Meanwhile, the doctor continued,
'I was convinced that I had done a good job, but the professor let me finish and
then, with a few deft strokes, briefly demolished my case. My breath was taken
away. I felt humiliated over so many lost hours and the realisation that my long
study had collapsed in a few seconds.' I had already guessed what was coming and
replied, smiling, 'But my case does not fall, doctor. A very good and wise man
follows me and has studied me for years. [Dr Azevedo.] If the work is of God,
there is nothing that can make it collapse.' Dr Araujo seemed rather embarrassed
and said, 'We will see,' and retired in a hurry.
"On the 17th and then on the 30th day of my stay at the
hospital, my mother came to see me. I had such a desire to see her ! But she
stayed only a very short time and always under the watchful eye of the nurses
who were keeping me under continual surveillance. When my mother wept, I had to
smile and joke to conceal my sorrow.
"The difficult days passed with the endless changing of
nurses under the directions of the doctor. With some, who went beyond the limits
of their duties and their rights, I suffered more than with others. After some
weeks, the doctor began to allow me a little freedom and permitted my sister to
spend some time near me, though without giving her permission to touch me. On
the 21st day, he allowed the nuns of the hospital to make a brief visit to me.
"While Deolinda and I were beginning to think of letting the
family know of our approaching return to Balasar, an unexpected obstacle arose.
One of the nurses charged with my surveillance had spoken of my case to a
physician named Dr Alvaro. Not knowing anything about me, he expressed his
immediate disbelief and affirmed that the nurses who were watching me must have
been deceived. He added that he would only believe in my fast if it were
testified to him by a nurse of his faith.
"Dr Araujo was indignant because it put the seriousness of
his study in doubt. He invited Dr Alvaro to send a nurse of his own choice and
the latter selected one of his sisters. I was therefore asked to remain in the
hospital for an additional period of observation.
"The new test lasted ten days — and with what suspicion !
When my sister, with Dr Alvaro's permission, entered my room every evening to
turn me. the new nurse lit the light and stood beside her. As soon as Deolinda
left, the nurse… made a rigorous check to ascertain if Deolinda had concealed
something under the sheets.
"Nor did they lack subterfuges to induce me to eat something
which the assistant nurse always had with her. When she showed me some tasty
morsels, I smiled without saying anything and when she offered them to me, I
thanked her and still smiling, pretended not to understand her. Frequently, all
my linen was taken away to be inspected. The nurse who assisted me during those
last ten days became convinced of the reality of my fast and afterwards visited
my home where she greeted me like a dear friend.
"On 19 July 1943, the eve of my discharge, all the children
of the hospital passed around my bed and I prayed with them. Later more than
1,500 people came and the authorities had to call the police to maintain order.
One policeman limited himself to standing by my bed and saying continually to
the crowd who pressed around, 'Pass along, pass along.' The doctor had to
literally implore the crowd that pressed round the entrance to the hospital and
in my room to move back so that I would not be suffocated. I remained
humiliated, exhausted and full of self-contempt for the tears of the visitors
and for the many kisses I received which I did not merit and did not want.
"On the morning of my departure, Dr Araujo rose early as
usual and told me that he had been unable to sleep that night due to the
responsibility weighing on him. When he arrived at the hospital, a crowd awaited
him. After spending a short while with me, he permitted some people to enter the
hospital and only then did he tell us that we were free and that the
'observation' was ended. He allowed my sister to eat a meal near me and then
said, 'In October, I will come to visit you at Balasar, not as a doctor-spy, but
as a friend who esteems you.'
"I kissed the doctor's hand gratefully and thanked him from
my heart. I did this in all sincerity for I was deeply grateful to him for the
seriousness with which he had treated my case."
So ends Alexandrina's account of the medical investigation of
her fast. The official report issued by Dr Araujo confirmed the prodigy as
scientifically inexplicable". The key sentence stated: "It is absolutely certain
that during forty days of being bedridden in hospital, the sick woman did not
eat or drink… and we believe such phenomenon could have happened during the past
months, perhaps the past 13 months… leaving us perplexed." The report is signed
Dr Gomez de Araujo of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Madrid, specialist in
nervous diseases and arthritis.
In addition to the formal medical report, there was a
certificate signed by Drs Lima and Azevedo. It read as follows :
« We the undersigned, Dr C. A. di Lima, Professor of the
Faculty of Medicine of Oporto and Dr E. A. D. de Azevedo, doctor graduate of the
same Faculty, testify that, having examined Alexandrina Maria da Costa, aged 39,
born and resident at Balasar, of the district of Povoa de Varzim... have
confirmed her paralysis... And we also testify that the bedridden woman, from 10
June to 20 July 1943 remained in the sector for infantile paralysis at the
Hospital of Foce del Duro, under the direction of Dr Araujo and under the day
and night surveillance by impartial persons desirous of discovering the truth of
her fast. Her abstinence from solids and liquids was absolute during all that
time. We testify also that she retained her weight, and her temperature,
breathing, blood pressure, pulse and blood were normal while her mental
faculties were constant and lucid and she had not, during these forty days, any
natural necessities. »
The certificate continues :
« The examination of the blood, made three weeks after her
arrival in the hospital, is attached to this certificate and from it one sees
how, considering the aforesaid abstinence from solids and liquids, science
naturally has no explanation. The laws of physiology and biochemistry cannot
account for the survival of this sick woman for forty days of absolute fast in
the hospital, more so in that she replied daily to many interrogations and
sustained very many conversations, showing an excellent disposition and a
perfect lucidity of spirit. As for the phenomena observed every Friday at about
3 p.m. (i.e. her ecstasies), we believe they belong to the mystical order... For
the sake of the truth, we have prepared this certificate which we sign. Oporto,
26 July 1943. »
A distinguished professor who carefully examined the medical
reports and other details of the examinations made on Alexandrina testified :
« In returning to my friend and client (i.e. Fr Pinho) the
copies of the reports concerning the singular case of Alexandrina Maria da
Costa, I desire to thank him for the opportunity he has offered me of studying
in minute detail this strange case... It was above all as a doctor, specialist
in nutrition, and not only as a Catholic, that I found that which had happened
to the sick woman so interesting. I also attach great importance to his
testimony (i.e. Fr Pinho's report on Alexandrina submitted some years earlier to
the Archbishop of Braga), because an enlightened confessor and spiritual
director is, perhaps, more competent than anyone else to determine if his
subject is mentally normal or abnormal. In my opinion, it is not possible to
explain by purely scientific means, or better still, by medical means, that
which has happened to Alexandrina da Costa. Nothing makes us believe, according
to what one reads in the detailed reports of the doctors and the confessor, that
it is simply a matter of hysteria, particularly in view of the long time in
which the sick woman has passed, and is still passing, without taking the
slightest nourishment. On the other hand, I am certain that it is not a matter
of deception because the impartial commission which observed her for forty days
and forty nights with rigorous vigilance, could verify that her abstinence from
nourishment was total. »
He adds,
« Now this abstinence from all food during such a long period
of time is incompatible with life, and much less with the maintenance of normal
temperature. respiration pulse, blood pressure, etc... Her intellectual life is
intense, her relationships are perfect, her faculties and senses are retained in
an absolute manner... This extraordinary case, rather I would say exceptional
case, can in no way be explained by purely natural means, or through scientific
data. The inflammation of the spinal cord, which is most probably the cause of
the paralysis, has nothing to do with her abstinence from food, being merely a
parallel illness. »
This report was signed by Professor Ruj. Joao Marques,
professor of medical science, Pernambuco; qualified university lecturer of the
faculty of medicine, Recife ; professor of the branch of nutrition of the School
of Social Service, Pernambuco; president of the Society of Gastroenterology and
Nutrition, Pernambuco.
So much for the verdict of medical science. But Alexandrina
had a succinct explanation. She confided to her confessor that Our Lord had told
her, "You are living by the Eucharist alone because I want to prove to the world
the power of the Eucharist and the power of my life in souls."
|
Alexandrina's joy at returning home was unfortunately
short-lived. A letter arrived from Fr Pinho explaining with deep regret that his
heavy commitments in other parts of the country made it virtually impossible for
him to continue as her spiritual director. The shock was severe, but worse was
to follow. Her physical condition sharply deteriorated again, and by the end of
1943 her pain had once more reached an intolerable degree. Groaning in agony and
sorely stricken over the loss of her spiritual director, she gasped to Deolinda
that this was surely the end. After receiving the last sacraments, she passed
through a second mystical death — a protracted spasm of blinding pain which
manifested a kind of breakdown and incineration of her body. The sight of such
unspeakable suffering brought tears of compassion to the eyes of endless files
of pilgrims who came to implore a share in her unceasing prayers. Among them was
her former employer who broke down at the sight of her pitiful condition. "She
is a saint", he wept. "And to think she is crucified on that bed of pain through
my fault."
Her repeated ecstasies seemed to intensify with her appalling
suffering. In her autobiography she wrote of experiencing the indescribable
torments of hell and purgatory. Her long description of the former echoes the
terrifying vision of hell seen by the three Fatima children on 13 July 1917 and
recorded by Sister Lucia. Of purgatory Alexandrina wrote :
« On the Feast of Christ the King 1943, I felt that my body
had died and that my existence on earth had ended completely. Words fail to
express the sorrow I felt at that moment. What sufferings, my God, what
sufferings were these! I was feeling flames passing through me. I seemed to feel
their terrible heat due to the great thirst I was suffering. But I was mistaken.
Those flames continue still. They were not flames of this world. They had a
brightness that was enchanting. They were passing through me for hours together,
torturing my senses. They were rising to great heights… causing me indescribable
pain, but in spite of that, I was compelled to plunge into them in order to
purify myself by them. »
These agonies were intensified by her continuous interior
suffering of the Passion of Our Lord which had begun on Good Friday 1942 and
which was to persist until her death. The pain she experienced was even more
acute than in the earlier Passion ecstasies, but she never left her bed.
Occasionally, her dreadful torments were punctuated by shafts of ecstatic
relief. On 5 August 1944 for instance, she wrote of Our Lord entering and taking
possession of her tortured body, allowing her soul to escape from its fiery
prison of pain to spend a day of ineffable joy in heaven. But the radiance soon
faded and she returned to find herself once again locked in a furnace of agony.
Seeing her so desolate, several friends of the family
implored a noted Salesian priest, Fr Umberto Pasquale, who was stationed some 90
miles to the south, to visit her and bring her what comfort he could. The
Salesian hesitated mainly because malicious stories were still circulating about
Alexandrina's fast, despite the medical confirmation. Finally Fr Pinho, who was
at the other side of the country, wrote and persuaded him to go, insisting that
her fast and mysticism were absolutely genuine.
Fr Pasquale needed no second prompting; he journeyed to
Balasar at once and after spending two days with the seer, realised the
extraordinary calibre of her soul. During a second visit, he asked her for a
share in her prayers and sufferings. She replied, "How can I not do that if you
are my second spiritual director ?" The priest was taken aback by this
unexpected answer and decided first to consult Fr Pinho. The latter reassured
him and urged him to accept. "She is yours", he added. "I entrust her to you.
Our Lord will give you the light to guide her."
The Salesian was satisfied and took up his task at once. "I
confess that it was a great relief for me", Fr Pinho later admitted, "in seeing
how Providence so competently supplied Alexandrina's deficiency in the person of
Fr Umberto Pasquale, master of Salesian novices, preacher and writer. In the
most difficult circumstances, he was to give the sick woman an assiduous and
enlightening direction." [Cf. On the Calvary of Balasar by Fr Mariano Pinho,
SJ.]
Aware of the delicate task of guiding such an exceptional
soul, Fr Pasquale prayed long and earnestly for the prudence and wisdom that had
been given to his predecessor. He began by requesting Alexandrina in September ;
1944 to write down everything that had happened in her life to enable him to
gain a deeper understanding of her mysticism. Over the following years, she
dictated to Deolinda some 5,000 pages of typescript, which completed her
autobiography. This comprises one of the most important documents at present
under study in Rome in connection with her cause for beatification.
Fr Pasquale also asked if she would devote part of her
sufferings and continuous prayers for the salvation of youth. She responded
immediately and on 26 February 1945, she became a Salesian cooperator. In this
capacity, she offered up her constant pain and prayers in union with Salesians
all over the world for the salvation of souls, particularly those of young
people, and for the sanctification of cooperators everywhere. The Salesians were
so impressed by her courage and willingness that they gave her a unique diploma
of membership. When Fr Pasquale presented it to her, she asked for it to be
placed by her bed "so that I can always have sight of it".
Her generous and enthusiastic participation in her work as a
Salesian cooperator inspired the fathers so much that they gave her a beautiful
white satin lily made in the Carmel of Fatima, to be placed in her hand after
death. On receiving it from her director she smiled through her pain and
stammered, "I am so happy with this lily... But as I do not merit it, what must
I do? If I regard my merit, I would not receive anything." Deolinda turned it
round for her so that she could read on the leaves some of her past utterances
regarding her longing to make Eucharistic reparation and to immolate herself for
sinners. A silk ribbon was tied to the stem of the lily on which was written:
"The Salesians to their Cooperator."
To demonstrate her affection for the Salesians in a tangible
way, she wrote little spiritual letters to them and their novices in her own
hand. Commenting on the significance of this, Fr Pasquale observed, "Only God
knows what it must have cost her. We are witness to the fact that the writing of
a simple thought on the back of a holy picture wrung the sweat from her brow and
made her almost faint with pain."
The following letter was characteristic :
« Jesus lives ! My dear novices and Salesians of so holy a
house, I would like to write to each one of you, but I cannot. I lack the
strength. But as it is my duty to thank you for your holy prayers on my behalf,
I thank you all together. Jesus and his Mother will repay you for such charity.
I implore from Heaven the blessings and graces of Our Lord. I only desire that
you occupy in the Divine Heart of Jesus the same place which you occupy in mine,
because in this way you will be able to receive everything. I have you an so
much inside my heart. May Cod reward all those who have written to me. You can
be certain that Jesus will give you an you desire for your sanctification and
for the salvation of souls. Trust, trust; Jesus will always be with you! Count
always on me on earth and afterwards in Heaven where I will wait for you. In
charity, pray for me.
I am, Poor Alexandrina. »
Another time she sent a pious picture to the Salesians with
these words on the reverse :
« For all the Salesians — Balasar 1.4.1945. Among all, be the
smallest. Blind obedience. Never sin. Suffer in silence. Love Jesus. Love, only
love ! poor Alexandrina Maria. »
Meanwhile her profound ecstasies continued. As many of these
startling raptures are under investigation in Rome in connection with her cause
for beatification, final judgment on them must be reserved. Like a few of the
greatest mystical saints, she underwent a mystical marriage with Jesus [8
December 1944] and was crowned a queen by Our Lady. [First Saturday of December
1944] The following year her heart was exchanged with Our Lord's Sacred Heart as
happened to St Margaret Mary. [11 May 1945] She heard him pronounce her "blessed
of my Father", and received the ineffable privilege of contemplating the Most
Holy Trinity. [13 August 1945] Soon after, a wondrous ecstasy manifested her
transformation into Christ. [1 September 1945] Aglow with a seraphic love of
Jesus and his mother, she underwent sublime raptures of the Resurrection and
Ascension into heaven [4-16 January 1946] and was pierced by darts of
unspeakable love from a flight of angels.
Early in the 1950s, Alexandrina was grievously wounded by a
mystical stigmata of love, as happened to St Catherine of Siena. To awed
witnesses crowding her little room, she seemed to be literally transfigured in a
divine glow. In a blaze of agony and adoring love, she panted forth the rapture
of her life mission in ecstatic tones : "Would that I could set the whole world
on fire with the love of Jesus and Mary ! "
And Our Lord reputedly told her :
« If you knew how much I love you, you would die of joy. I
have established my home in your soul. I live in you as if you alone exist in
the world and I had only you to bless. You are a tabernacle constructed by
divine hands. I want you in my arms with the same simplicity of a baby in those
of its mother. Give me your heart to place in mine in order that you will have
no other love but for me and for the things that are mine. In your body is
Christ; Christ in your glances and in your smiles. You are the valley and I the
water which flows in it, which washes and purifies. You are rich in me. It is
because of this that your glances attract. It is because of this that your smile
has the fineness of Heaven. I want you to preach devotion to the tabernacles. I
want you to kindle in souls devotion to this Prisoner of Love. I do not stay in
this world only for love of those who love me, but for everyone. Even those
engaged in work can console me. »
After each ecstasy, the dreadful pain would close in again;
for long periods during the late 1940s she endured appalling tortures to atone
for various categories of sins. She could not bear to hear others pronounce the
words sin and sinners, even in the Hail Mary, without shuddering violently.
This phenomenon had been noticed for many years and was
highlighted by an incident which took place on 26 December 1938. She was visited
by a medical specialist who treated her with much cruelty. "He wanted to force
me to sit on a chair", she recalled in her autobiography, "and he tried to move
me from the bed with all his strength... I suffered horribly, banging my head on
the wall."
Unable to succeed, he then said to Alexandrina : "Say the
Hail Mary." When she showed no sign of shuddering at the word sinners, he gave
her a little slap on the cheek and said, "You see, I have caught you out. You
said sinner" He checked abruptly, seeing her tremble convulsively. He then
pinned her arms and tried his utmost to stop the movement, but was unable to
succeed. Moments later, he was flung into the air. Picking himself up, he went
to consult Fr Pinho in the next room. The priest explained that the strange
phenomenon did not happen when she pronounced the word "sin" or "sinner" — only
when others did.
During this period, she corresponded regularly with Sister
Lucia, the last survivor of the three Fatima children, and Fr Pasquale became
confidant to some of the mysteries of the world beyond the grave.
To a world splintering to pieces with broken Commandments,
Our Lord pleaded to Alexandrina for more victim souls to turn the scales of
divine justice. She would pass on his words to the thousands of pilgrims who
flocked to see her, adding that she felt she was shouldering a mountainous
burden almost alone. She would cry out in anguish that she felt literally
poisoned by humanity's sins. Once again she was tormented by the unendurable
odour of sin, as happened after her first Passion ecstasy in 1938. And all this
time she was continually examined by doctors and theologians who left profoundly
stirred. On one occasion, an atheist doctor staggered from her room with the
light of faith in his eyes.
One morning while she was asking Our Lady to prepare her soul
for Holy Communion, she felt a sudden sense of supernatural peace. She
recalled :
« My eyes were open, and I began to see in front of me a
crowd of angels forming a great arch. Opposite stood a throne ablaze with
radiant colours emitting rays of light. Our Lord explained that he had presented
this vision to me to show that my prayers were heard in Heaven. "It was the
Virgin and my angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, who came down to prepare your soul.
They have thanked and praised me as in Heaven. I am on a throne inside you." »
The aura of sanctity surrounding Alexandrina was fast
duplicating that of the famous Italian stigmatist Padre Pio, and was intensified
by the conviction that she radiated a supernatural fragrance. Once Fr Pasquale
brought his sister to visit Alexandrina for a few days. She spent the night in
an adjoining room and being very emotional after having witnessed one of the
seer's Friday ecstasies, she was unable to sleep. All through the night however,
she was conscious of delicious waves of perfume coming from Alexandrina's room
next door. The following morning she asked her brother for the name of the
perfume used by the seer. Unable to tell her and because he had previously
noticed it himself, he asked Deolinda. She smiled and replied, "We don't use
perfume. Do you think that this, the poorest house in the country, would be a
house for perfume ?"
Fr Pasquale understood then. The incredibly beautiful
fragrance could not possibly be of this world. It was like a breath of paradise.
The strange phenomenon persisted for years. Hundreds of people noticed it, even
at a distance of 150 km. in the Salesian House of Fr Pasquale. Often the church
and courtyard were filled with the same delectable odour causing much comment
among the students. The priests pretended to ignore it, but were finally
compelled to draw up a signed deposition testifying to the reality of the
fragrance.
Unaware of all this, Alexandrina then had an ecstasy in which
Our Lord reportedly told her :
« Tell your director that he was chosen by me to come here to
study, support and defend my divine work. Tell him that the perfume is a divine
aroma ; it is the perfume of your virtue. I am disclosing this because he has
need of it for the report which he is making of your case. »
A priest who visited Alexandrina at this time came away with
an extraordinary story. As he blessed her, he suddenly saw before him the
sorrowful face of Jesus in place of the sick woman. He testified afterwards, "It
was not an illusory impression — it was a vision which lasted some minutes." He
felt that he had been struck by lightning and went away weeping bitterly for his
sins.
Stories like these predictably increased the already large
crowds flooding into Balasar and besieging Alexandrina's humble home. Despite
her deep-rooted desire for a life of seclusion and private prayer, she accepted
the clear call of God and devoted all her scant energy to succouring the
spiritual needs of the pilgrims. "Sinners and Alexandrina were inseparable ends
of a heavenly mission", Fr Pasquale observed. "She exerted a sweet and
mysterious force that subdued them all." Unable to think or speak of sin without
feeling a sense of disintegration, she strove to reform the innumerable sinners
who crowded her little room. She felt an inexpressible compassion for them.
"When they tell me of their wretchedness," she wrote, "I feel I want to embrace
them." She recalled that Jesus himself was the inseparable friend of sinners.
Her gaze was so full of pity that many would break down and
weep at her mere glance. Those intending to visit her would first go to
confession, knowing that they would otherwise be unable to bear her penetrating
look. It was not a gaze to frighten the guilty, but to move them to tears of
grief for their sins and to awaken in them a powerful resolve to amend their
lives, to confess and return to God. "This must surely be the look of Jesus",
was the verdict of many.
The prize coveted by most pilgrims was a private talk with
the seer. She did her utmost to satisfy as many as she could, listening
patiently, counselling, speaking soberly to one individual after another, hour
upon hour without a break, always calm and serene and with a glowing smile
overlaying the cruel pain striking beneath. By June 1953 she was receiving as
many as 6,000 people in a single day, and speaking for ten hours at a time on
the message of Fatima. "Make reparation to Our Lord in the Adorable Eucharist !
Penitence ! Penitence ! Penitence ! Pray the Rosary devoutly every day. Practice
the First Saturday devotion. [This devotion was requested by Our Lady at Fatima
in 1925 and consists of confession, Communion, rosary and 15 minutes rosary
meditation for 3 consecutive Saturdays, with the intention of making reparation
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.] Consecrate yourselves to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary through the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel." Asked if she
felt tired at the end of the day she murmured, "I could receive as many again."
She confessed that she had the feeling of being like a fisherman with many nets
to throw to souls.
"Sin no more ! Sin no more !" The anguish of that stricken
cry, echoing in that small dim-lit room, moved even hardened men to tears.
Through her, Our Lord promised that "many souls" would become ardently
Eucharistic. He added :
« You live in my public life. Never have I been far from you
since the day of your Baptism. Thousands have been saved by your terrible
sufferings. If anyone should invoke your name when you are in Heaven, they will
never do so in vain. I appoint you a protectress of mankind. You will be
powerful with the All-Powerful. After your death, I will make your name widely
known ; I shall see to it myself. Many sinners will come to your tomb and be
converted. Find souls who will love me in my Sacrament of Love to take your
place when you go to Heaven. Invite the world to prayer and penitence that it
will be set afire with love for me. »
During this arduous, rapturous period, her ecstasies
gravitated more towards the state of the Church and the world. She received a
piercing gift of prophecy and foretold many events which subsequently happened.
"Vanity and extravagance in the world must cease", Our Lord told her. "Let those
exhibiting their bodies clothe themselves. Let modesty reign. Penance! Prayer!
Much prayer is needed !" Frequently while in ecstasy, Alexandrina was heard
lamenting and praying aloud for the Church which she saw in danger of a "great
crisis" and threatened by a "wild beast". She was heard quoting our Lord as
follows : "Tell my ministers to be vigilant, for the devil is preparing a
massive assault on the Church. But pray and trust; victory will be mine."
In the late 1940s, Alexandrina lost her spiritual director,
Fr Pasquale, who had been called away on other work. But whenever there was no
priest to bring her Communion, our Lord himself reputedly brought her the Sacred
Host. On Christmas Day 1953, she had her last public ecstasy — an ineffable
vision of the Most Holy Trinity. Sixteen months later on 9 April 1955. she
competed the thirteenth year of her perfect fast. The living miracle of
Alexandrina stood as a challenge to this sceptical, self-sufficient age of
nuclear energy and computers.
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During the early part of 1955 Alexandrina's condition became
critical again. Her dreadful suffering reached a new peak of fearful intensity.
Whereas before, during her mystical deaths, it seemed that "birds and beasts"
were devouring her body, they now seemed to be devouring her very soul. Month
after fiery month she lay quivering and gasping, willingly offering up her
frightful torment to atone for mortal sins against faith and nope.
Finally the worst was over and as the ferocious pain eased
somewhat, she sighed with deathly exhaustion. On 2 October 1955 she whispered to
Deolinda, "Today is the feast of the Angels. This morning I felt someone touch
me on the shoulder and I heard a voice saying, 'Who will sing with the angels ?
You, you, you! In a little while, in a little while.' "
Sensing her imminent departure for heaven, Alexandrina began
to prepare her family and friends for the sorrowful separation. Early in the
morning of 12 October she asked for her confessor, Don Alberto Gomes, to thank
him for all he had done for her, and to ask permission to renew the act of
renunciation she had made on Christmas Day 1946. In the evening, Mgr Mendes do
Carmo of the diocese of Guarda celebrated Mass in the little room and she
received Holy Communion. "As soon as I gave her the Sacred Host", he recalled,
"she composed herself in the eloquent and profound silence of her thanksgiving."
Deep in her Eucharistic embrace, Alexandrina reputedly heard Our Lord calling
her: "My child, receive Extreme Unction if you wish, but come to Heaven, come to
Heaven !"
After her thanksgiving, she murmured to Fr Pasquale, who had
returned to Balasar to be with her at the end :
« How I long for Heaven ! I feel no pain at leaving the
world... But while my mind is still clear, I would like to receive Extreme
Unction... O how it will all be beautiful here! O Jesus, thy Will be done and
not mine. »
The parish priest, her confessor, Mgr Mendes, Dr Azevedo, the
family and their friends all arrived and went down on their knees. Alexandrina
then made her act of renunciation :
« O Jesus, my love ! O Divine Spouse of my soul, I, who in
life tried only to give you the greatest glory, I wish in the hour of my death
to make an act of renunciation to everything and everybody. If with this act I
give the greatest praise to the Most Holy Trinity, I submit myself to your
eternal designs… only imploring from your divine mercy your reign of love, the
conversion of sinners, the salvation of the dying and the relief of the souls in
Purgatory. »
To this she added the act of acceptance of her death. "My
God, I have always consecrated my life to you and I offer you now its end,
accepting death with resignation, with all its pains, for your greater glory."
In a touching scene, Alexandrina then thanked everyone
present for all they had done for her, begging pardon of each one in turn for
the trouble she had caused them over so many years. She promised to remember
them all in heaven. The parish priest then administered extreme unction. Three
times during the moving ceremony, Alexandrina smiled through her interminable
pain and her drawn features glowed with an inexpressible joy.
When it was over, she turned to her sobbing relatives and
friends and murmured, "Do not weep for me. I am so happy because I am going to
Heaven at last." There was a quivering pause and then all the yearning intensity
of her martyred soul broke forth :
« Oh Jesus ! I can no longer stay on earth ! Oh Jesus, life
is dear, Heaven is dear ! I have suffered so much in this life for souls! I am
crushed, I am consumed in this bed of pain. Forgive everyone! Pardon, pardon the
entire world… Oh I feel so happy ! I am so happy because I am going to Heaven at
last ! »
And she raised her feeble eyes with an almost beatific gaze.
As the evening closed in she murmured to Dr Azevedo, "How
right you were ! What light there is! What light ! The darkness is no longer
here! It has gone! All is light !"
Early on the morning of the 13th, the 38th anniversary of the
final appearance of Our Lady at Fatima and the miracle of the sun, she cried out
with passionate fervour, "Oh my God, I love you ! I am yours completely ! Oh how
I long to fly to you! Will it be today ? Oh I would be so happy… so happy !" A
streaming vision of the Immaculate Heart of Mary gently assured her, "I am about
to take you." Through the white radiance she heard the voice of Jesus, "You are
in the number of my saints", and that of the eternal Father, "This is our well
beloved daughter."
As dawn broke, she wore a seraphic smile and asked Deolinda
for the crucifix and medal of Our Lady of Sorrows to kiss. When these were
brought to her, Deolinda asked, "What are you smiling at now?" And Alexandrina
could only murmur, "At Heaven… Heaven."
Shortly before 8 am. she received Holy Communion again with
an overflowing love and devotion. It was her last. Then, as the hushed stillness
of the room quivered with praying priests, pilgrims and relatives, she uttered a
last piercing message to them and to all mankind in this perilous nuclear age:
"Do not sin. The pleasures of this life are worth nothing. Receive Communion,
pray the Rosary every day. This sums up everything."
At midday, her trembling joy at the swift approach of
paradise burst forth anew. "Oh I am so happy, so happy because I am going to
Heaven at last !" The doctor begged her to remember them there and Alexandrina
smilingly nodded. She then asked all present to recite the prayers for the
dying. These were led by Mgr Mendes on his knees and his moving words seemed to
impel that blessed soul forward to the divine embrace.
Her unrelenting agony racked her to the very end, but she
withstood the fearful pain with dogged, prayerful fortitude. And as the sun sank
in the reddened sky, Alexandrina's life slowly ebbed away. Feebly she kissed the
crucifix and medal of Our Lady of Sorrows again. "Goodbye," she whispered almost
inaudibly to her weeping relatives, "we will meet again in Heaven." When
Deolinda choking back her sobs, murmured "Yes, in Heaven… but not yet", as if to
hold her back a little longer, Alexandrina sighed, by now secure and decisive.
"Yes, in Heaven! I am going to Heaven… quickly… now !"
At 8 p.m. her lips closed to kiss the crucifix for the last
time and did not open again. At 8.29 p.m. that heart which had beaten only for
love finally ceased.
Around that bed which seemed like an altar, her weeping
relatives and friends remained on their knees in prayer. And there came to their
minds those moving words which Alexandrina had spoken long ago in 1942 when she
seemed to be on the point of death. "When you hear the bells ring for my death,
go down on your knees and pray and thank Jesus and Our Lady for coming to take
me."
After a long silence, Mgr Mendes, who had not left
Alexandrina for two days, drew near to the body and bent reverently to kiss the
hands and one by one, the crowded room gradually emptied. The virginal body,
white as a flower, was dressed in the garment of a Daughter of Mary. And in the
morning when the death bells sounded, the entire countryside was invaded by a
sense of mournful sadness. "The mother of the poor is dead," the peasants
lamented. "The help of the sorrowful, the consoler of the afflicted has gone."
The news spread rapidly and many thousands from all over
Portugal flocked to venerate the body and touch it with pious objects. The
people of Balasar dressed themselves in mourning until the Mass of the seventh
day, and in the fields where they worked all the singing of the adults and the
children was suspended. Alexandrina's death united everyone, rich and poor,
great and small, in a visible bond of tears and prayers.
Just before the funeral, the family made public Alexandrina's
last directions which she had dictated in 1942.
« It is my desire that my funeral may be a poor one, that my
coffin may not be very beautiful nor poor in quality, so as not to attract
attention from anyone. I wish to be dressed in the gown of a Daughter of Mary,
but very modestly. If it is not prohibited by Holy Church, I would like to have
on my coffin many flowers, not because I merit them, but because I love them
very much. If one takes account of my merit, I would not and could not have
anything.
It is my desire to be buried in the earth and without a zinc
coffin. I do not want even the official funeral because my mother cannot afford
it. On the route of the funeral, I would like the deepest meditation ; it has
always grieved me to see and hear how funeral retinues display themselves. I do
not consent to an autopsy. What they have done to me in life will be quite
enough for their studies.
I desire to be buried, if it is possible, with my face turned
towards the tabernacle of our church. As in life I always desired to unite
myself with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to look at my tabernacle as often
as possible, so after my death, I wish to continue my watch, keeping myself
turned towards our Eucharistic Lord. I know that with the eyes of my body I will
not see Jesus again, but I want to be placed in this position to demonstrate to
him the love I have for the Adorable Eucharist.
I would like my tomb to be surrounded by passion flowers to
indicate that as I loved sorrow in life, I will continue to love it after my
death. Intertwined with the passion flowers, I would like some climbing roses
with many thorns. I love and will love the martyrdom that Jesus gave me and the
thorns which wounded me. It is with martyrdom and with thorns that we resemble
Jesus, that we console his Sacred Heart, and that we save souls, the children of
his Precious Blood. What greater proof of love can we give him if not to suffer
with joy all that is pain, scorn and humiliation? What greater glory can we give
to his Divine Heart than to give him souls for whom he has suffered and given
his life ?
I would like a cross on my tomb and nearby, an image of Our
Lady. If it is possible, I would like a crown of thorns to be placed on the
cross. The cross will be a symbol of the suffering I bore and loved until death.
Our Lady will be there to say to all that it was she who helped me to complete
the sorrowful walk of my Calvary, accompanying and sustaining me until the last
moment of my existence. I trust that it will be so. I love Jesus. I love Our
Lady. I love suffering. But only in Heaven will I understand the full value of
my suffering. »
At 10.00 a.m. on 15 October the funeral began. People of all
social classes were represented — professors, doctors, lawyers, merchants,
industrialists, artists and ordinary working men and women. A newspaper in
Oporto reported that "for twenty-one consecutive hours, a vast multitude crowded
round the door of the humble home of the Costa family to see for the last time
'the sick woman of Calvary' as she was known to everybody". Some florists in the
city were unable to obtain white roses anywhere as every one available had been
sent to Balasar.
An eyewitness, D. Ismael de Matos, has left us a graphic
account of Alexandrina's extraordinary funeral. "At the head of the funeral
cortege stood out the standard of the Apostleship of Prayer on which were
painted these words of Jesus, (spoken to St Margaret Mary, 1673), 'Here is the
Heart which has so loved men!'" We do not know if the writer was conscious of
what Jesus said to Alexandrina on 1 October 1954 :
« I want you to set fire to the world with this love of my
Divine Heart, today extinguished in men's hearts. Set fire! Set fire ! I want to
give my love to all men. I want to be loved by all. They do not accept it and do
not love me. By you, I want this love to be kindled in all humanity, just as by
you the world was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of my Blessed Mother. »
"When according to custom the coffin was opened in the parish
church, the people crowded round the bier while tens of priests sang the Office
and celebrated Mass. All wanted to touch that body; all wanted to kiss the
hands, those hands which, although immobilised for many years through illness,
had been a magnetised column raised to Heaven with the power of prayer and
suffering, to draw down on earth a stream of mercy and grace.
"During the sacred ceremony in the spacious parish church, it
was necessary to create a passage through the dense crowd so that all would be
able to look once again on the serenity and sweetness of Alexandrina, on the one
who was always resigned and charitable, who received and listened to so many
people and petitions.
"Towards one o'clock she was taken to the cemetery in her
coffin, which was overwhelmed with flowers. She was buried in a poor and humble
tomb, just as her life had been poor and humble, with her face turned towards
the tabernacle as she had always desired. The mourning family received visitors,
telegrams and letters of condolence from all over the country. It was a
unanimous chorus of voices exalting the memory and virtue of Alexandrina."
Two years after her death, the diocesan authorities erected a
chapel over her tomb, and in 1967 the Archbishop of Braga, Francisco Maria da
Silva, solemnly opened the diocesan investigation into her cause for
beatification. On 10 April 1973 it was successfully completed and forwarded to
Rome. On that occasion the Archbishop gave a long discourse on the Servant of
God, at the end of which he thanked everyone who had taken such pains in the
long and meticulous work of the tribunal of the process. His Grace concluded :
"The instruments of this work are, above all, the Salesian
Fathers. I therefore congratulate you, because Alexandrina was a Salesian
Cooperator. I thank you because she was of this diocese — the glory of this
diocese. Now I only pray that the Lord may give the opportunity to all of us, or
at least to some of us, to assist in the solemn ceremony in the Basilica of St
Peter, of the Beatification of Alexandrina; if he should not also wish to give
either to all of us, or to some, or to at least one, the glory of assisting in
the same Basilica of St Peter, at the Canonisation ceremony of Alexandrina Maria
da Costa."
Meanwhile, thousands of pilgrims from all over the world were
flocking to her tomb and the little room which was her entire world for over
thirty years, "that altar of great sacrifice", as Cardinal Cerejeira epitomised
it. Deolinda had not a moment's rest. "It seems that not a day dawns", she
wrote, "without seeing people who come to pray at the tomb of my sister. Above
all on Sundays and on the 13th of the month there are various pilgrimages from
many places." Numerous miracles were reported, both at Balasar and beyond. In
1972, a woman in Southend, England, was reportedly cured of cancer through
Alexandrina's intercession. Cardinal Cerejeira himself composed the prayer for
her beatification. "The finger of God is here", his Eminence averred, having
received "two incredible graces" after praying in the seer's room.
In 1977 the diocesan authorities translated Alexandrina's
body from the little chapel to a place of honour beside the high altar of the
village church, the Archbishop of Braga deeming it more fitting for her to rest
beside her beloved Eucharist. Engraved on the wall above are some of her most
beautiful utterances to the Blessed Sacrament. As she had foretold earlier her
body was not preserved but had turned to ashes without decomposing — an
extraordinary prodigy which has apparently hastened her cause for beatification.
The ashes themselves have exuded a celestial fragrance on the several occasions
when the vault has been opened.
The church and its immediate vicinity are undergoing
extensive structural modifications to accommodate the growing crowds. In August
1978, it was my great privilege to meet Deolinda at Alexandrina's house. Now
eighty and in the early stages of Parkinson's disease, she manifested a
wonderful kindness and gentleness that gave me an inkling of the sublime
devotion she had borne for her saintly sister. And by an exceptional
coincidence, Fr Pasquale had just arrived from Turin for a few days after
visiting his close friend Sister Lucia, now a Carmelite nun at Coimbra, en
route. His cordiality knew no bounds. After showing me everything of interest in
the house and explaining how Alexandrina's life is being translated into many
languages, he gave me as a precious relic the handkerchief she used just before
she died. In answer to my suggestion that Alexandrina may one day prove to be a
second St Margaret Mary Alacoque, he gave a most emphatic yes.
Years earlier, in 1948, Alexandrina had dictated her epitaph,
a last imploring heart-cry to this permissive age. The words have been engraved
on a white marble slab covering her tomb, and they echo the final plea of Our
Lady of Fatima on 13 October 1917 : "Do not offend God any more, for he is
already too greatly offended."
Sinners : if the ashes of my body can be useful to save you,
approach ; if necessary, pass on the ashes, trample on them until they
disappear; but never sin again.
Sinners : there is so much that I would like to tell you.
This vast cemetery could not contain all that I would like to say. Do not offend
our dear Lord any more. Convert yourselves. Do not lose Jesus for all eternity.
He is so good.
Enough of sin !
LOVE HIM! LOVE HIM !
Copyright 1979 Francis Johnston. Available from TAN books.
(Quotations are taken from
Alexandrina: The Agony and the Glory
by Francis Johnston and published by
Tan Books. Alexandrina's action to preserve her
chastity reminds us St Maria
Goretti who died instead
of consenting to her molester)
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/praeternatural/alexandrina%20maria%20da%20costa.htm
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