“I desire
that, after your death, your life may be known, and that will happen; I shall
see to it. It will reach the ends of the earth.”
Our Lord speaking to Blessed
Alexandrina, 22nd November 1937.
The desire of
Jesus to see a widespread knowledge of the life of Blessed Alexandrina Maria da
Costa of Portugal is starting to be fulfilled, as devotion to
her grows steadily
throughout the world. One of the great mystics of modern times, a ‘victim soul’
chosen by Christ to suffer in atonement for the sins of humanity, she appears
set to become an important and well-loved saint in the Universal Church. Her
life gives us an example of complete fidelity to the will of Christ, and also
presents an astonishing and undeniable explosion of the supernatural to an
increasingly secular world.
Bedridden for
life from the age of twenty, after sustaining a serious injury some years
earlier while trying to escape from an attack on her virtue, she suffered
unspeakable pain throughout her life and mystically underwent the Passion of
Christ on Fridays to atone for the sins of humanity. She also had frequent
ecstasies during which she saw and spoke with Our Lord and Our Lady, and offered
her sufferings to bring about the consecration of the world by Pope Pius XII to
the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an act which in turn shortened the duration of
World War II. Her life reaffirms the immense value of suffering offered in
union with Jesus, and stands as a beacon of hope to those who suffer in any way,
and a sign of contradiction to those who would deny the value of suffering
offered in union with Jesus. She prayed especially for youth, and has been
proposed by the Church as “a
model of purity and perseverance in the Faith for today's youth.”
Although she was
never able to visit the site of the apparitions of Our Blessed Lady at Fatima,
Alexandrina’s extraordinary story has many connections to the Fatima events, and
her message is essentially the same: “Do penance, sin no more, pray the
Rosary, receive the Eucharist”. Because of this, she has been described as
the ‘fourth seer of Fatima’. One can point to miraculous occurrences in the
lives of all the saints, but Alexandrina herself became a living
miracle, for in the last thirteen years of her life, she ate and drank
absolutely nothing, existing on the Holy Eucharist alone.
Pope John Paul
II said the following about Alexandrina in his
homily at her beatification ceremony in 2004:-
“ ‘Do you love
me?’, Jesus asks Simon Peter, who replies: ‘Yes Lord, you know that I love you’.
The life of Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa can be summarized in this
dialogue of love. Permeated and burning with this anxiety of love, she wished to
deny nothing to her Saviour. With a strong will, she accepted everything to
demonstrate her love for him. A ‘spouse of blood’, she mystically relived
Christ's passion and offered herself as a victim for sinners, receiving strength
from the Eucharist: this became her only source of nourishment for the final 13
years of her life. With the example of Blessed Alexandrina, expressed in the
trilogy ‘suffer, love, make reparation’, Christians are able to discover the
stimulus and motivation to make ‘noble’ all that is painful and sad in life
through the greatest evidence of love: sacrificing one's life for the beloved.
Secret of holiness: love for Christ.”
2
Balasar, the birthplace of
Alexandrina, is a small rural village about 40 miles north of Porto, in the
Archdiocese of Braga. It was already a place of pilgrimage in the century prior
to Alexandrina’s birth, due to the appearance of a mysterious cross of raised
earth, lighter in colour than the surrounding area. The cross appeared in June
1832, in the main square of the village in front of the parish church of St
Eulalia. The parish priest of Balasar at that time, Don A.G. de Azevedo, tried
to eradicate the cross but was unable. He wrote about this inexplicable
occurrence:-
“Last Corpus
Christi, while the people coming to the morning Mass were passing the road which
crosses the little hill of Calvary they noticed a cross laid out on the ground.
The earth which formed this cross was of a lighter colour than the surrounding
soil. Dew had fallen all around, except on the cross. I myself went to brush
away the dust and loose earth that formed the cross, but the design reappeared
in the same place. I then ordered a considerable quantity of water to be poured
over it and on the surrounding ground. But after this had drained away, the
cross reappeared once more and has remained there since. The staff of the cross
measures 15 hands and the transverse measures 8 hands…”
Donations left by the pilgrims who
came to see and honour the holy cross, funded a little chapel which was built to
house the cross in 1832, and both the cross and chapel remain to this day. But
what was the reason for this phenomenon? The writings of Alexandrina show that
the cross of earth was inextricably linked to her mission in Balasar, as Our
Lord told her the following during an ecstasy:-
“ . . . a
century ago I ordained that this parish be privileged with a cross as a sign of
the crucifixion. The cross was ready, it only wanted a victim. But now I have
chosen one to fulfil my divine plans; it is you”
Alexandrina was born on the 30th
March 1904 in a part of the village of Balasar called Gresufes, and baptised
three days later on the 2nd April, Holy Saturday, at the parish
church of St Eulalia. Her uncle, Joaquim da Costa, was a godparent, along with
a family friend also named Alexandrina from the nearby village of Gondifelos.
Those attending her baptism would have walked past the chapel of the mysterious
holy cross, completely unaware that the child about to be baptised was the
reason for the existence of it, but God would manifest this connection in His
own good time.
Alexandrina’s mother, Maria Ana da
Costa, was a devout woman who knew that love of God can never be separated from
love of neighbour. She spent hours praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament
each morning before Mass, and was also known among the villagers for practising
the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Though poor herself, she shared what
little she had with those most in need. Sadly, Alexandrina’s father, António,
abandoned the family while Alexandrina was very young, so Maria Ana was left on
her own to raise Alexandrina and her other daughter Deolinda, who was born three
years before Alexandrina on 21st October 1901. Maria Ana dedicated
herself to this task, providing their primary education in the Faith.
Alexandrina’s earliest memory was of
an incident that occurred when she was three years old. Her mother was asleep
and she was lying alongside her. She saw a glass jar of pomade and stretched
out to take hold of it. As she was doing this, Maria Ana awoke and startled
Alexandrina, who dropped the jar, which fell to the floor and smashed.
Alexandrina fell on top of the broken glass and injured the corner of her mouth,
which gave her a scar that she had for the rest of her life. Maria Ana rushed
her to a pharmacist who put three stitches in her face. In her autobiography,
Alexandrina said that she misbehaved towards the pharmacist, “refusing to eat
the biscuits dipped in wine which he offered me to calm me down”. She
described this as her “first misdemeanour”. This incident was certainly
uncharacteristic, as she grew to be a happy child. She was very playful and
active and was often called a “tomboy”. Alexandrina also loved to sing
and by all accounts had a fine voice, which she put to good use in the parish
church. Even at an early age, she had a great love of nature, the contemplation
of which helped to raise her mind and heart to the Creator of all things. She
wrote:-
“I loved to
contemplate nature: the dawn, the rising of the sun, the song of the birds, the
gurgling of the waters entered into me and transported me to such a deep
contemplation that soon I'd forget that I was living in this world. I would
remain there, absorbed by this thought: how great is the power of God! . . .”
Whereas her older sister Deolinda was
more reserved, Alexandrina was known for her laughter and wit. She was also
known for mischievous childhood pranks, such as the time when she pretended that
her hand was crushed in a large trunk, only to burst out laughing when Deolinda
rushed to help her. She also used to sit behind women in church and tie their
shawls together without them realising, so upon parting they would find
themselves connected! Despite a penchant for mischief, the young Alexandrina
exhibited a strong faith. She had a great love for Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament, visiting the church frequently and making spiritual Communions. She
also attended the parish catechism classes and developed a deep prayer life.
Like her mother, her love of God did not stop at pious practices, but was
expressed in acts of charity towards the poor, the disabled and the aged, for
whom she showed great compassion and tenderness. Like the little shepherds of
Fatima, she often used to make sacrifices by offering her food to those less
fortunate than herself.
Alexandrina and
Deolinda were unable to receive schooling in Balasar, as the school only
accepted boys. Being unable to read and write herself, Maria Ana did not want
her daughters to be similarly disadvantaged, so she sent them to a school in the
coastal resort of Póvoa de Varzim, several miles from Balasar. Alexandrina was
seven years old when she left for Póvoa de Varzim, and the separation from her
mother caused her great suffering. The sisters stayed in the family home of a
local carpenter, Pedro
Teixeira Novo, and they attended the Mónica Cardia school where they were taught
by Mrs Emilia de Freitas Alvares.
Alexandrina learned to read and write and also continued to attend catechism
classes. She made her First Confession and First Holy Communion in Póvoa de
Varzim in 1911. Later she recounted the effect this had on her:-
“Father
Alvaro Matos tested me on the catechism, heard my confession and gave me Holy
Communion for the first time. I was seven years old. As a prize I received a
lovely rosary and a holy picture. I communicated on my knees and, despite my
small size, I was able to fix my gaze on the Sacred Host in such a way that it
was imprinted on my soul. I believed that I was uniting myself to Jesus never
to be separated from Him. He took possession of my soul, it seems to me. The
joy that I felt was inexpressible. I told the good news to everyone. From then
on my teacher took me every day to Holy Communion.”
Alexandrina stayed at Póvoa de Varzim
for 18 months and during her stay was confirmed by the Bishop of Porto, Mgr
Antonio Barbosa Leão, in spite of her young age. About her Confirmation, she
said:-
“It was in
Vila do Condo that I received, from the hands of His Excellency the Bishop of
Porto, the Sacrament of Confirmation. I remember the ceremony very well and the
joy that it brought me. At the moment when I received this sacrament, I don't
know how to explain what I felt; it seemed to be a supernatural grace which
transformed me and united me more deeply to Our Lord . . .”
After 18 months she returned with
Deolinda, to her mother at Balasar. About four months after their return, the
family moved to another house in Balasar, which Maria Ana had inherited from an
aunt. The house was situated on a hill providentially called ‘Calvario’, and it
is where Alexandrina lived until her death, and was truly to become the site of
her Calvary.
Alexandrina started to work in the
fields around Balasar. She enjoyed a robust constitution, and was known for
working as hard as the men. She was vivacious and gifted with a cheerful
disposition, and much loved by her companions. At the age of twelve she was
placed by her mother in service to a neighbour, who was a farmer, although her
mother attached some conditions to Alexandrina’s employment:- that she be
allowed to attend Confession once a month; that she be able to spend Sunday
afternoons at home in order to attend the devotions at church, and that she
never be allowed to go out at night. Alexandrina’s employer didn’t keep to
these conditions and she was made to do far more work than had been agreed. He
was also cruel to Alexandrina and frequently humiliated her. When she related
these problems to her mother, Maria Ana withdrew her from the arrangement, but
unfortunately for Alexandrina, this was not the last that she was to hear of her
ex-employer.
Soon after this, Alexandrina fell ill
with a serious infection, which was believed to be an intestinal typhoid fever.
The illness brought her close to death, but she recovered sufficiently to be
moved to a sanatorium in Póvoa de Varzim for a period of convalescence.
Although the danger of death passed, her health was never the same again and she
eventually took up sewing for a living, as this was less arduous than working in
the fields. However ill she felt, she never neglected her spiritual life, and
as well as nourishing her own faith, she also desired to help others to come to
the knowledge and love of God. One way she did this was by collaborating with
the local catechist to help instruct the younger children.
Candido Manuel dos Santos, a
contemporary of Alexandrina, gave the following testimony during the diocesan
process for her beatification: “Alexandrina was so at ease with the youngest
ones and had such a manner of speaking to them about God, that they often left
the other catechists to be with her.”
3
An attempt on Alexandrina’s virtue
was to have devastating consequences for her and her family. On Holy Saturday
of 1918, Alexandrina and a friend Rosalina were receiving sewing lessons from
Deolinda in one of the upper rooms of the house. Alexandrina was 14 at the
time. She heard noises from below and looking out the window, her heart sank
when she saw her ex-employer with two other men. Obviously under the influence
of alcohol, it seemed they had come to try to assault the women. Panic
stricken, they locked themselves in and called out to the men to go away, but
they were not in the mood for rejection. They broke into the house and levered
open a trapdoor in the floor of the room in which the women were working. After
getting into the room, the other two men pursued Deolinda and Rosalina, while
Alexandrina’s ex-employer cornered her. She lashed out at him with her rosary,
crying “Jesus, help me!”. Rather than submit to his assault, Alexandrina
took the only way out and jumped from a window, falling 12 feet on to hard
ground. The pain she experienced from this fall was extreme, but not content
with having escaped with her own virtue intact, she went back into the house
armed with a piece of wood to defend the virtue of her sister and her friend –
and like David and Goliath, against all the odds, she triumphed. Her
counter-attack was successful and the men fled. The similarities between
Alexandrina’s heroic defence of her purity and the life of St Maria Goretti are
obvious, but whereas St Maria Goretti died defending her virtue, Alexandrina
lived, but was to pay a heavy price for the rest of her life.
When Alexandrina was 18, her
ex-employer turned up at her home again, but she was alone on this occasion, as
Maria Ana and Deolinda had gone to church for Adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament. The house at Calvario has a courtyard garden to one side, with an
outer door that opens onto the road. Alexandrina heard the outer door open, and
recognised the voice of her ex-employer, demanding that she open the inner door
to the house. She was unable to fully close the inner door as the winter rain
had swelled the wood, so she gripped her rosary and waited in a state of
terror. He stood thumping on the inner door, trying the handle and demanding to
be let in, but the door didn’t open. After a while of trying to get in, he gave
up and left. Alexandrina believed that Jesus and Our Lady had miraculously
stopped the door from opening in order to protect her virtue.
As a result of the fall from the
window, Alexandrina’s spine was irreversibly damaged. Various visits to the
doctor confirmed that her condition was deteriorating. She was told that the
spinal defect afflicting her had no known cure, and would eventually cause
complete paralysis. She tried to lead a relatively normal life but this became
increasingly difficult. Around the age of 19, she still struggled to get to
church, much to the amazement of other parishioners, but eventually this became
impossible. Complete paralysis set in and Alexandrina became bedridden on the
14th April 1924, aged twenty.
Deolinda looked after Alexandrina
while their mother worked to provide for all three of them. Alexandrina bore
her sufferings without complaint, but she was anxious about the effect that her
condition was having on her mother and Deolinda. Even though she was suffering
terribly, her concern was always for the welfare of others. She began to ask
God through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for a cure. She
prayed continuously and fervently, joined by her relatives and friends, but
instead of the hoped for cure, her condition worsened until even the least
movement caused her indescribable pain. It was feared that she was close to
death, and she was given the last rites on several occasions, but she pulled
through this critical period. Far from being the end, her mission was only just
beginning.
In 1928, devotion to Our Lady of
Fatima, who had appeared in the Cova da Iria 11 years earlier, was sweeping
through Portugal, and people from the diocese of Braga responded to the call of
Fatima by arranging a pilgrimage. Alexandrina, like many others of her time,
would have been caught up in the fervour and awe of those relatively recent
events. Alexandrina’s parish priest had already lent her a statue of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary during the month of May, and she saved hard until she
could afford a similar one. The parishioners of Balasar arranged to join the
Braga pilgrimage, and when Alexandrina learnt of this, she dearly wanted to go
with them, and begged Our Lady to obtain this grace for her. Reports of
numerous miracle cures occurring at the Fatima shrine gave Alexandrina cause for
hope, but this hope was very short lived as her doctor and the parish priest
were in complete opposition to the idea. They argued that it would be
impossible to carry her nearly 200 miles, when the least movement caused her
intense pain. Alexandrina, bitterly disappointed, offered this sacrifice to God
and she redoubled her efforts to pray for a cure, even promising that if she
were healed, she would become a missionary. Although she was never healed, she
did become a most effective missionary for the Fatima message – without ever
leaving her bed. She constantly exhorted those she came into contact with to
live the Fatima message – and of course, the best way to inspire is by example,
and few can claim to have lived the message of Fatima more faithfully than
Alexandrina. She kept a picture of Jacinta Marto, one of the Fatima seers, over
her bed where it remains to this day. She also requested that a little altar be
set up beside her bed, on which she kept the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which
Deolinda decorated with candles and flowers. During Our Lady’s month of May,
she used to offer what she called “spiritual flowers” to Our Blessed Lady.
These “flowers” consisted of offering in a spirit of reparation the various
sufferings she underwent throughout the day.
It was at this time that Alexandrina
began to realise that suffering was going to be her vocation, and instead of
praying incessantly for a cure, she began to think only of loving God and
suffering for Him. She wrote the following after her fellow parishioners had
returned from Fatima:-
“Before he
went to Fatima the Parish Priest asked me what I wanted from there. I asked him
to bring me a medal but he brought a rosary, a medal, a Pilgrim’s Manual and
some Fatima water. His reverence suggested that I make a novena to Our Lady and
drink the Fatima water, and that when I finished it I would be cured. I did
this not just once, but many times . . .
Nothing has
happened, but my desire to be cured has died. Each time I feel a more ardent
desire for the love of suffering and I think only of Jesus. Without knowing
quite how, I offered myself to Our Lord as a victim, and from this I went on to
ask for a love of suffering. Our Lord granted me everything, that is, all the
graces, so that today I wouldn’t exchange my illness for the whole world. It
was the consolation of Jesus and the salvation of souls that consumed me.”
Alexandrina made an important
connection between her own circumstances and those of Our Lord in the Blessed
Sacrament. During prayer, she thought of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,
present nearby in the parish church of St. Eulalia, and it suddenly dawned on
her that He was a prisoner in the tabernacle, just as she was a prisoner in her
bed of pain.
This connection with Jesus prompted
her to remain before Him in spirit, offering Him constant love and reparation,
and imploring Him to convert sinners. Through this union with Jesus, she was
given insights into the terrible consequences of the many grave sins occurring
throughout the world at that time. In turn, she became more convinced of her
mission to offer her sufferings in union with those of Jesus, as a victim soul
for the conversion and salvation of sinners. She begged Jesus to accept her as
a victim, and agreed to suffer as much as she could endure if only sinners could
be saved.
Having made this offering sincerely,
she was taken at her word, and her pain increased greatly. In a desperate
state, and wracked with fever, Alexandrina would continually make the offering
of her agonising suffering, using the prayer given by Our Lady to the three
shepherd children at Fatima:- “O Jesus, this is for love of You, for the
conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the offences committed against the
Immaculate Heart of Mary”. Her extreme pain continued with only brief
periods of respite. In 1931, she entered into a state of ecstasy and heard
Jesus confirming her vocation as victim soul, when He said to her “Love,
suffer and make reparation.” Alexandrina gave her full consent to Jesus’
request and asked Him for the necessary grace to fulfil her mission of suffering
for humanity. This was the first of many ecstasies.
Alexandrina’s condition made it
increasingly difficult for her to write, so all her correspondence, many of her
thoughts, and the messages she received from Jesus and Our Lady were dictated to
Deolinda, who wrote them down. In this way, thousands of pages of writings were
accrued over Alexandrina’s lifetime. Deolinda was assisted in this task by a
local schoolteacher and family friend, Maria Da Conceição Leite Reis Proença,
who was known as Sãozinha. Alexandrina grew up with Sãozinha and they attended
the same catechism class. As a child, she visited Alexandrina whenever she
could and their close friendship continued into adulthood. Sãozinha said:-
“I wrote Alexandrina’s autobiography
which she dictated to me little by little, for she didn't have the strength to
speak for very long at a time. Apart from the autobiography she dictated to me,
I know that she wrote other things: thoughts in notebooks, which are archived,
and many letters, which are also archived.”
4
In August 1933 a Jesuit priest, Fr
Mariano Pinho, was in Balasar preaching at a triduum around the feast of the
Assumption. When Alexandrina came to hear of this, she told Deolinda of her
great desire, secretly harboured for a long time, that Mass might be celebrated
in her room, and she requested Deolinda to ask Fr Pinho if this would be
possible. Fr Pinho eventually met Alexandrina and realised he was in the
presence of a genuine mystic, and he became spiritual director to both
Alexandrina and Deolinda. Alexandrina’s great desire was eventually realised
when Fr Pinho offered Mass in her room for the first time on 20th
November 1933. She was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude, and later said:-
“With that
first Mass Our Lord began to increase his tenderness towards me, and at the same
time the weight of my cross. Blessed be the grace which, in his goodness, is
never lacking to me”.
Soon after this Mass Jesus appeared
to Alexandrina, and this was recorded in her diary. She maintained that this
vision had affected her so profoundly that it was always in some way present to
her for many years to come:-
“One night
Jesus appeared to me in natural dimensions, as if he had just been taken down
from the cross. I could see deep, open wounds in his hands, his feet and his
side. The Blood streamed from these wounds, and from the breast it came with
such force that, after having drenched the garment around his waist, it flooded
onto the floor. Jesus drew near to the edge of my bed. With great love I was
able to kiss the wounds in his hands and I longed to kiss those in his feet. But
due to my paralysis, I was unable to do so. Though I said nothing of this desire
to Jesus, he knew what was in my mind and with his hands he held up one foot and
then the other and offered them to me to kiss .... Enraptured, I contemplated
the wound in his side and the Blood that was gushing from it until, filled with
compassion, I threw myself into his arms and cried out, "O my Jesus, how much
you have suffered for me!" I remained in his arms for some moments and he
finally disappeared.”
Alexandrina didn’t tell Fr Pinho
straight away about the mystical experiences that she was undergoing, but her
reticence with him caused her concern. She believed that if she revealed these
experiences, he would stop being her spiritual director. This problem was
eventually resolved during an ecstasy when Our Lord told her “Obey your
spiritual father in everything. You have not chosen him; it was I who sent him
to you.”
Around this time a problem
occurred which caused Alexandrina further suffering. This new trial came about
as a result of the generosity of Alexandrina’s mother, Maria Ana, who had given
away much to help her poorer neighbours and had also mortgaged the house to
raise money to help one of her brothers. The brother was unable to repay her,
and there was a real possibility that the family could lose their home.
Alexandrina prayed fervently for a solution to this problem, crying out to Our
Lord:- “Jesus, assist us or we perish. Carry this petition afar to someone
who can help us”. Initially, a local woman took pity and helped the family
to meet the mortgage repayments so they would not be made homeless, but this
still left them with very little money for anything else. Alexandrina said:-
“The sole thought that gave me resignation and joy was that Jesus wanted us to
live in poverty in order to be more like him . . .” This dire situation
continued for about six years. Eventually, through Fr Pinho, a benefactress
from Lisbon, a Senhora Fernando Santos, generously donated a sum of money that
ensured they would never have to sell the house or live in such poverty again.
Alexandrina wept with relief and gratitude when she heard of this kindness and
said “I did not know how to thank Our
Lord for so much grace.”
On 6th September 1934,
when she was thirty years old, Jesus gave Alexandrina a message during an
ecstasy, which she didn’t immediately understand, but which was the first sign
that He was calling her to suffer His Passion in a mystical way. Jesus said to
her:-
“Give me your
hands, because I want to nail them with mine. Give me your feet, because I want
to nail them to my feet. Give me your head, because I want to crown it with
thorns as they did to me. Give me your heart, because I want to pierce it with a
lance as they pierced mine. Consecrate your body to me; offer yourself wholly to
me ... Help me in the redemption of mankind.”
She consented to this request, and so
began a period of even more intense suffering, which would make her previous
sufferings seem light in comparison.
Alexandrina’s mission to suffer for
the conversion and salvation of sinners was clearly bearing fruit, because the
enemy of humanity, Satan, began to intervene at this time, launching a series of
attacks on her which were to continue for about ten years, and which even
included physical assaults on her person. Similar satanic episodes have been
well documented in the lives of other great saints such as St Pio of
Pietrelcina, and St John Vianney - ‘the Cure of Ars’. Alexandrina’s satanic
torments began in 1934, when she started to see terrifying visions and hear
blasphemous cries. Satan told her that her prayers and sufferings were useless,
as God had abandoned her, so there was no chance of salvation for her. He
frequently urged her to commit suicide to end her suffering, and even offered to
give her the means to take her own life. Satan continues this diabolical work
to this day in the campaign for the legalisation of euthanasia.
Only a short time into his pontificate, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has
given a clear moral lead on this grave matter. On
7th May 2005,
in a sermon given at the basilica of St John Lateran in Rome, the Holy Father
said, that like his predecessor Pope John Paul II, he would remain “unequivocal”
about the “inviolability of human life from conception to natural death”.
He confirmed that Catholic teaching on euthanasia and abortion cannot be
changed, and said:- “Freedom to kill is not a true freedom, but a tyranny
that reduces the human being into slavery.”
The pro-life groups that do such
great work are continually alerting us to the fact that the pro-euthanasia lobby
is gathering momentum with alarming speed. In view of her resistance to Satan’s
temptations to suicide, it seems particularly appropriate to ask Alexandrina to
intercede for those who are tempted to end their sufferings in this way, and
also for those who campaign to have this great evil legalised. Perhaps
Alexandrina could become a future patron saint for those campaigning against the
legalisation of euthanasia?
Through all these trials, Alexandrina
placed her full trust in her spiritual director, knowing that Our Lord had
especially sent him to guide and assist her. Satan obviously realised the
future value that Alexandrina’s writings would have for souls, as he seemed
particularly anxious for her to stop writing and issued her with all sorts of
threats if she continued. On one occasion he said to her:-
“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.”
As well as alerting us to the future
value of Alexandrina’s writings, Satan also indirectly revealed the effective
role of sacramentals in helping to protect against evil. He deplored
Alexandrina’s use of sacramentals such as the Crucifix, the Rosary, the Brown
Scapular, medals and holy water, and frequently ordered her to stop using these
things, which shows us that when used with the correct dispositions, they are
valuable aids in the struggle to overcome evil. Sadly, the role of sacramentals
has been downplayed by some in the Church since the Second Vatican Council, but
Alexandrina’s experiences simply confirm how unwise it is to reject such
spiritual helps. In 1935 she 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.”
Her refusal to remove her
sacramentals enraged Satan, and he manifested his anger by ordering her to do
things which were so terrible that she couldn’t bring herself to repeat them to
anyone. He even threatened to destroy her, but Alexandrina remained firm.
There is surely a lesson for us here.
Later, Satan began his physical
assaults on Alexandrina. Below are some examples of these incidents in excerpts
from her writings:-
“ . . . 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 . . .”
“ . . .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.”
Although Alexandrina pleaded with
Jesus to end these diabolic assaults, He explained that they were necessary in
order to help save more souls. Jesus said to her:-
“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.”
As in all things, Alexandrina
humbly accepted this particular trial, even though it distressed her greatly.
On one occasion Fr Pinho asked her if she would rather undergo some other sort
of suffering than have to face the diabolical attacks, to which she replied
“No Father. Pray rather that I do the
Will of God in everything”. |