[B.] St. IGNATIUS of LOYOLA Presentation: The ... - St. Gaspar Bertoni

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dissolved and to be with Christ Ph 1:23. This was so needed in order to overcome the most
horrible temptations. She would intercede with God in order to provide miraculously for the
monastery. He charity was so ardent that it extended even to the conversion of her enemies,
sinners and the common folk.
[b.
Her Moral Virtues]
2143: Her moral virtues [chap. 10], justice, and cf. there, also for her fortitude, temperance.
Her counsels of religious perfection: poverty, chastity [Book 3, Chapter 4], obedience
[chapter 7].
Prudence: this is for guiding not only one’s own reason, but also that of others. Thus, she
was mistress of Novices all her life, and Abbess for the last eleven years, and with apostolic
confirmation, while still serving in the office as Mistress. She maintained a gentle but strong
government, in such a way that those who were her enemies became her friends. She was one
who would have been capable of governing the world! This was the testimony of Bishop
Eustachius. She exercised great providence in temporal matters, and great discretion in the
spiritual.
2144: She was endowed with exceeding justice toward God, as in religion, promoting His glory,
not only by making of herself a holocaust in religious observance, but even by converting sinners
to God by the force of her tears and the blood that spurted from her flagellation. She exercised
toward her family that piety, by carrying out that last wish of her pious mother, who consigned her
to the side of Christ, even to the forming of her own heart with that of Christ, one heart alone.
She was a source of comfort to her grieving father after the death of his beloved partner. She
freed her from the horrible pains of Purgatory with the fervor of her acts of penance. She
maintained justice toward her superiors, by her observance, obedience, placing herself always
submissive to their orders and indications.
Hers was a rigorous justice: toward both equals and inferiors. She fulfilled all the offices
of religion, from the least to the most sublime with singular exactitude, fidelity and diligence.
2145: Fortitude: Her heart remained always strong and constant even in the most bitter
agonies, or in her battling with both visible and invisible enemies, or in the most harsh trials that
came to her from human beings or which were permitted by God. By means of these, she used
them as cement for her virtue and constancy. She used to say: my suffering is not suffering to
me: my suffering is always compassion [218]. Temperance: She not only restrained her
passions and appetites, but she had them so under control, and her spirit was so free, ordered
and peaceful, that of her it could rightly be said: …but the lust of sin shall be under you, and
you shall have dominion over it. Gn 4:7.
[c.
Evangelical Counsels and her Espousals].
2146: The Counsels of Evangelical and Religious Perfection:
Poverty: From her childhood and as a young girl living in the world, she rejected all the
pomp and fine clothing, of which so many of that sex and of that age are much carried away
[206]. Out of love for the most rigid poverty, she chose the Capuchin Nuns: her tunic abounded
in 96 patches, even when she was Abbess. She introduced the most demanding poverty into the
Convent, and the perfect common life.
Chastity: she flourished in that hedge of penance: this was cultivated in her by heaven
from her earliest years. With her espousals, there was the pleasing odor of paradise that came
from her body, filled her cell, and everywhere she went. In her battles and beatings on the part of
devils, and in her participation in the flagellation of the Cross, she was never seen with any part of
her body uncovered. She possessed chastity in such an eminent level that she seemed to be the