I HAD barely uttered these words, when that invisible being, like a
whirlwind, caught me up and bore me away into a large room, where he
made himself visible to my eyes in human form, appearing like a young
man whose beard is just growing, with a face of indescribable beauty,
but austere, not wanton. He bade me look around the room, and said: “The
crowd of men thou seest in this place are all those who up to this day
have been born and afterwards have died upon the earth.” Thereupon I
asked him why he brought me hither, and he answered: “Come with me and
thou shalt soon behold.” In my hand I had a poniard, and upon my back a
coat of mail; and so he led me through that vast hall, pointing out the
people who were walking by innumerable thousands up and down, this way
and that. He led me onward, and went forth in front of me through a
little low door into a place which looked like a narrow street; and when
he drew me after him into the street, at the moment of leaving the hall,
behold I was disarmed and clothed in a white shirt, with nothing on my
head, and I was walking on the right hand of my companion. Finding
myself in this condition, I was seized with wonder, because I did not
recognise the street; and when I lifted my eyes, I discerned that the
splendour of the sun was striking on a wall, as it were a house-front,
just above my head. Then I said: “Oh, my friend! what must I do in order
to be able to ascend so high that I may gaze upon the sphere of the sun
himself?” He pointed out some huge stairs which were on my right hand,
and said to me: “Go up thither by thyself.” Quitting his side, I
ascended the stairs backwards, and gradually began to come within the
region of the sunlight. Then I hastened my steps, and went on, always
walking backwards as I have described, until I discovered the whole
sphere of the sun. The strength of his rays, as is their wont, first
made me close my eyes; but becoming aware of my misdoing, I opened them
wide, and gazing steadfastly at the sun, exclaimed: “Oh, my sun, for
whom I have passionately yearned! Albeit your rays may blind me, I do
not wish to look on anything again but this!” So I stayed awhile with my
eyes fixed steadily on him; and after a brief space I beheld in one
moment the whole might of those great burning rays fling themselves upon
the left side of the sun; so that the orb remained quite clear without
its rays, and I was able to contemplate it with vast delight. It seemed
to me something marvellous that the rays should be removed in that
manner. Then I reflected what divine grace it was which God had granted
me that morning, and cried aloud: “Oh, wonderful Thy power! oh, glorious
Thy virtue! How far greater is the grace which Thou art granting me than
that which I expected!” The sun without his rays appeared to me to be a
bath of the purest molten gold, neither more nor less. While I stood
contemplating this wondrous thing, I noticed that the middle of the
sphere began to swell, and the swollen surface grew, and suddenly a
Christ upon the cross formed itself out of the same substance as the
sun. He bore the aspect of divine benignity, with such fair grace that
the mind of man could not conceive the thousandth part of it; and while
I gazed in ecstasy, I shouted: “A miracle! a miracle! O God! O clemency
Divine! O immeasurable Goodness! what is it Thou hast deigned this day
to show me!” While I was gazing and exclaiming thus, the Christ moved
toward that part where his rays were settled, and the middle of the sun
once more bulged out as it had done before; the boss expanded, and
suddenly transformed itself into the shape of a most beautiful Madonna,
who appeared to be sitting enthroned on high, holding her child in her
arms with an attitude of the greatest charm and a smile upon her face.
On each side of her was an angel, whose beauty far surpasses man’s
imagination. I also saw within the rondure of the sun, upon the right
hand, a figure robed like a priest; this turned its back to me, and kept
its face directed to the Madonna and the Christ. All these things I
beheld, actual, clear, and vivid, and kept returning thanks to the glory
of God as loud as I was able. The marvellous apparition remained before
me little more than half a quarter of an hour: then it dissolved, and I
was carried back to my dark lair.
I began at once to shout aloud: “The virtue of God hath deigned to show
me all His glory, the which perchance no mortal eye hath ever seen
before. Therefore I know surely that I am free and fortunate and in the
grace of God; but you miscreants shall be miscreants still, accursed,
and in the wrath of God. Mark this, for I am certain of it, that on the
day of All Saints, the day upon which I was born in 1500, on the first
of November, at four hours after nightfall, on that day which is coming
you will be forced to lead me from this gloomy dungeon; less than this
you will not be able to do, because I have seen it with these eyes of
mine and in that throne of God. The priest who kept his face turned to
God and his back to me, that priest was S. Peter, pleading my cause, for
the shame he felt that such foul wrongs should be done to Christians in
his own house. You may go and tell it to whom you like; for none on
earth has the power to do me harm henceforward; and tell that lord who
keeps me here, that if he will give me wax or paper and the means of
portraying this glory of God which was revealed to me, most assuredly
shall I convince him of that which now perhaps he holds in doubt.”