A revelation of the Virgin Mary which Lady Bridget had in the city of Naples. And
she directs it to Lord Bernard, the Neapolitan archbishop. The revelation
reproaches those who do not instruct their servants or infidel slaves, newly
converted to the faith, in that same Catholic faith and Christian law. The Virgin
Mary also reproves those masters who maltreat these said servants of theirs and
exasperate them beyond measure. She also threatens with great punishment
fortune-tellers and enchanters and diviners and also those who support them and
put faith in them.
The bride of Christ writes to Lord Bernard, archbishop of Naples, saying:
"Reverend Father and Lord! When that person, whom you know well, was praying
suspended in a rapture of contemplation, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and said
to her this:
'I, who speak to you, am the Queen of heaven. I am, as it were, a gardener of
this world. For when a gardener sees the rise of a strong wind harmful to the little
plants and the trees of his garden, at once he runs to them quickly and binds them
fast with sturdy stakes as well as he can. And thus he comes to their aid, in various
ways according to his ability, lest they be broken by the rushing wind or wretchedly
uprooted.
I, the Mother of mercy, do the same in the garden of this world. For when I see
blowing on the hearts of human beings the dangerous winds of the devil's
temptations and wicked suggestions, at once I have recourse to my Lord and my
God, my Son Jesus Christ, helping them with my prayers and obtaining from him
his outpouring of some holy infusions of the Holy Spirit into their hearts to prop
them up and savingly confirm them that they may be kept spiritually uninjured by
the diabolic wind of temptations lest the devil prevail against human beings,
breaking their souls and plucking them up by the stem in accord with his wicked
desire.
And thus when, with humility of heart and active compliance, human beings
receive these said stakes of mine and my assistance, at once they are defended
against the diabolic onslaught of temptations; and remaining firm in the state of
grace, they bear for God and for me the fruit of sweetness in due season. But as for
those who scorn the aforesaid spiritual stakes of my Son and me and are swayed by
the wind of temptations through consent to the devil and through action, they are
uprooted from the state of grace and, through illicit desires and deeds, are led by
the devil even to the profound and eternal pains and darkness of hell.
Now, however, know that in the Neapolitan citizenry many different horrible
and secret sins are being committed which I am not relating to you. But instead I
am speaking to you now about two kinds of open sins that greatly displease my Son
and me and all the heavenly court.
The first sin is the fact that in this said city many buy pagans and infidels to be
their slaves and that some masters of those slaves do not bother to baptize them and
do not want to convert them to the Christian faith. And even if some of them are
baptized, their masters bother no more, after the slaves' baptism, to have them
instructed and trained in the Christian faith or to train them in the reception of the
Church's sacraments than they did before the slaves' baptism and conversion. And
so it results that the said convert slaves, after accepting the faith, commit many sins
and do not know how to return to the sacraments of penance and communion or
how to be restored in the state of salvation and of reconciliation with God and of
grace.
Moreover, some keep their female servants and slaves in extreme abjection
and ignominy, as if they were dogs - selling them and, what is worse, frequently
exposing them in a brothel to earn money that is a disgrace and an abomination.
Others, in fact, keep them in their own houses as prostitutes both for themselves
and for others; and this is extremely abominable and hateful to God and to me and
also to the whole heavenly court.
Some other masters so grieve and exasperate these said servants of theirs with
abusive words and blows that some of the said servants come to a state of despair
and want to kill themselves. Indeed these sins and acts of negligence much
displease God and all the heavenly court.
For God himself loves them because he created them; and to save all, he came
into the world, taking flesh from me, and endured suffering and death on the cross.
Know too that if anyone buys such pagans and infidels with the intention of making
them Christians and wants to instruct and train them in the Christian faith and
virtues and intends, during his life or at his death, to set these slaves at liberty so
that the said slaves may not pass to his heirs, such a master of slaves merits much
by this and is acceptable in the sight of God. But know for very certain that those
who do the contrary will be heavily punished by God.
The second kind of sin is that many men and women, with various inordinate
marks of respect, keep about them and consult wicked fortune-tellers and diviners
and the most evil of enchantresses. For sometimes they ask them to perform
witchcraft and incantations in order that they may be able to conceive and beget
children. Others require them to perform incantations and to make fetishes that will
cause certain men and women, or even their temporal lords, to be enamored of
them to the point of distraction and to love them with all their heart. Others, in fact,
beg foreknowledge of the future from these same accursed witches.
Many others ask them to give them health in their infirmities through their art
of enchantment and witchcraft. All indeed who keep these same warlock diviners or
enchantresses in their households and at their own expense and all who seek from
such people such wicked advice and diabolic remedies, and, indeed, all those same
warlock diviners and enchantresses who promise the things mentioned above - all
are cursed and hateful in the sight of God.
As long as they persevere in such a state and purpose, no infusion or grace of
the Holy Spirit will ever descend or enter into their hearts. But nevertheless, if they
repent and humbly amend their lives with the true purpose of not falling back
again, they will obtain grace and mercy from my Son.' "
However, when these things had thus been heard, this vision disappeared.