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The Secret of the Rosary

Saint Dominic preach and his cousin, realizing that a heart as hard as his could only be moved by
something quite out of the ordinary, cried out with a loud voice: "Oh Lord Jesus, grant that this
whole congregation may actually see the state of the man who has just come into Your House."
Then everybody suddenly saw that Don Perez was completely surrounded by a band of devils in the
form of hideous beasts who were holding him in great iron chains. People fled hither and thither in
abject terror and Don Perez himself was even more appalled than they when he saw how everyone
shunned him.
Saint Dominic told them all to stand still and said to his
cousin: "Unhappy man that you are, acknowledge the deplor­
able state you are in and throw yourself at Our Lady's feet. Take this Rosary; say it with devotion
and with true sorrow for all your sins, and make a firm resolution to amend your life."
So Don Perez knelt down and said the whole Rosary; he then
felt the need of making his confession and did so with heart felt contrition. Saint Dominic
ordered him to say the Rosary every day; he promised to do so and he entered his name on the Rosary
Confraternity list in, his own hand.
When he left the Church his face was no longer horrible
to behold but had a glow like that of an angel's. Thereafter he persevered in devotion to the Holy
Rosary, led a well ordered Christian life and died a happy death.

Thirty-Third Rose

A Diabolical Possession

WHEN SAINT DOMINIC was preaching the Rosary near Carcassone an Albigensian was brought to him
who was possessed by the devil. Saint Dominic exorcised him in the presence of a great crowd of
people; it appears that over twelve thousand had come to hear him preach. The devils who were in
possession of this wretched man were forced to answer Saint Dominic's questions in spite of
themselves. They said that:

1This incident is referred to by Saint Louis in his ''True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary"
when he explains that those who love Our Lady are not lost. Cf. paragraph 42. M.B.

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