VEN. SISTER DOMENICA OF PARADISE (1473-1553) was born in Florence in 1473. Her father was a farm worker in Pian di Ripoli and worked on the lands belonging to the Convent of Saint Bridget of Paradiso. Domenica embraced the religious life and at a very young age she entered into that convent taking the name of Domenica of Paradiso, or 'Paradise'.
Reports of her sanctity spread beyond the limits of Florence. Her profound spirituality however did not impede her from daily activity for the upkeep of the convent. A great mystic, she had frequent visions of her Guardian Angel who cured her from a terrible illness that caused her profuse bleeding from both her nose and her mouth. On more than one occasion, her Angel saved her from the attacks of the devil who would throw her into the embers of the fireplace. Her Angel would lovingly tend to the wounds that the fire caused her and the following night he would bring her Holy Communion. One day the Archangel Gabriel in person brought her the Eucharist in the presence of her confessor, to convince him of the veracity of these miraculous Holy Communions brought by her Guardian Angel. The day before her death, the neighbours heard angelic chants rise up above the top of the monastery. A few years later, her body was found to be incorrupt, and her hands and feet still bore the marks of the stigmata. It has been certified that her body has remained incorrupt for all these centuries, and on the occasion of grave events, has moved itself repeatedly inside the casket and one of her hands turned white. Venerated, for centuries she continues to work miracles. Her cause for canonisation is still open.
Apparently, she also made prophecies. The following prophecy from the year 1517 attributed to Ven. Sister Domenica was published in Italian, which I have attempted to translate with some explanations and observations. Sister Domenica's revelations mostly features prophecies of the punishments Tuscany endured due to its leaders and rulers, and also the sufferings Sister Domenica's order would endure, which according to the pamphlet have come to pass. However, there is also a prophecy regarding the future, which is of interest to us in our own times.
This prophecy of the future along with the others was taken from a pamphlet printed in 1846, and reprinted in “The Future Destinies of States and Nations” (Turin, 1864)
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Sister Domenica of Paradise, having been taken up in a rapture (i.e. an ecstasy) on another day, after Holy Communion, Jesus Christ began to speak to her in this way:
"My bride, pray and weep for My faithful, there will come a time when My faith, declining, will be missed in many and few (faithful) will remain, when souls fall into the hands of My enemy for the scarcity and lack of the word God, (i.e. when the Word of God will not be taught or preached, the word 'lack' also means it may not be preached properly as it should) and when the temples of the Christians will resemble caverns than churches, then the night of blindness will reign, and the day and the sun of cognisance will be extinguished, and amid so much darkness few will know those who can exercise virtue, and employ themselves in the worship of My faith; indeed, the knowledge of God in Christians will be so lost that those few faithful in whom the savor of My love will be preserved will be forced to separate from friends, and from relatives and from their own homes, and to retreat to remote and hidden places in order to be faithful to My service, since they will not find men who speak the truth, and approve the good, nor (will they find) religious who, by inviting to virtue, confirm the peoples in the faith. Everyone will respect human respect, and under this mantle the devil will deceive many, and he will still have some who among the nations will be believed to be spiritual, and so will open the door to murmurs, scandals, and to derisions, and My chosen will suffer strange persecutions, and who will be in doubt, and they will live perplexed by which of many sects they must bear; and I will allow these troubles to humiliate them. (i.e. to gain the virtue of humility).
But you, My little girl, groan about these future times and keep these My words silent (secret), because this is not the time to tell them; first the seed is spread in the field, and after many months it gathers; now My secrets are sown within you, and in the future I will send those who will reap the fruits of the seed; but the harvest will be hidden for many years in My barn; when the time is right I will give it out for food for My chosen ones; where there is the danger, the merit is acquired there. (i.e. merit is acquired when we courageously live the Faith despite the danger that could happen to us on earth, God will give the prophecies we need them to sustain us). Don't you know how I defend My loves? But oh, how wicked the world is! I otherwise give graces to creatures, and I present a hand full of gems, and for fear of suffering each one rejects it and despises it, (i.e. they reject penance and therefore reject His gifts and virtues choose the ways of the world so as not to suffer the Cross), but the time will come, believe Me, that I will topple hearts with My spirit, that men will admire My courtesy, (i.e. as in merciful kindness) they will live with holiness, they will always tremble at Me and My things, (i.e. live in a holy fear of Him) they will converse with the angels.
Rejoice, O My spouse, because then the infidels will turn to the faith, and there will be no one who doubts or vacillates, because the miracles that will follow for every part of the Church will clearly show how true and credible are the mysteries of My faith; (i.e sounds like the Age of Peace when the Church will be renewed) but before this time I will get rid of the evil roots, and will take from the world a great multitude of men, because this will be necessary to do, and they will long for it and will again ask for My servants. (i.e. this sounds like the chastisements revealed in other prophecies that will come to depopulate the earth. Our Lord says here mankind will beg for the evil ones to be taken away and for God to send His true servants.) There will come a time when the priests will mutually threaten each other, and they will follow each other with so much impetuosity of malice, which will seem to want to destroy My Church. (i.e. this points to a schism and division in the Catholic Church.)
Weep and pray for the chosen half, who will be in suspense and doubtful at what point they must approach, and I will allow them doubt so that they will have the merit of their travails; but in the end the storm will cease, and they will know clearly who they should join.
Then the priests, having put down the errors, left their vices and despised the (worldly) pomps, the riches and the honours, they will be satisfied with poverty and humility, and they will tremble greatly for the remembrance of the past scourges, and especially for the most bitter ones, with which I will have chastised the clergy.
Meanwhile I will not omit the remedies of My grace, and I will call everyone to health, with courtesy and then with beatings.
