THOSE WHO DIE OUT OF LOVE FOR GOD AND FOR DIVINE LOVE
All the martyrs, Theotimus, died for the sake of divine love. For when we say many have died for the faith, we must not think that it was for a dead faith (Jas 2: 17,26). But it was for a living faith, that is to say, a faith animated by charity (Gal 5:6). Similarly, the profession of faith is not so much an act of the intellect and of faith as it is an act of the will and of the love of God. That is why the great saint, St. Peter, on the day of the passion, keeping faith in his soul, nevertheless lost charity. He did not want to acknowledge by word of his mouth his Master whom he recognized as such in his heart. However there were many martyrs who died expressly for the sake of charity alone, like the precursor of the Saviour who was martyred for fraternal correction (Mt 14:4; Mk 6:18). The glorious Princes of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, but especially St. Paul, died for converting to holiness and chastity the women whom the notorious Nero had corrupted. The saintly bishops Stanislaus and Thomas of Canterbury were killed not for reasons concerning faith but charity. Finally, a vast number of virgins and martyrs were slaughtered for the zeal they had for preserving chastity which charity had inspired them to consecrate to the heavenly Spouse.
However, there are among the sacred lovers those who surrender themselves so absolutely to the practice of divine love that this holy fire devours and consumes their life. There are people who are overcome by grief. Then for a long time grief prevents them from drinking, eating and sleeping so that finally, becoming very week and exhausted, they die. Then people say that they died of grief. It is not correct. They died of failing strength and starvation. It is true that they become victims of this failing strength due to grief. We must acknowledge that they have died not of grief but because of grief and by grief. Thus, my dear Theotimus, when the intensity of holy love is great, it makes so many onslaughts on the heart, wounds it often and causes so much fatigue. Such intensity of love usually melts the heart and leads it to frequent ecstasies and raptures. As a consequence the soul is fully occupied with God. So it cannot supply sufficient help to nature for digestion and suitable nourishment. The bodily and vital forces begin to fail little by little and death follows.
O God, Theotimus, how happy is this death! How sweet is this loving arrow which pierces us with an incurable wound of sacred love. It makes us languish for ever and sick with palpitations of the heart so quick that finally we die of them. How much do you think that these languishings and labours, endured on account of charity, hastened the death of the divine lovers like St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis [of Assisi] little Stanislaus Kostka, St. Charles [Borromeo] and many hundreds of others who died so young? Indeed, as regards St. Francis [of Assisi], after he had received the stigmata of his Master, he had very intense and painful sufferings, convulsions, wounds and sicknesses. Such were these sufferings that he became reduced to skin and bones. He appeared rather like a skeleton or a picture of death than a human being still living and breathing.