Recently our member Dolours brought this seer, Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa, to our attention because the seer was requested by Our Lord to ask the pope for the consecration of the world which did in fact happen: 'The consecration was effected by Pope Pius XII on 31 October 1942, using the very titles that had been revealed to Alexandrina: "Queen of the Universe, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, Refuge of the human race, Victress in all God's battles." Days later came the "turning point" of the war, according to Sir Winston Churchill.' In addition to being instrumental in the consecration spoken of above this seer's life was quite remarkable. Before looking further into her life it is interesting to note that prior to Servant of God Alexandrina Maria da Costa's birth in 1904, a miraculous cross appeared in her village in the year 1832 which the Lord refers to in some of His locutions to her. This cross is discussed in both the EWTN link I am providing and in the short film in the 3rd post about this Blessed. Blessed Alexandrina's journey to beatification began after she jumped out a window in order to escape three male attackers including her former employer when she was around 14 years old. She endured injuries which eventually caused paralysis and in 1924 led to her being bed-ridden until her death in 1955. For over 31 years, she never gave into despair but instead referred to her bed as "my beloved cross". Within a few years, "Without knowing how, she offered herself to God as a victim soul for the conversion of sinners." I decided to start this thread on this Blessed because her story is most convincing and imho she did not seek any attention and appears to have been full of humility; also due to the fact that her prophecies appear to be connected to the current crisis in the Church and to the prophecies of Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita and Our Lady of Garabandal imho. In addition, she specifically mentions Sodom and Gomorrah in her prophecies and I have bolded this section of the text below for emphasis along with a few other sections. It should be noted that this seer was in correspondence with Sister Lucia of Fatima and that Blessed Alexandrina died on Oct 13, 1955 the 38th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. The next passages are from the following link, https://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/ALEXDRIN.HTM: ... Alexandrina could also reproduce every word spoken to her in a vision with unerring accuracy, without altering a syllable, months afterwards. During many of her later ecstasies, while she spoke, or Jesus reputedly spoke through her mouth, Fr Pasquale would write everything down. When the ecstasy was over, he would read back to her what he had written, deliberately modifying some verb, name or adjective to put her to the test. Alexandrina would unfailingly correct him saying sweetly, "I did not say that", or "Jesus did not say that." She would then add, Write this . . ." repeating exactly what the priest had written. ... It should be emphasised here that Alexandrina revealed the intensity of her sufferings to no one but Fr Pinho and Deolinda, who became her confidante. Her mother was ignorant of much of what happened in that little room. With the same zeal, Alexandrina concealed the charisms given to her soul by a fine sense of humility and by the fear that she would be disbelieved. From the day she offered herself as a victim soul, she repeated the following prayer continually: "O Jesus, place on my lips a deceiving smile in which I can hide all the martyrdom of my soul. It is enough that only you know of my endurance." ... One day Fr Pinho celebrated Mass in the little room with the intention that God would release Alexandrina from the diabolical attacks. He said nothing to the seer about his prayer but immediately Mass was over she told him that God could not grant what he had asked for. "And what did I ask from Our Lord?" the priest enquired. "That he would free me from these attacks of the devil," she replied. Astonished, Fr Pinho responded, "And would you not wish to have this grace and receive other sufferings in their place?" The sick woman shook her head. "No, father. Pray rather that I do the Will of God in everything." ... The sublime vision of Our Lord which Alexandrina had reputedly seen on 6 September 1934 marked the beginning of a series of revelations in which Jesus reportedly instructed the seer step by step in the sorrows of his life and Passion. She had repeated revelations on the eternal loss of many souls and the crimes of peoples and nations blinded by sin. To a world plunging down the broad road to perdition, Our Lord seemed to be crying out in anguish: "Implore pardon . . . do what you preach! I am very much offended.... What dreadful criminals populate Hell! I warned Sodom and Gomorrah, but it had no effect. Unhappy ones . . . the same punishment will be meted out to you." ... Each ecstasy of the Passion (she had some 180 of them) was preceded by many hours of increasing dread which became overwhelming as midday Friday approached. The fear was often accompanied by an immense sadness, nausea, and a sensation of terrifying isolation. [emphasis added] ... Shortly after midday on 3 October 1938, Our Lord invited her to undergo his Passion. ''See, my daughter, Calvary is ready. Do you accept?" Alexandrina bravely consented. Awed witnesses held their breath as she entered into ecstasy and recovering the use of her paralysed limbs, almost levitated from the bed and underwent the agonising motions of Gethsemane to Calvary. The Passion ecstasies were filmed and the pictures form an important part of the deposition of her cause for beatification in Rome. ... With the onset of the second Passion ecstasy, Fr Pinho felt it prudent to keep the mysterious trances secret. For three years only a select number of people were aware of them. In 1941 however, a visiting missionary (Fr Terca, of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit) witnessed one of them and wrote an account of it in a popular Portuguese magazine. The publication caused Alexandrina much suffering as it made her a focus of attention. ... Her doctor, Dr Azevedo, was most attentive. He took notes of everything that happened during the ecstasies. Other doctors sent by the ecclesiastical authorities to discover if there was any fraud or the existence of natural forces, examined the seer many times and violently goaded her while she was suffering in ecstasy. There was never once the slightest reaction from her. The unanimous verdict of the priests and doctors was that the phenomenon was inexplicable. ... Thus ends the eyewitness account of one of these historically unprecedented ecstasies. Those privileged to witness them were overwhelmed with emotion, feeling themselves at the very gates of Jerusalem and seeing the Passion of Jesus. The contusions caused by Alexandrina's falls and the purple bruises visible on many parts of her body disappeared in a short time. It is significant that, out of humility, Alexandrina prayed to Our Lord not to give her the stigmata or any other visible signs of her mysterious sufferings. During the early months of 1942, her little room was besieged daily by crowds of pilgrims. Though her suffering between each Passion ecstasy was severe and continuous, she never tired urging frequent Communion and the devout daily recitation of the rosary as the cure for the world's ills. Penance was her constant refrain, and she repeatedly advocated consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary through the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel whose picture hung above her bed. To her left hung another picture of little Jacinta Marto, the youngest of the three children who saw Our Lady at Fatima in 1917. Frequently she would draw attention to this picture and urge that Jacinta's heroic example of sacrifice be imitated. As for sin, Alexandrina would plead in a heartbreaking voice for its permanent renouncement, cost what it might. in prayer and mortification. To offend God, she stressed to the pilgrims, was the supreme evil in life and the most resolute personal efforts must be made towards its total elimination. "O sinners," she would weep, "I am enduring a life of terrible suffering on your behalf. Convert yourselves! Sin no more! Sin no more!" Great numbers responded, as indicated by the long queues at the confessional in the village church. "Your house", Our Lord told her, "has become the Calvary of sinners." ... And so it was on Good Friday 1942 that Alexandrina began an absolute fast which was to last more than thirteen years until her death, her sole nourishment being Holy Communion which she received with moving devotion every morning. [emphasis added] ... As the months passed, news of Alexandrina's fast spread far and wide. Crowds of pilgrims again besieged her sickroom, imploring her prayers and favours. Their endless importunity seemed to heighten her ferocious suffering, but panting on her bed of pain she promised to remember everyone in her prayers. Of this period she wrote later: <Day by day, moment by moment, my life became more and more painful. On the one hand, obedience obliges me to live hidden and to receive people in such a way as to be soon forgotten. O my God, if I had my will that is how I would live But what deceit! The more I want to be hidden, the more they make me known. Visitors arrive from everywhere—what torment for me.> ... cont...
cont'd from above... "On the appointed day, the doctor in attendance came to our house with Dr Enrico Gomes di Araujo and Dr Carlo Lima. Fortunately I was calm and serene; God had heard my prayer. One of the doctors asked me if I suffered much and for whom I offered my sufferings. He also asked whether I suffered willingly and if I would be happy if God released me from my sorrows. I replied that, in truth, I suffered much and that I offered everything for the love of God and for the conversion of sinners. " They then asked me what was my greatest aspiration and I answered, 'It is Heaven.' They then enquired if I wanted to be a saint like St Teresa or St Clare and to arrive in Heaven leaving behind a name famous throughout the world. 'I am not in the least interested in that', I replied. They then asked, 'If it were necessary to lose your soul to save sinners, what would you do?' I answered, 'I trust that I would also be saved, but if I had to lose my soul I would say no, because God would never ask such a thing.' "'Why do you not eat?' they then asked. And I replied, 'I do not eat because I cannot. I feel full. I do not need it. However, I have a longing for food.' ... "On 19 July 1943, the eve of my discharge, all the children of the hospital passed around my bed and I prayed with them. Later more than 1,500 people came and the authorities had to call the police to maintain order. One policeman limited himself to standing by my bed and saying continually to the crowd who pressed around, 'Pass along, pass along.' The doctor had to literally implore the crowd that pressed round the entrance to the hospital and in my room to move back so that I would not be suffocated. I remained humiliated, exhausted and full of self-contempt for the tears of the visitors and for the many kisses I received which I did not merit and did not want. ... So ends Alexandrina's account of the medical investigation of her fast. The official report issued by Dr Araujo confirmed the prodigy as scientifically inexplicable". The key sentence stated: "It is absolutely certain that during forty days of being bedridden in hospital, the sick woman did not eat or drink . . . and we believe such phenomenon could have happened during the past months, perhaps the past 13 months . . . leaving us perplexed." The report is signed Dr Gomez de Araujo of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Madrid, specialist in nervous diseases and arthritis. In addition to the formal medical report, there was a certificate signed by Drs Lima and Azevedo. It read as follows: <We the undersigned, Dr C. A. di Lima, Professor of the Faculty of Medicine of Oporto and Dr E. A. D. de Azevedo, doctor graduate of the same Faculty, testify that, having examined Alexandrina Maria da Costa, aged 39, born and resident at Balasar, of the district of Povoa de Varzim ... have confirmed her paralysis.... And we also testify that the bedridden woman, from 10 June to 20 July 1943 remained in the sector for infantile paralysis at the Hospital of Foce del Duro, under the direction of Dr Araujo and under the day and night surveillance by impartial persons desirous of discovering the truth of her fast. Her abstinence from solids and liquids was absolute during all that time. We testify also that she retained her weight, and her temperature, breathing, blood pressure, pulse and blood were normal while her mental faculties were constant and lucid and she had not, during these forty days, any natural necessities.> The certificate continues: <The examination of the blood, made three weeks after her arrival in the hospital, is attached to this certificate and from it one sees how, considering the aforesaid abstinence from solids and liquids, science naturally has no explanation. The laws of physiology and biochemistry cannot account for the survival of this sick woman for forty days of absolute fast in the hospital, more so in that she replied daily to many interrogations and sustained very many conversations, showing an excellent disposition and a perfect lucidity of spirit. As for the phenomena observed every Friday at about 3 p.m. (i.e. her ecstasies), we believe they belong to the mystical order.... For the sake of the truth, we have prepared this certificate which we sign. Oporto, 26 July 1943.> A distinguished professor who carefully examined the medical reports and other details of the examinations made on Alexandrina testified: <In returning to my friend and client (i.e. Fr Pinho) the copies of the reports concerning the singular case of Alexandrina Maria da Costa, I desire to thank him for the opportunity he has offered me of studying in minute detail this strange case.... It was above all as a doctor, specialist in nutrition, and not only as a Catholic, that I found that which had happened to the sick woman so interesting. I also attach great importance to his testimony (i.e. Fr Pinho's report on Alexandrina submitted some years earlier to the Archbishop of Braga), because an enlightened confessor and spiritual director is, perhaps, more competent than anyone else to determine if his subject is mentally normal or abnormal. In my opinion, it is not possible to explain by purely scientific means, or better still, by medical means, that which has happened to Alexandrina da Costa. Nothing makes us believe, according to what one reads in the detailed reports of the doctors and the confessor, that it is simply a matter of hysteria, particularly in view of the long time in which the sick woman has passed, and is still passing, without taking the slightest nourishment. On the other hand, I am certain that it is not a matter of deception because the impartial commission which observed her for forty days and forty nights with rigorous vigilance, could verify that her abstinence from nourishment was total.> He adds, <Now this abstinence from all food during such a long period of time is incompatible with life, and much less with the maintenance of normal temperature. respiration pulse, blood pressure, etc.... Her intellectual life is intense, her relationships are perfect, her faculties and senses are retained in an absolute manner.... This extraordinary case, rather I would say exceptional case, can in no way be explained by purely natural means, or through scientific data. The inflammation of the spinal cord, which is most probably the cause of the paralysis, has nothing to do with her abstinence from food, being merely a parallel illness.> This report was signed by Professor Ruj. Joao Marques, professor of medical science, Pernambuco; qualified university lecturer of the faculty of medicine, Recife; professor of the branch of nutrition of the School of Social Service, Pernambuco; president of the Society of Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Pernambuco. So much for the verdict of medical science. But Alexandrina had a succinct explanation. She confided to her confessor that Our Lord had told her, "You are living by the Eucharist alone because I want to prove to the world the power of the Eucharist and the power of my life in souls." [emphasis added] ... Alexandrina's joy at returning home was unfortunately short-lived. A letter arrived from Fr Pinho explaining with deep regret that his heavy commitments in other parts of the country made it virtually impossible for him to continue as her spiritual director. The shock was severe, but worse was to follow. Her physical condition sharply deteriorated again, and by the end of 1943 her pain had once more reached an intolerable degree. Groaning in agony and sorely stricken over the loss of her spiritual director, she gasped to Deolinda that this was surely the end. After receiving the last sacraments, she passed through a second mystical death—a protracted spasm of blinding pain which manifested a kind of breakdown and incineration of her body. The sight of such unspeakable suffering brought tears of compassion to the eyes of endless files of pilgrims who came to implore a share in her unceasing prayers. Among them was her former employer who broke down at the sight of her pitiful condition. "She is a saint", he wept. "And to think she is crucified on that bed of pain through my fault." Her repeated ecstasies seemed to intensify with her appalling suffering. In her autobiography she wrote of experiencing the indescribable torments of hell and purgatory. Her long description of the former echoes the terrifying vision of hell seen by the three Fatima children on 13 July 1917 and recorded by Sister Lucia. Of purgatory Alexandrina wrote: <On the Feast of Christ the King 1943, I felt that my body had died and that my existence on earth had ended completely. Words fail to express the sorrow I felt at that moment. What sufferings, my God, what sufferings were these! I was feeling flames passing through me. I seemed to feel their terrible heat due to the great thirst I was suffering. But I was mistaken. Those flames continue still. They were not flames of this world. They had a brightness that was enchanting. They were passing through me for hours together, torturing my senses. They were rising to great heights . . . causing me indescribable pain, but in spite of that, I was compelled to plunge into them in order to purify myself by them.> These agonies were intensified by her continuous interior suffering of the Passion of Our Lord which had begun on Good Friday 1942 and which was to persist until her death. The pain she experienced was even more acute than in the earlier Passion ecstasies, but she never left her bed. Occasionally, her dreadful torments were punctuated by shafts of ecstatic relief. On 5 August 1944 for instance, she wrote of Our Lord entering and taking possession of her tortured body, allowing her soul to escape from its fiery prison of pain to spend a day of ineffable joy in heaven. But the radiance soon faded and she returned to find herself once again locked in a furnace of agony. cont...
cont'd from above... ... Meanwhile her profound ecstasies continued. As many of these startling raptures are under investigation in Rome in connection with her cause for beatification, final judgment on them must be reserved. Like a few of the greatest mystical saints, she underwent a mystical marriage with Jesus [8 December 1944] and was crowned a queen by Our Lady. [First Saturday of December 1944] The following year her heart was exchanged with Our Lord's Sacred Heart as happened to St Margaret Mary. [11 May 1945] She heard him pronounce her "blessed of my Father", and received the ineffable privilege of contemplating the Most Holy Trinity. [13 August 1945] Soon after, a wondrous ecstasy manifested her transformation into Christ. [1 September 1945] Aglow with a seraphic love of Jesus and his mother, she underwent sublime raptures of the Resurrection and Ascension into heaven [4-16 January 1946] and was pierced by darts of unspeakable love from a flight of angels. Early in the 1950s, Alexandrina was grievously wounded by a mystical stigmata of love, as happened to St Catherine of Siena. To awed witnesses crowding her little room, she seemed to be literally transfigured in a divine glow. In a blaze of agony and adoring love, she panted forth the rapture of her life mission in ecstatic tones: "Would that I could set the whole world on fire with the love of Jesus and Mary ! " And Our Lord reputedly told her: <If you knew how much I love you, you would die of joy. I have established my home in your soul. I live in you as if you alone exist in the world and I had only you to bless. You are a tabernacle constructed by divine hands. I want you in my arms with the same simplicity of a baby in those of its mother. Give me your heart to place in mine in order that you will have no other love but for me and for the things that are mine. In your body is Christ; Christ in your glances and in your smiles. You are the valley and I the water which flows in it, which washes and purifies. You are rich in me. It is because of this that your glances attract. It is because of this that your smile has the fineness of Heaven. I want you to preach devotion to the tabernacles. I want you to kindle in souls devotion to this Prisoner of Love. I do not stay in this world only for love of those who love me, but for everyone. Even those engaged in work can console me.> ... During this period, she corresponded regularly with Sister Lucia, the last survivor of the three Fatima children, and Fr Pasquale became confidant to some of the mysteries of the world beyond the grave. ... Fr Pasquale understood then. The incredibly beautiful fragrance could not possibly be of this world. It was like a breath of paradise. The strange phenomenon persisted for years. Hundreds of people noticed it, even at a distance of 150 km. in the Salesian House of Fr Pasquale. Often the church and courtyard were filled with the same delectable odour causing much comment among the students. The priests pretended to ignore it, but were finally compelled to draw up a signed deposition testifying to the reality of the fragrance. Unaware of all this, Alexandrina then had an ecstasy in which Our Lord reportedly told her: <Tell your director that he was chosen by me to come here to study, support and defend my divine work. Tell him that the perfume is a divine aroma; it is the perfume of your virtue. I am disclosing this because he has need of it for the report which he is making of your case.> [emphasis added] A priest who visited Alexandrina at this time came away with an extraordinary story. As he blessed her, he suddenly saw before him the sorrowful face of Jesus in place of the sick woman. He testified afterwards, "It was not an illusory impression—it was a vision which lasted some minutes." He felt that he had been struck by lightning and went away weeping bitterly for his sins. Stories like these predictably increased the already large crowds flooding into Balasar and besieging Alexandrina's humble home. Despite her deep-rooted desire for a life of seclusion and private prayer, she accepted the clear call of God and devoted all her scant energy to succouring the spiritual needs of the pilgrims. "Sinners and Alexandrina were inseparable ends of a heavenly mission", Fr Pasquale observed. "She exerted a sweet and mysterious force that subdued them all." Unable to think or speak of sin without feeling a sense of disintegration, she strove to reform the innumerable sinners who crowded her little room. She felt an inexpressible compassion for them. "When they tell me of their wretchedness," she wrote, "I feel I want to embrace them." She recalled that Jesus himself was the inseparable friend of sinners. Her gaze was so full of pity that many would break down and weep at her mere glance. Those intending to visit her would first go to confession, knowing that they would otherwise be unable to bear her penetrating look. It was not a gaze to frighten the guilty, but to move them to tears of grief for their sins and to awaken in them a powerful resolve to amend their lives, to confess and return to God. "This must surely be the look of Jesus", was the verdict of many. [emphasis added] The prize coveted by most pilgrims was a private talk with the seer. She did her utmost to satisfy as many as she could, listening patiently, counselling, speaking soberly to one individual after another, hour upon hour without a break, always calm and serene and with a glowing smile overlaying the cruel pain striking beneath. By June 1953 she was receiving as many as 6,000 people in a single day, and speaking for ten hours at a time on the message of Fatima. "Make reparation to Our Lord in the Adorable Eucharist ! Penitence ! Penitence ! Penitence ! Pray the Rosary devoutly every day. Practice the First Saturday devotion. [This devotion was requested by Our Lady at Fatima in 1925 and consists of confession, Communion, rosary and 15 minutes rosary meditation for 3 consecutive Saturdays, with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.] Consecrate yourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary through the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel." Asked if she felt tired at the end of the day she murmured, "I could receive as many again." She confessed that she had the feeling of being like a fisherman with many nets to throw to souls. [emphasis added] "Sin no more! Sin no more!" The anguish of that stricken cry, echoing in that small dim-lit room, moved even hardened men to tears. Through her, Our Lord promised that "many souls" would become ardently Eucharistic. He added: <You live in my public life. Never have I been far from you since the day of your Baptism. Thousands have been saved by your terrible sufferings. If anyone should invoke your name when you are in Heaven, they will never do so in vain. I appoint you a protectress of mankind. You will be powerful with the All-Powerful. After your death, I will make your name widely known; I shall see to it myself. Many sinners will come to your tomb and be converted. Find souls who will love me in my Sacrament of Love to take your place when you go to Heaven. Invite the world to prayer and penitence that it will be set afire with love for me.> [emphasis added] During this arduous, rapturous period, her ecstasies gravitated more towards the state of the Church and the world. She received a piercing gift of prophecy and foretold many events which subsequently happened. "Vanity and extravagance in the world must cease", Our Lord told her. "Let those exhibiting their bodies clothe themselves. Let modesty reign. Penance! Prayer! Much prayer is needed!" Frequently while in ecstasy, Alexandrina was heard lamenting and praying aloud for the Church which she saw in danger of a "great crisis" and threatened by a "wild beast". She was heard quoting our Lord as follows: "Tell my ministers to be vigilant, for the devil is preparing a massive assault on the Church. But pray and trust; victory will be mine." [emphasis added] In the late 1940s, Alexandrina lost her spiritual director, Fr Pasquale, who had been called away on other work. But whenever there was no priest to bring her Communion, our Lord himself reputedly brought her the Sacred Host. On Christmas Day 1953, she had her last public ecstasy—an ineffable vision of the Most Holy Trinity. Sixteen months later on 9 April 1955. she competed the thirteenth year of her perfect fast. The living miracle of Alexandrina stood as a challenge to this sceptical, self-sufficient age of nuclear energy and computers. ... As she had foretold earlier her body was not preserved but had turned to ashes without decomposing—an extraordinary prodigy which has apparently hastened her cause for beatification. The ashes themselves have exuded a celestial fragrance on the several occasions when the vault has been opened. [emphasis added] ... Years earlier, in 1948, Alexandrina had dictated her epitaph, a last imploring heart-cry to this permissive age. The words have been engraved on a white marble slab covering her tomb, and they echo the final plea of Our Lady of Fatima on 13 October 1917: "Do not offend God any more, for he is already too greatly offended." ... The following is an audio of the entire text included in the EWTN link above and is also followed by a "small biography" at the 2:39:00 minute mark. Although, the audio appears to have been done by a computer and contains some small errors I thought that some members may find it useful, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...DFEF9A9CAA7431F17D8CDFEF9A9CAA74&&FORM=VRDGAR . In addition, here is a short film about Blessed Alexandrina da Costa: View attachment 8953
There is so much to learn from this post. Blessed Alexandrina was an extraordinary saint, and I will be rereading it. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Carol. I had forgotten about this hidden soul. Now I have to hunt for her biography that I have somewhere amongst my holy books!
"I desire that, after your death, your life may be known, and that will be done; I shall see to it. It will reach the ends of the earth." Jesus to Alexandrina. 22nd Nov. 1937. On the morning of her death Alexandrina said to a group of visitors, “Until heaven, goodbye. Do not sin. This world is nothing. Receive communion often. Pray the Rosary daily. That sums up everything.” From the book Alexandrina da Costa: The Mystical Martyr Of Fatima by Leo Madigan Blessed Alexandrina, Pray For Us
Dear Carol, Thanking you in advance of reading through all of your post here. I have read some on her over the years, but now I am motivated to know more because you have taken the time to reintroduce her to me! ~AN
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections...ar-town-of-blessed-alexandrina-maria-da-costa Link to an article from April 2020. A Eucharistic sanctuary is proposed to be built in Balasar, the Portuguese town where Blessed Alexandrina lived and died. "In the year in which the blessed died, 1955, on the day of the 38th anniversary of the first apparition of Fatima, on May 13, Jesus appearing to Alexandrina promised her: “After your death, your tomb, your burial, will speak intimately to thousands, to thousands of sinners. Souls will come to you, and through you, as now, they will continue to be enriched."
The beatifcation of Carlo Acutis, whose love of the Eucharist led him to create a website documenting Eucharistic miracles around the world, brought Blessed Alexandrina to mind. For the last thirteen years of her life she was a living Eucharistic miracle, as she ate and drank nothing and was sustained and nourished by the Eucharist alone.
https://www.miraclesofthesaints.com/2010/10/miracle-of-eucharist-total-fast-from.html?m=1 "There we have the certification and the verdict of medical science. But Alexandrina had a more enlightened explanation. She confided to her confessor that Our Lord had told her, "You are living by the Eucharist alone because I want to prove to the world the power of the Eucharist and the power of my life in souls."
Thank you Carol. I really enjoyed Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa's powerful story. That beautiful smile of hers was truly a blessing from Our Lord.
The supreme gift of God's Humility: Holy Eucharist! 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. Lord Jesus, fill our hearts with awe; let us humbly and with loving attentiveness receive Your precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, Your Very Self. Let us never lose sight of so precious a Gift! Many every one of our receptions be received worthily!
I thought Father Andrew Apostoli even seemed to indicate Balasar was not far from Fatima but he did not go into this point. He does refer to Alexandrina. He wrote an extensive book on Fatima, I have read excerpts. I did not know this was a special area of his until not too long ago. Yes, Alexandrina was very special and one to take note of. I had heard of her life but not so much her name previously.
I just learned a little about Alexandrina a few days ago in a book about Marian apparitions I'm reading, so this is a timely post for me. I'm very interested in her and will search for her biography. I'm curious if more is written about her prophecies online somewhere?
An article which says it was Alexandrina who, through her spiritual director, convinced Pope Pius XII to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1942. https://aleteia.org/2022/04/13/the-...ope-pius-xii-to-consecrate-the-world-to-mary/
I never realized until fairly recently that she ended upbedridde. As a result of an attempted rape which she got away from by jumping through an upstairs window. It reminds me of St Maria Goretti.
