♔ HOLY DEATH IN A WICKED HOUSE ♔ A Prostitute's Prayers to St. Joseph are Answered

During the night of January 2, 1885, and old man presented himself to a priest asking him to come to the bedside of a dying woman and indicating the address to which he wanted to take him.

The street that the old man pointed out was one of ill repute. The old man himself was a total stranger, and night was falling. The priest feared that it might be a trap, so he hesitated; but the old man urged him on.

“We cannot delay; it involves giving the Last Rites to a poor old woman at the point of death.”

Faced with such a sacred duty, the priest no longer hesitated and followed the messenger. The night was bitterly cold, but the old man did not seem to notice. He went ahead and said to the priest:

“I will wait for you at the door.”

The door in front of which they stopped belonged to one of the most notorious houses of the area, and the priest, who was carrying the Blessed Sacrament, had another moment of apprehension. But remembering that Our Lord came to save sinners, on the instruction of his guide, he pulled hard on the bell. There was no reply.

He knocked several times, but there was still no response.

The old man was standing back at a distance, and the priest finally said to him:

“As you can see, this is hopeless. No one is coming to let us in…”

“Let me knock,” replied the mysterious person, stepping forward as the priest drew back. “As soon as the door is opened, go in quickly. Go up the stairs and open the door of the bedroom at the end of the hall; there you will find the dying woman.”

These strange words were spoken with such authority that the priest made no objection. The old man knocked on the door in a peculiar way, and it opened immediately. This time the priest did not hesitate; he entered, climbed the stairs, opened the door that had been indicated, and found a woman stretched out on a bed of pain, who, between her cries of agony, constantly repeated:

“A priest! A priest! They are going to let me die without a priest.”

The minister of God approached her:

“My daughter, a priest is here.”

But she did not believe him.

“No,” she cried out. “No one in this house would care to fetch a priest.”

“My daughter, an old man brought me to you.”

“I don’t know any old man.” replied the dying woman.

Nevertheless, the priest managed, little by little, to convince her that he was indeed the minister of God for whom she had been calling, and he offered her the sacraments.

She confessed to a long life of sin which had been weighing heavily on her conscience. She showed such lively contrition that the priest, astonished at meeting such faith in a person so completely separated from God, asked her if she had not kept up some devotional practice.

“None,” she said, “except a prayer that I used to recite each day to St. Joseph, to obtain a happy death.”

The priest prepared everything for the Last Rites and, during this time, several people entered the bedroom, then left without appearing to notice him.

He gave the repentant sinner Holy Communion as well as Extreme Unction and left her only when, very peacefully, she gave up her purified soul into the hands of Jesus Christ.

The priest was alone and did not meet anyone as he left the house and returned home.

While thinking about the events of that night and of his consoling mission, he became firmly convinced that the charitable old man was none other than the glorious and merciful St. Joseph, in disguise, patron saint of a happy death.

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♔ PRAYER FOR A HAPPY DEATH ♔

O Blessed Joseph, who didst yield thy last breath in the fond embrace of Jesus and Mary, when the seal of death shall close my career in life, come, holy Father, with Jesus and Mary, to aid me, and obtain for me this only solace which I ask for in that hour, to die encircled by their holy arms. Into your sacred hands, living and dying, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I commend my soul. Amen.