Listening to St Michael...

In the Haute- Loire Department (France) a family man, called Sauzet, was sentenced to death for arson. On learning of his condemnation, this individual who so far had shown little in the way of religious feelings, suddenly changed; his soul was consumed with feelings of remorse, his heart was filled with God’s love and his final moments were those of another Good Thief! “My God, my God, he kept repeating, I am too happy!” For me, this is an easy death, seeing that I deserve to be put to pieces for my many sins. Filled with such feelings and while speaking with the chaplain he would add “Father, I am going to jump into heaven! Soon I shall see my God face to face!”
On arriving on the scaffold he paced up and down for a few minutes; then the chaplain said to him: “My friend, warm yourself up; you are cold.” “No, Father, I am not cold, placing his hand on his heart.
The evening before the Father Superior had read the account of this death and had suggested to the religious at Igon to meditate on the good sentiments of the prisoner.
He was full of admiration for him and added that these sentiments bore all the hall marks of real holiness. The prisoner was full of joy and his trust in God was boundless. Yet his trust in God’s mercy was soothed by a gentle fear and awareness of his own unworthiness.
(From the Cachica Notebook nr 8)