At once all eyes turned to a woman named Curtolana. Pale as death, she was pointing a trembling finger at something creeping in the aisle. They all looked, and what a loathsome sight met their eyes! It was an animal, shaped like a huge black cat. But it was no cat! And as it moved stealthily forward, sniffing and growling, its glittering eyes rolled from side to side as though in search of a victim.
Fear seized every heart. What manner of creature was this? Where had it come from? What was it going to do?
Suddenly Dominic's face grew stern and he raised his hand threateningly. "Begone, Satan!" he ordered. "In the Name of the one true God!"
With a snarl of rage, it leaped and clung for an instant to a bellrope that was hanging near the wall, and vanished into the ceiling in a cloud of evil-smelling smoke.
"It was the devil in one of his evil forms," Dominic said. Then he began to speak again of God, of His Church, of the dreadful heresy of the Albigenses which was designed to tear this Church apart even as the dreadful beast had wanted to rend their human bodies.
Read about the great miracles of God in the life of St. Dominic and the incredible story of how we received the Most Holy Rosary with its wonderful power to destroy heresy!
