A story for every day...
One must never leave the sign of one’s belonging to Mary.
A young man from Perugia promised the devil his soul on condition that he would help him in a bad deed he wanted to commit; he even wrote down this commitment and signed it with his blood. After he had committed this sin, the demon, wanting him to fulfill his promise, took him to a well and threatened him, if he did not throw himself in, to drag him body and soul into hell. The unfortunate young man, believing he could not escape, climbed up the well; but held back by the horror of death, he told his enemy that he did not have the courage to rush in, and that if he demanded that he die, he would have to push him to make him fall. The young man was wearing a scapular of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows. “Take off your scapular,” said the demon to him, “and I will push you.” At these words, the poor sinner, understanding that he owed it to his scapular to be still under the protection of the Mother of God, refused to take it off; and after long debates, the demon having withdrawn confused, he went to testify his gratitude to his Benefactress, did penance for his faults, and wished to consecrate the memory of his deliverance in a picture which he had placed at the altar of the Blessed Virgin in the church of St. Mary the New in Perugia.
(Saint Alphonsus Liguori)
