Observations placeholder
Blessed Maria degli Angeli – An incomparable fragrance made itself manifest in the place where she lived or through which she passed
Identifier
024265
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Friar Herbert Thurston was a Catholic priest, a member of the Jesuit order and an historian. He wrote extensively on Catholic mysticism and psychic phenomena and was a member of the Society for Psychical Research. He was also widely read on this subject. He is described as ‘an honest skeptic’., and once said ‘the role of Devil’s advocate is a thankless one and does not make for popularity’.
A description of the experience
Friar Herbert Thurston - The Physical Phenomenon of Mysticism
Blessed Maria degli Angeli died at Turin in 1717. She was a lady of noble family, who became a Carmelite at the age of fifteen. The convent was especially dear to the royal house of Piedmont, and one of the Princesses of that family, in the process of beatification, made a deposition under oath to the following effect:
As a proof of the holiness of this servant of God I would appeal to the incomparable fragrance which made itself manifest in the place where she lived or through which she passed. The sweetness of this perfume resembled nothing earthly. The more one breathed it the more delicious it became. It was specially perceptible on the feasts of our Lady, of St. Joseph, of St. Teresa, during solemn novenas and at the holy seasons of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. The ladies of my suite were conscious of it as well as myself, and what astonished me more than all else was the fact that after the death of the servant of God I noticed and still continue to notice this perfume in the cell she occupied, although every object which it formerly contained has been taken out of it.
The source of the experience
Other religious personConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Communication with bodied soulsCommunication with disembodied souls
Olfactory hallucinations