This saint saw Hell and the devils who torment and tempt men to sin in various ways

             March 9 -- St. Frances of Rome

St. Frances , born in 1484, was one of the great mystics of the 15th century.  Although she desired to be a religious, her father married her off at the age of twelve to a commander of the papal troops of Rome. 

Throughout the forty years of her marriage, Frances was able to practice a life of contemplation and prayer, which prepared her for the supernatural gift of visions which give the most descriptive scenes of Hell.

She explains that one third of the angels sinned against God when the Heavenly Revolt occurred. Of these one third remain in Hell tormenting souls .  These are the devils that followed Satan and deliberately chose to revolt against God.  They never leave Hell and they are the worst of the devils. 

The other two thirds of the fallen angels travel about the air and the earth. They are the ones that did not directly revolt but remained silent during the revolt. These are the devils that agitate the forces of nature to frighten men and to weaken their will. They also try to make us doubt the Faith and encourage vice.  The faithful angels are our guardian angels and the fallen angels who inhabit the earth are the opposite. 

Lucifer is the head of all the devils and since he fell from the highest choir, the Seraphim, he is the worst devil.  Pride is his chief vice.  Directly under him are three major devils; the former head of the Cherubim representing the vice of impurity; the first among the Thrones, who represents the vice of avarice and the chief of the Dominions who represents idolatry and heresy.

Catholic doctrine teaches that man is very influenced by the angels. Today, we see that the forces of evil are tremendous and even more so when we consider the influence of the demonic choirs.

In particular, the vices of pride and sensuality are the driving forces of the majority of evil present in our world.  We should constantly remind ourselves of the presence of our guardian angel whose sole mission is to protect us from temptation and danger and pray to him. 

More importantly, we know that Our Lady is called the "Terror of Demons" and as such, she will come to us whenever we have recourse to her.

Mother of God, Terror of Demons, pray for us.