Franek … started screaming that he could see the devil, and that demons were pulling him towards the gates of hell, tormenting him with various instruments of torture. At the same time, his soul was being burned by the crimes he had committed. He now confessed to these crimes, desperately calling out for a priest, all the while holding on to the nurses, as if to shield himself from the attacks of evil spirits.
I was working in a hospital in Lviv (Ukraine), during the Second World War, when I met Franek N. He was a hardened criminal, whose crimes were revealed when he was nearing death. Before the war, he was working as a driver for a hospital for the terminally ill. When war broke out, he left his job and joined a band of thieves. The fact that he was converted can only be due to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. For six years, Sr. Zamysłowska of the Sisters of Charity prayed the rosary every day for his conversion. She was the head of the hospital in which Franek worked, but which he had later deserted, much to her distress.
The Conversion of Franek
I asked Franek to let me go so I could go look for a priest, but he said, “I can’t! They’ll come and get me!” I gave him a rosary and said, “Hold this. It will protect you from the demons. Let me go.” I left the room, desperate, and suddenly, a miracle! At that moment it happened that a Carmelite father was coming down the corridor, bringing dinner for a sick brother of the order. I asked him to come and see Franek. He entered the room to give absolution to the dying patient. I helped him with the stole and the holy oil.
When the priest entered the room, the demons and the gates of hell disappeared. Franek’s body relaxed and he was able to straighten out his legs. He began to confess to the priest a long list of crimes, sins, and acts of sacrilege, all of which the other patients in the room had already heard before. The priest listened to him, all the while asking him to speak more quietly, but Franek firmly said, “I will not be quiet! Before God’s judgement the whole world must know of the crimes I committed!” And he continued spilling out all of the sins that had been tormenting him. When he had finished and received absolution, he became calm, and he reached out his arms as if to embrace some good friend and he called out, “Thank You, Mary! You saved me!” After which he folded his arms on his chest and passed away.
A Six-Hour Confession
Together with another sister, we then took care of the body of the deceased, and disinfected the bed and the floor to prevent further infection. We also washed, changed, and went on to do our other chores.
Sr. Cecylia went to room 10, and I went to room 5, where Franek used to be, along with eight other seriously ill men. To my surprise, the patients were not on their beds, but rather under the beds, covered with pillows and blankets. Even the patient who was in a traction with a fractured knee and a seriously wounded thigh was under the bed, having broken free of the steel wires that secured his leg. When I saw his face, he had changed beyond recognition: wild-eyed 6and white-haired from terror. He held the pillow over his head and was screaming for a priest to come p0immediately. Everyone else cried for a priest as well.
I sent a nurse to post a sign at the front gate of the building that the presence of a priest was needed immediately. The other nurses helped me to bring the patients back to their beds. Everyone called for a priest like drowning men who were desperate for a lifeline. The chaplain, Fr. Woroniecki, came at 5: 15 in the afternoon. I stood guard in the hall to make sure that no one would go in, not even for supper or for the doctor’s visit. At 11.15 pm, the priest finally came out, pale and covered in sweat. He asked what had earlier happened with the patients, and then he suddenly fainted. Two Russian nurses saw this and came running to help me save him. We laid him on a hospital bed until he finally came round. Two porters brought him back to the presbytery.
In the room all the patients were crying. They did not even think of food. They asked me to help them fulfil their penance and to give thanks together with them that they were given the chance to go to confession before the demons could drag them down to hell. I spent the whole night with them praying and preparing them for Holy Communion.
In the morning, when they saw the priest enter the room with Jesus Christ, they wept like children. Their tears must have pleased Our Savior, whose mercy has brought so much victory. The men did not want breakfast but wept and gave thanks for the blessings of the previous day. I did all that I could do for them and then I went on to prepare the entire ward for the doctors’ visit at 8 am.
The Doctors’ Visit
When the doctors entered room 5, the head physician looked over the room and frowned. The other doctors also did the same. After some moments of uncomfortable silence, the head physician turned to me and said sternly, “Sr. Anna, I have repeatedly asked you to let me know ahead of time when you are to make changes in the ward.” I said, “I don’t understand what you mean, doctor.” He replied accusingly, “You changed the patients in this room without informing anyone!” I told him, “But doctor, these are the same patients as yesterday. Nothing has changed!” He said, “I don’t recognize even a single one of the patients!” The assistant physician, Dr. Liebhart, whispered in my ear, “Please don’t insult the professor, Sr. Anna. We can see these are not the same patients as yesterday. Anyway, how did you get these eight patients in without the doctors’ knowledge?” I had to show them the patients’ charts, records, diagnoses, as well as the steel rods that one of the patients removed from the traction before they could be convinced that I was telling the truth.
The professor asked how the patients had changed so radically, with their hair turning white overnight? I recounted to them what happened the previous day, the hellish scenes that occurred before and after Franek’s death. What they saw and felt terrified the patients, but it also led to their conversion, which is why they might have appeared so different. The doctors did their rounds in silence, and afterwards, in the corridor, they asked me to describe the events in greater detail. I recalled the main points of what happened: that Franek was dying and screaming in fear, calling out for a priest; that a priest had miraculously appeared; that as soon as he had confessed, he died. The head physician, Dr. Karawanow, said, “This is another proof that God exists, and that man has an immortal soul.”
After the doctors’ visit, three doctors came to me: two Poles and one Ukrainian. They asked for prayer books and also to get someone to stand in for their shifts the following morning. They explained that they might be late the next day as they wanted to go for confession and to receive Holy Communion, which they had not done since high school. When they came in to work the next day, they were pensive and changed, just like the patients in room 5. They received rosaries and Miraculous Medals with joy.
What Did They See?
Later in the afternoon I had some time to talk with the patients in room 5 about their experience. They all admitted that there were good reasons why they would go to hell. It was a miracle that they were not dragged there by the demons. They said that they had not gone to confession for many years. One of them had not gone for forty years.
The oldest patient, whose legs were lost from a grenade explosion, wept with joy that he had escaped hell that day, saying that he certainly would have deserved it. After receiving Holy Communion, he started praying for a quick death so that he would no longer offend God and always have Him in his heart. The old man’s prayer was pleasing to the Lord God and his wish was granted – that same evening he passed on to eternal life, painless and in peace. Upon learning of the old man’s death, the other patients cried that they also wanted to die that day. They calmed down, retracting their pleas when they were reminded of their duty to do penance and to amend their evil lives.
I asked them what Satan looked liked. They covered their faces with their hands as if in fear of seeing the image again. One of them, an engineer, said that it was impossible to describe him. Satan is more intelligent than all the scientists on earth put together, and his appearance is so terrifying that it is better to bear all the earthly tortures than to fall under his power. The images of Satan in art are silly jokes when compared to the real thing.
It is worth noting the circumstances of Franek’s final confession. The confession was heard by a Carmelite monk who was newly ordained, and had come to Lviv for his studies. He was sent to the hospital to bring his Carmelite brother’s lunch at noon, but he was delayed and did not arrive until around 3 p.m. This was providential because he arrived at the exact time that Franek had called out for a priest. Evidently, his steps were directed by the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
Sr. Anna Grzybowska Noted by Sr. M. Dorota Trybuła CR, 14 February 1996