Previously I described pairs or groups of people who experienced simultaneous mystical flights to God. Here I look at some saintly people about whom I hoped there might be evidence of simultaneous flight. Although the evidence does not support that, there’s no doubt these holy men and women were devoted to God.

Saints Perpetua and Saturus

The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, which can be read here, was written in prison prior to their execution on March 7, 203. Their companions, also martyred on that date, included Saturus (or “Satyrus”). Perpetua was a catechumen at the time of her arrest and was baptized in prison. Saturus had been her and the others’ catechist.

Perpetua and Saturus had visions in prison that were connected. Saturus had one where the two of them were carried by four angels to paradise where they reunited with other martyrs. In Perpetua’s vision, she saw a ladder to heaven guarded by a dragon. Saturus, ahead of her, told her, “Perpetua, I am waiting for you.”

Even if these visions occurred at the same time, about which we cannot be certain, can we characterize them as experiences with each other and God?

St. Benedict (of Nursia) and St. Scholastica

It is not clear to me that these two saints shared a mystical flight. These are the facts we know.

Pope St. Gregory the Great (c. 540-604; r. 590-death) completed his Dialogues (Odo John Zimmerman, trans., Fathers of the Church, vol. 39) in 593. The second of these dialogues concerns the life and miracles St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547), founder of the Benedictines. Thus it was written less than 50 years after Benedict’s death. Gregory tells us, in the third paragraph of Book II, that:

I was unable to learn about all his miraculous deeds. But the few that I am going to relate I know from the lips of four of his own disciples: Constantine, the holy man who succeeded him as abbot [of Monte Cassino]; Valentinian, for many years superior of the monastery at the Lateran [Basilica in Rome]; Simplicius, Benedict’s second successor; and Honoratus, who is still abbot of the monastery [Subiaco] where the man of God first lived.

Benedict’s twin sister was St. Scholastica (480-Feb. 10, 543), the foundress of Benedictine sisters. Once yearly she would visit her brother. They met in a home owned by Benedict’s monastery not far from the entrance to the monastery. On February 6, 543, Benedict went to the house accompanied by a few of his monks.

They [brother and sister] spent the whole day singing God’s praises and conversing about the spiritual life. When darkness was setting in, they took their meal together and continued their conversation at table until it was quite late. Then the holy nun said to him, “Please do not leave me tonight, Brother. Let us keep on talking about the joys of heaven till morning.”

Benedict declined, saying she well knew that he could not stay away from his monastery.

The sky was so clear at the time that there was not a cloud in sight. At her brother’s refusal, Scholastica folded her hands on the table and rested her head upon them in earnest prayer. When she looked up again, there was a sudden burst of lightning and thunder, accompanied by such a downpour that Benedict and his companions were unable to set a foot outside the door.

[She had shed] a flood of tears while she prayed…[T]he thunder was already resounding as she raised her head from the table…

Benedict “complained bitterly” about this turn of events but he “had no choice now but to stay, in spite of his unwillingness. They spent the entire night together and both of them obtained great profit from the holy thoughts they exchanged about the interior life.”

Although Benedict’s fellow monks could attest to the abrupt change in the weather, we cannot discern from Gregory’s account whether the monks could hear what the two of them sang or discussed. In any case, it is likely that Benedict told them later.

While the twins conversed about the “interior life” for a day and an entire night, it is not said they experienced ecstasy or a mystical vision or union. The facts about their day and that the all-night conversation was occasioned by Scholastica’s prayer is not enough, I suggest, for us to describe this as a mystical union with God. If readers can adduce evidence of one, I’d be happy to learn of it.

St. Thomas More and Daughter Margaret

I have taken a look at the relationship between St. Thomas More (1478-1535) and his daughter Margaret (married name Roper; 1505-1544). John Guy wrote a detailed look at their relationship in his 2009 book A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg. Clearly they both were devout and close to each other, particularly during the frequent visits Margaret made to her father during his 14 months in prison awaiting execution. There are a number of paintings which depict when she saw him on his way to his beheading. John Guy describes it:

Seeing him, she rushed forward, forcing her way through the soldiers, oblivious to her own safety. Throwing her arms around her father’s neck, she kissed him again and again, so overcome by emotion she could hardly speak.

“Margaret,” he said, “have patience, do not torment yourself any more. This is God’s will. You alone have long known the secrets of my heart.”

Ordered to step aside and let the men pass, she reluctantly withdrew, but scarcely had her father set a foot on the drawbridge than she ran back to kiss him again for the very last time…

Although the two were exceptionally close on various levels, and she had known “the secrets of [his] heart” for a long time — secrets related to, among other things, awareness of God’s love, penance for sins, trust in God to death, and conscience — some of these addressed in his letters and writings during confinement (The Sadness of Christ and A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation), I haven’t found that they had a mystical experience with each other and God. If readers can adduce evidence that there was, I’d be happy to learn of it.

Married Couples

I have thought there could be many married couples whose prayer life and union with God might manifest itself in one or more mystical experiences. Of course, as with experiences of an individual, lay or religious, there may be experiences that are not reported or recorded. I looked at the following three married couples and, thus far, have not found they had such experiences. If you can adduce evidence that there was, I’d be happy to learn of it.

Blessed Franz Jaegerstaetter (1907-1943) and his wife Franziska (1913-2013)

As related in my post here on April 15, “On August 9, 1943, Franz Jaegerstaetter was beheaded for refusing to serve in the German army.” He and Franziska Schwaninger had been married in 1936 and had three children. I described their spiritual life thusly:

He regularly brought food to the poor. He attended Mass daily, fasting through the morning. The new pastor, Father Fuerthauer, invited him to become the sacristan to replace the man who had passed away. The young couple read the Bible every day. As he plowed, Franz would sing hymns and pray the Rosary.

After Franz’s execution, Franziska became sacristan and outlived him 70 years to see him beatified in 2007.

Their farming life reminds me of the scene portrayed in Jean-Francois Millet’s “The Angelus” (1857-1859) in which a man and woman are praying in a field of crops with a basket of potatoes at their feet and a church steeple in the distance. While the man and woman in the painting may not be a married couple, most viewers would assume they were. I have given this painting as a wedding gift several times.

In any event, I have not yet seen evidence that either Franz or Franziska, alone or together, had a mystical experience.

Servant of God King Baudouin of Belgium (1930-1993) and Queen Fabiola (1928-2014)

King Baudouin of Belgium (r. 1951-death) married the Spaniard, Fabiola de Mora y Aragón, in 1960. They had become engaged at Lourdes. Before her marriage, she was a surgical nurse at a military hospital in Madrid. She took turns with her mother in leading the 17-member household staff in evening prayers.

In the 1960s during the early years of their reign, the queen experienced five late miscarriages. The couple had no children. In 2008 she addressed this situation: “You know, I myself lost five children. You learn something from that experience. I had problems with all my pregnancies, but you know, in the end I think life is beautiful.” She was noted for her charitable work. In 1993 she became president of the King Baudouin Foundation, which had been founded by the King in 1976.

The royal couple was known for attending daily Mass no matter the circumstances. They were linked to the Catholic charismatic movement. They made weekend retreats together. One of his relatives said,

They had a tenderness and a spiritual love, because they both wanted to serve Jesus and both saw Jesus in the other. They were very aware that they had the mission of bringing Jesus to others as a couple, in their position.

He would spend hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament. We usually had Mass early in the morning and, if you arrived earlier, he would be sitting there in front of the Blessed Sacrament. And many times, during the night, he would wake up and simply go to the chapel [in their home] to pray….

[H]e always prayed before the Blessed Sacrament before receiving any personality… Many heads of state and personalities who came to meet him, in the end, regardless of their religion or beliefs, or whether they didn’t believe in anything, ended up in the private chapel with the king. And they were praying together, or he prayed with them…

In 1990, the King was faced with an abortion law passed by Parliament to which he could not in good conscience give his royal assent. There was no precedent for this. The King asked the Parliament to declare him incapacitated. The Parliament did so and then enacted the law. The next day it declared him capable of resuming office; they did not look for a new monarch.

For more about the King, see Cardinal Suenens, Le roi Baudouin, une vie qui nous parle (1993; English translation: King Baudouin: The Hidden Life, 2018) and Bernadette Chovelon, the postulator of his cause, Baudouin et Fabiola : l’itinéraire spirituel d’un couple [The Spiritual Journey of a Couple] (2018), not yet translated into English.

I have not yet seen evidence that either the King or Queen, alone or together, had a mystical experience.

Venerable Jérôme Lejuene (1926 -1994) and his wife Birthe (1928-2020)

Jérôme Lejuene and Birthe Bringsted married in 1952 and had five children. He was a pediatrician and geneticist who, in 1959, discovered the chromosomal abnormality which causes Down syndrome and then spent a lifetime defending the lives of children with the syndrome and opposing the use of amniocentesis prenatal testing for eugenic purposes. Pope Francis declared him “Venerable” in 2021.

Birthe converted to Catholicism before her marriage. She trained as a nurse. She continued her husband’s advocacy for over 20 years from his death to hers.

I have not yet seen evidence that either Jérôme or Birthe, alone or together, had a mystical experience.

I conclude, with Peter Kreeft, that the flight of two souls simultaneously to union with God is indeed rare.

[A link to Part 1 is here.]