Don Dolindo received his First Communion in 1893. Afterward, he began to experience an intense spiritual fervor and a profound awakening of holy aspirations. These special graces could only have come directly from Jesus Himself, Dolindo explains in his autobiography, because “sadly, no one in my home was guiding me in the ways of God.”
11-year-old Dolindo began to make secret acts of penance. He found himself rapt in recollection and longed to become a martyr. He would rise around four or five a.m. and go to Purgatory Church to serve Mass. So devout a child was he that, one morning, one of the village women at Mass hugged and kissed him, and told him that he had the face of St. Louis.
Around this time, Dolindo heard that many people were undertaking something called the Heroic Act of Charity for the souls in purgatory. He longed to learn more about this heroic act so that he and his brother could do it together.
One cold winter morning, Dolindo left his home and walked out into the pouring rain to go to Purgatory Church. On his way, he suddenly thought about the heroic act for the souls in purgatory.
“Lord,” he said to Jesus with confidence, “if this pleases You, then let me find out about it.”
At that very moment, something caught Dolindo’s eye. Nearby, in a little stream of water, something white was being dragged by the current.
“I fished it out of the stream,” he recalls in his autobiography, “and, to my great astonishment, saw that it was two little booklets bearing the title How to Make the Heroic Vow for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.”
And so it was that, on his way to serve Mass at Purgatory Church, Dolindo found the answer to the fervent desire of his heart to make the heroic act for the souls in purgatory, together with his brother.
On this All Souls Day, may Servant of God Don Dolindo help all of us to discover ways to assist the dear souls in purgatory who are desperately waiting for our prayers.
More about the Heroic Act of Charity and the indulgences associated with it can be found here.
Also, more information about the plenary indulgences that can be obtained from Nov. 1-8 for the souls in purgatory can be found here.
Special thanks to Maria Palma Smith for the use of her English translation of the book Amore, Dolindo, Dolore (Casa Mariana Editrice “Apostolato Stampa”, 2001). Publication of the English translation is forthcoming from Academy of the Immaculate Publishing.