The Rosary instead of poison

The recently canonized St Titus Brandsma was killed by a lethal injection on July 26, 1942, exactly 80 years ago. The witness account of the nurse who administered the injection was an important fact for his eventual beatification in 1983. That nurse said that just before he died St Titus offered her his Rosary beads. Refusing it claiming she does not pray, he insisted ‘take it anyway as my last gift to you....use it to pray for us sinners....’ These were his last words. That Dutch nurse eventually converted to the Catholic faith and in 1955, she told her story of the last 10 days of St Titus. ‘I gave him poison and he gave me the Rosary....and with the Rosary beads, he inspired my own conversion, and salvation.’ One of the promises the Blessed Mother told St. Dominic was this: ‘The sinner who says the Rosary will convert and would end up loving the things of heaven instead of worldly things, and will grow in virtue and kindness towards others.’ St Titus Brandsma was canonized on May 15 earlier this year, and his feast day will be celebrated each year on July 27, since the day of the 26th (the day of his actual death) is taken by the grandparents of Jesus, the parents of the Blessed Mother. He is now also known, along with St Francis de Sales, as the patron saint of journalists.