Caterina's Demons

Caterina at age five, remembers the fresco of demons...

“I saw ladies in black robes walking outside through the big front doors. I had seen ladies dressed that way before, when my nonna took me to the church in San Gemigniano, but never so many at once and all just alike. She only took me there once, because the paintings on the walls were so frightful that I began to cry and could not be still, horrified by the pictures of demons stabbing and choking people and pooping coins into the mouths of the greedy sinners -- and she had to take me home so my wailing would not disturb those who had come to pray.”