On the second day after Pentecost, while at Ecija,2 a person was recalling a great favor she had received from our Lord on the vigil of this feast.3 Desiring to do something very special in His service, she thought it would be good to promise from that time on not to hide any fault or sin she had committed in her whole life from the one who stood in God’s place. Even though she had made a vow of obedience, this promise seemed to involve something more, because there’s no obligation like this toward one’s superiors. And she also promised to do all that this confessor might tell her—with regard to serious matters, of course—providing it would not go against her vow of obedience. And even though keeping this promise was hard for her in the beginning, she made it.
2. The first reason why she decided to do so was the thought that she was rendering some service to the Holy Spirit; the second was that she chose a person who was a great servant of God and a learned man, who would help her serve the Lord more.
This learned man knew nothing about the above until some days after she had made the promise. He was Friar Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God.