St. Epiphanius calls the blessed Virgin, “Multoculam;” that is, one who has many eyes, that she may relieve our miseries on this earth. One day, when a person possessed was being exorcised, the devil was asked by the exorcist what Mary was then doing. The Evil One replied: “She is descending and ascending:”[612] by which he intended to say, that this gracious Lady does nothing else than descend upon the earth to bring graces to men, and ascend to heaven to obtain there the divine blessing on our supplications. Rightly, then, was the holy Virgin named by St. Andrew of Avellino, the active power of paradise; for she is continually employed in deeds of mercy, imploring favors for all, for the just and for sinners. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the just,” says David;[613] but the eyes of our Lady are upon the just and upon sinners,[614] as Richard of St. Laurence says; for he adds: The eyes of Mary are the eyes of a mother; and the mother not only guards her child from falling, but if he falls, she hastens to raise him.[615] Jesus himself revealed this to St. Bridget, whom the saint heard one day speaking to his mother, and saying: “Ask of me, oh my mother, whatever thou dost desire;”[616] and the Son is always in heaven saying this to Mary, pleased with granting his beloved mother whatever she asks. But what does Mary ask? St. Bridget understood the mother to answer him: I ask mercy for sinners: “Misericordiam peto pro miseris.”[617] As if she would say, my Son, thou hast already destined me for the mother of mercy, for the refuge of sinners, for the advocate of the miserable, now thou sayest to me that I may ask whatever I wish; but what would I ask of thee? I ask of thee that thou wilt have mercy on the sinner: “Misericordiam peto pro miseris.” Thou art, oh Mary, so full of compassion, St. Bonaventure tenderly says to her, thou art so watchful to relieve the wretched, that it seems thou hast no other desire, no other concern than this.[618] And because, among the wretched, sinners are the most wretched of all, the venerable Bede affirms, that Mary is continually praying the Son in behalf of sinners.[619] Even whilst on earth Mary was so kind and tender to men that, as St. Jerome says, there never was any person so afflicted by his own sufferings as Mary by the sufferings of others.[620] She plainly showed the compassion she feels for the sufferings of others at the nuptials of Cana (as has been mentioned in previous chapters), where, when the wine failed, without being requested, as St. Bernardine of Sienna remarks, she assumed the office of a kind comforter.[621] And from mere compassion for the troubles of that family, she interceded with her Son, and obtained the miracle of changing the water into wine.