John

ON STS. JOHN, ANTHONY AND EUSTACHIUS, MARTYRS AT VILNA IN LITHUANIA.

AFTER THE YEAR 1328.

John, Martyr at Vilna in Lithuania (St.)

Anthony, Martyr at Vilna in Lithuania (St.)

Eustachius, Martyr at Vilna in Lithuania (St.)

G. H.

[1] The Acts of these Saints from old Livonian and Ruthenian MSS., faithfully translated into Latin, Matthias Casimir Sarbievius, Priest of our Society, and in his time prince of Lyric poetry, sent to us from Vilna; Acts of martyrdom and the Most Illustrious George Tyskiewicz, then Bishop of Methone, as Suffragan and Administrator of Eustachius Vollovicius Bishop of Vilna, then promoted to the Bishopric of Samogitia and at last to Vilna, that they might be published had fortified them with the public credit of his handwriting and seal. Albert Wijuk Kojalowicz of the same Society of Jesus, Doctor of Sacred Theology, and Vice-Chancellor of the distinguished University of Vilna, in the year 1650 inscribed to the said Tyskiewicz, then Bishop of Vilna, Miscellanea of things pertaining to the Ecclesiastical state in the great Duchy of Lithuania: and first he sets forth the proper Patrons of the great Duchy of Lithuania, of whom some are of the Latin rite, some of the Greek rite, and among the latter, celebrates the aforesaid Saints with this eulogy.

[2] an epitome of these: "Saints John, Anthony, Eustachius Martyrs, chamberlains of Olgerd, great Duke of Lithuania, noble Lithuanians, popularly called Kukley, Mihley, Nizilo: converted to the faith by the Christian household of the same Russian Duchess, baptized by Nestorius the Christian Priest, on account of constancy in the religion taken up, especially because they refused to eat the forbidden foods on appointed days

were killed by the order of Olgerd: John hanged on April 24, Anthony on June 14, Eustachius finally after many other torments, and especially scourging, the breaking of his legs, the violent tearing off of his skin and hairs (which he did not allow to be shaved from himself in the heathen manner), on December 13 ended this life by hanging. They suffered at Vilna after the year of Christ 1328, buried at Vilna in the temple of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Greek-Russian united rite, by whom their memory is recalled on April 14. Relative to the number of Saints under Alexis the united Metropolitan of Kiev. cultus April 14." Thus the said Albert, and the Acts confirm, in which Anthony is said to have suffered on January 14 and Eustachius on December 31. Ferrari in the general Catalogue of Saints celebrates the same on this said April 14 with these words: "At Vilna in Lithuania of the holy Martyrs Anthony, John and Eustochius." He cites in the Notes the monuments of the same monastery of the Most Holy Trinity: where not Eustochius but Eustachius is named the third of the brothers. He is mistaken, however, in writing that they were killed by the Tartars. The same are venerated not only by the Lithuanians, but also by the Muscovites: for in the often praised Tables of the Moscow Calendar, to be seen with the distinguished man Laurence vander Hem in Amsterdam, one can see them painted in courtly attire, also among the Muscovites. with the cross, the sign of martyrdom, and the sword, the token of nobility. And Anthony indeed and John wear caps on their heads: John also, beardless with a youthful appearance, stands in the middle between Anthony and Eustachius, well-bearded; whom however from the Acts we know to have been the elder of both: which the worthier place itself seems to indicate. Concerning Eustachius it is established that he was altogether a youth: and so either the order of names in the Table or the situation of the images placed beneath the names should have been changed. Moreover Vilna is the chief city of Lithuania, at the confluence of the Vilna (from which it took its name) and the Viliya. The Acts of the mentioned Alexis, Metropolitan of Kiev, we gave on February 12; when his death is also seen painted in the aforesaid tables, as also the finding or Translation of the body. Olgerd, Olgerd the Duke, father of Jagiello. Great Duke of Lithuania, was the father of Jagiello, and presided from the year 1329 until the year 1381, when he died leaving numerous offspring: whose deeds and many wars waged by him are described by the Albert Wijuk Kojalowicz indicated above in part 1 of the History of Lithuania, book 8.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM

From Livonian and Ruthenian MSS.

John, Martyr at Vilna in Lithuania (St.)

Anthony, Martyr at Vilna in Lithuania (St.)

Eustachius, Martyr at Vilna in Lithuania (St.)

[1] These were by nation Lithuanians, similarly as other men of the same nation, Anthony and John are baptized, servants of Fire. Anthony then and John were brothers; but with their whole soul lovers of Christianity and Catholic truth. When a certain Priest, Nestorius by name, had come into Lithuania, from him they received divine baptism; in which, the elder in years, John; and the one following him, Anthony were named.

[2] After their baptism therefore they took up a life fitting for Christians: but they lived in the service of the Prince of the Lithuanians, yet hid that they were Christians. But because it was impossible entirely to conceal what was in every way contrary to the institutes, customs, and life of others, such as shaving the head and beard, eating flesh, and other things; being asked therefore sometimes by the Prince, they constantly confessed themselves to be Christians. They are therefore compelled to deny the Catholic truth, and to eat the flesh placed on the Prince's table: but it was a day of fasting. who refusing to eat flesh, are sent into prison. Which because they refused, they are enclosed in a dark prison: which they entered joyful and cheerful, because they had been held worthy to suffer such things for the name of Christ: for they thought themselves led rather to a kingdom than to a prison.

[3] But when a year had elapsed, John fell entirely; fearing the torments, he sent to the Prince asking to be freed from prison, and promised that he would do whatever he should be ordered by the Prince: John obeys the Prince, which also was done. He was therefore made distinguished by this very thing, and in all things similar to the others, except that he kept Christianity in his heart, which he did not dare to profess on account of the fear of torments. At that time therefore Anthony also is led out from the prison, and both remain free; but Anthony did not conceal his faith as John did: Anthony now free reproves him. nay, he made it manifest, and reproved his brother, and corrected him according to his powers. At a certain time, when according to custom he was standing before the Prince, John ate flesh, but Anthony, commanded, refused, and confessed himself to be a Christian: wherefore he is again handed over to prison.

[4] But John is despised by the Christians, and very often insulted by the Gentiles, because he kept neither his paternal nor afterwards the beloved faith. and again cast into prison He comes therefore to the aforesaid Priest Nestorius, and asks him to intercede with his brother, that he might be received into his fellowship. Which after Anthony heard, he said he would not by any means consent, unless his brother had first publicly confessed the faith. Having been entirely changed, he sought a suitable time, he refuses to receive his apostate brother. in which he could publicly confess the Catholic truth. Once therefore standing before the Prince, and according to custom serving him in the bath, he boldly confesses himself to be a Christian. But the Prince, because he was alone in the bath, did not dare to show anger, nor do anything to John. But he again with many already present confesses himself to be a Christian, here again he confesses the faith. and immediately is struck with fists and clubs by all who were present, and dragged away to prison. When he arrived there, he made ineffable joy to his brother. Both therefore remained in prison praising God. and is struck with clubs: Not many days after, they were made partakers of the Most Holy Eucharist.

[5] After however some years, Anthony was condemned to hanging: who when the decree had now been issued, spent that whole night sleepless, praising God, and at the same time confirming his brother and exciting him to martyrdom, and recalling his first fall, and foretelling that he would depart by a similar death. and with his brother hanged But first at dawn, both were made partakers of the Body and Blood of the life-giving Christ God. When the day dawned, Anthony was killed by hanging on January 14. John however, he himself is also hanged. when the days foretold by Anthony had elapsed, similarly condemned to hanging, ended his life on April 24. But their venerable Relics some of the faithful receiving, buried devoutly.

[6] Eustachius, however, was a young man, and still placed in the flower of age, strong and handsome, Eustachius is baptized, not only in soul but also in body. With his whole heart he too embraced Christianity, and was baptized by the aforesaid Nestorius. He remained thenceforth as a Christian, leading a chaste life and pleasing to God, in fastings and other virtues. At a certain time, while he was following the Prince, then staying in Lithuania; the Prince saw growing hairs on his head and in his beard unshaven. For it was the custom of those who worshipped Fire, handed down by the demon, to shave the hairs of the head and beard. But Eustachius, just as he rejected their impiety, as wicked and alien from all reason; so also kept his hair unshaven: which when the Prince saw him to have, and having professed the faith, he asked if he was a Christian. And when he had confessed himself a Christian, the Prince, moved with anger and madness, took up the purpose of leading the Saint from the right faith, and first of all forced him too to eat flesh: which he by no means ate: for it was Friday and the vigil for the Nativity of Christ the Lord. When therefore the Prince had observed, that he did not even look at the flesh with his eyes; first he ordered him to be beaten with iron rods without any pity. he is severely beaten, While this was being done, and the executioners were urging more fiercely, the Saint emitted neither any groan nor tear; but rather was seen to praise God, who had made him worthy to suffer such things. And therefore with greater anger and fury moved, the Prince and he is variously tortured ordered cold water to be brought and poured into the Saint's mouth. Which when it was done, he by no means consented to eat flesh. Wherefore the Prince brought still greater torments on him: he broke and crushed the bones of his feet, from the sole to the knees: afterwards he ordered the hairs together with the skin to be plucked from his head, similarly also the nose and ears to be cut off. These torments he bore for three days, as if not feeling them: in which he also spoke to the Christians, lamenting and bewailing his torments.

[7] Thus almost lifeless, the Prince commanded the lictors, that they should hang him on the same oak and he is hanged. on which the first two were hanged. The Saint therefore, although he dragged his crushed legs, as if having suffered nothing bad, followed those leading not only briskly, but even supernaturally. Who when they came to the aforesaid oak, with a rope placed around his neck they killed the Saint, and thus he delivered his soul to God on December 31. untouched by beasts after three days he is buried. Because there hanging for three days he was preserved untouched by any, accessible to the beasts, received from thence by the faithful, he was honorably buried.

[8] A miracle also occurred, God glorifying his Martyrs. For after their killing, no one of the condemned was judged to hang on that oak (for that was a place of public punishment), but the Christians gathering together asked from the Prince that place to be given to them: a church is built. who willingly granted the place, and a church was built. Some of the sacred relics were also translated to the Cathedral church also: but the bodies themselves of the Saints lie with the Basilians, in the church named of the Most Holy Trinity, to the Trinity one God be glory and honor for ages of ages, Amen.

ON B. LIDWIG OR LIDWINA THE VIRGIN AT SCHIEDAM IN HOLLAND,

YEAR 1433

Previous Commentary.

Lidwig or Lidwina, the Virgin, at Schiedam in Holland (B.)

BHL Number: 4927

BY D. P.

§ I. Name, cultus, the author of the Life Fr. John Brugman.

Although the twenty-year abstinence from all bodily nourishment is greatly admirable, which rendered celebrated the Angelic life of the venerable Solitary Nicholas of Flüe, With thirty years of fasting, praised by us on March 22, throughout all Switzerland and the neighboring provinces of upper Germany, at the end of the 15th century: yet God appeared much more admirable, at the beginning of the same century, in this our lower Germany, through her, of whom we now make our discourse, a Virgin; who nonetheless held an even longer-lasting and equally proved abstinence; but so much more astonishing than Nicholas, a wondrous Virgin because to this one, having in some way attained the impassibility of glorified bodies in this mortal life, as nothing was flowing out, so it was not necessary to restore anything through food or drink; but to her, among the most acute pains of almost every kind of infirmities, discharging nearly all vital parts with incredible quantity of bloody humor, and yet always unfed, not only did not material of torments fail through so many years, but

flesh also abounded, which the holy fire, very many ulcers, and a hundred worms daily newly arising fed upon, for thirty years and more.

[2] But these things may have procured fame to her, honor to God; they will bring to us greater utility the admirable patience of that one in enduring sicknesses, but more the patience in sicknesses, to which I do not know whether any past centuries have seen a similar, or those that will follow shall ever be going to see. Since therefore her name, which whole was to be pronounced and written Lidwich or Lidwin, was commonly pronounced Lidwy, and by the vulgar then and now language "Lyden" was the same for the Belgians, as for the Latins "to suffer"; it came about that everywhere men inculcated that the etymology of her name was to be derived from suffering, so that hence she was believed to be so named, and indeed without measure or limit, because the particle "Wy" or "Wyd," that is, "Broad, Widely," occurring at the end of the name, seemed to indicate. Following this vulgar acceptance, Brugman in his first Life of her wrote continually "Lydwyd": in the second, approaching more closely the true writing of the name, he noted "Liedwich"; in the third he also put "Lidwina," yet so that he preferred to adhere in both to that vulgar allusion to "Lyden" and "wyd" in explaining the name. Meanwhile as the name itself was not newly devised for this Virgin, with the notion of the word according to the vulgar sense ill-omened; but handed down from the ancestors by hand, from the use of Teutonic antiquity, devising words of most happy omen for naming children: so he who will wish to know the true etymology of the virginal name, must seek it from the ancient Teutonic language similar to it, which he would seek for other names beginning with "Lid," and how "Lidbert" he would interpret as prince of Liti or vassals or people; (although another is the true notion of the name) "Lideric," as rich or powerful among vassals and people; so he will find that "Lidwig" signified from the institution of names a defender of the people; "Lidwina," the delight of the people or beloved by the people: although long ago among us the words "Wigghen," to fight; "Winne," beloved; have ceased to be in use; words otherwise employed by Walramus the Abbot, about a thousand years ago the paraphrast of the Canticles of Solomon in the Belgian language, and known in ancient Saxon monuments.

[3] honored after her death with a shrine She died in the year 1433, on Easter Tuesday: but when her sepulcher was honored with many visitations and offerings of various persons (who, as Thomas à Kempis adds, asserted themselves cured of various languors and infirmities), the Rectors of the parish church of St. John the Baptist of Schiedam, the following year constructed a stone chapel with an altar, she was venerated on the Wednesday of Easter; over her tomb, as will be read more fully below in number 151 of the earlier Life. These things will receive light from Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, whose words for explaining the remainder of the cult of the same Saint we here transcribe: "She had an honorific chapel within the parish church, and in the middle of the chapel a marble tomb, History also was seen painted on tablets. Annually moreover that chapel and the Virgin's tomb was adorned, not on the 14th of April, but on the fourth day of Easter, and her feast was celebrated with solemn Mass and Office of the Trinity (because she has not been placed in the Canon of Saints by the Roman Pontiff) yet with a sermon during Mass about her life and passion." Thus Molanus from the letters of Lord Cornelius Goudanus, when expelled from Schiedam, he had migrated to Utrecht to the Pastorate of the civil church.

[4] As the holy Virgin was about to die, as is said in number 366 of the later Life, she had earnestly begged all present and absent, the body unmoved for 30 years from death, that they should not move her within the thirtieth year after her burial. Was it because she knew her body, marvelously restored in death to youthful integrity, was to be preserved in the same integrity throughout all that time, and the humble Virgin preferred that to be hidden from mortal eyes? He knows, who made it incorrupt from death, and could preserve it as long as he wished without corruption in the sepulcher. Whether after those thirty years the tomb was reopened, and in what state the body was found, we do not know; because those who after the year 1467 gave her life to be printed in Latin and Belgian, took no care to add anything such. or was it afterwards reopened? It seems however that at some time the tomb was reopened, and in it the sacred bones, now freed from flesh (such as are now kept at Brussels), were so arranged, that they could be shown to visiting pilgrims: for this is gathered from the annotation of Fr. Laurence Surius MS. appended to the Life, for preserving the memory of those things which, concerning the aforesaid altar and chapel, Fr. James of the observance had related to him, who was saying that he had seen the same Relics there.

[5] The house turned into a monastery: The same Saint had wished while living, that if anyone in that place, in which she lay sick, and in preference to which she was refusing the larger dwellings offered, for the lodging of the poor after her departure should build a house, the alms should not return empty to his bosom: which the later Life says in number 77 "we see to have been fulfilled." But Brother James, of whom above, asserted to Surius, that with the succeeding time there was erected a monastery of Grey Sisters, seen there by him: which although Surius joins to the altar and chapel erected over the sepulcher, as he seemed to have understood: yet of St. Lidwina's paternal house it must be understood, as appears from the aforecited John Molanus, where he thus continues his narration: "The convent of Sisters of St. Francis also had an altar consecrated in honor of St. Lydwyd the Virgin, toward the West, in the place where, lying on a bed, she is said to have served God in this life. But all these things the enemies of faith and of all piety wholly overthrew in the year seventy-two." This convent, as is clear from the Annals of Wadding, had its name from St. Ursula, and about the year 1469 obtained certain privileges, from which it may be gathered, that it was founded there after St. Lidwina's death: although with her herself living at Schiedam, but perhaps in another house, some Tertiary sisters lived together, is held from the earlier Life number 37. Now that Monastery, which still today survives in the ruin of the city, and was commonly said to have been called "Of the Ladies" from the people of Schiedam I have learned, has been converted into an orphanage by those, who wholly overthrew the chapel adhering to the parish church, abolished the sepulcher, and the stone by which it was covered transferred to another part of the church, yet inverted, lest it could renew the memory of the Saint to posterity; then wholly removed it.

[6] The Life written by John Brugman, The venerable Father Fr. John Brugman, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, wrote the Life, a man, as he is praised in our MS., "very remarkable in word and life"; as Wadding in the book on the writers of the Order of Minor says, reviewing other of his writings, "an excellent preacher of the divine word"; as Aubert Le Mire, in the book on ecclesiastical writers chapter 522, asserting him to have died at Nijmegen in the year 1473, "a preacher most celebrated in his age." Finally as the Minorite Annals say, "distinguished by the spirit of prophecy (of which even now many examples are circulated among the Catholics of Holland having begun to some extent to be fulfilled) and an ardent lover of poverty, a holy man one of the first founders of the province of Cologne." It was wrong for such a great man to be passed over by Arthur, compiler of the Franciscan Martyrology, who ascribed to the order of Saints or Blesseds whomever he found with a celebrated name: and because no one had noted the day of his death, he chose October 19; by that his own Pontifical authority, by which he presumed to give him the title of Blessed Confessor.

Brugman was however held in some veneration by the Nijmegen convent: and praised by Dionysius the Carthusian. for Wadding testifies in the Annals number 113 under the year 1455, that his head, together with the head of Theodore Leuti, afterwards killed by the Geusii, was becomingly kept near the main altar, until the same Geusii profaned all the sacred things there. The Venerable Dionysius the Carthusian inscribed to him two little books on the doctrine and rules of the Christian Life, which in the Cologne collection of the year 1559 of his hitherto unpublished little works hold the first place, and in their Preface he thus addresses him: "The intention therefore of this edition is briefly to touch, to what all the faithful of Christ are bound in common, to what different ones specially: to the declaring and pursuing of which my smallness your charity urged with earnest prayers, religious and most devout Father, and in Christ beloved Confrère, John Brugman: who according to the interpretation of your name are rightly called John, namely 'vessel of the grace of God'; nor less aptly are you called Brugman, that is, 'Man of the bridge'; who indefatigably and wisely build for all the faithful, that is by examples and fervent words open and exhibit a bridge, by crossing which they may pass, from the bitternesses and unquiets of this most stormy great sea, to the most sweet and most quiet port of eternal salvation: in which Angelic work, I congratulate your fervor; but this one thing only I exhort and pray, that the fervor rousing you be always ruled by holy discretion, lest your broken body collapse under the burden."

§ II. Life written in Latin by Brugman first and second time, an epitome of it published by Thomas à Kempis.

[7] Life I shorter and not sufficiently perfect. Brugman wrote the Life of St. Lidwina a third time as in the preface of the latest composition, and at the end of the same he clearly testifies. The first Life, soon after the death of the holy Virgin herself, seems to have been composed from what the author could learn from the more consistent report of the people of Schiedam, from certain vernacular extemporaneous writings, and from a few conversations with her Confessor; which therefore is shorter and more succinct, and subject in some places to emendation made afterwards, no one will marvel. That was believed to have perished: but it exists among the histories of very many Saints, which Molanus, in his notes to Usuard on July 25 treating of St. Magneric, calls "the second part of the Legend," perhaps taking the Lombard history for the first part of the Legend. It came forth at Cologne first in the year 1483; and two years later reprinted at Louvain, is kept in our Museum. Indeed the author's name is not read there: 2. from the Belgian of John Gerlac, Latin and augmented but since the words and even whole periods are sometimes found to be the same as those which occur in the second composition, which we by no means doubt to be Brugman's; and since on account of the not small diversity of the narration it cannot be said that this is an epitome of the Life which we shall give in the First place; it consequently follows, that this was the first composition of the author, not yet fully informed. Which, although we do not judge it to be inserted into this work; yet not a few things from it will have to be indicated by us in the Annotations or Appendix. Of that first Life, written without any Prologue, this is the beginning: "In Holland a certain city is situated, named Schiedam, having a port, by which and by the Maas, the fleets of ships enter the Western sea."

[8] At the time Brugman was writing these things, a little work was composed at Schiedam, for the satisfaction of the pious people, on the same subject more accurately, in the vulgar language: which at whatever time

it was first submitted to the press we cannot divine; yet that it was printed soon enough, we gather from the miracle, made concerning one of its copies, and appended to the end of the second edition made at Delft in the year 1447 and relegated to the Appendix of the Life, among those first to be given here. This edition we received by the favor of Jean-Baptiste Horenbek, a distinguished worker from our Society in the Rotterdam vineyard: which although it presents no Author, we do not doubt however that it was the Blessed's cousin, John Gerlaci, cited below by Brugman. The Belgian Life is concluded in this manner: "Also signs and miracles many were done and daily are done, from which a great big book could be made, which happened after her death, and are not had written here, but now enough about these. May God be with us all always. Amen." Then is added: "Here end certain points of the life of Lidewy: but know that this is the least part of those which should have been written about her." These things were soon sent to Brugman, that he, who was thought to be able to do something in Latin style, and no less willing for the sake of the holy Virgin, should compose from it a Latin Life: which he should publish in place of that first, too succinct and imperfect one, for manifesting such an example of sanctity also to foreign nations.

[9] He girded himself immediately to the work, and before the year (as we think) 1448, from this Belgian and that first of his own, and other information received from Schiedam composed a Life, which of the two superior and more worthy ones you read here; it is given from MS. we shall call the earlier, and we shall give it according to its ancient copy, which we have in our MS codex, "written and completed in the year of the Lord 1499 about the beginning of the same year, by Father Jacob of Cologne, otherwise of Aldenrade, Professed Carthusian, and senior of the house of St. Alban the Martyr near Trier, with two beryls applied, his eyes growing dim from age: who also in the same year completed others about the feast of St. Martin, having nearly eighty years of age, of the order about fifty-two: whose soul may rest with the Saints in peace. Amen." Thus the rubric placed at the end of the writing. At the beginning of the Life this title is read, composed by the aforenamed scribe Jacob, "Begins the Life of a certain holy Virgin named Liedwich, almost in our time, in the city of Schiedam of Holland, proved with many afflictions of diverse infirmities, and made illustrious with many crowns of patience; concerning whom the Lord worked marvelously, by refreshing her with diverse spiritual consolations, not only for her, but also for the edification of all the faithful, hearing or reading her life, which was written originally by the venerable Father Fr. John Brugman, was Brugman then Provincial of Holland? of the Order of Minors of the Observance, Provincial throughout Holland; a man very remarkable in word and life." Where it is to be understood that he is called Provincial of Holland less properly, as if that constituted a Province by itself; since all Belgium was contained under the one name of the Province of Cologne; as is clear from the Catalogue of Provinces of the year 1516, which Francis Harold attached to the Epitome of the Annals of Wadding: which same Wadding, when he shows that the beginnings of the Nijmegen convent look to the year 1455, and says the Provincial Chapter, in which Brugman was elected Vicar, was held there; it follows (unless before this also Brugman was Provincial) that in the Title of this second life he is called Provincial by prolepsis; namely from that office, which he took up some years after the founding of that convent, indeed also after the completion of the last writing, of which below.

[10] This second Life is divided into forty-five chapters, what is the credit of this Life? with the same titles as nearly the Belgian, but with the order of chapters very different; as their syllabus, placed under the Prologue, will make clear. The style is somewhat fuller and more cultivated than the Belgian, the sense of both is the same, but the material of things much more copious, received for the greater part, as is said in the Prologue, "from the mouth of Lord John Walter of Leiden, who was for nearly eight years the Confessor of that Virgin, and had learned these things from her own revelation, partly from the writings of Belgian, namely the already mentioned John Gerlaci, cousin of the same Virgin, who for many years stayed in her house; partly from the letter which, in the year 1421, the Rectors of the city of Schiedam, in testimony of her infirmities, handed over to Lord John Angeli of Dordrecht, Curate of the church of the same city: but a few things from the mouth of others worthy of faith: all however through the correction or approval of the aforesaid Lord John Walter and John Gerlaci." Which, comparing with the Belgian Life, whatever was added over it in this second, we have distinguished by the sign of brackets [ ] of this kind, how collated with the Belgian? added at the beginning and end of each augmentation; and so we made it that the original text of the vernacular cannot be greatly missed. This Life thus noted we shall call the Earlier, in respect to the third which we shall call the Later.

[11] The Religious Brothers Canons Regular of the monastery of St. Elizabeth, situated near Brielle in the parts of Zeeland, from this 2nd an epitome was made by Thomas à Kempis most devoted to the memory of the Schiedam Virgin, had seen and read it; at whose request Thomas Malleolus à Kempis, venerable by life and writings, commonly Fr. Thomas Hamerken, in the House of Mount St. Agnes (which is situated outside the walls of the town of Zwolle toward the eastern region) having professed the same life of Canons Regular, and as he himself titles himself in the Preface, "a poor pilgrim." He, I say, at their request, read through the little book of the life of the holy and most patient Virgin Lidewig: and, as they had long desired, sent it composed in a shorter and plainer style, out of charity to be read: "because," he says, "to this doing, the counsel of your venerable Prior was added and animated me. I have divided the whole material of the little book into two parts, of which the first treats in brevity, of the many infirmities and pains of this Virgin, and also of the gracious works of her mercy, and certain miraculous deeds, as is said in the Prologue of the second part: but this treats of her spiritual gifts and divine consolations and frequent raptures. For each part (as in the first preface the author continues) I have prenoted proper chapters; divided into two parts I have also, on the counsel of certain Religious, omitted to insert more things, which perhaps seemed to bring doubt or intricate question to some simple ones. I chose therefore," he says, "from many rather to write and collect those which would instruct morals and plainly demonstrate humble imitation to readers. Yet nearly all are worthy of all wonder, exceeding my experience, which I commit to the greater to be judged: but I hope that the wishes of the humble will be more pleasing and agreeable to God and to the holy Virgin herself, than to search higher things and to speak foolishly about the secrets of God."

[12] which exists in MSS. Thus far in the prologues Thomas à Kempis, whose composition we have both found to exist in MSS. among the Crosiers at Cologne, and we had for use from the monastery of the Hubergen Williamite Fathers, completed by Brother Arnold Schuylen, a monk Priest in Porta-caeli near Bois-le-Duc (which was a cenobium of the same Order of the Williamites) at nearly the same time, in which the satellites of the Duke of Guelders, having made a violent incursion into Holland, plundered the village called den Haghe, with many thousands of florins carried off from there, namely in the year 1528. The autograph of Thomas himself had our Henry Sommalius, and printed with the works. and from it he transferred the already mentioned epitome of the Life of St. Lydwig into the collection of the works of the same Kempis, published by him in the year 1600 and again in 1603. But the Carthusians of Cologne, who in the year 1618 published the work of Surius more ordered and augmented, and omitting the Lives whose style Surius had changed, substituted the original ones where it was permitted; used the editions of Sommalius, as they profess in the margin. Since this epitome exists thus printed and reprinted, containing nothing however which the Life treats more fully and more certainly, of which hitherto (for the last had not come into Kempis's hands while he was elaborating these things) there is no reason why we should think it should be desired here: it will be enough if we transfer into the appendix of the often mentioned Earlier Life three miracles, with most certain credit known to him, which he appended at the end of the Life.

§ III. Third Life printed authentically at Schiedam, abbreviated by Surius and others.

[13] Since those who had been piously devoted to the holy Virgin and familiar with her when living, For the writing of a 3rd Life more copiously grieved that many things were also missing in Brugman's second composition; nor did that simple narration satisfy them, without any ornaments of eloquence suitable for inflaming the will and forming morals; the Virgin's Confessor John Walter, who to the earlier writings had contributed nothing other than the instruction of the living voice, was compelled to apply his hand to the pen, and to hand over in writing what he moreover knew, to be communicated to Brugman. Instructed with these new aids, as appears from number 194, Brugman then, Brugman using also the writings of the Confessor in the year 1456. who was in the year 1456 a Lecturer in the Convent of Saint-Omer, composed a third, which we shall call the later, Life, divided into three according to the three degrees of perfection; with a style very different from the earlier composition: which however much more copious in things and words, is yet deprived of very many circumstances of the same things, which the author had most accurately noted in the earlier Life. Wherefore by a new example, and perhaps never to return through this whole work, we have considered it congruent to give two Lives of the same Saint composed by the same author: since neither could wholly supply the place of the other.

[14] The author calls it a third translation in this sense, as we judge, because both Johns, it was printed at Schiedam in the year 1498, namely Gerlaci and Walter, whose writings Brugman confesses he used, had drawn up their memoirs in the Belgian idiom. A copy from the Schiedam edition of the year 1498 R. P. Alexander Calwart had brought to us: but what we grieved most, as it was found, mutilated at the beginning and end: another found in the Corsendonk monastery of Canons Regular near Turnhout, because even that was not complete, although it filled half the part of the gaps, the more closely we were brought to wholeness, the more ardently and solicitously it forced us to seek what remained to be found. But for a long time all labor through Holland, Flanders and Brabant was in vain. At length to those reading the supplement of Surius's work, and its seventh and posthumous volume for its author, and seeing in it the Life of the Virgin Lydwina (as Surius himself surviving to the year 1578, contracted it in his own style from Brugman's last writing, omitting things which could be omitted without detriment to the history), the mind was cast, that at Cologne, with the Reverend Fathers Carthusians, by Surius more concisely published, the faithful custodians of monuments collected by Laurence, what we lacked could be found. That this idea was from the holy woman herself the event declared; for taking up that care upon himself R. P. Jacob Kritzradt, out of his old zeal toward the Saints, sent there at once

one who would inquire, and the book having been found, saw to the copying of what we desired: but afterwards other copies were also found among the Franciscans of Louvain and in the Library of the Most Reverend Lord Aubert vanden Eeden, Archdeacon of Antwerp, which had previously escaped the diligence of those seeking.

[15] Further, so that this Life might come forth more adorned, the Rectors of Schiedam had taken care that twenty painted panels (which, hung around the Virgin's chapel, and was adorned with wooden figures were presenting to the eyes for beholding the principal parts of the Virginal life) be reproduced in as many wooden tablets, as much as the age and place could give to artistry. Of these our Heribert Rosweide commissioned twelve principal ones, contracted into a shorter space, to be engraved in bronze by the most elegant chisel of Hieronymus Wirix, and placed around the image of St. Lidwina herself of which a part was afterwards engraved in bronze around the image of the Saint. — which the frontispieces of the Schiedam books had taught to paint in a wholly glorious form, her hair becomingly flowing, wreathed with roses, with a crucifix in one hand, a flowering branch in the other, and in a flowing garment: and this image he dedicated to the Most Reverend Lord Gaspar Louway, a singular worshipper of St. Lidwina. Such a bronze type of the effigy and the border distinguished into twelve histories, submitted to the press of the Wirix copperplate printing, by the multitude of figures taken from it, spread the knowledge and admiration of this holy Virgin through the Christian world not a little more, than the copies of the Lives so often renewed by Brugman, which, worn between the hands of few, perished. Other and still other engravers in Belgium and Gaul followed; expressing the Virgin, now the whole body, now half; now alone, now accompanied by her Angel, in various form and size, but always with the same habit and gesture.

[16] The Surian epitome rendered into French, first more concisely Meanwhile, the compendiums of the Virginal life composed by Thomas à Kempis and Surius were held nearly only in the hands of those skilled in Latin. But the knowledge of the Surian labor, together with his work, spread more widely. Therefore, lest unlettered men should be longer deprived of the fruit of so great an example, first of all Michael d'Esne, Lord of Bettencur, honorary page of Philip II King of Spain, having first passed into quiet leisure among the muses, then into the Order of Priests, when at Douai, which he had chosen as the seat of his retirement, he strove to profit himself and others by translating the Lives of various Saints into the French language; he gathered an elegant synopsis of the Life of St. Lidwina from the Surian epitome, which among the Lives of Saints collected in one volume, came forth at Douai from the Bellerian presses in the year 1597; at the end of which very year the same Michael was consecrated Bishop of Tournai; and with that title is read inscribed to the same Life of the Virgin of Schiedam, separately printed in smaller form at Douai in the year 1608. But in the first year of this century the whole Surian epitome, without any restriction, had come forth in French at the same place Douai, then came forth whole, together with the Life of St. Euphrosyne of Alexandria, translated from the work of the same Surius, by the zeal of Lord Walrand Caoult the Priest, and had been dedicated to the illustrious Matron Lady Mary of Renty, Countess of Falkenberg, married to Lord Gascon Spinola, Governor of the Duchy of Limburg and of the parts across the Maas for the Princes of Belgium.

[17] other compendiums in Latin In the year 1598 Francis Harée reduced the Lives collected by Surius into a Latin compendium, and among them the Life of St. Lidwina, and again published it in an augmented work in the year 1605. Peter de Ribadeneira of our Society did the same in Spanish in Flos Sanctorum, so often printed and reprinted, and translated into almost all the European languages. Others and still others followed, and especially our Heribert Rosweide in Belgian, Spanish, Belgian, in the Lives or Eulogies of Holy Virgins. About the year 1637, our friend R. P. William Thiersaut S.J., having compared the writings of Surius and Kempis together, and with additions which Molanus and Le Mire suggested, with a new and elegant style and in the French idiom, another French Life from Surius and Kempis. published the Life of our Saint with the types of Sebastien Chapelet, which is now at Paris worn in the hands of the pious everywhere. It must be pardoned to him, that not knowing whence Kempis had received his, he said in the Preface, that both he and Brugman had transcribed their Lives from some more ancient one, which has perished, with only superfluous things rejected and shortened; which only Kempis and Surius profess to have done. It must also be pardoned to him that in chapter 3 of his Life he judged that the author of that more ancient Life was John Gualteri: since we have already taught that it could be believed to have been compiled not by John Gualteri; but by John Gerlaci, cousin and domestic of the Virgin. Finally in the year 1657 Louis Jacobi, also a Priest of our Society, submitted Brugman's last composition rendered by him into Belgian, to be published by the same type as these things now are being printed, under the title Speculum Virginale, and Belgian from Brugman. together with the Life of B. Isabelle of France translated from the French of Nicolas Causinus into the same Belgian language, of whom on August 31 more will have to be said.

EARLIER LIFE

From the Teutonic MS. of John Gerlaci, cousin and domestic of the Virgin, Rendered into Latin and augmented from other documents, by John Brugman of the Order of Minors, then Preacher throughout Holland, contemporary. Which is held in our MS Codex.

Lidwig or Lidwina, the Virgin, at Schiedam in Holland (B.)

BHL Number: 4923, 4927

BY JOHN BRUGMAN FROM MSS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] "Come and see the works of the Lord, who has placed prodigies upon the earth: because behold, says the Lord, I work a work in your days, which not everyone who hears will believe." Ps. 45:9 ^a Although for the profit of spiritual life, and also for the instruction of morals, the examples of the earlier Saints ought to suffice for us, who beholding the conversation of the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, became imitators of him. God providing for souls and bodies, Yet because the same Savior says, "My Father works even until now, and I work," not only whatever bodily things, for the use of the human body; but also spiritual things, for the use of the spirit and soul: it is worthy indeed, that we who each year gather the bodily benefits divinely renewed, through the increases of produce and fruits, as necessary supports of bodies; we should much more studiously seek the divinely procured, offered and presented, solicitously, edifying nourishments of soul and spirit, to be stored in the granary of the mind, and commit them to Scripture for the edification and profit of posterity; because for the salvation of the spirit, since it is nobler than the body, greater solicitude is certainly to be applied than for the salvation of the body. John 5:17

[2] Of these vital and spiritual nourishments of the soul, seminaries, the heavenly Husbandman, who wrought the same in diverse ways and manners of old among the Saints of both sexes of the New and Old Testament, has planted in a most copious multitude in these latest times in the double field in both he cultivated Liduina, namely of the body and spirit of a certain Virgin: her body indeed, with a kind of plow of unheard of tribulations and infirmities from the ages, purging it by digging around and plowing, so that it could bear much fruit in patience: but her spirit with ineffable divine consolations, as if with an upper watering, pouring over it, lest she should fail equally in spirit and body, in such great tribulations equally spiritual and bodily. Which both, namely as much her tribulations as also her consolations, were so great and such, that they cannot only not be expressed, but neither estimated nor thought: to which although many simply give faith and belief; some however (who walking according to the flesh and abounding according to the wisdom of the flesh, do not perceive those things which are of the spirit of God) contradict in heart and voice. beyond what carnal wisdom can grasp. Whence not undeservedly on account of such is said above, "Come and see the works of the Lord, who has placed prodigies upon the earth: because behold, says the Lord, I work a work in your days, which not everyone who hears will believe": not indeed because all will not believe; but only, because judging according to the reason of the flesh, they do not believe, because what are impossible with men, are possible with God.

[3] not for this one, Nor is it a wonder if in this Virgin, those things which are done divinely, they do not believe: since also, as the venerable Bede says, "the crowds, who seemed less learned, marveling at the deeds of the Lord; the scribes and Pharisees always either denied the same, or blasphemed what they could not deny": whence also in the Gospel of John it is said: "Hath any of the Pharisees or of the Princes believed in him? John 5:48 but the crowd, which knoweth not the Law; they are accursed." But that the believers of these wondrous things might be confirmed in faith, but for those about to believe faithfully and the unbelievers might be invited to faith; the pious Lord, who alone does great wonders, deigned to glorify her with wondrous signs and miracles, also before her own eyes and those of others: as if by his work he seemed to say: "If you do not believe me, at least believe my works wrought about her." Not only that, but he also sometimes deigned to send down from heaven; so that faith and belief might be applied to his gifts, which concerning her were divinely worked, these things are written, to rouse devotion, as will be clear below. Although therefore, roused by the stings of my own devotion, I have gathered a few, and truly very few, of these wonders, as delicate dishes, in this little work: yet I did not do this, that I might only satisfy myself and my own devotion; but that to all readers or hearers, from the consideration of the divine goodness and ineffable piety of Christ the Lord, toward this his humble creature, matter and incitement of devotion might be provided: so that with the goodness of Christ considered, they might be provoked to the grace of a better life and to the hope of obtaining mercy.

[4] from testimonies and documents most worthy of faith. Let those who are going to read these things know, that I received the same for the greater part from the mouth of Lord John Walter of Leiden; who was for nearly eight years the Confessor of that Virgin, and had learned these things from her own revelation; partly from the writings of John Gerlaci, cousin of the same Virgin, who for many years stayed in her house; partly from the letter, ^b which the Rectors of the city of Schiedam, in testimony of her infirmities, handed over to Lord John Angeli of Dordrecht, of the Premonstratensian Order of ^c Marienwart, who for then was Curate of the church of the same city; but few from the mouth of others worthy of faith: yet all through the correction or approval of the aforesaid Lord John Confessor of this Virgin, and John Gerlaci. What however according to the truth of their conscience I could perceive, I have more cautiously, as I was able, commended to writing, asking the goodness of the Holy Spirit and the eternal and divine truth, that, if anything less consonant with the truth has been written, it should publicly erase and correct it; lest false be mixed with true, and true be confounded with false.

NOTES.

INDEX OF CHAPTERS.

The first Roman number designates the titles of this Life, as they are in the MS.; the second Barbarian, the titles of the Chapters of the Teutonic Life, corresponding to this Latin.

CHAPTER I.

St. Lidwina's birth, devotion toward the Mother of God, will to preserve virginity.

CHAP. 1.

[5] In the Western part of Holland is situated a certain city, named Schiedam, ^a which also in its Western part has a port, which through the ^b Maas extending into the Western sea, opens a passage to all parts of the world. At Schiedam in Holland, In this city, in the time of Duke Albert, ^c Count of Holland, who had been the son of Louis ^d the Emperor, there was a certain man named Peter: who although he was noble according to worldly dignity and sprung from a military progeny, yet came to such poverty, that in the time of Duke William, ^e son of the aforesaid Duke Albert and his successor in the County, by guarding the nocturnal watches of the city, he sought the necessaries of life for himself. But the father of this Peter, John by name, after the death of his wife, remaining for more than fifty years in this life and in widowhood, with his grandfather John a most religious man, namely until he was made nearly ninety years old, exercised such great continence and abstinence, that he never knew a woman, and twice fasted on bread and water through the week, ^f [and only once a week, namely on the Lord's day at dinner, ate flesh. At whose death Satan seeing that he could not approach him or harm him, raised such great tumult in other parts of the house, that the earthen vessels were broken, yet without detriment or spilling of butter, which was kept in one of them.]

[6] But the son of this John, by name Peter, when according to the common manner of seculars he had spent the years of his life simply and in many labors, with his father Peter, and mother Petronilla, for acquiring the necessaries of life; took a wife, named Petronilla, a woman indeed of virtue, from the village of ^g Ketel near Schiedam: of whom he first begot four sons, of noble birth but slender fortune, then one daughter, of whom especially is our intention in this little work, and subsequently again four sons. [But because by the Lord's voice it is said, "Everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted"; and he according to divine permission simply endured to lose the height of earthly dignity, he begot from her a daughter named Lydwich, or Lidia, born at that time on Palm Sunday, in that very hour when in the church the Passion of the Lord was being sung: whose merits of sanctity made him much greater to God than the dignity of human generation to the world: for through her his name was written in the book of life, whose carnal dignity was so abolished before the world.] Matt. 23:12

[7] In the birth of all of whom when their mother suffered such great difficulty, she is born on Palm Sunday, that with nearly each one, for about two or three days she labored: in the birth of this daughter however she suffered no difficulty at all. For on Palm Sunday having entered the church, when she felt the time of bringing forth was at hand, with swiftness returning home, and as if without great pain, at the time of Mass, when the Passion of the Lord as has been said was being sung in the church, she brought forth this daughter, in the year of the Lord 1380, on the 15th ^h day before the Kalends of April. ⁱ [Not however without great mystery did she obtain such a name: for in the vulgar her name Lydwyt, and is called Lydwy is compounded namely from two syllables, namely LYD and WYT, which seems to signify, "Be spread wide," that is, "to be enlarged in passions or patience": and this on account of the multitude indeed of tribulations, which were to come upon her by divine ordination. Rightly also she is called in Latin Lidia, because spiritually and by the imitation of works she deserved to receive daily in hospitality the blessed Apostles, whom Lydia, or Lydia. that seller of purple of Thyatira in the Acts of the Apostles is read to have once received in bodily hospitality.] Acts 16:15

CHAP. II.

[8] Before her birth it happened that ^k a certain anthropomorphite (image-maker), having entered the city of Schiedam, bore with him a certain wooden image of B. Mary the Virgin, an image of B. V. celebrated at Schiedam which he wished to transport, placed on a ship, to the fairs ^l of Antwerp, that he might sell it there. And behold, when the sailors wished to move the ship from the shore or from the land, they found a thing full of miracle. For since the image was of such lightness, that even one man could carry it; and at other times the sailors could direct the ship wherever they wished without difficulty; yet now twenty men or more, laboring with all their efforts, could not move it. Whence considering finally, that the presence of the image was the cause of the difficulty, they thought themselves admonished by this, as if the same image were choosing that place, that it might dwell there; that anthropomorphite, having taken counsel, without much deliberation, sold it for a less worthy price to the Rectors of the church of the same city. Who designating a place for it in the church, gathered in the succession of time a singular choir of men and women bound together: who up to now show devoutly singular reverence to the same image, in honor of the blessed and glorious Mary.

[9] as an eight-year-old she piously used to visit, When therefore this Virgin was seven or eight years old, she bore such great devotion and affection in her heart for the same image, that when she brought breakfast to her two brothers frequenting the schools, before she returned home, having entered the church, she would honor the same image with the Angelic salutation, as she was able. When therefore she was rebuked by her mother for the delay of her return; she answered that she had entered the church and saluted the blessed Virgin, and that she had smiled back at her: hearing which, her mother rested content. Therefore with the years of infancy passed, when she was acting in the age of childhood, she began to be so strong in great beauty of body and industry of mind and other gifts of nature divinely conferred, that when she was twelve years old, she was asked in marriage by many. at twelve she rejects the mention of marriages, To which when her father exhorted her, but her mother because of the tenderness of her childish age rather persuaded them not to molest her; she herself answered her father constantly, that he could by no means induce her to this; nay rather, if she did not find another way of escaping, she would so treat herself, that no one would ask her for the companionship of marriage. Whence she begged the Lord daily, that he would take away all carnal and harmful love from her heart, that she might love him alone, her God and Lord, with a pure heart and body.

CHAP. III.

[10] Hearing her prayer the omnipotent and merciful God, who had chosen her from eternity for himself as a bride, in a wondrous and unheard of way from the ages, and she prays for the disfigurement of her beauty. what in her seemed lovable and useful to men, he indeed rendered despicable and useless to them, but lovable and desirable to himself, [so that in her also might be professed what the Apostle writes to the Corinthians saying: "The weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong; and the ignoble things of the world and the contemptible hath God chosen, and the things that are not, that he might destroy the things that are; that no flesh should glory in his sight." 1 Cor. 1:27 But this also most aptly agrees with the interpretation of her name: for Lidia is interpreted, "Born to him," namely to the Lord; ^m or "His edification," that is, of the Lord. Rightly indeed is she called "Born to the Lord," who having entered this world, not in human manner, nor for human uses and wills, but for divine uses alone she lived and for his will: whence she could also truly say with the Apostle: "I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me." Gal. 2:20 "Edification of the Lord" she is also most congruently called, because only by divine power such great wonders of tribulations and patience and consolations could be wrought in her.]

NOTES.

CHAPTER II.

The beginnings and progress of Lidwina's infirmities, marvelous abstinence from food and drink.

[11] When therefore, with the 14th ^a year of her age completed, she was now attaining the 15th, Worn down by illness, and somehow healed, namely in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1395, she was sick with a certain infirmity, from which however she recovered. And around the feast of the Purification of the most choice Virgin Mary, at the end namely of the 15th year of her age (for around Palm Sunday, as has been said, was the annual day of her birth) in icy weather, invited by her companion virgins, and having obtained permission from her father, she went out with them behind her house, ^b with wooden shoes shod with iron, as was the custom there, she slips on the ice: and with a broken rib, on her feet put on, to run upon the ice. When a certain girl of her companions, passing in swift course over the ice, came to these standing there; and wishing to stop her step there, yet unable as she wished, grasped this virgin Lydia; Lydia herself fell upon a certain heap of fragments of ice so violently, that the smaller rib of her right side was broken: from which fracture many inconveniences came upon her. And first indeed a strong abscess grew around the said rib, [for the curing of which, although her parents expended much, yet they could not obtain for her the health which they desired.

[12] A certain physician from Delft, master Andrew by name, affirmed this very thing, and as with prophetic mouth foretold, that even if they should expend a great sum, she suffers an incurable abscess: yet they would not profit anything in obtaining her health. The same ^c physician also said, that God was going to work such and so great supernatural things concerning the same girl, that he would wish, for the weight or such a quantity of gold, as the weight of her head could be weighed, that she might be his own daughter. But since the said abscess could be cured by no one, and for a long time from place to place, from bed to bed, by the magnitude of the infirmity requiring, she was transferred; at length in the 16th year of her age] on the vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, of which finally broken she vomits pus; with her father coming to her that he might console her, she leaping from the place in which she was lying, fell upon the knees of her father. In which fall the abscess being broken, the pus flowing from it, through her mouth, by means of vomiting, was flowing so copiously, that it was even measured in dishes and was poured into a bronze pot. By occasion of this fall and vomiting she was so weakened, that she was thought almost dead.

[13] and gravely weakened, From thence she began to labor with continual infirmities, in which, before she began to taste spiritual things, by wretched necessity compelling, she begged bodily consolations, though wretched. For in the first three years (in the first two of which she was led or carried to church for the sacred communion on the holy solemnity of Easter) as long as she could either walk with her feet, or after being deprived of the use of her feet could use a staff or little stool, she desires only water. at home or outside by creeping, she went around in some manner for the sake of comfort: sometimes approaching the ditch, she drank copiously water, although turbid and dregs-filled, but soon vomited what she drank. Also coming to the fire, if she had found a boiler beside the fire or a pot with tepid water, soon thence drank as much as she could, which however she immediately poured out by vomiting.

[14] These beginnings of her pains were not without miracles; sought to death by an enemy for within this three-year period it happened that two men, roused against each other, one pursued the other with a drawn sword, that he might wound or kill him; but the other fled into the house or little cell of this Virgin, that he might escape the hands of the pursuer. Whom the other pursuing, when he furiously asked of the Virgin's mother Petronilla, whether he had entered her house; she wishing by her lie to save the fleeing one, and to preserve the other from blood, answered that he had not entered. Then bursting into the cell of her sick daughter, he asked, if he had entered there: she however answered simply, that yes. At which the mother moved gave a slap to her daughter, as if she had added treachery to the misery, which she was suffering on account of her infirmities. she makes him invisible to him. Then the daughter constantly answered, that she had spoken the truth on this account, that she hoped that the truth would hide him: which also was done. For he who was sought, was standing before the eyes of the seeker, but could not be seen at all. Seeing which her mother, magnificently preferring her daughter's faith to her own faith, began to be more affected toward her, and to bear her infirmities more tolerably; giving thanks that so great an evil conceived had been prevented by such a judgment.

CHAP. IV.

[15] After these things her infirmities so grew stronger and multiplied, that deprived of all the strengths of her body, she was at length compelled to lie entirely on a little bed, finally bound to the bed so that in the space of thirty-three years before her death, she never touched the earth. Meanwhile up to the 19th year of her sickness, from the beginning, she used very little and quite incredible nourishment; namely sometimes a modest fragment of apple, of the thickness of the Host which is consecrated on the altar for communicating, which however in a ^d little pair of tongs was customarily heated at the fire: sometimes very little of bread with a small ^e sip or draught of foaming beer; and sometimes a little of sweet ^f milk. After however, on account of weakness, she could no longer use such things, she admits very little food and drink, for some years she used in the week a little pure wine, to the measure of the fourth part of one ^g quart, without mixture of water: which however afterwards for some years had to be mixed with water. Sometimes she took a little ^h sugar or cinnamon or dates or nutmeg. After these things when she could no longer use these, either eating or drinking, she took water alone, namely the fourth part of one measure of Maas water in a week, which by the singular grace of God was to her of such sweetness, that it exceeded all the savor of wine, about which she gave thanks to the Lord. [She had also at that time such grace from the Lord, that from the mere taste she distinguished between Maas water flowing down and flowing back: for because the Maas there flows into the sea, according to the ebb and flow of the sea, the Maas too there seems to flow down ⁱ or flow back.]

[16] And this alone was her refreshment from the first three years, up to nearly the 19th year of her sickness from the beginning inclusively: [which is partly testified to by the letter, which the Rectors of the city of Schiedam handed over in testimony of her infirmity; and for 19 years nothing at all, also the writings of John Gerlaci her cousin; and afterwards Lord John Walter of Leiden, Confessor of this Virgin, who heard this more fully from her mouth.] From then until her death she used wholly no bodily food or drink, as she herself testified about herself. [But she said in the year of the Lord 1422 after the Exaltation of the holy Cross to four of our Brothers Minor from ^l Brielle, that for now in eight years she had not eaten or drunk. Which years computed with those which remained until her death, which was in the year of the Lord 1433, together make about nineteen years.] At that time also she said ^m to the same, that for now in twenty-three years she had not seen the sun or moon, nor had her feet trod the earth: which also computed with the rest up to her death together make more than thirty-three years. [From the time however that she did not touch the earth until her death, she used bread scarcely to the value of one gross.]

CHAP. V.

[17] [But that I may pursue her infirmities and state after the first three years, I shall add the rest of the aforesaid letter, which speaks of these up to the year of the Lord 1421 on the day before the feast of B. Mary Magdalene. with worms gushing from her body, Therefore according to that letter, which in this agrees sufficiently with the preceding, within those seven last years, namely] from the year of the Lord 1414 to the year of the Lord 1421, she had used no bodily refreshment, nor had she slept within the aforesaid years as much as the space of two nights could take. And she lay so wretchedly, that she lost even her intestines, and many grey worms, full of grey water, having the thickness of the tip ⁿ of one of the spindles which women use in spinning, and the length of about a joint of a human finger, were eating her flesh; deprived of nearly all movement, yet no stench was generated from this around her. And if sometimes it was necessary to move or turn her in bed; then it was necessary to bind her body around the shoulders firmly with a cloth or another band: for otherwise she was in danger of being dismembered limb by limb.

[18] But from the aforesaid 14th year of the Lord until the 21st, for 17 years she lies on her back, in no way could she be moved or turned; but she lay for those seven years and more on her back, namely supine, until death: nor could she move any of her members, except her head with her left arm and shoulder. From that time she used sparing bodily support and food: and afterwards, when she used absolutely nothing, very often she emitted blood, through her mouth, and nostrils, ^o and ears, and through the other passages of the body. Which blood when she could not vomit by the mouth on account of some difficulty, she often emits copious blood, the same through hidden passages of the body sometimes she emitted in such great quantity, that her whole bed seemed as if soaked with blood. [Whence also honest matrons, who frequently surrounded her bed, sometimes tried to cover the same blood with their garments; preferring to be stained by it, than that so great a flow of hers should come to the sight of men.]

[19] Now the same Virgin labored during the aforesaid seven years, she suffers tertian fevers, namely from the year of the Lord 1414 until the 21st, also beyond this with a very grievous tertian fever of which below will be said in chapter VII, whose access first she had with an indescribable heat, which was similarly followed by an indescribable cold; then followed the aforesaid heat, and afterwards again cold: which alternation lasted for nearly half a year. But afterwards she had the same fever first with great and indescribable cold, afterwards

with great heat; which lasted, until the shaking of such fevers wholly ceased. With the fever ceasing, with alienation from the senses: she remained so in some way without feeling, that entirely ignorant of herself, she could neither hear nor speak. [p] For when she felt the approach of the abcession of the fevers, she prepared herself for the exercises of the Lord's Passion, and commended her sufferings to his Passion: which carried her away through excess of mind so from bodily things, that, as has been said, she knew neither herself nor any other thing. But during that same fever, she vomited through her mouth such great quantity of red water, that its quantity within two years could be calculated at two vessels.

[20] [Asked however, sometimes, whence came to her such great and such material, she confesses her body is refreshed by pious meditations; since however she took absolutely no food or drink; she on the contrary asked, whence came such abundance of humors in the vine, which however in winter time seems entirely dry and dead. For she said that she was as much strengthened in body from some good meditation, as anyone could be strengthened when he eats the most precious and most delicate dishes. She said also that unless the presence of men and her own infirmities had hindered, she would not have wondered, if on account of the abundance of divine grace, which she experienced, to the capacity of a [q] Hamburg vessel she might have nourished flesh.] About the year of the Lord 1412, she vomits her intestines without grievous smell. from the vehemence of her infirmities she vomited piece by piece her lung and liver with several intestines, yet without any stench: indeed whoever had touched them with his hands, her hands for nearly a day smelled so sweetly, as if she had touched aromatic species, as many at that time experienced.

NOTES.

CHAPTER III.

On the worms gushing from St. Lidwina's body, dropsy, and her other infirmities.

[21] She had also in her body three holes, having nearly the width of a palm; with worms gushing through the great hole of her belly from one of which, placed about the belly, sometimes the aforesaid worms flowed copiously. But a plaster was placed under this wound or hole, composed of honey and fresh wheat flour, that from it the aforesaid worms might suck: for otherwise they would have corroded her to death: but if the same plaster had been made of old flour, the worms would not have sucked from it, as experience taught. There was also mixed in the aforesaid, in the preparation of the plaster, ^a cream of milk or the fat of white eels or of their body: from which mixed together a plaster composed, there were placed upon the same the ashes of old beef flesh, dried in a furnace or oven and reduced to ashes.

[22] [On the occasion of this plaster something happened concerning her, the plaster is applied, which a certain one denying necessary things, which I judge worthy to be remembered for the sake of example, against the stingy and gluttonous. Lord Andrew of the Premonstratensian Order, Curate of the church of Schiedam, of whom below will be said in chapters XXXIII and XXXIV, on a certain day around Shrovetide had killed five or more capons, with which he would refresh the Rectors of the same city, whom he had invited to dinner. Therefore when the same Curate had entered to her, that he might hear her confession, the Virgin began to ask him, that he would give her the fat from one capon, for the preparation of the aforesaid plaster. Which when he refused, saying that the same capons would be quite lean, nor would all their fat suffice for fattening them when they were roasted; nonetheless the Virgin more earnestly begged that one be given to her; promising that she would in its place give him a measure of butter for their fattening. But with him still refusing, the Virgin answered, she herself finds them consumed by mice, "May God grant that they all be eaten by mice." The swift effect of which imprecation a little afterwards Lord John Pot the Priest, who also for a time had been the Confessor of the same Virgin, with joy announced to the Virgin. The Virgin herself also had a certain ulcer, to which as a remedy there were accustomed to be placed sections of apples, which are called "Metzers," of which the same Curate had an abundance. and henceforth is cautious to deny such things, When therefore at a certain time she had asked him coming in, that he would give her some of those apples, for her aforesaid necessity, and he had answered somewhat doubtfully, namely whether he had them, because he was unwillingly without them; returning home, when he had found himself to have more of them, and the Virgin had sent a messenger for the apples; he mindful of the former curse, which he had incurred concerning the fats of his capons, said, "I will give her some of them, lest they be eaten by dormice." These things then being inserted by a digression, let us return to that on account of which the digression was made.]

[23] Now when plasters of this kind were removed for change, there remained in them few grey worms, with black heads, having the length of nearly a human fingernail: nor did these plasters or worms emit any stench, With that hole cured dropsy succeeds, but rather great sweetness, as is known to many. [At that time there was in the diocese of Cologne a physician, who drawn by the fame of her sickness, for the cure of the aforesaid hole sent her a certain water, which in the groves of the aforesaid diocese in time of drought was accustomed to be gathered, dewed from heaven on a singular herb. From this water therefore, mixed with ^b cyndouwe water, when she had made some plasters, and had placed on the aforesaid hole for some years; that hole was cured and restored: after whose cure she felt such pains from dropsy, and the putrefaction of the intestines: that she would willingly have cut off the scar of the hole with a knife, if she could have received relief from the same pains.] Also the same Virgin was putrefied in the lower part, whence also the same part had to be obstructed with a certain cushion without a sack, having the size of a hand, fitted to this and filled with soft wool: [for otherwise her intestines would have entirely slipped out. Such and so great and so wondrous and great and many were the circumstances of the infirmities of the same Virgin, that neither fully nor clearly could they or can they be explained in word or writing. And these things indeed from the aforesaid letter, with certain things superadded, expressed word for word, how much consideration they require, let him who reads understand.]

CHAP. VI.

[24] Therefore the fame of her infirmities began to be spread far and wide. At the time when as has been said above in chapter IV she still used a small cup of water, which a physician investigating, there entered to her a certain famous physician or surgeon, Godefrid ^c of the Hague, physician of the aforesaid two Dukes Albert and William, sent by the same Duke William and his wife Lady ^d Margaret Countess of Holland, so that if he could he might search out the cause and root of the aforesaid putrefaction of her entrails, and apply a salutary remedy. Who as much as was permitted to him and to her sex, approaching her by sight and touch, first indeed received her unputrefied intestines, he finds them to proceed from the spine of the back. as best he could, in a basin; then examining the interior of the belly,

he found the aforesaid worms to flow from the putrefied marrow of her spine of the back, but judged the putrefaction by natural judgment to be caused, because she used no salt. Which being done, seeing that he could profit nothing in anything, he replaced her intestines in the belly as before: but the putrefied ones some years before her death had been buried in the cemetery: [but some hung near her on a pole. her putrefied intestines give forth a sweet fragrance. From which afterwards, dried, and with other earlier ones buried, with a certain particle dried up, which she kept by her in a little box, when it gave off a sort of aromatic fragrance to those smelling, as before, and on account of this she endured many visits and gatherings of those wishing to smell the same particle, wearied by their frequency, she ordered and asked from her brother, that he should bury the same little box with the aforesaid particle near the other intestines in the cemetery.]

[28] [By the urging of this Master Godefrid, the Cologne physician, the solicitude of the aforesaid physician for the Saint, of whom above in the preceding chapter was said, sent to this Virgin that water which is accustomed to be collected from the groves of the same diocese, about which also was said there: but the other, namely cyndouwe, he himself provided: and that it might not fail her after his death, he besought master Nicholas Reineri the apothecary, his son-in-law, and a certain prediction, that he should always procure an abundance of it for her.] The same master Godefrid also said, that she would be a dropsical within half a year, and would no longer drink, when the humors of the same sickness should pass the limits of her tongue by vomiting. Which also happened, and she fell into this dropsy about nineteen years before her death, in which also she used no food, nor drink, nor sleep. As however she used no natural nourishments, so she also emitted no natural superfluities through the stool or urine. Let the divinity working in these things be recognized.

[26] But the cause of her lack of sleep was this. In the manner of other men, [Drowsiness once generously overcome, who either on account of infirmity or diabolical temptation, are tempted by sleepiness rather at the time of the divine Office than at other times; she also at the same] time, in which either she was intent on her spiritual exercises, or the divine Office of High Mass was celebrated in the church, was wont to be tempted more than usual by the spirit of laziness or drowsiness. When therefore at that time she could sleep very little, and grieved heavily over a temptation of this kind, nor dared to consent to it; her Confessor, fearing danger to her senses, persuaded her no longer to resist, but on whatever festivity it came upon her, at whatever time or hour, she should prepare herself to sleep. Therefore on a certain festivity of Easter, when by the same temptation under High Mass she was burdened, Lidwina never sleeps again. and she on the contrary most violently resisted it; [just as in that first heavenly temptation, which cast the Angels consenting to it from the heavens; others who resisting persisted in humility, that they might no longer be able to fall by sinning, were divinely confirmed; so also she having completed this one victory over drowsiness,] was so divinely strengthened against it, that until her death she neither slept, nor was tempted by drowsiness.

CHAP. VII.

[27] Also she suffered very many other infirmities; namely excessive headaches until death, and manifold toothaches. Very often too until death she suffered diverse fevers, She suffers pains of the head, of the teeth, and as has been said dropsy for more than nineteen last years up to the hour of death. But also the disease of plague, [dropsy, of which she had three abscesses at the same time and once at a certain time.] Also a very great kidney stone before death [with which, as below in chapter XXXIX, she died. But as much as bodily sicknesses were growing in her, and bodily she was failing from them, so much was increased in her "strong as death" love of God and neighbor; so that, from the abundance of love, she dared in some manner to provoke God by prayers, of kidney stones, that he might multiply them upon her. For] when about fifteen years before her death, with plague raging, she before all had two abscesses of plague, one in the groin, and another in the breast near the heart she asked of the Lord, two abscesses of plague, that if these were from him and from his good pleasure he would add a third also to her, out of reverence for the holy Trinity: whose prayers God hearing, destined her a third in the cheek. For three years however or more before her death another plague abscess came upon her in the groin, which became putrid inside so, that she frequently drew several fragments of flesh from it. to which she asks a third to be added; [The remains of this abscess she kept in the inner parts of her body until her death. And, to briefly touch on many things, she labored with all the infirmities in general, with which commonly men are wont to be afflicted, which she bore with wondrous and unheard of patience from the ages, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified for her, who had borne much more for the salvation of the human race.

[28] a rupture in the forehead and lip, She also had a fracture, extending to about the middle of her nose; similarly also in her lower lip and chin; with which she was sometimes so burdened by the coagulation of blood made in it, that she could not speak perfectly. Her right eye was completely blind: but the left was so weak that it could not bear or see material light: wherefore she did not use it, neither by day nor by night, but continually lay in darkness. [If indeed at any time it happened that material light reached her, which shone from the altar which was in her cell, the impotence of sight, or from the too much opening of the curtain of her little bed, or from the removal of the boards of the wall of her same cell (which was done at the time of the fire, of which below in chapter XVII, when almost the whole city was burned, so that she might be taken out of the house through the hole of the wall, if the fire should invade her) immediately, because of this light of whatever kind, her eyes bled violently].

[29] For seventeen or eighteen or more years before her death, for a year she suffered a three-day fever: which having been done her Angel asked her, tertian fever, and that for the souls of Purgatory. if she had an affection for suffering the same fever longer, and this for the liberation of her friends who were in purgatory. And when she answered that she was prepared until death, the Angel said, that she was to suffer it until death, so however that through her she should liberate from purgatory all pertaining to her up to the ninth degree of consanguinity and innumerable others. [The same Angel also said, that all whom she should so liberate from purgatory by her prayers, or reduce to an amended life by word of exhortation or prayers, in the future life were to be under her protection, meanwhile she is strong with full senses, and she would preside over them as prince and lady]. She therefore suffered the aforesaid fevers so painfully, that it was comprehensible or utterable to no men: also quartan fevers [and sometimes daily. Although she was burdened with such great infirmities, yet she had so full a sense, also so lively a reason and memory, that when many even from distant parts for the sake of devotion or counsel frequently visited her, yet rarely would anyone depart from her, without taking back sound counsel].

[30] [Not only in spiritual things but also in bodily things she helped many as if through medicinal things, and the grace of healings, which I do not know whence she had learned: and she relieved many women burdened and endangered by childbirth with her counsels. Among these things however she was not puffed up, nor did she presume anything great about herself or her glory in the present state or future; with fruit for those visiting her. but fixing the step of her mind in humility, and bearing all things most patiently out of charity, as if after this life she were still to suffer purgatory, she greatly feared. She had obtained from the Lord such great grace, that, as her domestics used to relate from her mouth, the holy Angels used to number the footsteps of those, who visited her for the sake of devotion. Wherefore when visitors sometimes on this account complained of being wearied, she consoling them exhorted them not to grieve over this weariness, on account of the aforesaid cause.]

CHAP. VIII.

[31] On a certain occasion the sacred Lenten time being at hand, when on the third day before ^f the head of the fast (Ash Wednesday), according to the custom of that time, she perceived by hearing people near her cell in the street busying themselves with games and dissolute things; she prayed the Lord, that, she obtains a new pain in the leg. if she were well pleasing to him, or if he himself were working those things which she suffered about her; he would deign to show this to her by some sign of new sickness. Which prayer of hers the Lord hearing, gave her a new trouble in one of her legs; by whose inconvenience she was so vexed until the next then Easter, that conscious of her own infirmity, she no longer dared to ask for an increase of her infirmities. Yet she was accustomed to say in her daily infirmities, that she would still wish to continue them willingly for forty years, indeed until the end of the world, for the conversion of any sinner, or for the liberation of any soul from purgatory.

NOTES.

CHAPTER IV.

What on the occasion of her mother and father Lidwina endured. Time

of her death she understands from a pious Priest, and she in turn indicates to him when he is to die.

CHAP. IX.

[32] With eight years passed from the beginning of her sickness, namely in the year of the Lord 1403, About to die, she offers all her merit to her mother, her mother Petronilla fell into a sickness, from which she also died. When therefore approaching death she was complaining that she had lived not justly enough, yet said that she willingly wished to die, so much that she would not wish even the smallest little worm to die for her, so that thereby she might escape death; she asked of her daughter, that by her merits and intercessions she would come to her aid after death. Hearing which the daughter compunct, and heartily compassionating her mother, and exhorting her to bear the scourge of the Lord patiently, and death; offered and handed over and resigned to her, for her relief, whatever up to then in the exercises and labors of virtues and endurance of patience of merit she had obtained. Which when her mother had gratefully received, she seeing, or rather thinking, and as if about to restore the loss she girds herself with a haircloth belt: herself emptied of all the good works which before she could have had, girded herself with a certain haircloth belt, having the width of three thumbs, as if to begin a new penance. Which after some years, on account of the dropsical humors, penetrating her body and skin, being sufficiently worn down and therefore laid aside; she is girded with another, and successively with several others, the former being putrefied and thrown off; until with the last of them she migrated from this life.

[33] concerning which some wondrous things are recorded: [Of these one, as below will be said in chapter XXIX, in the year of the Lord 1426, when placed near hell she saw John Angeli of Dordrecht, formerly Curate of the Schiedam church, in torments; from the terror and anguishes which she suffered there, it burst from her body; not in the bonds of the tie, but in the middle and in an intact place. But the last, obtained by Lord John Walter her Confessor, with which she had been girded for nearly three years, after her death indeed loosed from her body, but whole in every part and in the bonds of the tie, was miraculously found near her. ^a Of these belts in the places of each will be said.] She also used for a time woolen shirts, made for her by the sisters of the Third Order, with whose sleeves her arms used to be clothed, with the inner part the front of her body covered, but the back part left at her neck and throat. ^b

CHAP. X.

[34] But after the death of her mother, the silver jewelry ^c and other utensils left to her by her, on account of necessity, she distributes the jewelry of her mother to the poor, she sold for a much less worthy price; and the sum of money received from it she distributed so generously to the poor, that she came to extreme poverty. For as long as she could, she indeed used a bed of feathers; but when on account of the multitude of wounds she could not bear the same, because, with the covering of the feather pillow consumed, the same feathers clinging hardened in her wounds; with the bed removed, she lay for a time on bare straw; and also for three years on her bare back on a hard ^d plank taken from the bottom of a vessel. she sustains a most sharp cold. Also in that strong and most harsh winter, which about the year of the Lord 1408 so intensified, that it exceeded the winters of many preceding and following years, both in length of time and in harshness of cold; from too vehement cold and nakedness, frequently she so stiffened, and her limbs so blackened, that she seemed like a dead trunk without feeling and frozen: also the tears of her eyes were stiffened from the frost into ice, so that she could not see unless by the means of the fire they were loosened: and she suffered very many other inconveniences, on account of which, unless the Author of nature had supernaturally ruled and governed her and disposed otherwise concerning her, she undoubtedly would have been dead.

[35] In all these and such many necessities, when she herself according to the voice of the Apostle was always mindful of the poor, so that, by subtraction of her own necessaries, she came to the aid of their necessities; yet the rich of this world and those who gloried in their delights and wealth wholly forgot her. Heb. 13:2 To her known in a vision, At that time among many religious Fathers, experienced in spiritual grace, with the affection of familiar charity there was to her the venerable Father Lord Woremboldus ^e, formerly Confessor and Rector of the Sisters of the Third Order at St. Cecilia in Utrecht [who also for the purity of his heart was carried to be visited by frequent consolations of divine revelations. To the knowledge of this Father she had not come by human indication, but by divine revelation]. For when she herself, about the middle of the time of her sickness, on the festivity of the Lord's Annunciation and Incarnation, was carried away to the contemplation of celestial things; it happened that the same Lord Weremboldus at the same hour was similarly rapt to the same: and from this contemplation made at the same time to both, they conceived a mutual knowledge, which they had not before.

[36] Lord Woremboldus approaching, Whence also the same venerable Father, desiring also bodily to know and see her, whom he had so known in spirit; entering to her, and with the eye of heartfelt compassion looking at her calamity, first indeed gave her about thirty gross for buying two linens; and then entering the church, having ascended the pulpit, in the sermon which he was speaking to the people, with grave rebukes castigated their stinginess and unmercifulness; as those who from their abundance did not help such a creature of God, living in such great necessity. he understands he will live until Pentecost, And deservedly: for proven virtue rebukes the foolish. This reverend Father therefore, with nearly half the time of the sickness of this holy Virgin passed, entering to her, when among other mutual conversations he said, that before Easter it had been in some way divinely revealed to him, as if before the same Easter he were to pass from this world to the Father. She on the contrary answered, that he should rather expect until the coming Pentecost [and that he would visit her after Easter. Which because it was true, the outcome of things afterwards proved: for he died on the vigil of Pentecost.]

[37] and he foretells that the time of her passion is half remaining. Then when she was complaining of being burdened by the length of her infirmities, he answered, that she ought still to embrace the patient endurance of the same, because perhaps she had filled half of their time. And indeed this happened thus on both sides to be future, as the outcome of the matter afterwards proved. Now he said that she had laid in the celestial things a very broad and ample foundation, whose structure to be built above could not be completed in a brief time. [But the aforesaid venerable Father dead after nearly nine days, was deferred from ^f the sight of the glory of the divine face, as it was revealed to this Virgin.] Who when he was still sick, certain Sisters of Schiedam on the Vigil of Pentecost having entered to this Virgin, were saying that they wished to cross to Utrecht, to visit their Father who was thus sick. To whom she answered, that they should hasten as quickly as possible, if they wished to see him living. When therefore toward evening they entered Utrecht, they heard the bells solemnly rung, for the funeral rites of him whom they had come to visit.

CHAP. XI.

[38] Also the father of this holy Virgin, the aforesaid Peter, had come to such great, as has been said, To the father of the Saint bearing poverty strongly, poverty, that to procure for himself the necessaries of life, he had exposed himself for guarding the nocturnal watches of the city of Schiedam at whatever price: for he did not wish to devour the alms of his daughter, which he said were the sins of men; but rather that she might spend them on pious uses. [Whence also in the aforesaid strong winter, about which in the preceding Chapter was said, he was so burdened by such watches, that he carried off the contraction of the larger joint ^h of his right foot from the cold.] At that time the aforesaid Duke William, Count of Holland, entered the aforesaid city, with his wife Lady Margaret the Countess and much other company: which Duke, having learned of his poverty, moved by compassion for reverence of the sanctity of his daughter, ordered him [that, as much as he thought would suffice for him, for annual expenses and necessities, he should confidently ask from him. When therefore he had simply asked] for twelve French crowns; [the Duke himself marveling at the modesty of the one asking, Duke William grants sustenance; ordered the crowns asked to be given him] each year; asserting that he was also prepared to double them, lest he should be subject to such great necessity or misery. [And first indeed faithfully, but with the succession of time more coldly they were given him.]

[39] a fire arisen about her But after the death of the mother of the same holy Virgin, when her father was still performing the watches of the city; on a certain time with her father absent in the evening, her brother (who himself also after his father observed the night watches in the city) had placed a burning candle beside the head of her little bed, in a higher place of the corner. Which falling into the straw, when it had burned a great part of the straw, in which she was lying, with the Virgin herself intent on her devotions and exercises with her face covered; when with the crackling fires returned to herself, with eyes opened, she saw herself placed in the middle of the fire, and no one present to extinguish it, with her left hand she shook off and extinguished the whole fire, unharmed she herself extinguishes it. yet without injury to the same hand, with all marveling, who in the morning having entered to her, from the burned pillow and bed ⁱ saw what had been done, but her in no way injured. Although mention is made here of the bed, though above was said that she did not lie in a bed but in straw, she did not use this bed, but either a son or a daughter of her brother, who day and night with the succession of time served her; she herself however lay around the bed in the straw.]

[40] her aged father assiduous in visiting churches, [Therefore the aforesaid Peter, the father of this Virgin, through the alms granted to him by the aforesaid Duke William having obtained food and clothing, and content with these, with the watches deserted, frequented the church, and attended to his other devotions as he was able: seeing which Satan and envying his devotion, prepared the contrivances of his wickedness for him. For when already from old age he had become of such great weakness, that he could scarcely walk, without returning home frequently injured by falling from a small cause; yet so fervently he visited the churches, although against the will of his daughter on account of frequent falls and injuries of this kind, as if he were still carrying on the age of youth and adolescence. On a certain vigil of Pentecost therefore, with his daughter protesting, he went out to cross to Vespers: and behold he met a devil, in the form of a man known to him, who was inviting him that they should go together a little way out of the city for a walk, as if they were still going to come sufficiently early to Vespers. hearing him cast into a ditch by a demon, And when he truly believed him to be a man, and did not notice the wickedness of the devil, and consented to him;

they came together outside the gate of the city, to the place which is called ^k Damlaan. And behold suddenly the devil rushing upon him, without him seeing or feeling, cast him into a ditch and disappeared. Where when he began to sink, it happened that a certain cart-driver known to him, contrary to his custom with a cart along the same road from the field returning to the city: she is greatly shocked. who seeing Peter lying in the ditch, and unable to help himself in anything, extracted and placed on the cart bore him into the city; and immediately the rumor struck the ears of all, as if Peter had been drowned and was dead. Which fame when it also reached the ears of his daughter, she was so disturbed, that she always had in memory this vigil of Pentecost, on account of her father's misery.]

CHAP. XII.

These therefore and very briefly, indeed almost nothing in comparison to all that she suffered bodily, are said simply: which how great weight they are, [So many of her afflictions let him who can, attend.] Now to the consideration of spiritual charisms, with which the Lord, her God and spouse, deigned to anoint her, [and to soften her tribulations above her participants, just as he scourged her above them, gathering nevertheless a few and truly very few from innumerable,] let us pass. But for narrating these things who is suitable? the multitude of consolations responded. The beginning however of her spiritual consolations was in the exercise of the Lord's Passion and in the sacred communion of the Lord's Body. [For lest in such great tribulations of her infirmities she should fail from impatience, the pious Lord, the true paraclete and consoler of the mourning, in many ways and in many modes, namely with diverse consolations of divine revelations, as with softening ointments, day and night deigned to refresh her; so that as it is written, according to the multitude of pains which were in her body, also divine consolations gladdened her soul.] Ps. 93:19

NOTES.

CHAPTER V.

The beginning and manner of the divine consolations and raptures of St. Lidwina.

[42] With three or four years passed therefore from the beginning of her infirmities, Bearing the infirmities of the first three years most grievously; when still in the manner of other sick persons she was rather desiring the health of the body than to be so languishing, and sometimes murmured over the present tribulations; seeing also her companion girls, who for the sake of visiting sometimes entered to her, whole and safe and rejoicing, but herself languishing; thence she sometimes grieved so much, that she even wept most bitterly, and could admit no consolation from anyone. Her Confessor Lord John Pot entering to her, who had been accustomed to communicate her twice a year at that time; when he also could not by any consolations induce her, that she should restrain herself from such tears and pains; she is taught to seek comfort from the Lord's Passion: he persuaded her to conform herself to the divine will, and to exercise herself in the Lord's passion; promising that through it she would easily receive consolation. Therefore having asked the manner of such exercise, and having received it from the same Priest, when she wished to exercise herself according to the handed-down manner, and did not taste the Prophetic flour in it, as if death had been in the pot, with disgust rushing in at once, whatever she had received, she cast from her heart, which is the seat of meditations.

[43] which at first was difficult, Then when he as Blessed Jerome says, "Persistent labor conquers all things" exhorted her to do some violence to herself in these things, by which she could overcome this disgust, and she consented to him persuading; at length the habit induced by violence with the succession of time generated such great sweetness in her, that she was saying, that if through one Angelic salutation she could have recovered the health of her body, afterwards by use it became very easy for her. yet she would not have done or wished it. Whence also enticed by the sweetness of the Lord's Passion, she turned over by thinking at set times day and night the history of the same Passion, divided according to the manner of the seven Canonical Hours into seven parts: in the exercises of which, as has been said, she was filled with such great sweetness and joy, that now not she herself, but he whose Passion she was recalling, in turn seemed to bear, what she had so far seemed to suffer. Matt. 10:20 [And truly so it was. For as he himself says, "For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you": so also concerning him it is written, "The Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world," that is from those and for those who were from the foundation of the world. Apoc. 5:12 About this also above has been said in Chapter V, and below will be said in Chapter XIV about the state of her raptures. In which exercises of the Lord's Passion and other her prayers she had acquired such an unchangeable and somehow infallible custom, that as through a clock, so through them she certainly distinguished the nocturnal time.]

[44] similarly taught to Communicate usefully, At the same time of her aforesaid aridity, when the same Priest was about to communicate her, showing her the sacred and uncontaminated Host, he inculcated to her seriously enough and affectionately, that she should look upon and receive him, whom he held in his hand; knowing for certain that he was her Lord God and Creator, who for her had been incarnate and had suffered and died, and that he was going to abundantly reward every tribulation which she suffered: by which words she was so compunct, and as if wounded with certain fiery amatory darts, that, just as before from pain of heart and impatience, so also now for nearly a fortnight or more she could not abstain from tears of compunction and love, she deplores her earlier impatience: grieving and weeping for her past blindness and stupidity, in which she had been so impatient: so much that she could admit neither her mother's nor anyone's consolation, nor at least indicate the causes of her tears. From that point she began to be divinely refreshed with frequent consolations, although not through the rapture of contemplation; nor yet could she to those asking make manifest the cause of her such great tears. She used however by divine dispensation consolations of this kind for nearly eight years, before she began to be ecstatically rapt outside of the bodily senses.

[45] and by these two means [With these two therefore, that is, with the sacred communion of the Lord's Body and the exercise of his Passion, as if with two certain amatory arms having embraced the Beloved in part, through the imitation of his patience; from that point she could with confidence say, what in the Song of love is said in the voice of the spouse: "A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me; he shall abide between my breasts." Cant. 1:12 For because in the manner of myrrh, which preserves the bodies of the dead from putrefaction, so also herself by the power of such sacred Communion and exercise of the Lord's Passion from impatience and murmuring, by which she could have been spiritually corrupted, she felt healed; not undeservedly the same, as the most efficacious medicines of her sickness, she took care to carry with her and to dwell in the hospitality of her heart.]

CHAP. XIII.

[46] [Therefore since according to the measure of divine consolations, advancing to the highest endurance proportionally also in patient endurance, indeed also in love of adversities she was profiting; to that degree she was brought by divine mercy, that she deserved to become of the number of those, of whom the most strong in tribulations and most excellent contemplator of heavenly things, the Apostle Paul says: "Whether we are sober, it is for you: or whether we are beside ourselves, it is for God."] 2 Cor. 5:13 For she was rapt in ecstasy and excess of mind, she began to enjoy divine raptures, but in her rapture there was no rare hour or brief delay. For when on a certain day a certain Religious had entered to her; to him asking her about her state and about the patience of her tribulations, she answered that she was burdened excessively enough and beyond her powers, so that she could easily fail, unless the pious Lord sustained her with the staff of his consolation. She said however that she was as if every night, for a long space of time, namely sometimes one hour sometimes more or less, rapt to celestial things: with whose delights she was so refreshed, that not only tolerable, but even delightful was to her the most bitter bitterness, which she was suffering.

[47] also to diverse places: She was rapt however also to diverse places, namely to the joys of the heavenly kingdom and of paradise, and also to purgatorial and infernal places, that she might see and by seeing compassionate, by compassionating also do penance for those, who needed her help. To diverse places of the world also she was rapt, namely places of the Holy Land, of the City of Rome, and to several other sacred places and monasteries, that she might visit with affection of devotion the Relics of the Saints established there: and not only one or

two or three, but for nearly twenty-four years, and almost every night, she continued in these raptures. Yet for certain reasons sometimes she lacked such raptures to divine things, as will be said below in chapters XXVI and XXVII. ^a [On the occasion of which raptures she also knew many churches and monasteries, the disposition and manner of their structure; also religious persons, whom she had never before seen, she also knew by name, and what things had been done about them divinely, she sometimes related to others. That this may be more clearly apparent, I shall relate some things, which from those to whom and about whom she had said them, I have perceived.]

[48] whence it came that she knew many absent things. [To a certain Prior she had once said, that she knew his monastery and church as he himself did. To the same she also at a certain time was saying, that she by night, while the Brothers were sleeping, was accustomed to visit his monastery and dormitory; and that nearly by the beds of each of the Brothers she saw holy Angels standing. There was a certain youth Henry by name, from the ^b town of the Hague in Holland, whom she had never seen bodily, who divinely inspired by grace, with his parents not knowing, had taken the habit of holy religion in the monastery of the Carthusians ^c near Diest: whose father, William by name, not knowing what had happened concerning his son, entering the house of this Virgin, heard her calling him by name and surname reverently enough, wishing his son prosperity, and somehow rejoicing over what had been divinely done concerning the same his son. About which he marveling, when he had asked her the cause of this rejoicing, she, adding stupor to his stupor, answered, that he had put on the habit of holy religion in the above-mentioned monastery. This I myself received from the mouth of the same Brother Henry. There was another Religious, by nation of Dordrecht, professed in ^d Eemstein, whom at a certain time entering the little cell of this Virgin, the Virgin herself greeted graciously enough and by his own name; since him, although she had seen him once before, now however she did not see bodily. About which he marveling, when he had asked her, whence she knew he was present; she simply: "Because the Lord has granted this." This I similarly heard from the mouth of the same Religious.]

[49] But she was led there by her Angel, [When however, as has been said, she was rapt to such places, there was fulfilled in her divinely what to Moses and the sons of Israel, hastening from Egypt to the Promised Land, was said by the Lord: "Behold I send an Angel, who will go before you and always keep you, and be the guide of your journey"]. Ex. 23:20 For she was very often visited and touched by her holy Angel, whom she knew personally, just as a friend knows his friend. Similarly she knew the Angels of her Confessors, and of her other familiars and many men. The same Angel however appeared in various ways, and sometimes in the form of a most beautiful man, always however in great brightness. Sometimes that brightness was so great, that if a thousand suns were shining together in their power, yet they could not be equaled or likened to the brightness of the same Angel. Sometimes however this brightness was less: whom she used familiarly, yet he always bore on his forehead the banner of the Lord's Cross, lest by the angel of Satan, who frequently appeared to her transfigured into an Angel of light, he should be deceived. But if on account of the frequency of those visiting her sometimes she was disturbed, and on account of the presence and touch of any dishonest men her purity, also for some little stains to be expiated. as is usual, was stained; on account of any such stains and disquiet, she was deprived of Angelic visions and divine raptures. [Sometimes also, if she was secretly burdened with certain spiritual defects known to the eye of God alone or the Angel, which are not defects among men, and on account of them it was necessary for her to be hindered from the usual raptures; of these she confessed to the holy Angel her guide, and thus purged by him, with him preceding, to the places to which she was being led, following she proceeded.]

[50] with the body meanwhile remaining as if lifeless; When therefore first she was rapt, in that separation indescribable to us of the spirit from the animal vigor of the body, she felt such great anguish about the vital parts of the breast and body, that scarcely able to draw breath, she thought she was going to die: afterwards however in such raptures, accustomed by custom, she did not feel such anguishes. And when her spirit was rapt to the aforesaid places, her body remained as if dead and lifeless in the little bed, so that if anyone had touched it, she would not have felt. Then the Angel sometimes taking her hand, first led her to the altar of the choir of the Blessed Virgin of the church of Schiedam: where when she had prayed or saluted the Blessed Virgin, immediately after the prayer he led her toward the East, through pleasant places, planted and sprinkled with roses and lilies and aromatic things and sometimes she was rapt through most pleasant places, every kind of flower. To which places when she had approached, and was invited by the Angel to enter them, and she on account of reverence for the same did not dare to enter, namely lest she should trample them with her feet; at length with him affirming that they were not to be trampled by her; she, as she was admonished and invited, entering, followed the one preceding wherever he went. But sometimes the same flowers of roses and lilies were of such great height and density, that while she in some way alleged that she could not penetrate them, the Angel having taken her as once the Prophet Habakkuk carried her through the same, and transported her to that place to which they were going.

CHAP. XIV.

[51] [The Blessed Apostle Paul, speaking of his raptures of contemplation, to the third heaven and into paradise, although he asserts that he heard hidden words which it is not permitted a man to speak; yet affirms that he does not know, whether in the body or outside the body he was rapt to the same: but this holy Virgin, and to sacred places also bodily; who although on account of illness could not walk in the eyes of men, yet in various ways in some way was found worthy to be certified, that] also bodily she was worthy to be rapt to diverse places. 2 Cor. 12:4 She used however to say that just as she was lying in her little bed or on straw, from the vehemence of mental elevation, also with the very little bed and body sometimes beyond the roof of the cell, in which she was lying, she was lifted upward. Also in the exercises of the Lord's Passion, sometimes by the holy Angel she used to be rapt in body to those places of the Holy Land, [in which the same Savior, by being born, by conversing, by suffering, worked the sacraments of human salvation. Where when, either on Mount Calvary or in other places, having been admitted to kisses of the Lord's cross or of his wounds, for the refreshment of her tribulations, she drew honey from the rock and oil from the hardest stone; and having come either to the embraces of the feet of the Crucified, or to the expiration of her crucified Spouse, by his example commended her spirit into his hands: where enjoying wondrous consolations, although frequently from the wounds of the flesh, because she was compassionately joined, she passed over with the spouse in the Canticle of love, to penetrating through the rapture of contemplation the abyssal openings, into the inmost of the divine rock and the caverns of matter, that is, the most profound contemplations of the divine invisible things; so that from the abundance of sweetness of spiritual charisms, wholly failing from the feeling of bodily pains, she could say with the Spouse: "I sleep," through the sleep and failing of bodily pains, by which I used to be burdened: "and my heart watches," in the knowledge and taste of the ineffable hidden divine sweetnesses.] Cant. 2:14; Cant. 5:2

[52] [With such great new infirmities meanwhile she was divinely scourged, she brings back various injuries from this, that also] sometimes returned from those kisses of the Lord's cross or of his wounds, she brought back certain ulcers impressed on her lips: [so that not only according to the multitude of pain in her heart, the divine consolations gladdened her soul; but also according to the multitude of divine consolations, her tribulations also and scourges should sadden and humble her.] Then the Angel said to her, "These ulcers you have received in your body, that you may know that you were rapt also in body." At another time also, when she had passed through the above-mentioned most pleasant places, it happened that on account of some slipperiness (which perhaps was there) not able to fix her step, she suffered a slip of her right foot (which also she said she bodily felt), and from that very slip of the same foot such a twist, that on the outer ankle she brought back a swelling and blackening and pain, that for several days she was tortured by it. Similarly when at a certain time she had been rapt to the holy places of the city of Rome, and while visiting some principal churches she walked among bushes and thornbushes, and, as is the custom among those walking bodily in similar places, somehow swinging her arms hither and thither, she walked; she received a thorn from the same bushes which she brought back in her finger: about whose inconveniences, as about her other infirmities, for nearly two days she complained that she was afflicted with no small pain.

[53] in testimony of true bodily rapture. On account of these bodily injuries therefore, which she so brought back, she was accustomed to say according to the word of the Angel, that she thought she had been rapt also in body. How however this was done, the Angel knew, who bore witness that this was done in body, and in testimony of it said that she had received bodily injuries in the very raptures. Verisimilarly also it seems that she had been bodily rapt, when she brought back that flower-bearing wreath, placed on her head from the hand of the Blessed Virgin, about which below will be said in chapter XVIII. Sometimes also the Lord himself our Jesus Christ, surrounded by the ranks of the heavenly citizens, entered into her little cell; and as a King or Emperor, with his Princes, placed himself in order at the table: so that he himself around her little bed, and then the others around him, according to their order, placing themselves around the Savior Lord, they refreshed her most copiously with heavenly and divine feasts.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VI.

On the heavenly brightness and sweet fragrance around St. Lidwina; with her breasts flowing with milk on the Nativity of the Lord, and a branch brought to her from Paradise.

CHAP. XV.

[54] The venerable Doctor Hugh of St. Victor, in the book on the [a three journeys, speaking of spiritual charisms, united to God through contemplation, with which contemplatives are sometimes anointed not only mentally, but also bodily, thus says: "When we return from the inmost secret of divine contemplation, what can we bring with us? What, I say, unless we bear light from the region of light? For this is both becoming and necessary, that when we come from the region of light, to drive away our own darkness we should bring light with us. And who could know that we have been there, if we do not return illumined? If we have seen the power of the Father, let us bring with us the light of fear: if we have seen the wisdom of the Son, let us bring the light of truth: if we have seen the clemency of the Holy Spirit, let us bring the light of love. Let power excite the lazy to fear; wisdom illumine those blinded by the darkness of ignorance: clemency inflame the cold with the warmth of charity." These are the things Hugh says.]

[55] with heavenly light also bodily she is surrounded. [But these things, how often and in what manner mentally and bodily around this holy Virgin were divinely accomplished, who knows? Except indeed her mental illumination, at which also great and lettered men, and founded and learned in spiritual studies and exercises, who had frequently spoken with her, not understanding her, marveled;] she was found very often by day and night time to be surrounded and suffused by such great divine brightness, when she was visited by the Angel, or returning from the contemplation of the supernal things, by her fellow domestics; that seeing her, struck with vehement fear, they did not dare to approach her. For since she always lay in darkness, because material light was very intolerable to her weak eyes; yet divine light was very loveable and tolerable to the same: with which, even at night time, very often she was so excellently suffused, that the very cell, in which she lay, was thought full of material lights or fire. Which when sometimes, even in the very year of her death, her brother's son Balduin the boy saw, who served her day and night in her necessities, and disturbed wished to flee; she on the contrary consoled him terrified, and exhorted him not to fear or flee.

[56] [She had contemplated the divine brightness so clearly, and she has Christ visible in the flesh: that she said that the fullness of this material sun was as far distant from her, as the least ray of the same sun, passing through the tops of mountains into the hidden parts of the valleys, differs from its full light. It is therefore no wonder if she was suffused with divine brightness even bodily, who according to the voice of the Apostle, "with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, was daily transformed into the same image from brightness to brightness, as by the Spirit of the Lord."] 2 Cor. 3:18 Moreover at a certain time, on the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, an Angel of the Lord appeared to her with great brightness, foretelling that within the seventeenth year of her sickness, she would see the Savior in the flesh with bodily eyes: who also afterwards, on the day before the Vigil of St. Thomas the Apostle, in the evening, crucified and living appeared to her, [with great brightness in the form of a man, in the likeness of a cross with which the sick are anointed: who also asked by her, as a sign and testimony of his presence, a white Host, a little larger than those with which the common people are communicated, with five red and bloody scars, left upon her bed. About this below will be said in Chapter XXXIII on the state of her sacred Communion.]

[57] ^b Not only was she accustomed to be thus surrounded with divine brightness, but also with wondrous sweetness, marvelous sweet fragrance also. when either she was visited or touched by the holy Angel, or when she returned from those paradisiacal and celestial gardens and orchards and storerooms, both she herself and her cell were found to be fragrant: so that those entering thought that in the same cell diverse kinds of aromatic species had been hidden. Which most sweet odor was felt not only in the smell, but also in the taste of those perceiving it, [so that as if they had eaten ginger or cloves or cinnamon, a certain strong, it is felt about her. or, as is commonly said, burning taste with sweetness bit back the tongue and palate in some way]. And though the body of the Virgin herself swelled with wounds and dropsy, and swarmed with worms (as has been said), in place of the stench that would have been abominable, which would rather have exhaled, a fragrance of wondrous sweetness came forth: and especially from her hand, when through it by the holy Angel she had been led to the supernal joys and brought back from there. [Who would not with all his heart desire the presence of so aromatic a body? Whom would the sight of this most clean and equally most fragrant flesh not delight? Let these things therefore, said in general about her mental and bodily raptures, and about the divine charisms, poured through them around her from heaven, suffice. Now let us pass to the consideration of particular things.

CHAP. XVI.

[58] In the year of the Lord 1428, After the burning of the city [certain sailors of Schiedam, about to enter the sea for catching herrings, in the manner customary to such, made a great supper with their companions and friends, on the day of the holy Frederick the Bishop and Martyr ^c and Arnulph the Confessor, on which they should say farewell to them. The supper finished, the fire, which they had used by the reed wall, they so hid under the bushel, that in the evening (which was also Sunday) a fire having arisen from them about the eleventh hour, a certain widow cohabiting with Lidwina, through the rest of the night,] almost the whole city, with the church and the house of the Sisters next to the church, was burned. After this burning therefore a certain widow of good testimony, Catherine by name, entered the house of this Virgin, to dwell with her: to whom in the year before the aforesaid fire at a certain time, a few days before that most sacred solemnity of the Lord's Nativity, through a vision of dream was indicated, that the breasts of the same Virgin, on the night of the then next Lord's Nativity, were to be filled with milk, and that the same widow Catherine was to suck the same milk. Which when the widow herself had related to the same Virgin, and she founded in true humility, preferring what was said to be hidden, in some way tried to deny; the widow rebuked her over this, why she dared to deny what had been revealed to her by the holy Angel.

[59] Then the Virgin compelled by necessity, commanded the widow, [she understands from her how on the Lord's Nativity her breasts would flow with milk,] that she should dispose herself to receive such great grace, admonishing at the same time that she should observe the time of the Lord's Nativity night designated for herself; so that, if what had been promised to her by the Angel should happen, she might be prepared to receive such great grace. [For this widow was frequently so troublesome to the Virgin, namely to this that she should scrutinize her life, that she very often hindered her from the refreshment of the heavenly bread: similarly also Lord John her Confessor, and many others of both sexes: whence the Virgin also in this very thing and many others showed herself more affable to her than she wished, so that at least she might be able to lack her frequency.] When therefore the same aforesaid widow, according to the admonition of the Virgin, gave attention to the aforesaid preparation; behold on the very most sacred night of the Lord's Nativity, the Virgin rapt in spirit, saw an innumerable multitude of Virgins of the female sex, (to whom, as princess and lady, stood the Queen of Virgins, the most holy Mother of God, perpetual Virgin Mary) and herself admitted to the choir of the same Virgins. There also stood near the Virgins themselves an innumerable multitude of holy Angels, as attendants and eunuchs, who were showing devout service to the same, as flourishing with a virtue kindred to themselves.

[60] When therefore the hour of the Lord's Nativity was at hand, this Virgin saw the breasts of all those virgins, with the B. Virgin with the choir of virgins appearing to her, similarly also her own, swell from the abundance of milk, and have as much milk, as she had learned from her Angel, as the blessed Virgin, when she bore the Savior, had in her virginal breasts, that is, in likeness to hers, the breasts of all to be filled with milk, as a sign that all those Virgins were fit for nursing the Lord. And so indescribable was the glory there; as she herself testified, that neither eye saw, nor ear heard, nor into the heart of man ascended; so that neither could the tongue express it, nor letter write it. Meanwhile the widow, having entered the Virgin's little cell, and from them she sucks milk. admonishes her of the aforesaid promise: the Virgin rubs her breasts with her hand, and with such great sweetness from the abundance of milk, which with three draws of the lips she had sucked, the widow was satisfied; that, unless the Virgin had ordered, for several days easily and without disgust and desire of eating she would have abstained from bodily food. [This indeed happened in the year 1427. After these things in another certain year, the Virgin had received the same grace and in the same manner, and had obtained from her Angel, that her Confessor should suck the milk: but while he on account of the solemnity had entered the church, as he did not keep the appointed hour, so neither did he taste the promised grace. Also in another similar year or two, the Virgin had the same vision and contemplation, and milk in her breasts: but, as in the preceding year, so also in these no one sucked.]

[61] She had foreseen the aforesaid fire long before: [It is established that this Virgin had known the aforesaid fire long before, because before it happened she had ordered a supply of boards to be made, with which, as she said, if a sudden fire should arise, they could take her out and transfer her across the ditch, which was outside the back of her house ^d: and several men of the aforesaid city hold it certain, that the fire happened on account of the sins of certain men. Among whom was a certain woman, named Hasa Goswini, sufficiently dissolute; after whose death a certain Priest, named John de Berst, sufficiently familiar with this Virgin, asked from her that, if it could be done, he himself might perceive something certain about the state of the same woman. While therefore the Virgin on a certain occasion prayed the Lord, for that which he had asked; the same Priest, in a vision of the night rapt to the infernal places, saw the aforesaid woman, bound with fiery chains, held in hell: which also to this Virgin with amazement he announced.]

CHAP. XVII.

[62] Now this Virgin had a certain rod of ^e hemp stalk, with which either in summer time, on account of too much heat to cool her, and on the occasion of a lost hempen rod or for any other cause, she was accustomed to remove or draw back the curtain of her little bed; or for any necessity by striking to call someone, if she needed anyone's help.

When therefore, as has been said above, in the year of the Lord 1428, that fire had devastated nearly the whole city, and approached so close to the house of this Virgin, that her neighbors and domestics fearing that the same house also would be burned, took down the boards where she was lying, so that if the fire should invade the house, they could extract the Virgin; and at length with divine mercy extinguishing the fire, removing the veil, which had been stretched for the defense of the Virgin's eyes from the sight of daylight, so that they could again affix the same boards, because the Virgin could not bear the brightness of day without much effusion of blood through her eyes; which she used for various necessities, it happened that she lost the aforesaid rod from this agitation, which was being made around or on account of her, because of the aforesaid fire, but unknowingly.

[63] Afterwards therefore on the night of ^f St. Apollinaris the Martyr, when from heat scarcely able to draw breath, she feared to be suffocated; she sought the rod, to remove the veil, and did not find it. She was troubled therefore, because neither could she help herself, nor was there any who would come to her aid. Immediately therefore the Angel of the Lord assisting her, saddened over this, consoles her with the promise of another and better rod. Not delayed, a little afterwards with the greater pains of the fevers which she had failing, from the Angel she receives another wood, about the third hour after midnight the Angel about to depart, with her feeling, though quite lightly, placed a certain wood upon her, having the length of about one ell, extended over the breadth of her breast, and thus departed. Then she with hand extended grasping the wood, and seeing it rather unshaped, somehow made little of it, saying in her mother tongue, ^g "Nu byn ik wel bekust," according to the property of the Hollandish idiom; because both in the crookedness of its unevenness, and in its heaviness, differing far from the lightness of the aforesaid rod, it would not be easily portable and manageable.

[64] which while being planed Therefore on the day of St. Apollinaris the Martyr she asks Lord John her Confessor, that he should go to some ^h carpenter, and have that wood made for her smoothed with his plane to the manner of an ell. He obeyed the one asking, and entered the house of a certain carpenter, who of all his instruments had scarcely preserved from the fires one plane, and one sufficiently unfit for this work. With which when he began to smooth that wood, and sometimes had fixed the plane so strongly, that it was scarcely preserved from fracture; so great a sweetness of odor evaporated from it, and with such great ⁱ blue beauty, namely in the manner of wax, it shone; that although the wood itself on the surface was sufficiently uncomely and deformed, yet on account of the odor and internal beauty he affirmed it to be of cypress. it is found to be of cypress, At which both marveling, when Lord John her Confessor could not give an account to the carpenter, of what kind this wood was or whence it had come to the Virgin; with them eagerly seizing the cut-off remains of the wood, with the carpenter consenting and persuading; the Virgin's Confessor with the wood betook himself to another and more skilled carpenter. Where while, from the wonder equally of the color and odor of the wood, similar things were being done between both, and finally from reverence and novelty the remains were being snatched up; the Virgin's Confessor not enduring it to be further diminished, returned to the Virgin, carried it back to her. Whom when he had asked, whence it had come to her, or of what kind it was; and she answered she did not know the what or quality of it, the manner of her acquiring it, as has been said, she simply indicated.

[65] After this on the feast of ^k St. Cyriacus the Martyr the Angel of the Lord having returned, in the customary way leads her to the pleasant joys of Paradise: and she knows in a vision that it was brought to her from paradise. when she had come inside the front part of it, as if rebuking inculcating to her the aforesaid words, by which she had somewhat disparaged that wood, he showed her a river around the same gate and above the river a cypress tree, whence as if hastily breaking it off he had torn it. Then after the rapture returning to herself, she indicates to her Confessor that which she had perceived from the Angel, grieving that she had ordered it to be so diminished. [Since therefore, with the rumor of that wood flying about, she endured frequent visits on account of it, and those coming wished to see and touch it; it happened that on account of the touch of a certain man it lost the fragrance of its odor, which it had had, and therefore the Virgin herself grieved that she had shown it to another. But she was accustomed to say, that by this wood the devil was to be chastised, as she had heard from the holy Angel.] After this in the same year, on the day before the feast of St. Nicholas the Bishop, rapt into Paradise, she saw a palm tree, of exceptional beauty full of dates, whose stones appeared like transparent crystal.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VII.

On the wreath which S. Lidwina brought from a heavenly rapture to earth, and other favors done to her.

CHAP. XVIII.

[66] In this same year, namely 1428, [these things happened concerning this Virgin. With all commanded to go out from the cell, She had a certain cousin named Nicholas, whom on a certain feast day she had commanded to go to church that he might hear Mass, and that after the completion of High Mass he should return for dinner. Who having returned, and the refection of dinner completed, having entered the little cell with her Confessor, made a longer stay with her than pleased her. She indicating to them, that she willingly wished to be alone in the cell for two or three hours] asked them that for a time they should go for a walk, hoping that she, on account of the present disposition of her inner parts for contemplation, would receive in their absence some heavenly grace: [but especially she begged Nicholas, that he should not return before the third or fourth hour after noon. Him therefore simply performing what he had been asked,] the Confessor having returned, unknown to her, the Virgin's Confessor returns secretly to her, secretly entered her cell, and there hid himself, to investigate what was happening about her, when she was alone.

[67] Therefore the Virgin thinking she was alone in the cell, disposed herself by devout prayers to receive the grace which she desired. Behold with the space of about one hour having passed, after noon, in the customary way the Angel of the Lord having entered to her, was flying around about her, below ^a the bedstead in which she was lying, but no longer approached her. Seeing therefore that she could not enjoy the joy of his presence, disturbed she wept bitterly, asking the same Angel, and by this curiosity of his she hinders her ecstasies. whether by some fault of her own she had offended God, on account of which she could not enjoy this grace. Then the Angel, "By no means," he said, "but on account of the presence of him, who sitting in your cell is striving to search and to experience the grace prepared for you." Having said this the Angel departed from her. Then the Virgin more vehemently saddened began to weep more bitterly, so that for a time she was not rapt ecstatically, although she often enjoyed the usual grace of the Angelic visitation and consolation. Hearing therefore her Confessor that she was thus weeping, he rose up and indicated to her that he had been present. Hearing which she was more greatly disturbed, than if another had been present; because she had often enough indicated to him her life, so that without investigation he might believe the divine grace, which was operating about her.

[68] When therefore after this from this disturbance she had received peace and tranquility, At length she is again rapt to see Purgatory, the pious and merciful Lord having had mercy on her, as before he had frequently done, so afterwards at a certain time, first ecstatically rapt her to the places of purgatory: where among the other souls, which in diverse ways and many modes she saw tortured, she also saw several souls of her friends severely punished, for whom she afterwards sustained grievous torments in her body, in order that she might relieve and free them from such pains. Therefore with these as well as several other penal places having been seen through, in which souls for the diversity of their demerits were variously punished, she was led to contemplate the

joys of eternity. and heaven There she was seeing how almighty God in himself enjoyed his own glory, and how the holy Martyrs and Confessors and the other orders of the Blessed, each in themselves enjoyed their own glory, and from exceeding delights appeared to flow out upon one another. These joys having been beheld, many Saints speaking familiarly consoled her, and exhorting her to the endurance of patience they said: What harm does it do those who are now here existing in joy, that being placed in the world they suffered various discomforts?

[69] Then the most holy Mother of God the Virgin Mary approached her, with great glory, and speaking to her amicably, asked her saying: How, where she is familiarly received by the blessed Virgin, my dearest daughter, have you come thus with head bare and unadorned? To whom the Virgin humbly answered: My dearest Lady Mary, so is the will of the Lord my God, and so my guide has led me. After many most familiar and sweet colloquies of the Mother of God with her, the time having come when according to the will of the Lord she was to be sent back to her bodily senses, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ says to her: Dearest daughter, act manfully and let your heart be strengthened in the endurance of patience, because for these things which you now suffer you will receive marvelous glory. And the blessed Virgin adding: she receives a wreath, Do you wish, she said, a wreath upon your head? Then this Virgin, I, she said, cannot have my will here. But when she had looked at her guiding Angel, and he seemed somehow to consent that she receive it; Take, said the blessed Virgin, this wreath upon your head, which cannot be upon earth except for seven hours; and hand it to your Confessor, saying, that I command him, that for the rest he should be believing in the gifts of the almighty Son of God, and that he place the same wreath upon the head of my image, which is in the church.

[70] which being returned she finds with her, These things therefore having been said, this Virgin returned to her bodily senses: and when, as was her custom, she had given thanks to the Lord for this contemplative consolation, and yet did not know that she had bodily received such a wreath; at length by chance or by some necessity placing her hand upon her head, she drew off the wreath, which by its most sweet odor she remembered had been placed upon her head by the hands of the blessed Virgin; and she kept it with her as it were until the seventh hour after her return from the aforesaid contemplation, namely until she had entered into the seventh hour. This wreath was of blue color and wrinkled, and emitted from itself such a fragrance of wondrous sweetness, that she held it with her as long as she could. But before that seventh hour she ordered her Confessor to be awakened and to come quickly to her. When he came and asked what she desired; she answered that she had been present at a certain feast, and that the blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord, had delivered this wreath that she might carry it to earth, and give it into her hands, and had commanded that she should persist believing in the gifts of God.

[71] Then the Virgin delivered that wreath into his hands, commanding him, and she orders it placed on the image of the B. Virgin that he should quickly carry it into the church, which at that time also had been burned; and place it upon the head of the image of the B. Mary Virgin, which was there. But the Virgin ordered this to her Confessor in order that she might see yet more signs concerning her. When the Confessor protested, how he could enter the church, when it was not yet day; she answered: Go quickly, and ask the custodian to open it for you: because the time presses, when that wreath must be carried back whence I brought it. And he: How, he said, shall I place that wreath upon the head of the image, which is set in so high a place? To whom the Virgin said: In the greater choir and in such a place you will find a ladder, which you should take, by her Confessor: and ascending to the image you should place it upon the head of the same image, as the blessed Virgin Mary has commanded it to be done. Then he, having received such a sign, going out and approaching the custodian, asked him to rise quickly and open the church. Which when he willingly did; the Confessor of the Virgin entering the choir, having found the ladder in the designated place, ascended to the image. Which when the custodian saw, he asked what he wished to do there. To whom the Confessor answered: What I am doing now you cannot know: but the Lord will be able to grant that you know afterwards. Which response he esteeming somewhat lightly, because he was ignorant of the mystery of this deed, withdrew. Then the Confessor of the Virgin, which done it is received by the Angel. the wreath having been placed upon the head of the Virgin, when he had carried back the ladder to its former place, and on bended knees had prayed and adored, before he left the church, the Angel of the Lord carried back the same wreath to that place, whence the Virgin had brought it: as the Virgin herself afterwards related to the aforesaid widow Catharine. This Virgin had had the aforesaid grace in the night and in the morning of the approaching eighteenth day of the month of November, in the year of the Lord 1428.

[72] Before this time however when the church of Schiedam was being repaired, the aforesaid image of the blessed Virgin had been translated to the house and cell of this holy Virgin, as she herself had desired, and as had appeared to her in a vision. Over whose presence not only was she inwardly rejoiced, but also the image seemed somehow to have put on a certain more beautiful appearance, as if it had exulted over the presence of the Virgin. But after the image was carried back to the church, which then was a little hut, the Virgin had the aforesaid grace of the wreath. at other times she did not receive the one offered: Also at a former time she had been twice rapt to the presence of the blessed Virgin: by whom when she had similarly been asked, why she had come thus with head bare and unadorned; and she also, as has been said above, had answered, Because so it pleased God and my guide; the blessed Virgin, as also at this time, asked her, if she wished to have a wreath for the adornment and veiling of her head. And when she had answered in nearly the same way as now; and having looked at her guiding Angel, noted that he was not consenting that she should take it, she returned without the wreath; perhaps on account of a stain of ownership and disordered inclination, for receiving the ^b peplum, which the Angel had perceived in her.

CHAP. XIX

[73] She was accustomed on the fourth weekday Wednesday at the beginning of the Fast, according to the custom of the other faithful, to receive the sanctified Ashes, from the hand of Lord John Walter her Confessor, She receives blessed ashes from an Angel. which he carried with him from the church. When therefore at a certain time in Lent, on the same fourth weekday of the Ashes, her aforesaid Confessor having entered to her asked, whether she wished him to carry ashes with him from the church, the Virgin answered saying: It may be good that you do so, but the Lord has already provided me with Ashes. For a little before this the Angel of the Lord had been with her, and had signed her with the same. Of which so that her Confessor might be assured, she took his hand and placed it upon her crown and forehead, where he manifestly felt the Ashes placed by the Angel. And not only this, but also with her permitting and commanding, he placed his forehead upon her forehead, that thus in some way he might become a participant of so great a grace. [And the Angel taught her, that all receiving the sacred Ashes should receive them with light and cross; ^c namely carrying the light in a candle to the altar, and the cross in a coin of offering: and so they should offer themselves with the light of faith to God, through true subjection and mortification.]

CHAP. XX.

[74] [At that time in which (as was said above in Chapter IV) throughout the week she was still using a little wine, wine given to a poor woman in the year of the Lord 1400, such a sign happened with her. A certain epileptic woman, namely one burdened with the falling sickness, was begging drink door to door: upon whom when as it were all, from horror of that infirmity, were closing their doors; this Virgin having perceived her calamity, ordered her approaching her house to be called, and to be brought in to her. Having entered therefore the cell of the Virgin, she begged the alms of drink. Then the Virgin having compassion on the one begging and suffering, when she said to her that she could not help her except with a little wine, which stood with her; showed her a jar standing upon a board; Take, she said, daughter, that jar, and the wine which you find in it, drink. is divinely restored to her, Which having been drunk when she still asked for more, and the Virgin did not have any, nor did she know anything more of drink in the house; she delivered to her a certain coin, saying that she should go to the tavern and for it buy beer. When she had gone out and evening was now approaching, the Virgin's lips began to dry up from thirst. She therefore asked her father that he bring half a pint of wine, to refresh the dryness of her thirst. Who when he had answered, Willingly; and with hand extended took the jar, to accomplish what was asked; he poured out wine from it, doubtless divinely procured in it. Which when he reported to his daughter, that the jar was full of wine, she marveling, gave thanks devoutly to the divine goodness.]

[75] of the best and long sufficient. [This wine was red, and so moderated in taste, that water was not mixed with it, as was customary to be done with other wine, which she was accustomed to use. But this same wine lasted from the aforementioned time, namely about the feast of St. Remigius, until about the feast of the Conception of the B. Mary Virgin. At which time there was entering to her a certain woman, namely Catharine the wife of master Simon the barber, who from singular devotion was ministering to her, and procured all the wine which she was accustomed to use: who being touched with disgust as if over the excessive age of that wine, when she said she wished to pour it out and bring fresh, and the Virgin said that it was sufficiently suitable for her and sufficiently enough for her; she ignorant of the mystery poured out that wine entirely, as if out of reverence she would procure new: and so she no longer used that blessing. But that wine was so good, that this Virgin would say, that she had never tasted the like.]

CHAP. XXI

[76] [Therefore this holy Virgin (as was said in Chapter I) was born in the year of the Lord 1380; Chronology of her infirmities, in the year 1395, about the end of the fifteenth year of her age, namely about the feast of the Purification of the B. Mary Virgin, took the beginning of her infirmities, as is had above in Chapter III: in which when she had spent almost five years, up to her death she had not seen the sun nor the moon, nor had her feet touched the earth, as is had in Chapter IV. But her refreshment after the first three years, until almost the nineteenth year of her illnesses from the beginning exclusively, which is the year of the Lord 1413, was for a little time a fragment or slice of an apple, to

the thickness of a small host, of abstinence which is consecrated upon the altar for communion; sometimes indeed very little of bread, with a small sip or draught of ^d foaming beer, sometimes a little sweet milk: then for several years within the week half a pint of pure wine without admixture of water; at times with a little water mixed in, a few times a little sugar or cinnamon or dates or nutmeg. At last throughout the week half a pint of Meuse water, which gave her a singular sweetness above every flavor of wine: concerning all which things it is said in Chapter IV. But from the fifteenth year of her illnesses, which was the year 1410, also up to her death, to the value of half a groat, she did not use bread, as is said in the same place.]

[77] [The beginning of her spiritual consolations began, and of the consolations of S. Lidwina. almost four years having passed from the beginning of her infirmities: but the beginning of her contemplations and raptures, almost twelve years having passed from the beginning, as is had above in Chapter XII. From the year of the Lord 1403 until her death, she used hair-cloth girdles, as is said in Chapter IX. From the year of the Lord 1412 she vomited piecemeal her lung and liver with many intestines, and her right arm from the joint of the shoulder was as it were dislocated: and she saw a crucified boy before her, in likeness. Transformed into the Host, as is had below in Chapter XXXII; and she received wine miraculously in a jar, as has already been said in the preceding Chapter. From the year of the Lord almost 1414, she suffered tertian fevers and sometimes quartan and daily fevers, as is said in Chapter VII. At the same time too she incurred dropsy, which she continued until her death, nor did she use any food or drink or sleep, nor did she emit the natural superfluities of the body, except through vomit, as is had in Chapters VI and VII.]

NOTES.

CHAPTER VIII.

Concerning the alms of Lidwina divinely proved, and the crown of patience perfected through the injuries of the Picards.

CHAP. XXII

[78] After these things in the year of the Lord 1423, the brother of this Virgin having died, by name Wilhelmus Petri, left certain debts, which his children could not pay. Which when she had learned, Paying the debts of her dead brother, whatever could remain to her of jewels and of her mother's inheritance, she had sold; and the price of the money which came from it, namely eight pounds of Holland or a little more, in coins of one currency which she knew better, through Lord John Brest the Priest, to whom she had entrusted the same moneys, she placed with herself in a purse. And thus on a certain evening, calling her cousin Nicholas, who was staying with her and was accustomed to sleep in her cell; she sent through his hand to the individual houses, where she knew the creditors of her brother dwelt, money placed in the purse never runs out, as much money as he owed to each one. Therefore all those things having been paid which she knew should be paid, she commanded Nicholas to look if anything remained in the purse: [who when he had answered, that much money had remained in it, she orders that he count it. Which when he did, eight pounds were found in the purse, as before entire, and still beyond those more remaining: which when he had reported to the Virgin, she forbade him to count more, and gave thanks to the Lord for this so admirable gift of his, promising that that purse should thenceforth be called the purse of Jesus, and also abounds for alms, and she had from it henceforth distributed to the poor. But this not except when she did not have other moneys: if however at times she had any moneys, either her own from anywhere or alms received, those she gave first: but when she did not have others, from this purse she distributed to the poor so liberally and largely, that, as much as she could experience by touch, little seemed to remain in it: yet the mercy of almighty God provided, that always there was sufficient in it for the uses of the poor.]

[79] Sometimes this Virgin delivered the same money to one of her friends to count: who when at her order he had counted it a second and a third time, always that money was found multiplied by three or four coins, namely that through such a miracle they might have firm faith in the gifts of God, for five whole years, which were happening around her. And so the debts of her brother having been paid, as has been said, from this purse; she distributed more than forty pounds from the same to the poor, as she had revealed to some of her most secret friends. And after this revelation remaining still almost five or six years in this life, she bestowed largely from it to the poor up to her death: but after she migrated to the Lord, there were found in the same purse of the same coins, which reckoned with those which still some had, who were accustomed to be with her and to whom she had given them, they made half of the prior money or sum, which from the beginning had been placed in the purse, and beyond.

CHAP. XXIII

[80] So merciful and generous was she to the poor, especially to those who residing at home could not beg, that whatever she could have, for a ham cooked for the uses of the poor and distributed; whether linen or woolen, whether fish or meat or bread, or whatever she knew to be useful or necessary to them, this she was accustomed to procure for them and send. When therefore at a certain time she had perceived in two or three places poor residing at home, who for a long time had not eaten meat, and that for the moment she did not have meat; sending to the house of a certain friend, she asked that he boil one pork shoulder, and send it to her. Which when he had willingly done, and had sent the requested meat to the Virgin, she divided it into parts and sent it to the poor, whom she knew to be in need. But almighty and merciful God, who knows the hearts of all, to him who had given is restored another better. repaid this recompense to the charity of him, who had sent the aforesaid meats to the Virgin; that entering his house, when by chance looking up he saw his meats hanging, he saw, in place of the shoulder that had been taken away and given to the Virgin, another more beautiful and better one hanging. Which when he saw and the others who heard, they gave thanks to almighty God, and henceforth were more affected toward her, so that whatever the Virgin desired from them or asked to be done for her, either of cheeses or of milk or of butter, for the uses of the poor, she more quickly obtained.

CHAP. XXIV

[81] At a certain time in autumn this Virgin ordered to be bought the fourth part of a young cow, and also half the measure, which is commonly called ^b achtendeil of peas; meats and peas bought for the same, that from them she might provide in wintertime for the aforesaid needy residing at home, in their greater necessities. When therefore from the excessive charity, with which she was affected toward the poor, she had sent from the aforesaid to the needy, through almost thirty-six houses; the returning messenger said with wonder, that he had distributed to the poor almost as much of the meats, as first had been salted in the vessel, and that they were still diminished very little: in a similar manner she had distributed the peas, which also seemed very little diminished. Which having been heard, the Virgin giving thanks to God over such friendly grace and goodness of his, said to the messenger: Oh how great is the power of the Lord our God! oh how deservedly ought we to give alms willingly to the poor! they suffice for the whole winter. For in this which almighty God has now done, he indicates manifestly, that to those who willingly and with good heart give bountifully to the poor, he will both in the future life repay a manifold reward, and in the present life they will not be poorer. And throughout the whole winter once, and sometimes twice in the week, she ordered a great pot to be cooked with peas, and similarly with the aforesaid meats, and to be distributed to the poor.

[82] But rarely did she send any such things to them, without adding to each alms a coin, the alms of Lidwina most generous, small or great, except when she did not have money. Bread she did not give, unless she added some dish to be eaten with the bread, or money with which some such thing could be bought. Sometimes she gave white or fine-flour bread, which she reckoned as bread and another dish; which she was accustomed to send on ^c Mondays, and with it eggs. But of the aforesaid meats and peas all those who were in her house were eating. But the Lord had so blessed the meats and peas, that after Easter almost half part yet remained; and she bestowed from them to the poor, until the greater part of the summer had passed. Most liberally too she was accustomed to send moneys, and beer with great jars: also eggs and breads and butter to poor women established in childbed; and she was solicitous for them according to her powers, until they could help themselves. Sometimes too she sent wine to the poor with sobriety and modesty, to those for whom this was necessary; and sometimes almond milk. But that she might fulfill what is written, "Give to every one that asks of you"; not only the poor, but also the rich, when they asked, she helped with her alms. Luke 6:30

[83] Those things also which she received as alms, with so great a subsequent liberality and cheerfulness she was accustomed to send to the poor, that she seemed to do this as if with flying heart. The same are set forth for her on the tables of paradise, But she sent of her poverty whatever she could have, namely bread, roasted meat and fish; beer also with the jar, which her dying mother had left to her; and if anything more were divinely granted. And when she sent these things, she devoted herself to devout prayers, giving thanks to the Bestower of all good things, that he had granted her something to

bestow for the uses of the needy. Whence also when she was rapt into Paradise, she frequently saw first precious tables being set up, and most beautifully covered with silken table-cloths of green color: then her alms, as if from heavenly storehouses, placed upon the same tables; nor at any time diminished, but rather increased. The beer, which she had been accustomed to bestow in stone or earthen jars, she saw represented in precious jars, transparent in the manner of crystal. Roasted fish also, which she had bestowed for her niece Petronilla, who was the daughter of her brother, of whom will be spoken below in Chapter XXV, even after three or four years of the bestowal, she was beholding to be set out. These things partly happened three or four years before her death.

[84] She also saw that glorious assembly of the Blessed, with the Saints reclining as if at a banquet, as a royal retinue from a palace, so from certain hidden places, as if at the time and occasion of refection, proceeding to those same tables. But they proceeded distinguished by their grades and orders. The individual Priests also in their order carried chalices upright, and the others too individual vessels or equipment befitting their dignity. [But she had had a brother by name Balduin, who many years before, namely after the death of her mother, having died, appearing to her, and somehow reproaching her for neglect of him, at length by her prayers was freed from the pains by the mercy of God: him she saw similarly in the order of Priests, carrying indeed a chalice, but turned upside down; because he had been disposed by his parents to the Priesthood, but from his own negligence he was not ordained, although sufficiently lettered.] Then approaching the tables, she saw the individuals seated at them in their order, and herself sometimes assisting and ministering, or sitting with those eating, and drink being ministered to those sitting by and to herself; [but all filled with ineffable joy and jubilation as it is written, "In the voice of exultation and confession, the sound of a feaster"; and rejoicing over such great charity shown to them by her. Ps. 41:5]

[85] But if ever in those tables she saw nothing represented which she herself had bestowed, and she herself and others refreshed from there. vehemently she stood confused, as if each had brought his own contributions, but she nothing: whence both for the glory of her alms, which she had seen there, to be increased; and on account of the confusion which she had borne, she hastened to multiply alms. But sometimes her guiding Angel led her apart to a certain separate and beautiful cell, in which he ministered her refection to her. Which refection although she said was inestimable, yet as she could express it, she said it was a certain heavenly and divine light, by which she was divinely refreshed and inebriated. Sometimes she obtained from her Angel, that she could also take along someone of her intimates and beloved: who although they felt such a thing happening around them in dreams, by beholding, yet far otherwise and in a lower manner than happened around her.

[86] She also said that paradise itself had three gates, within whose third whoever entered, She is rapt to the entrance of paradise, could not go out: to which when she at a certain time had been admitted, and wished to enter further inward, by her grandfather Joannes meeting her (namely the father of her own father, of whom above in Chapter I was spoken), she was repelled, and compelled to go backwards. Which repulse when she most grievously bore, inasmuch as done to her by her grandfather, who ought rather to have led her in; he consoling her said, that the time for her entering there had not yet come; but that it was necessary for her rather to return; and by helping those who placed in the pains of Purgatory could not help themselves, to bring forth more ample fruit of life. On the feasts also of many Saints, she was frequently rapt to the contemplation of various Saints, sometimes of Martyrs, sometimes of Virgins or other Saints. and to the sight and address of various Saints: Sometimes rapt to the joys of the earthly paradise, she saw the holy Fathers Augustine and Jerome, Gregory and Ambrose, Francis and various other Saints, from the heavenly seats, as if from a certain hidden palace, descending into paradise to colloquy with her. At a certain time, on the day of the conversion of B. Paul, perhaps three or four years before her death, she saw the same Apostle, surrounded with exceedingly inestimable glory, namely as if with a certain most precious cloak composed of gems and gold, and so solid and strong, that it seemed could not be folded, but rather stand fixed and erect.

[87] from which at a certain time she understood the reserved case of someone. There was a certain woman from [d Ouderschie, whose confession at one time had been heard often by the said Lord John Walter, the Confessor of this Virgin, in which he had found a certain Episcopal case, on account of which he had sent her to one having such authority. But when she had not obeyed his precept, the aforesaid Virgin at a certain time rapt in spirit, saw the holy Doctors above mentioned Augustine, Jerome, Gregory and Ambrose meeting her; and commanding her, that she should tell Lord John her Confessor to reprove the aforesaid woman over this negligence, and to admonish her to fulfill it. Which when he had done, and fulfilled the obedience enjoined upon him by the holy Fathers; her, somehow despising his admonition, he left to the divine judgment.]

CHAP. XXVI

[88] At a certain time being rapt in spirit, she saw a very glorious crown, prepared for her; which, after the patience and labors of the present life, A crown prepared for her she was to receive from the Lord; in which however many things seemed and were imperfect. Therefore having been restored to herself after that contemplation, mindful of that crown, she asked the Lord instantly, that he would deign to work with her and around her, that that crown might be perfected. At the same time also she had asked of the Lord, that he would admit her into his footsteps, namely by the imitation of his conversation, and being admitted into them should expel from the same. When therefore she was frequently and most ardently asking these things from the Lord, when she had asked it to be perfected, she obtains it, namely in the year of the Lord 1425, it happened that Philip Duke of Burgundy, surrounded by a multitude of Picards and others, entered Holland, and compelled the cities of Holland, to receive him as their Lord and Rector. Which having been accomplished in several places, having also entered Schiedam, about the feast of the Blessed ^f Gereon and Victor, there too he was received.

[89] After the refection therefore of ^g dinner, certain of the household of the same Duke, from the Picards, the servants of Duke Philip, as they said, physicians and surgeons, demanded from the pastor of the church, Lord John the son of Angelus of Dordrecht, of the Premonstratensian Order of Marienwaert, that he lead them to the house of this Virgin: who suspecting no evil, did what they had asked of him. The pastor therefore enters in to the Virgin, and they likewise with him, [their attendant servants following after them, closing the house and her cell behind them.] When more than is fitting they were tumultuating and molesting her, and he was striving to restrain them, they angrily expelling him made him stand apart, saying that she was his concubine, [and therefore he was doing these things for her defense. Yet the pastor remained in the cell near the altar. most shamefully treated, But they perverse men, that they might better see her through, remove the curtain, and kindle a candle quite intolerable to her eyes; then the covering having been taken away, with which the Virgin was covered, they totally denude her body. Which when her brother's daughter, a young virgin, saw, nearly seventeen years old Petronilla by name, throwing herself forward she wished to defend her. But those malignant ones seized the girl, and having thrown her down irreverently and heavily enough, dashed her against the footstool, which was before the altar in the same cell; so that her loins and groin not slightly injured, she limped until death.

[90] [But even these things do not suffice. For that as in that holy Virgin as in these might be fulfilled, what is said in the Apocalypse: "Let him that is holy be sanctified still, and he that is filthy let him be filthy still"; vexed with abuses, using no bodily food for eleven years,] they said she was devoting herself to nocturnal ^h feasts and banquets. Rev. 22:11 [And the Virgin most chaste also, and according to the word of the Apostle holy in mind and body,] they lied saying she was given to nocturnal fornications and had procreated fourteen children: and that more manifestly they might show what beastliness they had within, one of them, who held the light, [her who daily was conversing among the choirs of Angels and the Blessed, and in three places wounded:] called her a beast. 1 Cor. 7:34 Among these and many other similar contumelious words, [they also burst forth into ignominious deeds. For since on account of the dropsical humor her whole body had so swelled up, that the skin stretched over it appeared in the manner of a chord stretched on a lyre, those men the same skin, on account of the excessive stretching made thin and very weak,] handling it and pricking it with polluted hands, wounded her in three places: from which blood flowed so copiously, that it was necessary to be removed from the little bed with a basin that had been drawn off.

[91] This crime having been perpetrated they went out and washed their hands; and returning, for words of pardon which they should rather have asked, into contumelious words, as before, they loosed their tongue. Then the Virgin who, [forbids the guilty ones to be brought: as a sheep led to slaughter, lying was sustaining these things], only with these or similar words answered those reviling: Why do you not fear to interpret so sinisterly the works of Divinity in me and judge, you who do not know what judgment divinely threatens you? At the same hour, the Duke withdrawing, they similarly follow, and immediately this rumor striking the ears of all, brought the Rectors of the city: who when they had come to her, among consolatory words as if for consolation they threatened, that they wished to complain to the Duke about those things which had been done, that he might exercise vengeance against the authors of such a crime. Then she mindful of the word of the Lord, saying, "Vengeance is mine and I will repay," forbade indeed to seek human vengeance, asserting, that God would avenge her. Rom. 12:19 Which also was done.

[92] For one of them, who had held the light and had inflicted many insults on her, on the same day near ⁱ Rotterdam, namely in the port, coming by ship, yet all perish badly, from one part of the ship to another as if by a strong whirlwind thrown about, and then cast by the prince of darkness into the ^k sea and submerged, with broken neck dead was drawn out. A second near ^l Zirk-zee turned into fury, and that he might not harm those present, was cast from the ship into the skiff, died and was buried in the city. A third a soldier, in the war ^m of Brouwershaven, struck down perished. A fourth, who also confessed himself a physician, near ⁿ Sluis struck with apoplexy, so that he could not even speak, admonished by his servant, about that which with the others against the Virgin in Schiedam he had done, and whether he grieved for it being asked; to the one asking by the touch of the hand and the gesture of the mouth gave some kind of sign

of grief and repentance, and died. But his servant having returned to Schiedam, for his master asked pardon with tears from the Virgin and obtained it. But the holy Virgin wept for a long time over what had been done to her, not only lamenting her own wounds, but their perdition: for all died very shortly, namely in the same winter.

[93] To the Rectors she foretells imminent danger, [But while the Rectors of the city were still with her, the Virgin herself said: I indeed have now suffered these things: but a judgment threatens you which you do not know. And not much later when some were accusing them, as if they were ^o assured guilty of treason to the city, so that they feared they would be struck with capital sentence by the Duke; they said: Behold this is the judgment which Leydwigh said would come upon us.] After this passion therefore the holy Angel of the Lord appearing to her, and calling her by the name of Sister, indicated, how, as she had asked, through that irreverent touch, done to her by the Picards, she had been placed in the footsteps of the Savior; she understands her crown perfected, and through the reproachful words, which she had heard from the same, the pearls, which were remaining, were perfected in her crown. In the following year, namely the twenty-sixth, about the feast of Gereon and Victor, the Duke having returned with the Picards; again by a certain soldier, who was in command of the city of Schiedam, six of them were deputized, that observing day and night they might search, whether otherwise or other things, than what rumor had spread abroad, might be found concerning her. Who when they experienced nothing but what was right, the Duke again coming to Rotterdam, certain ones were disposing to cite and to call Lord John Walter of Leyden, who in the same year had been made Confessor of the Virgin, and to adjure him, that he say, whether what was said about her was thus according to truth, as was reported: which they also would have done, unless by divine will a [p] messenger supervening, had compelled them to depart from Holland.

NOTES.

CHAPTER IX.

S. Lidwina's weakness in bearing the death of her kin, chastised by the withdrawal of divine consolations: the desperate helped.

CHAP. XXVII

[94] [After the aforesaid martyrdom of this Virgin, when on the eve of the Conception of the B. Mary Virgin, With the death of her father foreseen the aforesaid Lord John, afterwards her Confessor, was disposing a journey toward Ouderschie, that there he might celebrate; and was consulting the same Virgin about this, whether he should go there on that day, or defer to the morrow; she on account of her father's funeral rites, which she said would be on the morrow, urged that he rather go there on that day itself, lest on the following day about the paternal funeral some negligence should happen.] For she said she had heard from her own father, that the blessed Virgin had entered a pact of fellowship with him, and had promised him, that she would call him from this world about this festivity. ^a After which words the death of her father soon followed on that same day, and certain about his salvation, namely on the eve of the Conception of the blessed Virgin. After whose death when she herself had been assured of his salvation, nevertheless the demons sometimes so saddened her, saying they had her father with them in the company of their damnation, that, as if it had been true what she had heard from the demons, she wept inconsolably. Whence also to her domestics, asking the cause of her tears, she answered: I know that with my father it goes very well, and yet the demons say that he is damned. she is however troubled by the demons, setting forth damnation, For when on a certain occasion she was being led by her Angel to the pleasant joys of paradise, the demons besieging her way, a certain demon transfigured into the likeness of her father, deriding and afflicting, they showed to her saying: Behold we have your father. Then she recognizing the diabolic illusion, not the truth, said that he was not her father: and immediately as smoke they vanishing, she completed the journey begun with the Angel as guide.

[95] After these things on the day of B. Pontianus ^b the aforesaid Petronilla died, her niece, the daughter of her brother; [who because she wished to defend this holy Virgin, when by the Picards, as has been said, That to her dying niece she may speak a last word, she was being so irreverently treated, was by those same with force dashed against the footstool of the altar, was both gravely and herself injured.] Before her death when she had asked the Lord, that he would so order her fevers, that she might be able to speak to her before her death; the merciful Lord having had compassion on her who was about to die, anticipated them by the space of almost six hours; so that those which were accustomed to come on by cold at the eleventh hour about noon, came on in the morning at the fifth hour; but the heat which was accustomed to come on in the evening, came on at the eleventh hour about noon, and ended in the evening: and thus the febrile heat having been tempered, with the wonder of all who were present, she obtains that her fever be anticipated, she received an adequate faculty of speaking to and consoling the dying one. [But because by the Lord's voice it is said, "He who receives a just man in the name of a just man, will receive the reward of a just man"; and this girl Petronilla in the aforesaid persecution of this holy Virgin, as was said there, exposed herself entirely for her defense, and received insult and bodily injury for and with the sufferer; it pleases here to annex the vision, which this holy Virgin, a few days before her death, had. Matt. 10:41]

[96] At a certain nocturnal time, being placed in excess of mind, and having contemplated her future glory in a vision, she saw a certain solemn procession of heavenly citizens, in which, as is the custom and in processions is accustomed to be arranged, by distinct orders and choirs individuals were marching; namely patriarchs together, and Prophets together, similarly Apostles and Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins, Priests and Clerics, each in their own order and dignity. And they were proceeding from the church of the city of Schiedam, crosses and lights preceding in the customary manner, shining like the sun, up to the door of her house; from which taking the funeral, they were carrying it to the church: but she herself was following the funeral, three crowns having been given her, one of which she bore on her head, the other individual ones in individual hands. And when restored to herself she said word for word, suspecting as if her own death were prefigured in this; yet finally she said, that they designated the death of her aforesaid niece Petronilla; who also immediately after this vision was dying, on the feast of S. Pontianus in the evening at the tenth hour. Yet she commanded from this time the things necessary for her burial to be more seriously prepared.

[97] yet she immoderately laments the deceased, And so after the death of her niece Petronilla, who day and night assisting her was ministering to her in necessities, ^c the holy Virgin fell into such destructive sadness (as if over the deprivation of her, whom, inasmuch as cordially loving her, she herself in turn had so affectionately loved) and her sadness so displeased the Lord, that in vengeance of the same sadness, until about the feast of ^d the Presentation of the B. Mary Virgin, she was deprived of her accustomed contemplation and divine consolation. When therefore day and night she wept most bitterly, and therefore the lost grace not only over the death of her niece, but still more over the loss of the accustomed grace, withdrawn from her on account of that disordered sadness; at length to those asking the cause of the same tears she answered: Why should I not weep? behold for the last eleven years I have asked nothing from the Lord but that without contradiction I obtained, and now in

so long a time I receive no consolation at all.

[98] But about the feast of the Presentation of the blessed Virgin she received such an abundance of divine grace, scarcely at length after some interval she recovers. that for nine or almost ten days as if in continuous contemplation of divine and heavenly things, enjoyment, taste and jubilation she was lying; so much that those entering in to her during those same days felt a most sweet odor, which as in the customary manner so now also she was bringing back from the heavenly flower-beds and storehouses. By whom being asked, whence came such a sweet odor; she who from humility would have preferred to be silent, at length overcome by their importunities, as the Lord had manifested that odor, she suffers the same thing at the death of her brother: so she herself indicated its cause (namely whence she had brought it back): for she said she could not hide, what the Lord had already revealed. In a similar manner a few years before, with her brother having died, of whom was spoken above in Chapter XXII, she fell into great sadness: over which she was so amazed, that she said she had hitherto been ignorant, that she had been still so human: on account of which also for a long time she was deprived of her accustomed grain of divine consolation, as was revealed to a certain hermit, placed in the parts of Egypt, of whom will be spoken in the immediately following Chapter.

CHAP XXVIII

[99] There was a certain young man, sprung from the diocese of Cologne, which to a certain hermit, sent by her into Egypt, by name Gerard: this man spurred on by the desire of solitary life and conversation, drawn by fame first came to this Virgin, that he might expound to her in person his vow; and being about to undertake a journey so arduous, might commend himself to her prayers; that with divine grace helping, in that which he had conceived in mind, he might be able to persevere. Whose resolution she rejoicing in, with prophetic spirit she predicted to him about to depart from her, that for the first three days his entry into the desert he would suffer want; and at the same time exhorting him to constancy, that before the end of the third day he was to receive refection: which also afterwards was done. For with evening approaching at the end of the third day, heavenly food, namely manna, he received: and the aforesaid three days assigned to him by the Virgin he so constantly spent, that he was prepared to transact them even with peril on account of her promise. After much colloquy and mutual recommendation in prayers, and the obligation of mutual fraternity, he departed, having traversed the upper parts, having crossed the sea, he enters upper Egypt: whose deserts penetrating, he found a cell, raised by steps on a tree, on account of wolves and other beasts. He had also brought with him two companions, for the sake of the same conversation; who after a few days, having undertaken the warfare of the eremitic conversation, returned to their vomit, himself remaining in the undertaken resolution.

[100] And so with almost seventeen years having been passed in this solitary and eremitic conversation, it happened that a certain Bishop from England with two companions, and there living 17 years without human food, for the sake of visiting the holy places, went to Jerusalem, and then to Mount Sinai to the Relics of B. Catherine Virgin and Martyr. Who also mindful of the holy Fathers, who formerly had been in Egypt, entered Egypt itself; and up to its upper parts, observing, they traveled, that they might inquire whether perhaps, as before, they might find some Fathers of the eremitic life. And at length they find a certain cell, not far from the ground constructed on a tree: whose door when they had knocked upon, with it opened they saw a man, in face indeed Angelic, but in body so corpulent, as if not in eremitic abstinence, but among the delights of the world and the pleasures of the flesh he were dwelling. Among mutual colloquies therefore they learn from the hermit that in the space of twelve years and more he had not seen that man. But asked by them, with what food he used, whence he had become so fat; he answered that he was nourished solely by divine grace, namely by heavenly manna, of such sort as the children of Israel used when they went out of Egypt, which flowing into his cell he was accustomed to collect and eat.

[101] Consequently with them inquiring, whether any others could still be found among men who were passing life without human food as he himself did; he answered, in customary contemplation he makes known; that in the parts of Holland in the city of Schiedam was a Virgin, who for many years now by various infirmities divinely scourged, was using no bodily food; who also to such great height of perfection had come, that she exceeded him a hundredfold more in holiness of life: and therefore since they were accustomed to be rapt together to the contemplation of heavenly things, each from their own places and on singular ladders; she however would ascend above him, just as in the merit of life, so also in the excellence of contemplation. Whence also he asserted that he marveled, since he had perceived nothing of her passing, what had happened to her, that he had not seen her in the aforesaid ladder of contemplation for a long time. Yet it is reported the hermit to have assigned the cause, that she was accustomed to grieve too disorderly over the death of her relatives; and therefore although before she exceeded him in sanctity of conversation and greatness of patience and excellence of contemplation; yet now he exceeded her. Which in the death of her brother was manifest, of which in the preceding chapter was said; who about the same time had died in Schiedam, in which the aforesaid things were recited to those pilgrims in Egypt.

[102] Wherefore the hermit asks those pilgrims, that returning to their own, they should first enter Holland and the city of Schiedam and the house of the Virgin, and put to her these three questions from his mouth and on his part. who orders her to be visited by the English pilgrims, First how many years he had spent solitary in this eremitic life: second how many years old he was when he passed into the desert: third what cause had occurred to him, that now for a long time he had not seen her in customary contemplation. After these things bidding farewell to the hermit, the pilgrims returning come into Holland and Schiedam; where entering the lodging they ask the host, that he lead them to the house of the Virgin. Which when it had been done, entering in to her, when they had designated the cause of their coming and the person of the hermit sending them to her; and she, as always so now too from humility preferring to lie hidden, [to the proposed questions manifestly refused to answer, and only gave this answer first to those asking about the time of the habitation of the hermit in the solitude. and this defect to be admonished, How can I know that? It is the Lord who knows this. To which when they had answered, that they did not ask this from themselves, but from the mouth of the hermit;] she answered, that he had spent almost seventeen years in the solitude. To the second she answered, that he had been nineteen years old, when he went to the desert. To the third she answered, that she dwelling in the midst of men was stained in various ways; but he segregated from men, and daily conversing among Angels, continuously preserved uncontaminated purity: and therefore it was not to be wondered at, if he exceeded her in the height of contemplation.

[103] The Virgin also said, that the hermit was of such great corpulence, in the year 1426 holily died. that the fat of his neck hung over the upper part or hood of his garment; and on this account he was so weak, that he could neither stand nor sit, but only with knees bent had taken rest and done the other necessities of the body. This same hermit died in the year of the Lord 1426, on the twelfth day of October: which also was revealed to this Virgin. For rapt into paradise in the hour of his passing, she saw his soul stripped of the body being carried by the Angels to paradise, [and washed in a most limpid fountain, which was so serene and clear, that, as it seemed to her, they could see the bottom of the same fountain for almost one mile.]

CHAP. XXIX

[104] A certain citizen in the city of Schiedam was at that time discharging the office of Echevin ^f: this man at the prompting of the devil was gravely tempted, to kill himself with a noose. A citizen tempted to hang himself, But this man had a certain Chaplain, by name John Pot, of whom in the foregoing was said in Chapter V, who was accustomed to celebrate Masses before him: who, as often as he knew the same citizen to be tempted to hang himself, laboring around him by rebuking, beseeching, consoling, could scarcely persuade him or restrain him from inflicting upon himself such a cruel death. But when he could neither resist the violence of the temptation, nor could the Confessor restrain the tempted one; the same Confessor entering in to the Virgin, asked what should be done by him concerning his tempted one. Then she, secure of the grace of God, knowing that the devil could not endure that the arms of his malice should be turned into arms of salvation, Lidwina teaches that he should be freed, advised the Priest that, if the tempted one could not resist the suggestion, he should enjoin him for penance, what the devil was suggesting for ruin. Which having heard the Confessor feared greatly, nor did he dare to do what she was advising, lest he become the cause of his perdition. But she on the contrary insisted, commanding that confidently he do it in his conscience.

[105] The Priest yielded to her counsel, and afterwards consoling the tempted man returning to him, when he could not recall him from this evil intention of hanging himself; if he should be commanded to do this very thing for penance, he enjoined him for penance, that he should do it. Hearing this the tempted one, falling down on bended knees, gave thanks, because what he had long desired now at least he had merited to obtain. And immediately returning home, with a rope tied to a beam and placed around his neck, he ascended a seat to hang himself. But the demons seeing and envying such a death being taken from them, violently breaking the seized noose and saying, "You shall not hang yourselves now"; they cast him behind the back of a certain chest, namely between the chest and the wall; and so tightly thrust him in, that through the space of almost three hours much sought, and at length with wonder found, he was not extracted except by the removal of the chest, and from then on was freed from the temptation.

[106] A woman vexed by the objection of a crime long ago confessed Also in the same city of Schiedam there was a certain woman, whom the devil had cast down into the pit of desperation; frequently objecting to her through sleep a scroll with a certain sin committed by her, as if not yet divinely dismissed nor to be dismissed; although she had often confessed it sacramentally, and received absolution, and performed the penance enjoined. When therefore she was frequently expounding the anxieties of her heart to this Virgin, and she with kind consolations was refreshing the desolate one, and yet was not profiting around her as much as she wished, because the prince of death as before was troubling the woman through terrors in sleep, saying, "By no means can you escape my hands, because by these letters I have you confirmed and subjugated to me"; it happened that the Virgin herself on a certain occasion was rapt out of herself, and among other things saw the same demon, carrying that paper in his hands, but by the hand of the B. Mary Virgin violently taken from his hands and torn in pieces. she frees her from the solicitude. Which afterwards

the Virgin herself, having been restored to her bodily senses, reported to Lord John Walter her Confessor, and the aforesaid woman returning to her, and as before laying before her the complaints of her desolation, kindly consoling her (yet having suppressed the shredding of the paper) commanded her that henceforth she should be secure, nor fear any evil would befall her over that; at the same time also offering herself as a hostage for her conscience on the day of judgment: and thus she restored the trembling one free and at peace, from every previous anxiety of mind.

NOTES.

CHAPTER X.

Various revelations made to S. Lidwina concerning the states of the deceased.

CHAP. XXX

[107] [Since on the occasion of the most sweet odor, which on account of the visitation of the Savior or of the Saints or the touch of a holy Angel this Virgin kept, [Attracting to herself by experience of miraculous sweetness the Pastor of Schiedam.] or which returning from the paradisiacal and heavenly joys she brought back with her, as has been said in Chapter XV, she suffered many visits of men, because the remains of that sweetness more often remained with her; it happened in the year of the Lord 1426, that a certain woman, dwelling in the vicinity of Lord John son of Angelus of Dordrecht then Pastor, more frequently visited her than the others. Which when he saw and asked the cause, such an answer he heard from the woman: O Lord, if you knew what things I experience with her, indeed you would visit her as I do more frequently: and she invited him that he should similarly come to visit her. Which when he had done, admiring the unusual sweetness (for he had visited her more often, but had never before felt anything such) he asked her, whether anything odoriferous was stored with her. Then she simply answered: Not at all, but it is the grace of the Lord.]

[108] From then on therefore visiting her more frequently and more seriously attending to her confessions, who had before carelessly received her words, amazed at the novelty of them he asked, whether she had experienced such things before. But she: Indeed yes, she said, Lord: for I have often revealed my secrets to you. But he said, Whatever you said to me, was like roses cast before a four-footed pig. He said this about himself: for the same pastor was so lewd, that not fearing the judgment of God, against the reverence of his Order both sacerdotal and monastic, he was fornicating with the wife of a certain man, according to the flesh sufficiently base.] Over which ^a when he was accused by many before this Virgin, she however did not believe the accusers, because he visited her more frequently, and celebrated Masses before her. inasmuch as a man of impure life, At a certain time however, with him entering in to her, she objected to him what she had heard, and at the same time accused him that he was committing such a sin with a bound woman. But with him with oaths and execrations denying the crime objected to him, the Virgin as if having accepted the satisfaction, dismissed him excusing himself in peace. [Again as if about a repeated sin before her he is accused: the accused one, as before, she herself rebukes: but he fearing to confess the truth, with oaths and execrations, as before, excuses himself.]

[109] interrogated about the crime for which he was infamous and denying, After these things therefore the Virgin, in her customary way being rapt to the contemplation of supernal things, saw the same man with the aforesaid woman in a certain courtyard occupied in obscene acts. Whence when on a certain day with him entering in to her [that the things which she had secretly learned from the aforesaid woman as novelties, she might also experience the same things around her] as before, as if from the report of others, over the same crime she rebuked him; and he, as before pertinaciously contradicted: Why, she said, Lord, do you so pertinaciously deny, when on such a day and hour placed in excess of mind, in that place I saw you shamefully occupied with her. Then he vehemently confused (for he knew himself to be caught) Whoever, he said, has manifested this to you about me, could also reveal many other things: and going out through a back way into the garden he wept bitterly. Then with tears suppressed returning, he confessed that everything was true that she had said, Lidwina confounds him, promising that he would never repeat the same. But she seeing him illuminated by the ray of divine truth; Not only, she said, did you commit that sin, but also she objected three or four other crimes, exhorting him to amendment; [and at the same time predicting for him a quick hour of death, with so salutary a dart of compunction she wounded his mind, that with their confession made before her as much as was fitting, he further sought legitimate Confessors, and asked to be absolved by them from the bonds of his sins by ecclesiastical authority.]

[110] This having been obtained, when for the committed sins he was doing penance, and warns the penitent, afterwards with almost eight weeks having passed, he was struck with the pestilential disease. [Entering therefore to the Virgin he asks, whether he should prepare himself for death through the sacred Unction. She consented. And first indeed he was communicated; then with the disease growing worse he was so weakened, that desiring to hear the Virgin's counsel for his anointing, but not being able, about receiving the last sacraments: he begged to be transported to her with a wagon. But even that could not suitably be done for weakness, through the mediation of a messenger he inquired, what she would advise for his anointing. She sends back word, that he should eat a little beer with bread, and if he could retain it within his entrails for the space of one hour, let him know that he would neither die nor need to be anointed. He takes the commanded food, and for almost three quarters of an hour holds it down untiringly, as if now not about to die, he rejoices. But again with sudden nausea provoking] suspecting himself to be dying, he calls the Priest: among whose anointing hands having died on the day of ^b the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, in the noted year of the Lord, namely 1426, to the place, mercifully prepared for him by divine justice, he was led.]

[111] When therefore the Virgin unceasingly was beseeching the Lord for him, then understanding his soul on the following night or within three days rapt to the infernal and purgatorial places, she asked her Angel, where her Lord was, not long ago deceased. Who showed her a pit: the horror of which she marveling at asked, whether it was now hell. Who said, that it was not indeed hell, but next to hell; and that in it were assigned those about whom it is doubtful ^c whether they are to be damned or saved. She also saw another place outside, more horrible than all things seen before, surrounded with a black and very high wall: which the Angel said was hell. In which she heard such great cries and howls of demons and damned men, also clangors and as it were tinklings of basins, that the cries and noises of the whole world could not be compared with them. Near the aforesaid pit, near hell placed with uncertainty of salvation, beside hell she saw a certain Angel sufficiently sad and as if mourning: whom when from his appearance she had recognized to be the Angel of the said Pastor, of whom was spoken, who shortly before his death had been frequently in her cell; she asked her guiding Angel, why that brother Angel was thus sad. Who answered, that the soul, which he had received to rule, on account of the sins which it had perpetrated was submerged in the same pit, and had not yet received the sentence of hoped-for salvation; but had been given a respite of nine days, within which a definitive sentence would be given: and therefore this Angel of his was sad, that he did not know whether he was to be saved or damned.

[112] For him she obtains common purgatory: When therefore the Virgin desired to see that soul, with her guiding Angel commanding the pit was opened; and the soul ascended to the surface of the pit, totally ignited like glowing iron; and cried out to the Virgin saying: O dearest mother Lyduwa (for so he was accustomed to call her) O most pure mirror of divinity, suffer I beg that I may mirror myself in you. Such horror therefore invaded the soul of this Virgin, from the things which she saw around this soul, that from the excess of it the hair-cloth girdle was breaking, with which her body lying in the bed was girded: but it was breaking not at the knots or joints of the binding, but with those remaining most entire, in an entire and sound place. But this Virgin led that soul by her prayers and merits, from that private pit, to the common purgatory and the place of the penitent.

[113] for another similarly dead in penitence, There was also another Priest, Peter by name, in Schiedam, quite secular and of less honest conversation, who at length compunct by regard for divine piety, and having gained the familiarity of this Virgin, having died before full satisfaction, had received the sentence owed to his state. Therefore with almost twelve years passed after his death, it happened that this Virgin, in the customary way remaining in the purgatorial places, heard a certain voice sufficiently lamentable, proceeding from a certain pit: which when she recognized both from her own hearing and from the words of the Angel to be the voice of the aforesaid Lord Peter, after twelve years consenting to suffer something, she was amazed

that he was still in purgatory. She was therefore asked by the Angel, whether for his liberation she would wish to sustain something. With her answering yes; the Angel showed her a certain place nearby, where there appeared as if a certain cataract, before which was such an abundance of most foul waters, as if all the waters of the whole world had been gathered into one, and through that same cataract seemed to flow. The Angel therefore exhorts her, that if she wished to see her and free her, she should pass through that same cataract. Which when she trembled to undertake, but the Angel on the contrary encouraged her to constancy in crossing, having crossed the river which flowed through the cataract, she saw the soul of the Priest, white as a ^d swan, ascending from the pit to the height of the air, she sees him freed. and thence descending as if into a certain fountain: where when as if by a certain new baptism it had been purged, and cooled from the fire which it had sustained; she saw it flying to the rest and joys of the blessed. But she had sustained such great fatigue in crossing that river, that even when returned to her bodily senses, she was found as if all bathed in sweat.

CHAP. XXXI

[114] In a village, whose name is Ouderschie, there was a certain man called Balduin vanden Velde, another man on the very night he dies, custodian of the church of the same village; who prevented by infirmity on the night of the conversion of S. Paul, then died, namely in the year of the Lord 1426. On the same night this Virgin, in the customary way rapt from bodily senses, came to a certain mountain, at whose foot she saw a man, previously and then unknown to her, wishing to ascend that mountain, she seemed with highest labor to stand upon the mountain: but from sickness not able. Whom when, at his request, she had carried up placed upon her shoulders, marveling at his heaviness, she asked by what name he was called. Who answering said that he was called Balduin vanden Velde. With morning come her Confessor entering her little cell, found her, as if from weariness after great labor, gravely panting and from failing scarcely able to draw breath. Asked the cause, she answered, that from the foot of a certain mountain up to its top she had carried a man, by name Balduin vanden Velde, that is, named from the country, entirely unknown to her before: who was of such great heaviness, that she now restored to herself, could scarcely subsist. Over which the Priest marveling, remembered the custodian of the church in Ouderschie, who was indeed called Balduin, but he was ignorant of his surname. After two days the same Confessor coming to the village of Ouderschie for the sake of celebrating, asked a certain woman about the surname and state of the same custodian: who stated the surname, as it had been revealed to the Virgin; at the same time she asserted that he had died on the same night, on which the Virgin had carried the same from the foot of the mountain to its summit.

[115] more often brought to see those thus laboring, At another time also, in the customary way rapt, she came around a certain mountain, near which she saw various people wandering in various ways: some namely around its foot, others higher up, and still others in a yet higher place of the same mountain; wishing indeed to ascend the mountain, but not able; nor having anyone who might help that they might ascend. But when certain chief festivals were at hand, for some days before such feasts, she was rapt to the purgatorial places, that she might see the calamities of those needing the help of others, and not being able to help themselves, whose voice B. Job speaks saying: "Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, at least you my friends: because the hand of the Lord has touched me." Job 19:21 Then returning, when for their liberation ^e she was sustaining daily fevers, and most bitterly lamenting and assiduously beseeching divine mercy; on the festivals themselves again rapt, she helps very many of them, on account of the recognized redemption of them with such joy she exulted, that she could scarcely contain herself. But although on other days she frequently rescued many, on the chief festivals however many more and in greater abundance. But so sharply was she weeping over their miseries, that frequently in her natural tears, that is watery ones, failed, and supernaturally bloody tears succeeded: which coagulated on her cheeks in the course of time her Confessor Lord John, also by shedding bloody tears. when with natural tears they were softened, scraping off, in a little sack placed in a box with him he kept, and under her head after her death, as she had desired, placed them.

CHAP. XXXII

[116] [After the death of Duke William Count of Holland, when his wife Lady Margaret had heard about her husband and lord, Concerning the state of the dead Duke William she avoids answering, that this Virgin had said he was now saved; she sent one of her servants to her, that he might investigate the truth of the matter. She had also heard that this Virgin had been dead for three days, and had revived. Asked therefore about both things by the same messenger, to one indeed she answered thus: If I had been dead for three days, the people of Schiedam would long ago have buried me. But to the other, as she judged it ridiculous that she was asked, so ridiculously in a certain manner she answered, saying: If he were in eternal life, then the Lord would be injuring me, who now for seventeen years held back by most grave infirmities, have not descended from bed nor touched the earth: wherefore I ask that on my account you do not sin: and so he who had come uncertain, departed more uncertain. But these things happened in the year of the Lord 1317, in which also Duke William had died. Yet concerning several deceased religious sometimes she gave a certain sentence, that they were saved and led into the joy of their Lord. as also about the time of the coming of Antichrist. Concerning the last times also and the coming of Antichrist she was accustomed to say, that she would see neither of them. Yet she spoke cautiously about such things, and as if she had heard from books, which yet material or bodily perhaps she had never seen or heard bodily. But she said that a certain sign would be in the region where Antichrist would be born, and that in the very year in which he was born herbs and trees would drip blood, and this three drops through each leaf].

NOTES.

CHAPTER XI.

How Lidwina used to receive the Eucharist and how once she received it sent from heaven, after the apparition of Christ crucified.

CHAP XXXIII

[117] Since indeed that Virgin from the beginning of her illnesses used very sparing and superhuman food, Lidwina intolerant of other food and drink, and at the end took no bodily food or drink at all for many years up to her death, nor was she even able to take any; there was only the venerable Sacrament of the Body of Christ, by the frequent reception of which not only spiritually, but also bodily she seemed to be sustained. And since she could take or swallow neither bread nor any other bodily food, she is sustained almost alone by the Eucharist, however small, from almost the middle time of her infirmities up to the end of her life, in any measure, yet this heavenly bread as often as she received it, with a certain singular grace and sweetness she most easily swallowed.] Hence as much as through bodily infirmities she bodily failed and took less bodily food; so much more through this holy and supercelestial food she was strengthened in spirit and lived spiritually. Whence also the desire, love and devotion for this holy Body of the Lord so grew in her, that she could no longer abstain from its reception ^a. [And so at the beginning of her sickness, she was accustomed to take the sacred Eucharist once each year on the holy feast of Easter; twice after the beginning of her spiritual consolations: and finally, about the death of her mother her desire could not be fulfilled, unless five or six times a year she was refreshed with the sacred banquet.]

[118] Lord Andrew had undertaken to govern the church of Schiedam ^b in about the year 1407 or 1408 as Pastor, this the new Pastor refused to believe, of the Premonstratensian Order from Marienward. When he least believed that the Virgin could live up to then without bodily food, and offered her the Body of the Lord for some time quite unwillingly, at length in the year 1412 he began to conceive in mind, that he would tempt her, to see if she lived from the grace of God alone, as was said. Which indeed the Angel of the Lord anticipating, did not delay to announce to the Virgin herself and to forewarn her. And so about the feast of the nativity of the most blessed Virgin Mary, the Virgin through a messenger asked the same Pastor, that he bring to her the Body of the Lord to communicate her. Who immediately came to her, and having heard her confession, offered her in place of the sacred Eucharist a certain unconsecrated host, thinking that with that she could be content. he tempts her with an unconsecrated host; But in vain is the net cast before the eyes of the winged ones: for the Virgin, when she could by no means take or swallow the same host, perceived from this most certainly that that host had not been consecrated, and that the Body of the Lord was not contained there; whence she immediately spit it out of her mouth.

[119] When the Pastor saw this, as if provoked he rebuked her, which she spat out, as if she had spit out the Body of the Lord on purpose. To whom the Virgin answered: O Lord, do you think me deprived of reason, so that I cannot discern between the Body of the Lord and simple unconsecrated bread? when yet I most easily take and swallow the Body of the Lord, but simple bread I am by no means able to swallow but I vomit it out. With which words the Pastor confused (for he knew himself to be caught) rising with the ^c Sacrament, with her not having been communicated returned to the church. The Virgin therefore remained in grave sorrow, both because of the lack of holy Communion and also because of the hardness and incredulity of the Pastor himself: and in this same sorrow she remained until the feast of the Conception of B. Mary.

[120] But on the very day of the Conception of B. Mary, when the first Masses were being celebrated in the church, and a promise from the Angel she receives the Angel of the Lord in the morning with great brightness appeared to the Virgin, so that her whole little cell shone with excessive splendor: who also blandly consoling the Virgin predicted to her, that in the near future her Lord Savior, dead for her and suspended on the cross, she would indubitably see in flesh and blood; because the Pastor had thus saddened her, by offering simple bread for the Sacrament of the Body of the Lord. ^d At the same hour some were in the outer

chamber, of seeing Christ in the flesh: who for counsel and healing of a sick boy had come to the Virgin, and having received counsel had now gone out: but when they saw such great brightness in the cell of the Virgin, thinking it a fire, they entered that they might extinguish it: whom she consoling, the fire having been excused, dismissed from her.

[121] who appears to her in the form of a crucified boy But after this on the second weekday before the feast of S. Thomas, which then was immediately before the Vigil of the same Apostle, late in the evening between the eighth and ninth hour, again there entered into the cell of the Virgin a certain great brightness. Whose irradiation when with closed eyes, occupied in her exercises, she felt; soon opening her eyes, she saw beside the feet of her little bed a certain cross, in likeness and magnitude of those with which the sick are anointed, and on the same cross hanging fixed, as it were a boy living in flesh and blood, with five wounds: whom she judged to be true God and man Jesus Christ, crucified for us. With whom while she was speaking sweetly and giving him thanks, ^e immediately he who appeared, as if wishing to withdraw, ascended with the cross up to the ceiling, under which the Virgin was lying. Then she kindled with fervent love, cried out saying: O Lord, if truly it is you, and you now wish to withdraw from me; I beseech you, that at least some sign you leave to me, by which I may know that you were truly here, and whence I may be able to remember you.

[122] Immediately therefore he who seemed about to withdraw ascending, descending upon her, in place of himself leaves behind a Host bloody in five places, was transformed as if into a Host, greater indeed than those with which the common people are communicated, but smaller than those with which Priests celebrate, surrounded as it were by a certain circular diadem of very luminous rays; and it hung before her eyes in the air a little beyond her knees, above a napkin, with which she was partly covered. The same Host also had, in the likeness of the crucified Lord, five bloody scars, namely in the hands and feet and the right side; and in the side itself was blood coagulated to the size of about half a pea. At whose sight indeed the heart of the Virgin was exulting and leaping with such joy, that from the vehemence of these leaps about the vital parts of her breast she was so straitened, that she thought she was about to die: and therefore for the refreshing of that anguish, which she had conceived from such joy, which as many as were then in the house saw. it was necessary for her heart to be somewhat restrained by the hand of Catherine, the wife of Master Simon the barber, an honest woman, who then having been called had come, lest from the vehemence of the leaps she should bodily fail. Furthermore the Host itself, which, as is said, was marked in five scars with bloody drops, also several others who had come saw openly, and especially the father of the Virgin and also William her brother: but also the above-said Catherine of the barber, and the niece of the same Virgin, and Margaret, and Ecketgen, ^f and Wynen honest women: of whom some saw it bloodied in four places, some in five ^g.

[123] The Pastor summoned But while these things were happening, the Virgin had sent her brother, to signify to the Pastor those things which were happening: but he hearing these things did not believe, yet rose from his bed, and with unwashed hands came hastily. And first indeed he expelled all from the chamber, then with it firmly fastened, he adjured the Virgin by the judgment of the living God, that she should tell no one what had happened. [He himself also saw the same Host, marked with five bloody scars; but yet by no means did he believe, that it had been shown and presented to the Virgin herself by a divine gift of grace from heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ, for incitement of consolation and devotion; but rather procured by the illusion of the devil, for the deception of the Virgin.] But the Virgin asked him insistently, and vehemently desired, that he give her this Host to be taken. with difficulty he is brought to minister it to her, Then he, If you wish, he said, to communicate, I will minister to you the Eucharist from the church, which I know truly to be the Body of the Lord; but about this I doubt what it is. But when the Virgin more insistently begged that this Host be administered to her, he at length consenting delivered it to her; although he little believed it to be of any grace or virtue. But the Virgin received it with highest reverence, as the true Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. [In whose taking this marvelous thing happened to her, that when unconsecrated Hosts or other similar breads, however small, often offered, she could in no way swallow; yet this Host she most easily swallowed: which was also turned in her mouth, and then to the interior sweetly passed], in every mode which she was accustomed to experience in the taking of the sacred Eucharist.

[124] publicly declaring Lidwina deceived by the devil, On the following day under the morning sacrifice, the Pastor admonished the people gathered in the church, that for the Virgin each should recite one Pater-noster and Ave-Maria, as for one who not being sufficiently in her right mind, had that night been assailed by diabolic temptations, that free from illusion, she might remain constant in endurance. Then having taken the Venerable Sacrament he went to the house of the Virgin, and much people with wonder followed him. Having entered the cell of the Virgin, he commanded that all on bent knees should recite one Pater and Ave, to the glory of God and salvation of the Virgin, and thus addressed all: Know, dearest ones, that this night the devil has been here, tempting this Virgin, who left with her a profane host, which was not God: for testimony of which I am prepared to be burned alive: but also that in this Venerable Sacrament truly is the Man-God, in flesh and blood. This I wish to give to her, that henceforth she may be able manfully to resist diabolic temptations: to her he brings the body of Christ from the church. and I ask you that again you should wish to say one Pater-noster, that for the salvation of her soul she may merit to receive it. Having said these things he sat near her: who began to speak to him amicably and to say: Lord, you have not spoken rightly: for what has been done was not the work of the devil. For before it happened I took care to warn you, that the Angel of God had predicted this to me, that you also might more easily believe: but also many other things of my secrets I have revealed to you, that you might give faith to the grace of God working in me. Therefore I ask you, that you no more say this is a diabolic temptation or work. After these things the Pastor, persistent in his opinion, exhorted the Virgin to patience, and imparted to her the same communion of the Lord's Body, and thus returned to the church.

[125] Meanwhile such great indignation against the Pastor began to swell up among the people, hence against the Pastor the common folk are stirred, that he did not dare to return home from the church. The Schout and Scabins of the city of Schiedam came to him in the cemetery, wishing to learn from him the truth of the thing that had happened. Who said, that the devil had come to the Virgin to delude her, and had left with her a certain Host, which the Pastor himself had burned with fire. But when the people heard this from the Scabins, they began to be even more indignant; and said that he spoke contrary to truth, as men and women with testimony worthy of faith truly asserted. Then having returned they told the Pastor, that the people were being vehemently stirred against him, who not being able to render a reason for his assertion, because he was concealing the truth, and therefore advised that he should not come openly into the sight of the people. The Pastor therefore changed his prior words, and said that he had cast the aforesaid Host into the waters. But with the tumult of the common people growing also outside the town of Schiedam, Lord John de Clerck Provisor of Schieland, and Lord Matthias suffragan of the Bishop of Utrecht, [having heard of so great a miracle of divine goodness divinely shown concerning this Virgin], came to Schiedam about the same time, with certain other honored and industrious men, desiring to know more certainly the truth of the matter: for the Lord Bishop himself said, that he had been admonished to this in dreams. ^h

[126] he asks help from Lidwina: The Pastor seeing these things, was disturbed and dejected in mind: and because he could find no sufficiently useful counsel for himself, he secretly sent to the Virgin, those who for the love of God should supplicate, that she would prudently excuse his ignorance, and wish to free him from the present danger. But the Bishop and Provisor, having taken with them the Pastor much weeping, in the company of many Ecclesiastics and laymen, went to the holy Virgin, wishing to learn the truth from her. she having bargained for the Pastor's impunity, But she denied that she would say anything, except with the necessity of speaking imposed upon her by the express mandate of the Bishop, and having obtained from him and all those standing round adjured by the judgment of God the pledge, that to no one as long as she was alive they would reveal the mystery of this her secret, nor would it ever be to her Pastor a detriment, whether in body or in his honor or office: but whatever she confessed, as if sealed with the seal of Confession they should hold. Which when the Bishop and all the Lords had promised, the Virgin asked, that for the lessening of the Pastor's shame, all the laymen should be ordered to go out.

[127] Then the Virgin, having prefaced that she was prepared to die in testimony of the truth, which she was about to speak openly, she opens the whole matter to the Suffragan, said; Our Lord Jesus Christ here at the end of my little bed stood visible to me in flesh and blood, having the form of a crucified boy, with five scars and great splendor. But when he seemed to me about to withdraw, thus I spoke to him: O my Lord, if it is certain that you are absolutely to go from here, leave me some memorial sign of yourself. Then again descending he to me, changed himself into the form of a Host, a little smaller than the Sacerdotal, and between my breast and knees stood erect; which wishing me to take Lord Andrew the Pastor gave me. Wherefore I ask you to pardon him, if he said or did anything amiss. When she had said these things, the Father and brother of the Virgin and the other aforesaid women were called, before the magistrate of Schiedam, who having heard the witnesses approves the miracle. and firmly under the attestation of an oath asserted that so it was, as they had heard through the Virgin; and that with their own eyes they had most certainly seen the same sacred Host, bloodied in five places, as is said. These things were done in the year 1412 sic — editor's error in original; should be 1412, on the sixth weekday after the feast of S. Thomas, that is before the Vigil of the Nativity. [But the same Suffragan magnificently praising God, for so ineffable divine piety shown to this Virgin in such a marvelous sign; consecrated the very napkin, upon which the same sacred Host divinely appearing had seemed to lie, for the use of the altar and celebration henceforth to be had, out of reverence for so great a sign.] ⁱ

[128] From here the Virgin is kindled to more frequent Communion, In the same year, namely from the vehemence of pain, she vomited piecemeal her lung and liver with

many intestines as was said above in Chapter V and her right arm was as it were dislocated from the joint of the shoulder, of which will be spoken below. After this; as was contained in the letter of the Rectors of the city of Schiedam written with such great divine love and desire for the sacred Communion the heart of this Virgin was kindled, that for many years every fortnight she took the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist from the hands of the Priest: to whom also for this it was necessary to use much subtlety and foresight, because otherwise she could not have taken or swallowed it: afterwards he offered her a little water for rinsing, at which also she suffered such great difficulty in her throat, that scarcely could she swallow it. Sometimes however he did not offer her any rinsing, because of the great difficulty, which therefrom she was suffering. And this indeed was the state of her Communion up to after the year of the Lord 1421. which finally she took as often as she was free from fever, But from here until her death, she commonly suffered quartan fevers, and sometimes daily ones, for the relief of the souls in purgatory. During which time she burned with such great divine love, that commonly, when she did not suffer the approach of the quartan fever, she communicated on two days conjointly, from the hands of her Confessors, namely Lord John son of Angelus of Dordrecht and Lord John Walter of Leiden.

[129] especially during the time of desolation. Sometimes also in the time of the withdrawal of her usual divine consolation, which was to her the refreshment both of body and of soul, she was so greatly weakened in body, that therefore, as if not able to subsist even bodily without spiritual refreshment, for the sustenance of both, namely body and soul, this most sacred banquet of the Lord's Body (when, as was said, she did not suffer the approach of fevers) she more frequently took. In whose taking with such great divine light frequently she was interiorly illuminated, that just as with bodily eyes bodily things, How within she was illuminated by it. so she too, suffused with this supercelestial light, was perceiving all her interior things with her mental eye. This also at other times frequently happened to her in the presence of contemplative light: whence afterwards in the time of her abandonment and aridity, when she did not feel this illumination through divine dispensation, mindful of her past days with a groan she was accustomed to say: O where are now those days, in which I was accustomed to behold my interior things with an internal eye, as bodily things with a bodily eye. [And so was fulfilled in her what is written: "In the day of good things be not unmindful of evils: and in the day of evils be not unmindful of good things." Ecclus. 11:27]

NOTES.

CHAPTER XII.

Other works of God concerning S. Lidwina up to her death.

C. XXXIV

[130] At the time at which, as has been said, the sacramental Host had been found with this Virgin, Adjured to explain the mystery of the Incarnation there was a certain Doctor of sacred theology in the city of Utrecht, from the house of the Order of Preaching Brothers: who when he had heard this so marvelous matter as well as many other things, which were happening around her, and was hearing daily, and these things interpreted by different people in different ways; nor yet, because he was seasoned with the salt of discretion, did he dare to consent to the negative side; as once the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, so he that he might be assured of these things, came to test her with enigmas. Entering therefore her cell, among other colloquies he asked her, by what mode the work of the Incarnation of the Word had been done by the most blessed Trinity. And when she, as one founded in true humility, preferring to lie hidden rather than to show herself, with multiple excuses and circumlocution of words affirmed somehow that she did not know this; he adjured her by the terrible judgment of God, that, if she knew, she should not be silent about the truth. Then the Virgin having wept vehemently, so much that she even provoked that Brother to tears, with a most fitting similitude this marvelous operation, compelled by necessity, she declared.

[131] But she took this similitude from the body of the sun, with a most apt similitude she opens her meaning. that as from the sun itself three distinct rays proceed, which brought into one ray by union, around the sun indeed diffused with a most ample breadth: terminating their extremity into the subtlety of a point or a sharp ray in the manner of a lance, through the mediation of the sharp ray itself or the point penetrating the interior of a house. By the sun therefore she understood the highest and eternal Deity; by the three rays proceeding from the sun, the operation of the three Persons in the Incarnation of the Word; by the union of the three rays into one ray, the identity and inseparability of the operation of the three divine Persons in the Incarnation of the same Word she said was signified: the point of these rays, or the sharp ray proceeding from three conjoined rays, she called the person of the Word or of the incarnate Son, whose Incarnation the three divine Persons inseparably have worked; who also penetrating to the interior of the virginal womb, united to himself in unity of person a particle taken from the most pure substance of her. Hearing which the Preacher said, that he had never indeed read or found such a similitude in the Scriptures, but nevertheless that this was most Christian: and therefore he did not dare henceforth to say or believe or think concerning this Virgin, except things which are right and good, as of a true handmaid of God. But the same Virgin asked the aforesaid Brother, not to reveal to anyone, as long as she lived, what she had said to him.

C. XXXV

[132] After those things which were said above concerning the Host, which appeared over the bed of this Virgin, and a little time before the death of Lord Andrew Pastor in Schiedam, Laboring with the Plague, of whom above was said; the same Virgin was infected with the epidemic pestilential disease, and many from the same plague at that time were dying from the said city. On a certain occasion therefore, kindled with desire for the sacred Communion, she sent her brother William to the church, supplicating that he bring the Pastor with the Sacrament, that he might communicate her. Who although he knew her to be infected with the aforesaid disease (for she had then in her arm two or three black boils of the same plague) nevertheless came with the Sacrament: and entering her cell, sat near her bed, that he might hear her confession: which having been heard, he delivered to her the Body of the Lord. She predicts to her Pastor, that he is about to die before her; Then the Virgin turning saw, how the same Pastor was stopping up his mouth and nostrils, as if he had feared to be infected by her. She therefore said to him: O Lord, neither you nor any other will receive death on occasion of me. To whom the Pastor answered, Dearest daughter, would that I could live so long, until I might see the end of your life. To whom she said: Lord, you will not see the end of my life, but I shortly will see your end: wherefore I supplicate, that you so dispose yourself, as you wish to appear before the tribunal of the Lord.

[133] The Pastor was then well, and felt nothing of infirmity, and therefore did not weigh the words of the Virgin. But a little time having passed when he had incurred infirmity, he remembered her words; and frustrated warning him about restitution and sending one of his friends, he supplicated that she would forgive him those things which he had committed against her (for he knew that he had not acted with her as he ought) and that she would pray to the Lord for him, that he grant him those things which were necessary for his salvation. Then the Virgin, who always from her heart had compassion on men and especially the sick, sent word to him that he should prepare himself by true Confession, and that he should restore the unjust things which he had in his house to their Lords and possessors. Who excusing himself when he had sent back word, that he had nothing unjust in his house; she again sending word,

showed him the places in which she had stored them, she sees him tormented in hell. and the persons to whom they belonged; and further supplicating that he restore to them their own things which he had taken away, if he wished to have part in the kingdom of God. But the same Pastor was, as was said, so infected with avarice, that despising the words of the Virgin he was unwilling to restore unjustly possessed things; and thus both with this sin and with others he died. After these things in her customary way this Virgin was rapt to the places, in which souls were suffering torments owed to their sins: and the holy Angel her guide showed her, in what and what kinds of punishments the aforesaid Pastor was placed, and how the demons were casting his soul from punishment to punishment, [as in the book of Job it is written, "They will go from the waters of snow to excessive heat." Job 24:19] And there succeeded this Lord Andrew, Lord John son of Angelus of Dordrecht, of the same Convent and Order, about whose conversion and death was spoken above in Chapter XXX. ^a

C. XXXVI

[134] [By these and many other prodigies of signs, for the wound of the aforesaid tribulations divinely inflicted on her, To her former infirmities, by the merciful Father she was glorified before men: such also alternations of spiritual grace, unknown to men, for the relief of the same infirmities she was experiencing for almost twenty-four years before her death, namely up to the year of the Lord 1433, before the Purification of the blessed Virgin, which was the end of the thirty-eighth year from the beginning of her illnesses.] But from this time, namely about the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin, up to the feast of Easter, with other infirmities which she had previously had, she was weighed down by such great trouble of stone, having the size of a dove's egg (as she herself said); that she said, there is added a most troublesome stone, that the same stone was to bring death to her. For by the trouble of that stone she was so straitened, that frequently two or three times in one hour lying as if lifeless, she could not speak. With that anguish ceasing, and with vehement gnashing of teeth and biting them together, yet without words of impatience, scarcely having passed; she could use very few words. At that time also she was divinely so rarely visited through internal consolations, that she complained with many tears to Lord John her Confessor that she was somehow abandoned by the Lord, more than usual.

[135] But she had with her the son of her brother, by name Baldewin, a twelve-year-old boy, almost continually ministering to her: foreseeing that she would soon be extinguished, that he might retain in memory the marvelous things that were happening around her, namely his aunt; with such grace and miracle she procured for him an infirmity, through which, as she said, he might remember the same marvelous things. This same boy was using a jar, from which she used to drink. About the feast therefore of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin, in this present year of her death, this Virgin commanded the same boy in the evening, to place the jar itself half full of thin beer in her cell near her little bed. Which when he had done, in the morning the Virgin calling the boy, commanded him to take the jar and drink. When therefore he had taken it, he found it full of a certain new drink, she sends a fever upon her little nephew, divinely prepared, as if made from a mixture of cinnamon and other sweetly smelling spices. But just as this holy Virgin, according to the multitude of tribulations by which daily she was scourged, was also refreshed with divine consolations; so conversely the aforesaid boy, having taken and drunk as much as he wished from the aforesaid drink, immediately on the same day began to languish, and successively to be disquieted by various fevers, until about the Nativity of B. Martin the Bishop of the same year.

[136] through a miraculous drink harmless to others. From the same miraculous drink various ones drank, yet they did not incur any infirmities, as the aforesaid boy did. Similarly also various liquors, sent ^b into the aforesaid jar, gave to those drinking the taste of the aforesaid most sweet drink. But with the aforesaid boy cured of his fevers, Lord John the Confessor of this Virgin fell into quartan fevers; which he was suffering also on the same day on which the Virgin herself was sustaining them. At which time the natural sister of Lord John, Sela ^c by name, asked this Virgin, For her Confessor she obtains a longer life: how long the fevers of her brother would last. Who answered, that he would be freed from them on the first Sunday of Lent of the following year: which also was done. [The same holy Virgin related for many years before her death to a certain Brother of our Order, namely of the Minors, yet so that he as long as she lived would tell no one; namely how when the same Lord John was laboring with a grave infirmity up to death, she by the insistence of her prayers obtained for him both a delay of death and a prolongation of life: for she loved him with cordial affection, inasmuch as she had experienced him sufficiently unanimous with her according to God.]

[137] But the same holy Virgin continued her infirmities up to her death: she indicates she will die at Easter, which also she foreknew long before. For a certain Prior commanded by her when he had come to her on Saturday in Quinquagesima of the same year, namely on the eve of the Chair of B. Peter the Apostle, on the following day at very early morning, about the fourth hour of the same Sunday, Lord John admonished the same Prior, to enter her cell, if he wished to experience any spiritual grace around her. When therefore he had entered the cell itself, he felt such a fragrance of sweet odor in it, which the same blessed Virgin, then visited by the Lord and led to heavenly places, had brought back, as if in the same cell various aromatic species had been placed. And so after mutual colloquy held about those things for which he had come, the Virgin admonished the Prior about to leave, that in the Paschal days he should return to her, for further conferring about the same things; asking from him, that if he should not find her, he should pray for her. From which words it is sufficiently plain, that she said this about her death, although she made no mention of the same death.

[138] [Among other admirable things which this holy Virgin was accustomed to see in paradise, she saw before her death three or four times a year a plant of roses; slender at first, but with the progress of time growing very much, under which she used to rest: about which little tree the Angel told her, that not before it had grown up and all its roses had come to maturity, that she was ripe for heaven she is taught in vision. would the Virgin herself die. When this they had understood from her, Lord John Walter her Confessor and the aforesaid widow Catherine, she frequently asked her, whether all its roses had yet matured; nor did she bring back any other answer, than that much was still lacking. But three months before her death the Virgin said, that the tree now seemed fully grown, and all its roses were open, and therefore she hoped that she would not be long among the living: as in the event it happened]. ^d

[139] But with the Paschal solemnity approaching, on the very holy night of the Lord's Resurrection, and in her last rapture, about the fourth hour, the aforesaid Lord John ^e her Confessor entering to her, both from the odor of her hands and from her own words perceived, that she had been visited in the customary way by the holy Angel: [for as great, as he told me, sweetness he felt near her, that she was thought to have been anointed with ointments of various spices. Over which when he, congratulating her, she hears the heavenly Alleluia, gave thanks to the Lord,] she returned to herself, after the visitation then had, confessed that she was indeed divinely consoled, yet asserted that most grave pains were threatening her, which through those same Paschal feasts she was about to suffer. She also said that on the same night she had heard Alleluia sung in the heavens, and hoped, that she would shortly sing the same Alleluia with the heavenly citizens in greater joy and consolation; and that she would have lighter treatment from those weights, after the feasts had passed. Which although it is thought she said and predicted about her death, yet she did not indicate that she was to die shortly. Yet on individual days she said, that the pains, which in those three days, namely on the holy day of Easter itself and on the second and third weekdays, she was suffering, were not to last long: as afterwards the event of the thing proved.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XIII.

On the death and burial of S. Lidwina, and marvels noted around them.

C. XXXIX

[140] But on the third weekday within the octaves of Easter, she asked Lord John her Confessor, All having been ordered to leave entering to her in the morning, that neither he nor any of those who carefully visited her should visit her on that day: which also was done, except the aforesaid boy Baldewin, who served her up to death. And so from almost the seventh hour of the same day in the morning up to about the fourth hour after noon, at which she was dying, about twenty times she vomited matter rather green, which she thought had come from bile. But her aforesaid Confessor told me, that, about to die alone, as she had asked, for four or five years before her death, he had heard her asking the Lord, that she should die with only herself and him knowing; and that he should multiply her pains and infirmities, shorten her days, and hasten the hour of her death. Which also was done: for with all absent [and the aforesaid Lord John reading the Vigils for the Mother of the Sisters of Schiedam, having died on the preceding day about the hour of Vespers], she died.

[141] But while she was suffering those frequent vomitings, as has been said, after great anguish, the aforesaid boy was offering her a potsherd, into which she vomited, and the things poured out by vomit he carried away. But she was so straitened in those vomitings, that complaining she said to the boy, her servant: Dearest son, would that my Lord might know how much I am burdened. But she said this about the aforesaid Lord John her Confessor. And when disturbed he asked her, whether she wished Lord John to be called; at length with the last vomit coming on, she was suffering such great difficulty in it, that not being able to eject the matter collected in her throat, she began to be suffocated by it. she is found suddenly dead; Which the aforesaid boy seeing, suspecting she was immediately to die, weeping he ran and announced to Lord John and the other domestics. Who when similarly weeping they ran up, found her now in her agony. Then Lord John, having taken her hand, asked from her a sign whether she lived, or whether she wished to be anointed.

And when she was silent, a light having been kindled and by means of a lamp applied from the back part of her head (for he thought she was still alive, and therefore could not endure the light) he found her already deceased. From the moment at which she last spoke up to her expiration, scarcely so much time intervened, as twice or thrice the Psalm, "Have mercy on me O God," could be read.

[142] April 14, 1433. But she died on the 18th day before the Kalends of May, namely on the third weekday within the octaves of Easter, after Vespers, about the fourth hour, in the year of the Lord 1433, in the fifty-third year of her age, [which according to the course of festivals had been completed on Palm Sunday before her death. And quite fittingly she died on the Paschal festival, as one who had been a partaker of the sufferings of Christ, also with Christ, in the holy festival of his Resurrection, to pass over to the joys of eternal life. But she died with thirty-eight years having been completed from the beginning of her illnesses, in the beginning of the thirty-ninth year.]

CAP. XL

[143] But after her death, certain marvels were found concerning her. and the arm, which had been nearly immobile, For through many years before her death, her right arm was entirely dead, so that she could not move it; and it clung to the joint of her shoulder, as was thought, by means of a single sinew or in some similar quite weak manner. At which time there entered to her a certain surgeon, attracted by the marvelous fame which was flying about concerning her. Who [having considered the circumstances of the same arm and trusting in divine mercy, said that he knew a remedy for curing the same arm; yet so that it was necessary for her for the upper injury of that arm, to receive another between the elbow and the hand of the same arm. is restored to its natural state, Which when she had gladly accepted (for she preferred with the divine will safe to have the injury predicted by the surgeon, rather than the ancient one, so that at least in some way she might be able to use that hand) the above-said surgeon] placed upon that joint two plasters, made, as is believed, of balsam: by which the same joint in the course of time was consolidated. [She also had a fracture in the lower lip of her mouth, about which was said above in Chapter VII: which was also cured with two or three plasters from the same ointment.]

[144] But she received for the first trouble of the arm another injury, as the surgeon had predicted, between the elbow and the hand of the same arm: yet so troublesome, that she the same right arm or her hand of it, taken up with her left hand, (as she had hoped would happen before death) could most difficultly move. Yet she was accustomed to say, that she hoped that before her death she was to praise God with both arms extended: which also was done, as appeared after her death. For [when her right arm had lain immobile for many years, and could scarcely be moved except by three men; but afterwards through the transfer of the injury had been made somewhat movable: yet after her death with her body stripped, against all hope, and with no one knowing how this had been done], both her arms were found as with hands and fingers folded around her breast; one arm namely with its hand on one side of her breast, and the other with the other hand at the other side of the breast, with the fingers of both hands curved.

CAP. XLI

[145] As was said above in Chapter IX for many years before her death; the hair-cloth girdle marvelously removed. namely almost thirty years, she had used next to her flesh several hair-cloth girdles; with the last of which, procured by the aforesaid Lord John, she had been girded for about three years. When therefore she was deceased and stripped, that she might be reclothed for burial, the same Lord John and those who were with him found, around her shoulders the aforesaid hair-cloth girdle, loosed indeed from her body, in a manner unknown to men; but whole, and round, and not loosed from the bonds of its binding. She had also asked, a long time before her death, from the often-said Lord John, that he should not suffer her after her death to make a long stay upon the earth; but immediately should procure that she be clothed and buried according to the manner arranged by her. Which when he had willingly done, With the Rectors of the city preventing her from being immediately buried, yet with the violence of the Rectors of the city exacting it (for they had commanded under penalty of goods and head, that he should not move her from the place) the body remained in the straw, as it had lain alive for almost twenty years, until morning of the fourth weekday; when it was clothed in the customary manner and placed in a wooden coffin, and laid in the same place where it had lain.

[146] But the same venerable body was clothed, in the manner of religious Sisters, in a woolen tunic, the body decently clothed, and girded above with the hair-cloth girdle, of such kind as in life she had been accustomed to use next to the flesh: placed above her head was a cap without a certain mitre of ^a frenceno, around whose circumference with black ink were written the glorious names, JESUS and MARY, several times; whose rays hearts were depicted, as if transfixed by darts or arrows. [But all these things, namely the necessities of her burial, many years before she had prepared around her, as was said above in Chapter XXVI ^b]. But under her head, as she had desired was placed a certain little sack with her bloody tears, sweetly smelling, which she had called roses: [which flowing from her eyes in the course of time, and coagulated upon her cheeks, Lord John her Confessor, when with common tears they were softened, scraping them off, in a little sack stored away, in a box had kept with him.]

CAP. XLII

[147] But she had predicted, that, as all the others, she would die with the greatest pains, and with all traces of disease abolished most beautiful and that no miracles would happen at her death: which also was done. Yet her face presented no pallor or color of death; but as if it had been smeared with oil or varnish ^c, with such splendor and fresh whiteness it was radiating, that it seemed neither the face of a common mortal man nor of a deceased mortal; but, as those looking said, as it were the likeness of a glorified man: for they said they had never seen such a beautiful image. Whence although many came several times to see her, yet, as they said, they could not be satisfied with her appearance. Similarly also her whole body was radiating with the same whiteness and similar splendor, and entirely whole, as I have received from the sister of the aforesaid Lord John, by name Sela: and with such great grace of health and becoming fleshiness all her members were shining. Namely the fracture of her forehead about which was said above in Chapter VII, the feet also and legs, hands and arms, and the wrinkled neck, and the whole body appeared so whole, as if there had never been any infirmity in them or injury; except that in the wound or injury of her right arm, and in one of the wounds which the Picards had inflicted on her, scars, small as a thread, appeared. But the aforesaid Lord John had three natural sisters, who while with some others they guarded this venerable body, from the sight of her and her presence, were filled with such great grace, that for the whole time, namely from her passing up to the burial, were not weighed down by hunger or thirst or drowsiness; as I have received from the aforesaid Sela, who was one of them.

CAP. XLIII

[148] But the death of her having been learned, and the fame of the glory of her body, with a great crowd from everywhere she is visited, about which has been said, flying far and wide, throughout this whole time which had intervened from her passing up to burial, even up to midnight, such a great concourse of men was happening to her from Rotterdam, from Delft, from Leiden, and from Briel, and from the other surrounding cities and villages, that, because of the diversity of those reckoning the same number, I do not dare to explain the numbers of thousands. Also children of three or four years, as if girded for walking, were running so affectionately; that even men of advanced age were incited to visit such great Relics. even of children: But having entered the house in which the funeral was, because they were of small stature and could not raise themselves, that they might see the holy body in the bed or in the place in which it had been placed; crying out many were saying, Shall I not see this Virgin, for whose sight I have come from Rotterdam or Delft, etc.? Then the bystanders lifted them up to see her, and after they had seen, with alms of white bread sent them back to their homes. But also a certain matron with her little one, of the age of one year and three months, when she had come; that little infant, with hands folded and face turned to the funeral, turned his eyes so reverently and seriously to it, that those who were guarding the same funeral, seeing and marveling at the devotion of the little infant, were moved to tears.

CAP. XLIV

[149] [On account of the most patient endurance of those things which she was continually suffering, but at the touch of an unclean person she loses something of splendor. and the daily familiarity with the holy Angels, and conversation in heavenly things, this blessed Virgin came to such great purity, that just as he who touches pitch will be defiled by it; so she too, generally handled by the hands of unclean men, was visibly stained. For when while she was still alive sometimes her hands were touched by the hands of such, for two or three days black stains, before not seen in her, remained on her hands. So also after her death, when, as has been said, her face was radiating with such great splendor; a certain woman approaching with others for the sake of visitation, drew her rosary of fifty, which is commonly called Pater noster, over her face out of devotion, as she thought: and immediately that face from that touch was successively notably obscured. Wherefore when her body placed in the church, to the view of the bystanders, through the opening of the coffin, certain ones demanded to be shown; others, who knew these things, forbade it to be opened; fearing lest, if it had been further obscured, others might be scandalized.]

CAP. XLV

[150] At length on the sixth weekday within the aforesaid octaves of Easter, namely on the fourth day of her passing, after the solemnities of Masses of the day had been celebrated most devoutly, she was buried, at the twelfth hour at noon (by the example of the Savior, [She is buried on the 6th weekday after Easter, who with the whole mystery of human redemption completed, on the sixth weekday of the preparation at noon, was deceased, and on the same day with evening falling was buried) with the Prior persuading and exhorting the people, of whom was said in Chapter XIII XXXVIII, to suffer her to be buried, and with the same coffin before burial firmly fastened. honorably in a tomb above ground,] But she was buried in the Southern side of the cemetery of the church of S. John Baptist in Schiedam, in a ditch, covered on top by stone work by masons: nor was her holy body covered on top with earth, nor did it touch the earth below, but

was placed upon certain beams or woods extended internally into the width of the ditch. For she had asked before her death, that just as she for thirty years had not touched the earth, so neither should the earth touch or cover her deceased. But the upper part of her sepulcher, which namely is above ground, is raised with stone work by almost two cubits, and is covered with red stone. But the tomb itself was interiorly sufficiently becomingly adorned, namely with red crosses, such as it is customary to make in churches to be dedicated.

[151] After her burial, when her sepulcher was honored with many visitations and various offerings of various people; ^d the Rectors of the church having taken counsel, above which an altar and chapel are built. in the following year namely 1434, built a stone chapel, founded about the feast of the ten thousand ^e Martyrs, with an altar over her tomb, extending from the choir, between two pillars or columns of the church, to the sepulcher.

[152] [These few things of many and almost innumerable let it suffice to have said briefly. For (to use her own words, Author's epilogue, with which concerning these very things which were divinely done around her she was accustomed to speak, according to truth) all things which could be said of any state of her, are as leaves flowing from the trees, whose roots cannot be seen: and they are as it were like ears of grain, which the holy Ruth was gathering behind the backs of reapers and those binding sheaves, which indeed are very few with respect to the sheaves. For as is plain from the preceding, after almost nineteen years of her illnesses from the beginning, in which she used such sparing and superhuman food and drink, with a synopsis of her excellent virtues, for the remaining almost nineteen she used no food or drink, nor did she emit bodily superfluities except through vomit. And how great a weight this is, who will explain? Thus also her divine consolations, which through contemplation she was experiencing, in which for almost twenty-four years daily almost into paradise and to heavenly joys, to purgatorial also and infernal places she was being rapt, who will narrate? Ineffable too was her charity, by which, with the Apostle supplying those things which are lacking of the sufferings of Christ in her body, she was suffering such great things for the redemption of souls from the penal places. Col. 1:24 But also to those who in this life were pressed by poverty or the squalor of various miseries or infirmities and tribulations, how much affection of compassion and aid of piety she showed as far as she was able, is sufficiently clear from the preceding. Whence for all these things with copious reward, in many ways now received in heaven from the Father of mercies, we do not doubt her to be rewarded: nay more even we ought by vow which we can deservedly to ask her, and a holy invocation, that for us poor and infirm she would deign to beseech the Lord, that we also to the mercy of the Lord may be able to come after the departure of this miserable life. Which may he grant us, who in perfect Trinity lives and reigns God forever. Amen.]

NOTES.

APPENDIX

Three miracles, done at the invocation of S. Lidwina, and described by Thomas a Kempis.

[153] But now to approve the sanctity of this virgin, it seems wholly worthy, at the end of the book to annex out of many signs three most well-known miracles, to the honor of God and to the praise of this sacred virgin: which from trustworthy men, offering testimony to her sanctity, are proved most true, and are reported by the mouths of many, briefly done in Holland with God cooperating.

[154] There was in the city of Delft a certain virgin, who for eight years continually keeping to her bed, Incurable sickness was gravely ill. Four masters named expert and famous in medicine were visiting her; and moved by human piety, but led more by the love of God, desired to help her. But the sickness of that Virgin was wholly hidden to the aforesaid masters; nor could any of them give any remedy, which could benefit the sick one. Among whom one of the masters, master William Sonderdanc, an approved Doctor, marveling much said to the aforesaid Virgin: You have not yet for so long a time suffered such great pains, as that blessed virgin Lydewigis: on account of whose merits, the Lord now works many miracles in our regions. The sick Virgin therefore hearing these things, kindled from her own devotion, or rather by divine inspiration, read as many Lord's Prayers, At the Saint's appearance she is healed. (commonly called "Pater noster") as there are members in the body of man, to the honor of God and of that holy virgin Lydewigis. It happened therefore after this, that the blessed virgin Lydewigis visibly visited the languishing virgin, giving her a remedy of the art of medicine, and truly cured she rose up healthy, walking, eating, and doing the works of healthy virgins. About which the above-said master greatly stupefied, testifies that this very thing is most true.

[155] The second miracle happened at ^a Gouda, in the most well-known city of Holland. Contracted shin There was in the same place in the cloister of Virgins a certain nun, who had a contraction of the nerves in one shin: whose shin was so curved and contracted, that she could not walk, nor could she in any way extend it to the length of the other by the space of two palms. She would have willingly visited that physician master William Sonderdanc aforenamed (who before had cured one from the same house in Delft sent to him, with remedies of his art and the grace of God helping, in the space of eight weeks) but she could not obtain license from her Superiors. Saddened therefore she wept bitterly for many days, because she would remain lame all the days of her life, as she estimated, thus being ill content. is restored: At length came that blessed Virgin Lidewigis by night, speaking with her and saying: that she should obtain from the Sisters, that each nun of that house read five Pater-nosters and Ave-Marias, to the honor of God and of the virgin Lydewigis herself; and that on a Sunday she should have herself carried to her own church, and thus she would have to recover the health of the lame shin. Which without delay was done. For with license obtained from her Confessor, she was carried to the church, as Lydewigis had told her through revelation: and under the Mass suddenly she acquired perfect health of her shin; by herself most joyfully going out, and giving the greatest thanks to God, who through the merits of this most blessed virgin Lidewigis had worked that miracle.

[156] But the third miracle happened at Leiden, in a famous town of the part of Holland. In this populous city there was a religious virgin, who had in her neck a cancerous hardness, to the size of a great apple; so that she could neither drink or eat, nor bend herself, without wanting ^b to be suffocated, from excessive anguish of breath. A cancerous hardness of the neck is softened. She came with bare feet and without linen to the sepulcher of the aforesaid holy Virgin, for help in obtaining health: which not obtained she withdrew with great sadness, ignorant what goods were to come to her. On the night following after her departure from the sepulcher, and having had sleep awakened, she was fully cured of that cancerous hardness, which she had suffered for almost eight years, as is known to many. This virgin miraculously cured, the above-mentioned master William Sonderdanc, Doctor in medicine, saw with his own eyes, and touched her neck with his hands: who also offers most faithful testimony by his writings about all the foregoing, saying: I testify to God, that these three things were done in a short time: but also many others, which I saw with my eyes, it would be long to narrate. These above-written miracles happened, with God renewing signs in our days, in the year of the Lord 1448: with Pope Nicholas the Fifth most holy presiding in the Apostolic see, in the second year of his Pontificate.

[157] Thus far Thomas a Kempis, to which add a slightly more recent one, after a certain Life already printed was being circulated in the hands of the common people, added at the end of the Life, which was completed at Delft in Holland in the year of the Lord 1487, on the 3rd day of March. It is as follows. It happened that a grain ship from the Eastern ^c parts having entered the ^d Southern sea could not make sails, as the others could: the book of her Life is miraculously preserved. with the sailors inquiring the cause, there was seen a book of S. Lidewigis floating upon the sea; which when they had cast out a bucket and drawn to themselves, and received into the ship; immediately it flew before the others to Amsterdam, whence the book was sent to Schiedam.

NOTES.

LATER LIFE

By the same author John Brugman.

from the old Schiedam printed edition of the year 1498.

Lidwigis or Lidwina, Virgin, at Schiedam in Holland (B.)

BHL Number: 4926

a

BY JOHN BRUGMAN FROM MSS.

PROLOGUE.

to the Life of the beloved Virgin Lydwina

[1] With others writing vain and secular things, Illustrious are the heralds and true the testimonies of the pious Scriptures, that God is marvelous in his servants, desirable in his sons, glorious in his Saints. Poets have fabricated very many, but not credible things, about mortal gods, such as Jove, Saturn, Mercury, Juno, Pallas, and also Venus of deceitful beauty. Over the greatness of the great Hercules of old, Hector, Troilus, Julius Caesar, both Scipios and others, whom only the ardor of vain glory and futile honor made renowned and famous, many have filled membranes or books with their writings, giving least preference to the God of gods and King of kings. But we more certainly taught by oracles, miracles, images and mirrors, which shine in created things, giving glory and honor to the immortal and invisible King of the ages, to the only true God; how marvelous he has been in his elect, let us bring forth in the midst with humble style, according to the measure of our powers.

[2] others more rightly and usefully describe the Acts of the Saints, Clear indeed and very rhythmic were the writings of our ancient fathers, in which we not only recognize the praiseworthy virtues themselves, but indeed we find the most renowned possessors of the virtues themselves, both intellectual and moral, to be admired, venerated equally and imitated by us. It has always been indeed an undertaking worthy of effort, for the memory of those to come, and for the glory of the Most High, whose Spirit works, where, how, how much and when he wills, to commend any virtuous ones, to extol illustrious men, and to depict the trophies of victors, to describe the actions of the Saints: by which he who was begotten before the day-star in the splendors of the Saints, deigns even from the beginning to illuminate his house. How exceedingly happy the golden age of the ancient fathers, whose abundance and variety never fails. adorned with very many splendors of most renowned men, continually inserted with new crowns, set with flowering gems! God the great husbandman renews his field, now with lilies, now with roses, now with violets. Christ the Lord, the true vine, looks upon, sees and visits his vineyard. With the North wind driven far away, the South wind blows and blows through, namely the Holy Spirit, where, how, how much and when he wills, his garden, and its most odoriferous spices flow forth. Now from men he chooses men; now from women he draws forth women; now from little ones he gathers little ones; that he may confound all strong things: he raises up the needy from the earth, and from the dung he lifts up the poor man, that he may place him with princes: because the Most High created small and great, male together with female, boy and old man, nay his care for all is equal.

[3] After the Holy of Holies deigned to descend to us, his unction has never ceased, how now Lydwina is given to men, so that his ointment, which is in superabundance in Christ our head, descended into the beard, the beard of Aaron: and descended into the hem of his garment. And indeed the daughters of kings run in honor, in the odor of his ointments: the daughters of Tyre also run with gifts, and the miserable daughter of Babylon: because it is written, "I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon knowing me." Ps. 86:4 By no means now will the holy one perish from the earth, nor will the upright be lacking among men. And lest I lie, of the women of our time I have found one, whom as a light in an earthen vessel, in a fragile sex, in the humble choir of girls, with the evening of the world drawing on, of the militant Church both for men and women, as a memorial of his marvelous works, the marvelous and omnipotent God has brought into light. Indeed, in these last days, the Father of mercies and of lights has chosen for himself a special spouse Lydwina: who for us, upon whom the ends of the ages have come, should sprinkle like an evening star with her purity; who should direct us by the mirror of her patience, as a moon in the midst of a cloud; and who to us, as a rising sun in the heights of God, in the midst of young tambourine-playing girls, should shine back with flame-spewing charity.

[4] To those fully beholding the course of the life of this Virgin, the virgin has something by which she may be delighted, from whom all may profit, the humble one has what she may admire, the zealous for perfect wisdom has what to follow. Moreover the guilty finds in her what may offer confidence, the just what may increase justice, the emulator of perfection that by which as first fruits of the spirit he may emulate better gifts of grace. Therefore to see the goodness of God in the renowned Virgin, in a girl so marvelously chosen from thousands, let the little ones be called, sucking the breasts of Christ; let those coming to congratulate the spouse, led into the nuptials of Christ, gather. Coming, I ask, come and see the works of the Lord, which he has placed as prodigies upon the earth, and let them learn to wonder at the stupendous works of God. and those born of earth and sons of men, together in one both rich and poor. Let the ranks of astrologers come, Ptolemy with the rest; let the battle-line of physicians approach, Hippocrates, Galen with their followers; and taking up the truthful narrative about this tender virgin, let them indicate, according to their ability, the reason of the life of this Virgin, if they are able. Certainly neither Averroes the mocker of our faith will assign a cause, nor Avicenna the best writer of natural things, nor Plato the metaphysician, nor the whole assembly of natural philosophers, unless they are illuminated by supernatural light: whence frequently in the examination of our Virgin Lydwina with these failing, it was the common saying which she added; I know, she said, I know, that the vain sons of men, variously strive to search around me for the reason of the works of God, that they may grasp it, and when grasped reduce it to writings: but in vain I say this examination is being done, since the more those examining shall have examined, the more and more they will waste away by examining.

[5] Truly this most renowned woman was as it were another Ruth of our time, This Virgin, to be compared with renowned women, gathering ears of grain behind the backs of the reapers: she was indeed a strong woman, sought from afar and from the ends of the earth; who like Abisag, among the daughters of the kingdom, to the house of the King, as a Shunammite, is first led in; who having found the silence of nocturnal rest, is permitted to sit with Mary; who at length with the Prince having entered his lofty throne, reigns together as Queen. Happy moreover our land, which in kindness received from the Lord has given its fruit. Mother Church has produced, through various provinces of the world, a flourishing throng of Saints: now sending Apostles from Judea, now everywhere gathering the blood of the holy Martyrs, now distributing most radiant Doctors to the whole world, now directing Anchorites to the deserts, now gluing together Coenobites scattered and joined, now bringing forth professors of the Evangelical life for the reformation of the deserted vineyard of Christ: whence it was fitting that Holland, once sterile, should bring forth for the Lord this happy little rose, conspicuous with every virtue, among the lilies and violets, with which it abounds among the other nations of the world.

[6] Holland, a most praiseworthy region, produced; Holland indeed, as I have seen, is a fertile region, situated in the lower borders of Germany: a region, I say, marshy, watered by the waters of the Rhine and many other rivers; a place of most rich pastures, herds and flocks; an undaunted nurse of wealth and of business: whose inhabitants are tall and elegant, its men strong and robust; a people bold in spirit, beautiful in face, more handsome and honorable in morals and more mature. Its common people are commonly most devoted to God, most faithful to men; less eager for plunder and rapine; merciful to the conquered, and very fierce against enemies. This indeed a small portion of the world, by no means least among the thousands of Germany; in no thing more glorious than in this its foster-child, because with the other parts of the Church growing weak, this is seen supremely to be the mother of much religion, fertile of virtues and virtuous ones, zealous of any reformed persons, promoter of hospitals and houses of the poor, mirror of virgins and continent widows, outstanding protectress of all Orders of regular life, belching forth a storehouse to the hungering and thirsting in near and remote places, fruitful parent of most honorable widowhood, sincere lover of dove-like simplicity more than of serpent-like cleverness, moreover a sumptuous constructor of churches and indefatigable adorner, of Christian life and contemplative society greatly over and above many peoples and provinces most full.

[7] which as a cedar among virgins, Furthermore this little plant, from the womb of mother Church, from the womb of the diocese of Utrecht, in the lap of the County of Holland, as if a field-guide and primicerius, God the moderator of times and all things brought forth into the light of his people: that she might be as a cedar exalted on mount Sion, I say the mount from the perfection of Confessors; as a palm exalted in the army of Martyrs; as a palm among Martyrs, as a planting of a rose in the senate of Fathers and Apostles; as a beautiful olive in the assembly of Patriarchs; as a plane tree in the wedge of Prophets, as cinnamon and balsam giving off perfume in the choirs of Angels. And what wonder? Was she not, the companion of girls and virgins, as a high cedar of Lebanon, as a rose among Apostles, who was holy, was chaste, and whole in body and spirit? Was she not a sweet-smelling cypress, erect in the midst of Confessors, who was the norm of universal virtue and justice? Was she not a palm in the army of Martyrs, who spent her whole life on the cross of innumerable sufferings, as a mirror of patience, willingly? as an olive among Patriarchs, was she not a red rose in the senate of Apostles, who with such great penury and such great poverty of spirit, and with such great charity for more than thirty years gained souls for Christ Jesus? Was she not a beautiful olive in the assembly of Patriarchs, who not only her own things, but herself, namely body and soul, like two mites with the widow holding, willingly, indeed and frequently, expended upon the living and the deceased? Was she not a plane tree in the wedge of Prophets, as a plane tree among Prophets who not only foreknew the future, but absent things as present and the secrets of hearts, to persons, places and times opportunely, revealed? Was she not cinnamon and balsam giving off perfume in the choirs of Angels, as balsam among the Angels she was: who as friend to friend, face to face, spoke with the Angels, and as a man congratulates a man? Without doubt.

[8] About Renowned women Boccaccio has described very many, about illustrious men very many codices have depicted, and especially the more illustrious Jerome: but, with conscience as witness, I fear lest in the face of the loftiness of this woman, I may be found a wicked and unworthy praiser. whom the author preferring to the matrons of the old Testament, What shall I say? I greatly fear. Commended is, and deservedly, through sacred Scripture Sarah, because she conceived a son with an Angelic revelation preceding: but this one is not a mother, but a virgin, more familiar with Angels. Commended is prudent Rebecca, who was called Haalma, that is, Hidden virgin, because clever for the salvation of her son: but this one for thirty-three years lay under a little hut, more cleverly for the salvation of the sons of God. Commended are the sisters Leah and Rachel, Leah, because fruitful, Rachel because beautiful: truly gracious Lydwina, was more fruitful in offspring than the one, and in the sight of the King, whose glory is within, more beautiful than the other. Ruth is praised humble and grateful, this one in humility and poverty is more cheerful. Abigail is praised, from the discretion of her word; and the woman of Tekoa, because sweet for appeasing: this one in taking away the wrath of God from the people, and the wrath of a man from a man, much more sweet and more learned. Abisag is praised, because as a young girl she warmed the white hair of the King: this one in ministering to the crucified King, lying on a little cot, more fervent. Judith is proclaimed,

because holy in praying for the people: and this one more efficacious in interceding. Proclaimed is ^c Sara daughter of Raguel, because she sustained the reproach of her handmaid: and this one more patient concerning reproaches and any other things inflicted. Proclaimed is the Queen of Sheba, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and behold by the affections of the mind, not by the steps of the body, the peaceful King both to praise and obey more skillfully.

[9] What more? she thirsts with the Samaritan woman, but she is more richly given drink: she cries out with the Canaanite woman, and they compare her with the women praised in the new Testament, but for faith is commended no less: she ministers to Christ with Martha in his members, nor is disturbed interiorly: she sits at his feet with the Magdalene, nor is she frustrated by dew within: she stands beside the Crucified One pierced with Mary, just as she is satisfied by his fruits to the very marrow. And so as a woman fearing God, she herself is worthily praised: as a wise and modest woman, she finds grace: as a woman, adorned with grace more than many like Esther, she received glory and a crown. This one is Hesperus, about to sprinkle light most clearly on the Northern regions of earth and sea, whom the Lord transported from the lowest to the highest: that as before she had shone on earth through the mirror of highest humility, virginity, modesty and patience, so afterwards by her suffrage made imperial in heaven, she might procure light for the blind, grace and salvation for the dry. Without doubt he will give through her from on high the voluntary rain, to us greatly necessary, in its time vehemently upon dry hearts; whom he made as it were to rest in his own lap, whom thus he fed so tenderly with his own bread, whom he willed to drink the chalice of such great pains, whom for more than thirty years as a handmaid, he established to become a bearer of his wounds equally and pains.

[10] And who do you think in this matter will be conceived a faithful and prudent servant, who with worthy praises may raise up the worthy handmaid of Christ? he denies that he can worthily praise her, Will a blind man give a sound judgment about colors? Will one poor of mind, slothful, useless, commend a strong woman as a giant? Will a mute herald, without religion, born wholly in sins, suffice to belch forth her praise, perfection and patience? I would wish, indeed I would wish, O best Doctor William, who are surnamed Sonder-dank, in the art of medicine, that as you more often have induced me to this work, which is above my powers, to write for this one's honor; so you had added the expenses which are necessary. who never knew her alive; O would that from the superabundance of your blessing you had given me even one of all of them; who not only dedicated yourself as a temple to the spouse of Christ; but from the hut, in which she lay languishing, constructed a church of cement, brick, wood and stone: who by your example kindled some in the love of this heavenly pearl: who with the eyes of flesh saw her alive, seeing her heard her speaking and answering, with hand perhaps touched the virgin hand; and her infirmities, if I am not mistaken, you recognized: who feel in spirit your beloved, if you confess truly besides, although now deceased.

[11] yet known from faithful report But by this what do I wish to intimate you ask? The Virgin I have not seen, her living I have not heard, nor her deceased do I feel: and you exhort me to offer testimony. If I have anything, I have that chiefly from you, that I conceive myself from the writings of the Virgin's Confessors, that from little books I transfer here and there, and from the report of faithful and trustworthy men and devout women I learn. And because my faith is from hearing, according to my faith so my love is borne to her: and to say the whole, from the faith which I have borne to her from the years of my boyhood, and which the Lord increases up to this day, my heart has become burning, and my belly as new wine without a vent, which bursts new bottles. Yet while charity compels me to write, my imperfection, which my eyes see, draws me back: since truly in truth with the Psalmist I shall speak, all day my shame is before me, he was not able to suppress. the confusion of my face has covered me. Ps. 43:16 You know yet, most beloved of men, what I said to you, when I was with you in your house. Woe to me, I say, if I am silent (although I did not see with the eyes of flesh her whom I am about to preach) if I do not magnify among the peoples, her whom with so great glory praiseworthy I do not doubt to be above on high. I fear lest, when I shall be silent, the spirits shall cry out through the air, the infants through the streets, the stones in the walls; from which already for a third time to write more effectively, I have been admonished.

[12] he excuses his meagerness to the reader, Yet I ask any pious reader, that when he has read through in whole or in part, those things which with God as guide now a third time I have been able to compose to the praise of this most sacred Virgin, he not judge askance; let him moderate not with tooth, but with the line of fraternal correction; let him not despise the truth of the matter, if the eloquence of the rhetorician is not present; let him not ascribe to presumption, what charitable reason has composed; let him not turn back upon the person praised the fault or imperfection of the praiser. Let charity I ask receive this sheet, which I have written in three parts, although woven with multiple barbarism: in which, according to the custom of beginners, the first part will give the Virgin's entrance into the service of God; the second part, and he divides his work into three parts. according to the form of those advancing, will show the progress of the same Virgin; but the third part, according to the example of the perfect, will describe the departure of the beloved Lydwina: because it seemed to me unfitting to proceed according to the order of times, lest I should confound further matters: nay rather, for the consolation of devout spirits, the bundles of myrrh, as from the words and deeds of the spouse of Christ I have been able to gather, so in order I have placed. For it is enough for me, that the blessed spouse of the Lord, according to the competence of my powers, most humbly I should announce to every generation which is to come: for the heavens shall declare her justice. And if she shall seem less venerable to the sinful nation, to the wicked sons; nevertheless reverend she will seem, through those things which I write, at least to the humble people, which shall be born, which the Lord shall form.

NOTES.

TESTIMONIAL LETTER,

which, with the same Virgin Lydwina laboring in sickness, written for the strength of the truth, the Judges of Schiedam fortified with the seal of their Community, in this form.

We, the Bailiff, ^a Schout, Burgomasters, ^b Scabins, and ^c Consuls of the town of Schiedam, under the Duchy of Holland, under the diocese of Utrecht, make known to all, that we have seen and read, in the year of the Lord 1421 on the 12th day of the month of September, a letter sealed with the seal of our town, containing word for word as below.

[13] From the obligation of testifying the truth To all and each of the faithful of Christ, spiritual and secular, greater and lesser, noble and ignoble, of men and persons of both sexes, of whatever state, grade or condition they be, in cities or outside, on lands or on waters, or wherever else they may dwell, or have their homes or places of habitation, to whom these presents shall come, the Bailiff, Schout, Burgomasters, Scabins and Consuls of the town of Schiedam in the Duchy of Holland, under the diocese of Utrecht, humble greetings always preceding with acknowledgment of the truth: because right reason judges this, justice exacts and requires, that true things and causes can evidently be intimated, made known and manifested to the ears, indeed deservedly ought to be made known, intimated to the ears and manifested and testified; especially however those, in which the praise, honor, and glory of God can be and shine forth.

[14] they certify that Lydwina Therefore we certify and make known, and desire all and each of the aforesaid faithful of Christ to know, we make public, we intimate ^d to the ears and testify in truth in these writings, of the very marvelous and unheard-of facts and things, which in our said town happen and have been done, and are still daily done and happen concerning a certain Virgin, for 23 years lying sick, named Liedwy Petri. This is to be understood, that the same virgin and maiden, was very infirm, and was tortured most greatly in her bed, in which also she lies and has lain a full twenty-three years, at the feast of the Purification of the B. Mary Virgin last past. And within the same time she never used nor received except one half pint of wine, a week or thereabouts, with a little water or a little of sugar or with a very little cinnamon well ground: except that within the first three years of her infirmity, abstains from food and drink and sleep, sometimes and between times, she took a little of apple or bread, and sometimes ate or drank a little of sweet milk: but within the seven years last past she has used no food or drink at all, nor does she use any at present.

[15] She does not sleep, nor throughout all the above-written years has she ever slept, except very little, and scarcely for two nights, all computed together. And she now lies so lamentably and miserably, that she loses her intestines and is deprived of the same. And gray worms, full of water of the same color, thick as a spindle at the end, she abounds with worms long as the joint of one finger (which with the permission and reverence of all we write) eat and corrode her flesh, without any stench and without any bad odor proceeding from it. And when in past times she was accustomed to be moved or handled, her members almost all dissolved; then it was necessary that her body upper around the shoulders, with bandages or with a towel or some similar thing be strongly bound; otherwise the whole body would have fallen into tiny parts, and been wholly dissolved. But in present times she can in no way be moved, nor has she ever been able within the seven years last past, during which she has always lain and still lies on her back, and cannot move except her head and one arm.

[16] And sometimes through intervals of time from her mouth, she emits a great force of blood, nose, ears, and other passages she emits much blood, in addition to the fact that she uses no food or drink, nor has she used any except according to what is above set forth. And the same virgin and maiden within the same seven years above written has had and still has from third to third day, one great and heavy tertian fever, which first comes upon her with inexpressible heat: and not long after this comes inextricable

cold: she suffers terrible fevers, and then again heats and cold alternately. And this has so lasted for a full half year: but after this time she has once heats lasting for a time, and afterwards cold. And when she is freed from this kind of fever, then she knows nothing of herself within ten or twelve hours. And when she has and suffers the aforesaid fevers, then she vomits through her mouth or emits through the night much of red water, so that from it a quarter part of a vessel full results in a week: and of water of this kind, even beyond this, within a year a good two vessels full she still vomits and emits.

[17] The aforesaid virgin and maiden also has in her body three holes: she has three large holes in her body. each of which is fully as large as the interior concavity and bottom of one common bowl, and they are as black as pitch, as appears to those looking in and seeing. And from one of them, which stands in the belly of that virgin and maiden, there run and gush forth through intervals of time two hundred of the aforesaid worms at one time: and upon that is placed a certain plaster, made and prepared from honey and fresh fine flour or flour from wheat fat: and from that those worms suck, and take their nourishment, otherwise they would torment the same unto death: and if this kind of flour or fat were old and not fresh, those worms would not suck that plaster nor use it. All these things are proved, and through experience so found: and the holes are now closed.

[18] Also at every fortnight the said virgin and maiden receives the most sacred and venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist: she communicates every fortnight and that with difficulty, and it is necessary that the Priest communicating her use subtlety and dexterity, when he communicates her; because otherwise she could neither take nor swallow the Eucharist. And then he gives her very little of water: which also she cannot well pass down or swallow, but first through time in her throat she belches up in the manner of those gargling: and sometimes he gives her no water at all, because of the difficulty of passing it down or taking it within. Moreover this virgin and maiden from below up to the belly is wholly and totally putrefied: and it is necessary that with a certain little cushion filled with wool, to the size of a hand, made especially for this, she be stopped up: otherwise her intestines and lower parts would wholly fall out. and below wholly putrefied. And so truly the marvels and portents, which in the said virgin and maiden have been done and are still daily done, are too great and so many and various, that they cannot clearly and fully be written or opened up by the pen. The often-said virgin and maiden was also fourteen years old, when the infirmity first happened and came upon her.

[19] And because we the Bailiff, Schout, Burgomasters, Scabins and Consuls above-said, well and fully are informed and certified about all the particulars written above, indeed daily we well perceive and are certified; therefore the present letter for evident and true testimony, with our seal, which we use for causes, hanging externally, we seal, in the year of the Lord 1420, on the Vigil of B. Mary Magdalene, on the twenty-first day of the month of July.

The copy of the testimonial letter ends here, which, with the most devout virgin Lydwina laboring in sickness, why this letter is here placed. for the strength or testimony of the truth, the Judges or Lords of the republic of the town of Schiedam, having with good faith written, fortified with the seal of their community: which when I had looked upon, read and touched, I thought it necessary word for word here to annex. These are indeed marvelous testimonies, wherefore my soul has searched them: but the testimony of the Lord, greater than all these, is most acceptable everywhere. ^e

NOTES.

PART ONE

The Beginning or Entry of the Life of the beloved Virgin Lydwina.

CHAPTER I.

On her origin and conversation in the years of her childhood.

[1] Therefore our Lydwina drew her origin from the County of Holland; from a grave people, Schiedam in Holland, and a very religious house. And this singular Virgin shone singularly, more fittingly to be called a virago, in a certain town of Schiedam, where the river which is called the Meuse flows toward the Western side, where also the whirlpools of various rivers seem to await the opening of the sea in the neighborhood. Indeed the memorial of this Virgin remains in blessing; because the Lord preceding her with the blessing of his sweetness, mercifully snatched the girl from the wicked world, educated her as a daughter with paternal visitations; and also as a living stone of sanctification, in the building of his house, as a wise architect, placed her. The name of her father was Peter, with parents Peter and Petronilla, but of her mother Petronilla: to whom there was divinely this preeminent mark of virtue, that living from the labor of hands equally and the sweat of the face, they walked in the commandments of the Lord without complaint, just as also from their forebears they had received the ways of life.

[2] with a grandfather John, For of this Peter, a man of praiseworthy life John, was the father; a man indeed upright and fearing God; who his wife having died remaining a widower, was attenuating his body with abstinences; so much that with two and three-day fasts observed on individual Saturdays, on bread only and water, from a body scarcely enfeebled with age took the necessities; faithfully serving the Lord day and night; to preserve the pearl of inestimable continence, subduing and chastising the flesh. But how great a virtue that veteran had, a man of great sanctity, is proved not only by bodily exercise, which is useful to a little; but moreover piety, which avails for all things, had made this man so much master of himself, that with a certain melting sweetness of mind, he was profiting by the efficacy of unwearied prayer; by the frequency of confession from Saturday to Saturday he was purging himself; and as if leading a monastic life, from fortnight to fortnight with most fervent love he was communicating. The manifold wars of virtues of this venerable old man also prove; when without doubt the demons envying his happy acts often strove to overturn his little house and those things which were contained in it; and where they could not harm the man of God, sometimes his domestics, like rabid dogs, with excessive terror they drove out of the house.

[3] From the stock therefore of this John of famous memory, as a little branch of admirable virtue, and also a little flower of most sweet odor, our Lydwina, as from a grandfather of venerable white hairs, sprouted, that as a good tree might produce good fruits, with unusually easy childbirth and the holy root might bring forth the fruit of sanctification. Arranging therefore he, who produced oil from a rock and honey from a stone, to her husband Peter, Petronilla bore eight males, and only this female alone: whom she brought forth in labors and sorrows, more than can be said, with great peril of life each year; and with much sweat, being a poor little thing, together with the vigilant skill of her husband, she nourished up to the worship of almighty God. And when the mother bore this salutary daughter in the womb, vehemently she feared, lest by chance by the accustomed peril of childbirth she would be endangered of life: and she was praying more attentively to the Lord, that with life as companion, more salutarily than before, he would deliver her in childbirth.

[4] she is born on Palm Sunday: The days having been completed then for her to give birth, the solemnity of Palm Sunday was at hand, especially the hour of High Mass, at which the Passion according to Matthew is accustomed to be read. But the happy woman not knowing, that imminent pains were at the doors, pregnant, as she could, approached the church. But as soon as the Passion of the Lord was being read, with pain coming upon her she returns home; where with marvelous facility, with the clemency of the most merciful God helping, the happy one brings forth this most happy plant: and with joy from this having been made to all the neighbors, ^a having been born she is reborn in the sacred bath of baptism, and a most fitting name Lydwina or Lydwya is given to her. and in baptism she is named Lydwina: Which name indeed among the Germans is recognized to contain the signification of ample patience: "Lyden" indeed in Teutonic is the word for endurance; "Wy" however bears the mark of breadth. But let no one think this was done in vain that reborn she received such a name: since, as the event afterwards demonstrated, what things are lacking of the sufferings of Christ in her body, as a glorious daughter of the almighty Father, in many ways and many manners, for the aid of the living equally and the suffrage of the deceased, she tolerated scourges. Indeed she who at the time of the recited Passion on Palm Sunday is born; to whom with such facility beyond the usual manner in childbirth to her fearful mother it is divinely granted, who for so many and so great chastisements in the region of mortals for the support of many of the faithful is chosen; she fittingly by right receives the vocabulary of a barbaric naming, signifying diffuse and universal patience.

[5] Truly whatever from the maternal entrails, by pious dispensation, at the time of childbirth, the infant suffers the pains of the stone. is thought to have been withdrawn from the cup, that as I would say, to the blessed offspring to be drunk more infinitely is offered for the future. Since that age which is fed on milk alone and is bound with tight swaddling clothes, is not permitted to be free from the gifts of infirmities. Nay indeed when the little one was moved in the cradle, tortured with dire torment, after infant wailings and tears, she was emitting not a few stones: for with such preludes of pains, which cast down the minds even of the strongest men, as we see; the little infant, ignorant of war and deceit, wailing between the breasts, was being armed for the battle which awaited her, which holy patience alone has for a shield with charity. And the endurance of our Lydwina indeed in first cradle-songs so occurred: but how the happy infant, grew up a little later into a happier woman, let us attend.

[6] Piously affected toward the image of D. V. From then she began, as a rose among thorns, the little spouse of Christ Jesus, as much as that first age allows, step by step, under the instruction of her pious parents, those things which are of God, as a new earthen pot, skillfully to drink: she began also with a certain presaging spirit of future marvels, now to feel the first little gifts of the Virgin Mother: she began also stammering with a certain joyful mind to utter the Angelic salutation, now to seek the thresholds of holy places: she began also cheerfully to greet sweetly the Queen of mercy, and her image wherever she could. On account of which without doubt the same mother of grace Mary, as if eager for spiritual offspring, in the said town of Schiedam chose for herself a place of special unction:

about which let us say a little digressively.

[7] For a certain merchant had carried with him a certain image of the Blessed Virgin, which because of a miracle done concerning it for the sake of selling it in the fairs of Antwerp: which when he had placed in a ship, and the sailors were giving their labor to navigation, immediately by divine will the ship itself was made immovable. Marvelous to say! Hands are applied, instruments are added; but they do not succeed, with all marveling: they flow together from every part both men and women, the fame of the thing is spread abroad, the aspect is turned into stupor, they come from laughter to praise, with all believing that this matter was from the Lord, was held in veneration at Schiedam, with her procuring it, whose image was held there. But with all those having come to help the merchant despairing, they began to ask, that attentive to the miracle, he would wish to leave that image there, with a competent price received from the masters of the fabric. Soon the masters of the ecclesiastical fabric having been requested, a pact is made on both sides about the price to be given, with the seller devotion is made eager, virtue compelled from necessity; the image is made venerable to the peoples, and in the church it is placed venerably as quickly as possible, namely the church of the Baptist the Savior: the love and devotion grow at length on account of the same image; a fraternal congregation is made of both sexes and of any states; there is made from then in the same place, as I have seen, the daily ^b solemnization of the praise of Mary; a gathering of those jubilating in the glory of the Saints is made.

[8] And so with these things being so, with the Virgin being venerated in the image by the inhabitants, she is accustomed to visit it by stealth, and our girl Lydwina being in her seventh year; having imitated the footsteps of her parents, as one who had obtained a good soul, in docility of spirit and devotion she was now exceedingly preceding her companions of the same age. She drank from then from the Rock, the daughter of Peter, drop by drop in place of milk the waters of salutary wisdom: and growing more mature day by day than herself, now detesting girlish wantonness, she shuddered at companionship and play. Moreover since, on account of girlish ministry, the opportunity of lifting pure hands in prayer did not always lie open, she was eager to do it more aptly in a holy place, by pious theft. For when she was frequently sent by her mother to her brothers, for the sake of bringing breakfast or such thing; going and returning secretly she was entering the church. There also with hands stretched to heaven, before the said image of the Virgin Mother, and to see it smile at her: not so much an ejaculatory, as an inflammatory little prayer of her own she was most cordially bringing forth. And if sometimes her mother, weighed down by the longer delay, was asking, where the wanderer had delayed her stay or journey; she was answering: Be not grieved I ask, good mother, because I have greeted our most beautiful Lady Mary, and she has most graciously smiled back at me greeting her. Which having been heard, the mother silently considering the matter, fell silent; judging indeed that the simple Spirit of God was speaking in her. Indeed the sweet little girl was preparing for the most sweet Virgin Mother the little vessel of her heart; and she, with the Lord pouring from above the oil of gladness, as a channel, was liberally pouring in.

[9] a little older, but beyond her age prudent, But let these things said about Lydwina's childhood suffice. Approaching then the time of early youth, namely of blooming adolescence; when the nature of puberty is accustomed to become more and more rampant; there began externally to shine forth what was lying hidden in the person; there began also in the light to brighten the light, which hitherto had lain hid under the little measure. For the young girl seeing nearly the whole world placed in evil, also her foster-sisters being endangered by the precipices of vices; lest the white garment, which she had received in the sacred font, she should stain even a little by the small fire of pleasure, she hastened to flee from the midst of iniquities. she began to despise the world: The lovers of the world began on all sides, with the enemy of the human race endeavoring, to urge on this Virgin the delights of the flesh, to invite her to transitory riches, and also to provoke her mind to the laws of mortal wedlock. She indeed clothed over with a strong mind, was beseeching the Lord saying: O Lord my God, take from me namely the corrupted love of every creature, and also from the corrupted love of mortal creature preserve me I ask do not cease. From which words it is plain clearer than light, how she wished neither to be loved nor to love, with a love I say which excludes God.

[10] Furthermore since she was beautiful in body, elegant in stature, and invited to wealthy nuptials most experienced in handling domestic things (although twelve years old), quite pleasing in the modesty of discipline, and on account of this also she was sought by more worthy and richer men for marriage from her father; at length the father overcome by the importunity of prayers, being poor, as if having gotten a ^c good fortune, gloriously inquired, over those things which were offered to him, the will of his daughter. Who answered: It is not in my will, most excellent father, that I should wish to expose my virginity for mortal marriage: I have a treasure in an earthen vessel, which I have not proposed to lose. For which reason I beseech you, not henceforth to mention a bridegroom to me, if you love the daughter, whom you have begotten, as a begetter. But while these and similar words were being discussed between father and daughter, she constantly refused. her mother was present, conscious of her daughter's secret, and said: In vain, husband, do you speak to our daughter over the matter of marriage: for this prohibits not only the age of youth, this prohibits not only piety of will: nay indeed since she is an only daughter, to the one only God, if she most wishes, her liberty of virginity must be consecrated. With these things brought forward by the mother the prudent Virgin, with constant and modest face, groaning added: To this, she said, carnal wedlock a living man will not entice me spontaneous: &, if I suffer violence, such a deformity in body I will imprecate from the Lord, by which for the rest I may not be constrained to a wedding. Which having been heard the shaking ceased, the father ceased from then to press her; patiently awaiting what the Father of mercies would dispose in his daughter.

[11] Lydwina knowing how much among little robbers it would be necessary sometimes to converse, fleeing the vanities of the world and how much it was necessary on account of thorns and briars and stones to decline winding and broad ways; began to keep to hard ways; began from then more to withdraw herself from the sights of men and together of her contemporaries; began simply to remain at home; began moreover to commend with groaning prayers to God her resolution of virginity. But when she was withdrawing herself from every tumult of secular vanity and turmoil, simplicity grew in solitude, devotion in simplicity, and in devotion love began to flame forth. The tender Virgin yet was ignorant of the secret of heavenly address, until made the hand of the Lord upon her she might learn to be humbled, and in the living flesh of the earthly man the dross might be purged. but further God undertakes to purge her with diseases. For she still seemed a certain formless chaos for tasting divine things; because the care of the paternal house wholly was not yet despised by her. But he who makes poor and enriches, humbles and uplifts, his young girl gradually purifying led to these things; and indeed the good Spirit of the Lord looks upon the poor little ones and the contrite in spirit and those trembling at his words. That therefore to the most sweet whispers of the Holy Spirit her soul might be adapted, the Orient from on high the Lord visited her visiting, so that she could say that saying of the Psalm, "Chastising the Lord has chastised me, and has not delivered me to death." Ps. 117:18 Indeed her infirmities were multiplied, that she might hasten, by hastening seek the Lord, by seeking find the Father, by finding possess God.

NOTES.

CHAPTER II.

On the beginning of her infirmities and how she was abandoned by the physicians.

[12] Twelve years old she is disfigured by a prolonged languor: But in about the fifteenth year of her age, the hand of the Lord was made heavy upon her: for cast down by the weight of prolonged languor, her face was made wasted, her first beauty departed, so much that those who had before been captured by excessive love spurned her, with him bringing this about who does not abhor beautiful souls in deformed bodies. And when she had been made quite despicable to all, it happened on one day in the wintertime, from which having been relieved, when the shrieking fields from cold commonly shudder, and the rivers, especially in the parts of the North, are bound into ice, and our Virgin Lidwina had very recently left the couch of infirmity, behold for the sake of recreation come also the other companion virgins, inviting her, that she would deign to receive a little solace upon the ice, in the manner of the young girls of the region of Holland. But she, as another Virgin Sara, who never mingled with those playing, detesting all human solace, on account of reverence for God equally and the weakness of body, and with difficulty persuaded by her companions did not consent to go. At length with her equals importuning her, that at least a little with them upon the slippery ice, from afar about to watch the others, she might ascend; she finally consented.

[13] to ascend the ice, She went up therefore with the neighbors upon the waters, exposed herself with weak little body to the slippery ice, looked only ^a at the ones running to and fro, her equals also jesting, and, alas! she had scarcely made a little delay, and behold one of the girls coming with rapid course, and not being able to check herself from the impetus of the course, casually struck Lydwina, and struck her down upon the fragments of the ice with dire collision, and so compelled one rib of the one cast down to be broken interiorly. breaks one rib in her. There therefore tears arose, thence cries grew stronger: she who with joy had been brought upon the ice, with incredible weeping of the virgins, desperately injured, is carried away by the hands of friends. From the bed of her pain she scarcely descended that day, and behold, never to descend whole, again to ascend, without doubt with the Lord willing, she is compelled. And those who were seeing were stupefied; all were amazed who had heard so sudden an accident. And so, as is customary in a foolish race and a barbarous people, with others from piety dissolved into tears, one thus, and another thus indeed, spoke about the Virgin, whom the hand of the Lord had touched. But those men, to whom the most modest life of Lydwina was known, and who had a saner mind, silently beholding the matter, said: Because the hand

of the Lord has done this. Which also the outcome of the matter plainly showed.

[14] Physicians are brought from every part both by price and by prayer, with medicines in no way profiting this evil, and men most experienced in the surgical art flow together, that with their remedies they might help the young girl in peril of life, that with their precious ointments they might help the putrefying spouse of Christ. Ecclus. 38:1 What shall I say? Shall we confound the art of medicine or of surgery? Far be it that we should confound those whom the sacred Scripture mentions as to be honored. But what shall I say? Have not those examining failed in the examination? And indeed did they not fail in the prostrate Virgin? there follows an internal abscess, But truly the finger of God was there: neither the physicist nor the surgeon has a place, where the Lord alone wounds and heals. From then labor and grief grow, infinite passions are multiplied in the breast and under the ribs at once: a very grave abscess of the rupture was added: there became always, in the judgment of the physicists, the last things worse than the former: the paternal resources, though slender, were consumed in procuring the care of the daughter: hope was despaired of in entirety for her health.

[15] But in those days the chief physician of the region of the Hollanders was, a beauty-loving man, and a great zealous friend of devout poor, by name Godfrey ^b, surnamed Sonder-dank. which a certain one pronounces incurable This man when he had heard and seen what great things the Lord had begun to work in the Virgin, putting his finger to his mouth said, This infirmity, dearest ones, transcends our faculty: wherefore in truth I say, that if as many gold pieces as the sky contains stars, for the care of this Virgin we should wish to receive, we shall labor in vain: for it is a work of higher inquiry, wholly unknown to our more famous princes Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna the physicians. I tell you, he said, my dearest ones, that in my judgment, God the author of nature is about to do so many and such great things in this young girl, that perhaps not as many from the beginning in one and the same mortal creature have been heard. And would that she were my daughter, for such a weight of yellow gold, he predicts that she will be marvelous. as her head with even scale can weigh. Indeed with a certain presaging eye of mind he was discerning, that with the Lord both life and death of our Lydwina were hidden, and sealed externally in his treasures.

[16] The abscess having burst. Therefore the sorrowful Virgin destitute of the solace of all the physicians, in the sole hope of the living God, with the abscess dreadfully raging around the region of the injury of the ribs, was being moved hither and thither, nowhere finding rest for herself. Her pious old father Peter drew nearer; and in what way he could he was consoling his only daughter. But when the punctures of the body of the Virgin were increasing, there increased together also most miserable groans, sighs grew stronger; every place was made narrow, every soul was swallowed up from excessive goading. At length overcome by the whirlpool of tortures, ignorant of herself, from the little pallet in which she had enveloped herself, she threw herself into the bosom of the most compassionate old man. Whence soon the opening of the abscess followed, and with the humor flowing within, since the exit did not lie open elsewhere, immediately with a most painful vomit coming on, she seemed to be torn apart limb by limb; with those weeping who were present that death was at the doors.

[17] there follow other and other diseases, From that day finally the eyes of the domestics were opened, that they might see that the Lord alone could bring help to her, and that the Lord would turn her whole bed in her infirmity. O how grave a pledge of future sicknesses! O the dire preludes of torments! O if from then you had seen the chosen, but wretched young girl to be destitute of all strength, to be deprived of the benefit of all her members, with only her knees and hands to crawl on the ground, more like a monster than a man; now on a trunk, now on a stool through the corners of the house to be moved, sometimes like a little worm hither and thither to be moved, by which made wholly deformed, and if sometimes at Paschal time she was about to communicate, to be carried by the hands of others; indeed you could not have contained yourself from tears. For who would not weep at seeing a virgin, a beautiful young girl, to be so deformed? Who would not grieve to see one formerly lovely to all, desirable to all, now spurned by all? Indeed men of this kind are delighted with food and drink, sleep, jests; girls in spectacles and dances, in adornments and songs.

[18] But of Lydwina herself what shall I say? Her soul abominated every food, which taking even a little more, from disorder of stomach immediately she was compelled to vomit. Every precious drink similarly she abhorred: for her nauseated stomach, and weakened in the stomach, in the manner of a pregnant woman, more often seeking from pots lukewarm water, but sometimes from channels fetid water, was drawing. With empty stomach sleep was little or none to her, so to speak: to water her couch with tears through individual nights. It was to her the only solace; and to be reputed monstrous by all, and to be abandoned by her foster-sisters as if dead, was a happy exercise for her; and in the wormwood of manifold bitterness, with the poverty of spirit accompanying, with ulcerous Job to give thanks to God, remained to her for a prize. For with how much bitterness of spirit, how much crucifying of body, she is rendered despicable. how much dejection of both man also, in the first three years she passed her life, is known to God alone, and to those to whom it pleased him to reveal it. But the Virgin was hidden in an earthen house despicable to all, somehow made grievous to all.

[19] Yet of what kind she was in the eyes of God I ask let us see. For meanwhile while the handmaid of the Lord was thus being turned like a ball under the hand of the Lord, a man fleeing the sword of an Enemy, it happened that two men were quarreling in the street, and after words it came to blows: but one of them, either weaker or more insane than the other, taking flight, entered the little house, in which the Virgin was lying, that he might be saved in it. And immediately more furious than a wild boar the enemy follows his fugitive adversary, she confesses he has entered to her, and saves him, and speaks to the mother Petronilla with foaming mouth saying: Where is that son of death? Has he not entered your house? But she, seeing that with sword drawn man was pursuing man, as if thirsting for blood, trembling denied that the man had entered. But he as if mad running to the chamber of the daughter, in similar manner as before, whether her enemy was there asked. Who answered: The man whom you seek, as I think, is here. Marvelous to say, as if struck with blindness, looking round about, he saw no one: but changed to gentleness from the Virgin's response, he departed, and the man who was sought going free, gave thanks for his safety. But the mother having suffered something human, when she thought her daughter had betrayed the man, meanwhile by her mother she is struck with a slap; and thus feared he would have been killed by her response, with reproachful words and a slap began to rebuke her crucified daughter saying: O mad and impious one, what is it, that you have said? why do you betray a man, fleeing the sword of a most impious enemy? But this the mother overcome by natural piety did, thinking that by her officious lie she had shown a most grateful service to the Lord. But she, with much patience receiving her mother's slap, said: My faith was such, O mother, that the truth was able to save the soul of the man, who had fled to me. From which word the mother was quiet, and the innocent blood was saved on that day: indeed the right hand of the Lord has done valiantly, and the truth was stronger than the woman: indeed on account of truth and meekness and justice, this beginning of signs in his spouse our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to make.

NOTES.

CHAPTER III.

On the confluence of other grave sicknesses in the body, and on the ebullition of worms in the belly.

[20] There proceeded therefore, as I have said before, on account of the fracture of the rib, an abscess altogether incurable by men; which afterwards with violent rupture having been made, and with peccant humor flowing through various members, brought various sicknesses. With the intestines rotting, There began in the beginning, from that, as from a radical principle, the contiguous or neighboring members to rot; the nearest intestines of the belly began to waste away; and there began moreover most horrid worms, in a certain unheard-of manner, to bubble up from the depth of the body: which indeed were so multiplied and so grew beyond number, that in one and the same womb they made a triple opening after the corrosion of the viscera, and with their bites and the softening of the humors mutually aiding each other for boring through, in the body of the Virgin one hole at the right side, another at the left, but a third about the declivity of the belly, lay open. The form of these three openings was marvelous, and the figure tending to orbicularity; the color wholly black, through three holes of the belly worms gush forth, striking upon the beholders stupor together and horror; the magnitude contained the quantity of the bottom of a common bowl (as I have received also from those who saw). But the number of the worms so bubbling forth, sometimes was a hundred, sometimes two hundred, more commonly however beyond a hundred each day. Their appearance was horrible, their color also grayish, their matter somewhat watery, their thickness according to the thickness of the extreme part of a more common spindle; to the length of the joint of a finger of the hand they were extended. The manner indeed of calling forth or extracting such worms alive was this. A plaster was made from the fat of wheat and best honey, with the fatness of a choice capon mixed together: provoked by a certain plaster, which placed upon the opening of the virginal belly, by its sweetness drew the worms, lest in the customary manner they touch the vital members; lest alive they should twist the living one with such torment. For by such worms the tabernacle of the virgin was a daily house, such fruits through the opening of the belly she was bringing forth: which before they came to birth, all the vital members they were believed to circulate.

[21] But on the occasion of this matter it happened a new thing which I shall relate. There was a certain Pastor of that time, namely of the parish church of the above-said town of Schiedam, a Religious by profession, to whom denying fat a greedy Pastor, Andrew by name, and himself rich. This man when he was about to make a delicious banquet, invited not the poor and the lame, not the blind and weak, according to the Gospel; but he called together the powerful and the rich, the more noble and magnates, according to the world. For the magnificent reverence of these guests therefore, he had procured more elegant fattened birds of various species; chiefly capons, stuffed with much fatness by long nourishment. This matter was not hidden from the Virgin, nay rather, although she was most poor, through an intermediary and afterwards through herself, to obtain a little of the fat of capons, that she might feed the gnawing little worms of her womb, as has been said, she humbly petitioned the Pastor. What more? He denies, just as the rich man on a feast denied to the wasting Lazarus the crumbs; he lies alleging the leanness of his capons, more fearing to lose the praise of temporal glory, than to console Christ in his poor daughter over so little. she finds him on the next day eaten by a cat. To whom also she said: I have asked you, Father, and you have not heard me: I beg the heavenly King, who for the repair of the ulcerous body of his poor one, so little from your superfluity

you have refused, with charity set aside; that the cat may devour, what Christ did not receive. Which, as is piously believed, was done by divine will. The appointed day of the banquet arrived, the capons were prepared, the fats were extracted from each, and placed in the storeroom, where all things were prepared: but what was carefully thought to be guarded in the evening, in the morning is found wholly eaten, and as if entirely torn by beasts. For it pleased the most compassionate God by a ridiculous though notable sign, to make his servant faithful in a little thing more cautious, that he should not so venerate the worshipers of Bel and the belly, less that she, the friend of the Cross, for the relief of her miseries, by the eye of piety should be provided for from superfluous particles. But this we have said as a digression, let us return to our purpose.

[22] It was necessary therefore in the houses of the rich, against the aforesaid worms, with her shoulder dissolved to seek materials, by which the life of the Virgin might be defended, and the voracious rage of the continuously gushing worm might be restrained. Her right shoulder from then began to rot, so much that except with bandages or napkins apt for this she could not be turned to the other side; otherwise the framework of her members would have been wholly dissolved. Wherefore up to the day of her death she lay on her back, that she might also more openly look upon the sky, with the other members of the body so cast down by such weakness, that only with her head with the left arm she could more freely move. Indeed her right arm the fire, which the common people call holy, had consumed up to the bones, so that the nerves in the manner of chords placed in a cithara could freely be plucked: her arm is consumed by sacred fire. and this same arm for much time, hanging by only one firmer nerve, was cohering to the rest of the mass of the body. Her head was afflicted with the stings of prickings and hammerings from above: her forehead forward, with a long and wide fissure, was being deformed in the manner of a winding crack: her forehead and lip are split, similarly also her chin split by a fissure divided up to the lip, with a clot of blood, inflaming the members of speech, often prohibited her from speaking.

[23] She endured the passions of the eyes unspeakably: with one of which wholly extinguished, her eyes are darkened, with the other she could not bear natural light without effusion of blood and new torment. But frequent pains of teeth, with full domination for weeks often and for months, there come pains of teeth, sometimes without cessation, were provoking her even unto madness. Her throat most often was being choked with quinsy and other unnameable passions: quinsy, so much that scarcely sometimes she could swallow the Body of the Lord. With so copious a flux blood was flowing through the nostrils, mouth, ears and eyes, that it was not only striking horror on those seeing, but even moving any devout ones to streams of tears. copious vomit of bloody humor, She had meanwhile very often vomits of reddish water, in such abundance, that sometimes in one month a great vessel would scarcely have sufficed to contain the liquor poured out, as much as two men joined in a good manner could commonly carry. And if ever by some curious ones she was asked about this, whence so much liquor could come to her, when she took no food as other men; she answered, "You too tell me, O wise ones, whence to the vine grows so much liquor; which yet in winter with cold winds blowing, appears dry and dead?" And thus wisely untaught she satisfied the learned.

[24] failure of the intestines, What further do I delay on many things? The Virgin of Christ lost wholly parts of her lung and liver as if piece by piece (as I have heard from those who saw). Therefore her breasts with unspeakable pustules and abscesses, as commonly, stone, were emitting pus. A marvelous torture of stone vexing her led her to the very death: and this was showing the size of a dove's egg, arousing the alternation of continuous martyrdom, with sharper stings very often restraining sense and speech. And by this infirmity especially she predicted she would meet death. Of the ulcers of the epidemic I should not be silent, plague ulcers, since it was to her a singular gift sometimes, in the common strokes and chastisements by the Lord upon the people of that land of Holland, to suffer in her body the first-fruits of any infirmity and pestilence. A great part of the intestines (as below) pendulous in her sight she held long: whence with all the lower parts of the belly wasting, a little sack full of wool, lest they wholly flow out, was placed underneath. wasting of the legs and feet, Deprived of sensibility of legs and feet, she ran the miserable life through many years: and, if above nature by the Lord through intervals sensibility for very little time was given, this was not for solace, but for receiving new kinds of passions, by marvelous dispensation was done.

[25] various fevers, She suffered paroxysms of every species of fevers, yet at various times: for to sustain hectic, tertian, quartan fever was her daily companion. Now with simple, now with compound, now ephemeral, now acute to be wearied, was thought a daily sport. What more shall I prolong? Indeed in her body there was no member, which escaped the gifts of unheard-of pains. In the latitude of the medicinal faculty there is not mentioned a sickness, whose donative she did not thoroughly perceive: not in the veins a drop of blood, every kind of disease: which escaped the rod of God paternally chastising. Yet let the pious reader know, that some of these sicknesses were permanent up to the end of life; but some persevering in the Virgin for a time, namely of certain years, months, weeks, days, hours. But of natural health for thirty-eight years she knew least: but of the grace of our Lord Jesus most abundantly.

[26] whose beginning Lidwina suffered something human But of this matter not to the purpose: since when from the beginning of these passions from the Lord she was prostrated, something human crept upon her soul in this manner. It happened one day that she heard laughing and at the same time joking young girls, in the manner of heifers, just as after meals that kind is accustomed: wherefore forgetful of herself, she began most bitterly to weep, as one who without any hope of recovering health was lying as if held in chains, and by her contemporaries had been given over to oblivion, and was dead from their heart. Who of sane mind, would restrain the novice from complaining, under the rod of such grave discipline, which has sadness, thus prostrated? not yet anointed with the spirit's unction? not yet fortified with the shield of Christ's patience? whose life is in grief, should not seem marvelous. whose years in groans? whose eye is troubled, whose mind is troubled? to whom there is no health in flesh, nor peace to her bones? Who of all the Saints, abandoned to his own natural things, to whom to live is death and to whom to die is life, would not from weariness have suffered any motions of petty patience?

[27] Indeed for consoling Job friends gathered, whose flesh Satan touched: and nevertheless the Lord had placed the spirit of the patient impatient one, and of one speaking marvels in the solid that he might not sin: so also our Lydwina, in the first four years of her humiliation, according to the interior man not yet more fully anointed by the perfumer Christ, according to the exterior man was suffering impatient. Wherefore everything was grievous which she saw, more grievous everything which she bore; most grievous that from him who had wounded her with a most wretched ulcer, although he had stabilized her spirit somewhat in grace, yet by abundance it had not been granted to overflow from above into the lower powers. since in the first four years the divine consolations were not yet present. Whence it happened that at the very time of plaintive weeping, when she was thus weeping, there came upon her aged parents, that they might console their born one; and there came some foster-sisters, that they might comfort their companion; her relatives and acquaintances came, that they might refresh with words their kinswoman: but every consoler is made grievous and heavy, when there is none who heals the wounds, none who relieves her prostrated by the Lord, none of all her dear ones who can console her spirit. "O," she said, "wretched me among the living! O most abject me among the dying! Why have I been made a reproach to my neighbors, and a terror to my acquaintances? I have been made as a lost vessel, as the abjection of the people." But how the Lord alone deigned to console her, let us attend.

CHAPTER IV.

On the virtue of patience divinely granted to her, and how she began to advance in it.

[28] Awakening therefore the Lord awakened the spirit of the man of God, John Pot whose name was John, and surname Pot, which in Teutonic is called "Olla" (pot) (and deservedly, because when death was in the pot of Lydwina, on account of the colocynths of passions; this one, as if sent by God brought forth a little meal, namely the day of consolation) who addressed the Virgin thus saying: "Do not, daughter, do not lose your confidence, which has indeed a great reward. Patience is most greatly necessary to you, he encourages the virgin to patience, so that conforming your will to God's, you may receive the promise of perpetual life. For with Christ having suffered in the flesh, be also you, I ask, armed with the same thought. Phil. 2:5 Are these not the words of the Apostle? Namely, 'Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.' Who in the world is more contemptible or among the common people? by the example of Christ, Who is more patient than he in enduring all insults and contumelies? who more meek in scourges? who more constant in all torments? who more obedient to suffer even unto death, even the death of the cross? See therefore his humility, labor, sweat, see finally grief and anguish. Look into the face of your Christ and Spouse, who thus has chosen you for himself as a handmaid, that you should imitate his footsteps, that you should supply those things which are lacking of his sufferings.

[29] whose Passion he exhorts to meditate: These and similar things the pious Priest of God out of charity taught her, concluding at length, that in the recollection of the poverty of Jesus, which he endured in this world, similarly also of his bitter Passion, she should pass the day and night, as long as she could. Indeed without this meditation the man of God did not think, that the young virgin could evenly pass through both the hours and the languors. She promised that she would do so: yet since she had not yet received that spirit, she began step by step as one inexperienced to consider the deeds of the Savior. from which she at first profits nothing; But since from the little meal of Elisha the man of God, who is Christ, she had not yet received it in her little pot, bitter and tasteless seemed to be everything which she thus was turning in her mind. She returns to complaints: For truly death was in the pot. She goes to the lamentable song, as before, when flour was lacking. How sweet are the words of the Lord in the throats of the devout, the palate of the mind does not perceive: how sweet is the voice of the turtle-dove, the stopped ear does not heed: until again he who had come before, would come a second time, namely Lord John Pot, to direct her feet into the way of peace.

[30] and candidly confessing this very thing, This man therefore when he had come, began to inquire, how much in the book of charity she had profited. To whom she answered: "O father," she said, "you have counseled the best study, but unknown: you have persuaded a heavy yoke, although sweet to the studious: but because over me the swelling waves of griefs are weighing, insipid is rendered everything which concerning Christ my Savior I recall." But the man of God seeing the good will in the Virgin, rejoicing, said: "Dearest daughter, persistent labor conquers all things. Put your hand to strong things: be as a virago. It is necessary,

for you to do violence. First strip the bark from the almond: crush the shell, that you may extract the kernel. For not, O daughter, she is taught to persevere in this exercise did Moses at the first stroke of his rod draw forth waters from the flint. Persevere and you will conquer." To whom the daughter, "How," she said, "shall I do it, Father? since the groans of death preoccupy me, the pains of mind and body surround me so much, that what I wish to do I cannot." But the man of God John again. "I see your affliction, I perceive well enough your pains: but what is this if you will consider the tenderness, innocence, nobility, bitterness, if the process of the bitter death of your most beloved Lord, who in the balance of the cross hung for you? Cease therefore from now to emulate those who leap, nor emulate those who do iniquity: do not weigh the flower of youth of your foolish companions, who as the herb of plants will quickly fall: because little or nothing does the beauty of form confer, where about a sordid and deformed soul judgment will be sought. What now harms those existing in heaven, that by their strength for Christ's sake they were deprived through martyrdom or sickness; that jests, delights and riches they willingly lacked, while they lived content with the sole Spouse, formerly infirm now girded with strength; where formerly needy, with the added consideration of the eternal reward. now they are rich and have become wealthy? For of old sad, now however rejoicing; once hungering, now however satisfied; lame and impotent, now like harts they leap. O dearest Lydwina, this will be your portion, which will lead you to the land of the living, namely to be meek and humble of heart. I also know that by your own effort you are not able to obtain these virtues, unless you have the helper of him, who said: 'Without me you can do nothing.' John 15:5 Truly if by looking upon him on the cross you will persevere, in truth you will be taught; if you will listen, you will become wise; if you will endure, you will find rest; if you will follow, you will enjoy most sweet refreshment."

[31] and finally having received Communion She began therefore from then to put her hand to strong things; she began finally in understanding and affection to thirst in the way from the torrent of the Passion: she began from the school of heavenly magisterium a humble disciple to write out the first alphabet. What therefore more? It happened that the same Priest came again, bringing reverently the Body of the Lord with him, as is the custom for those languishing in this manner, as she was then at that time: which having been received from his reverent hand, now a third time with paternal affection he began to address the Virgin thus saying: "At other times with you about the Lord God, to inflame you to his Passion, I have made a sermon, and now he himself speaks to you, his beloved, as I believe, daughter, the glorious Lord your God, who for you and on account of you suffered, was crucified, died and was buried: who, she feels herself interiorly changed: if you will be a good and strong emulator, your reward will be very great." Marvelous to say, scarcely had the Priest finished his words, and behold the Lord struck the stony heart, and waters flowed in abundance. O change of the right hand of the Most High! O immense goodness of God! What else does the Psalmist sing? "He will send forth," he says, "his word, and will melt them: his spirit will blow and waters shall flow." Ps. 147:18 Indeed for fifteen days she could scarcely be restrained from weeping.

[32] From that day she began to open the eyes of the mind, she began with increasing infirmity to conceive strength of spirit, she began everything bitter to the flesh to grow sweet to the spirit; and fruitfully accustomed to meditating on the Passion, so much that nothing was savoring to her except Jesus alone, and him crucified. Then into seven parts she divided the order of his Passion through individual days, so that no moment of time might pass superfluously, without her recalling the wormwood of the Passion to mind: and thus she dedicated herself to such exercise, that more often keeping vigil through days and nights, she was thought to have a horologe of time distinctly in mind. From the flame-bearing meditation of the cross of Christ she began so greatly to be inflamed, that she said not herself but Christ the Lord was suffering in her, already conquered by such great charity. With these exercises therefore the taught disciple of Christ grew in both man, until she reached the eighth year of her visitation in the little pallet.

[33] But more and more the rottenness in the body grew, she begins to love even her sicknesses: the gushing of worms daily grew, the viscera wasted more; and as a shell with a drop of dew, a hedgehog with spikes, so the Virgin was being filled with passions. In all these things she did not sin with her lips, nor foolishly anything, with love conquering, did she think: but in the most atrocious stings of pains, by which very often up to the gnashing of teeth she was compelled, to God not only gave thanks, but also desired that these sicknesses be increased rather than diminished. Many were asking her if she wished wholly to lack such sicknesses: and she was answering, "Supposing that by one Angelic salutation I could most easily repel all the passions you speak of, I would least wish it: and sometimes asking for their increase so much am I prepared for the scourges of the Lord, that I prefer to be left under pains, than to be wholly deprived of the same." It happened once at the time of Carnival, in which the people of Germany study more for feasting than for devotion, more for cups to be drunk than for the poor to be refreshed; revolving the bitter Passion, she also revolved the much ingratitude of the Christian people, saying to the Lord: "My Lord God, omnipotent and clement, your piety I beseech, that by a new indication of sickness you may show me, once a most grave pain of the leg, that you yourself are, and not another who permits and sends these chastisements upon me." Very new! He gave her such great pain in one leg, and such material of suffering from that Quinquagesima up to the Paschal feast inclusive, that from then she would fear to ask so insistently for such a thing, as I have received from those who more familiarly adhered to her as long as she lived.

[34] In her own little body she was perceiving, as I have mentioned above, if on account of the sins of the people the Lord was about to send scourges upon the Province, whence once it happened what I relate. With the pestilential time sometimes being at hand, as a careful mother, at other times she obtains a pestilential ulcer. between the angry Father and the guilty sons she placed herself in the middle: who soon was struck with twin ulcers, namely in the throat and under the heart. Whence when she humbly gave thanks to God, with tears she added also to ask the Lord, in honor of the Trinity always blessed, for a third. Which immediately, as an arrow from a creaking bow, was inflicted on one of her cheeks: about which, as a victress about a golden buckle, and as a spouse about a sign placed on her face by her lover, she greatly rejoiced. But one of those pestilential ulcers, namely that which had been in the groin inflicted by the Lord, was so fistulated, that with the others divinely cured, as a necklace with the former wounds it continually cohered to her. It is plain therefore from this, how in his special friend the Lord gave a sign to those fearing him that they might flee from the face of the bow.

CHAPTER V.

On her fevers and dropsy, and on the extraction of her intestines, and the subtraction of food and drink and sleep.

[35] Growing therefore by such visitations the most patient little servant of Christ Lydwina, was continually bearing the stigmata of the Lord Jesus in her body: which the artificer with subtle artifice and new hammerings was daily reforming. For she was as clay under the hand of the potter, which does not murmur against its maker: she was as silver in the furnace, which under the silversmith purified sounds more clearly: and she was as gold in the furnace of tribulation, which proved is more graciously kept. Since fevers were almost continuous, The febrile heats and burnings, as I have said, she had as domestics: and such was the manner of fevers to her. There would precede in the first a certain grave and unnatural heat, which cold and vehement horripilation soon followed. Afterwards the alternation would change, so that intolerable cold preceded, which in inexorable heat was finally closed. A fever of this kind was so grave, that with the fervor of the paroxysm standing she would become devoid of reason, similarly lose the power of speaking, as by voice and by writing I have received from those who often saw her so burning. Rarely or never, all the time in which the Virgin lay, without some fever did she remain, even for an hour: but this especially proved the beloved one beyond the others, as in a furnace of fire, above what can be said.

[36] Her friends seeing again that more than usual she was weighed down in body, and the infirmities grew worse; they further consulted the physicians, what was to be done, if perchance there was hope. The fame of the patience of our Virgin flies even to the ears of the Countess of Holland, who was called Margaret: who taking with her her own physician, began as quickly as possible to hasten there, where the Virgin was languishing: and seeing her all her bowels were moved, considering the hut, the person, the languors, and the rest. There approached therefore the experienced physician, by name Godfrey; and with her intestines extracted by his art from her body, as reverently as he could, with the rotten ones placed separately and the sounder ones kept; he found that from the spine of the back the aforesaid worms were drawing their origin, because, as he asserted, she had used no salt for much time. the physician examines her intestines; Moreover he also spoke this: "Yet a little time, and dropsy will fill this Virgin: and from then she will be eased with no liquor or drink." The truth of such matter future things attested. With these things therefore most seriously performed by the physician, he bade farewell to the friends and the Virgin; partly grieving, that he could not take away the patient's pains; but partly rejoicing, that he saw he had said true, about the Lord in the young girl, namely that he would do great and unheard-of marvels. But of those intestines a certain part, as is reported, was buried by order of Lydwina herself; but the remaining part was hung before her, which also many of the living looked upon with their own eyes still.

[37] Therefore very many from remote places were drawn, that they themselves also might visit the vessel of the Lord's sanctification: another applies certain juices to her: among whom there came a certain most cunning herbalist, thinking that with his solutions of the waters in the Virgin he would profit: but although with every zeal, with the dew of heaven observed upon odoriferous papers of herbs, and the same applied upon the aforesaid holes, by closing one a little, he seemed to profit; but dropsy follows the cure. alas! soon with the dropsy swelling in that part, the last things became worse than the first. The most patient Virgin indeed, lest she should scandalize the little ones (although indeed she knew that what she was sustaining was done by the Lord) lest she seem to presume about herself, or wish to tempt the Lord, all those things which were counseled by the advice of the simple, she was suffering simply. Nevertheless after all the skill of men, with the pains doubled, in mind and spirit she was returning to him, who by healing wounds, and by wounding heals those whom he loves.

[38] It is clear moreover that any perfect animal, meanwhile the sick one abstains from almost all food, with food and drink taken needs it for the continuation of life: it is clear also that from rotten humors, especially where worms arise and swarm, there is generated together a stench to the nostrils or the sense of smell.

But I will speak the truth: for indeed our Lydwina for thirty years and more did not eat bread, as much as a healthy and whole man needs for three days as necessary of life: thus neither did she take sleep, which would suffice for a sound man for three nights competently. Moreover concerning odor I would say the same, nor does she emit any heavy odor from herself. that in all the time in which the worms were seen to bubble up, in which the framework of her members began to be dissolved, nothing of stench in all these things is perceived, nothing infective exhaled, nothing offensive to the sense of smell or the nostrils is presented by her. Her house nevertheless was low and humble exceedingly, her little chamber more similar to the sepulcher of the deceased than to a bridal chamber. In so many years she did not tread the ground. Just as for many years she took nothing, so neither did she cast away any superfluity from herself. Immovably fixed and supine she lies in her couch. She does not enjoy the benefit of sun and moon as long as she lay: since as one who is placed in obscure places, among the dead of the age her life is anxious. Who ever perceived such things with ears? Who, unless we had looked upon similar things in our days and ends, would believe these? Indeed through those things which I saw and see, I am compelled also to believe those things which I did not see.

[39] Then concerning the subtraction of her most sparing food it is worth the effort to have a sermon. In the very beginning indeed of her first years she had taken at least sometimes a small fragment of apple, to the thickness of a small host: which also pressed between iron little tender and glowing ones, was rendered wholly tasteless: using still a little liquor, and if sometimes a little box of bread with the smallest liquor of milk and beer she happened to swallow, this painfully and with great difficulty she passed down. But with the succession of time, according to the prognostication of Master Godfrey Sonder-dank, with even that solid food left behind, she used a little cinnamon and a date very rarely. At last deprived of any food, with very sober but diluted wine, with liquid sugar under the quantity of half a pint, of the measure of the County of Holland, rather for the sake of dropping than drinking, through an entire week she was sustained. But what the Lord worked in supplement of the wine, at the time in which she thus rarely used a little wine, will be said in the second chapter of the second part, namely the profitable, where about the supplement of defects a more prolix sermon will be had.

[40] Her parents often on account of want, causing river water to be brought, whether it had been taken at ebb or flow, she discerned as if by natural philosophy: she experiences the salt water as sweet: and although from the nearness of the marine bay by the importunity of winds or storms the waters of the river were mingled with the saltiness of the sea; with him cooperating who cooperated with Moses and Elisha over the bitter waters, the said waters were rendered so sweet, against the manner of nature; that as if with spiced wine, she used them for a time. Indeed also with the removal of bodily food in equal manner sleep was wholly taken from her, troubled by the desire for sleep at the time of Mass, and while in customary manner she was giving labor to vocal or mental devotion, with the spirit of torpor and sloth striving, she began marvelously to be impeded in her exercises. And because signally at the time of Masses (in which with every effort, although absent in body, yet in spirit she was striving to be present, and could not) she consulted her Confessor over this, what he would advise to be done. But the Confessor discreet, discovering the hostile wickednesses, so that either by the relaxation of spirit or by the disturbance at least of the interior mind she might be retarded from the fruit of love or meditation; and seeing that the more she resisted the more she was vexed, he advised sleeping at all times when the opportunity was at hand, even at whatever hour of time the tempter came. With the Father's counsel having been taken the day of the extraordinary festivity succeeded, namely Easter, in which even those who had died in sins strive through grace to rise again: and behold the meditation of sleep above measure began to weigh down her praying: at length she is wholly freed from this necessity. which out of reverence for the feast declining, by the diligence and vigilant violence of her head and hand which she could move, from then with the tempter confused, she persevered to the day of death without any sleep worth crowning. And about the subtraction of food and drink and sleep this is enough to have said.

[41] Now about to write her life, not being able fittingly to preserve the order of places and times, with various ones coming to see the Virgin, to the composite materials of truth (that the works of God may be manifested in Christ's handmaid) more luminously, though more simply, I turn myself. Very many flowed together to see the virgin, namely the good and the bad, the wise and the unwise, both simple and curious: these that they may edify and be edified; but others that they may see and judge, bite and detract, seek and lay snares. But those coming saw nothing of beautiful form externally, except an earthen vessel, a lacerated and broken vessel, a monstrous vessel, the image of death: but they recognized internally in the deformed the beautiful, in the earthen vessel the heavenly gift, in the broken little vessel the balsam of sanctification, in the singular monster the marvelous Lord, in the image of death the author of life beautiful beyond the sons of men. The curious one asks whence came to her the material of the fever, who was taking no food. "You wonder," she said, "brothers, whence to me so great material of my fevers? nor sufficiently grasping what was happening in her, I rather wonder why through individual months to the quantity of a great cask I do not overflow. You judge my cross, which you see externally: but the unction you do not judge, because you do not see what lies within." As if she would say, that according to the multitude of pains was also the multitude of consolations, which she preferred to the delights of those curious ones, however splendid.

[42] And thus running they hastened to her some arrogant know-it-alls, arrogant chatterers, blind ones about whom to Timothy the Apostle speaks, because they are to be avoided: whom however the modest virgin, as a target placed at an arrow; could not flee nor drive away: others ill-judging, whose mouth was placed in heaven, and tongue passed through the earth. 2 Tim. 3:5 Indeed the Apostle seems to have exposed the insensibility of such when he says, "The animal man does not perceive those things which are of God." 1 Cor. 2:14 For to such as unbelieving ones, attributing the works of God rather to nature than to grace; when they had seen the spouse of Christ in such a despised place in an obscure little hut; others sense well. with blasphemous tongue and wicked lips loosed they were saying, that she is voracious, a wine-drinker, or that she has a demon, and many things of this kind as I have heard. But others whose mind was more sound, giving honor to God, said, that truly these things are done by the Lord, and they are marvels in our eyes. Indeed the spiritual man judges all things. If anyone however wishes to follow such blasphemers, let him say every word impossible with God; or, that the testimonial instrument, which by the Judges of the town said Schiedam through the hand of a notary was drafted and fortified with the seal of the Community, is false: in which however the marvels, which the Lord did in the Virgin, are described: a copy of which word for word I have set forth in the beginning of this work: which I have done thus far, that the pious reader may have something to rejoice over about the truth, or may lead the detractor of the Virgin to the recognition of the truth; but the arrogant one himself, by which he may be restrained from bites and barks. You have also another effective testimony from enemies, namely from the stipendiaries of the Captain of that time in Schiedam, who numbering six for nine days and as many nights surrounded the little bed of the Virgin, as in its own place will be distinctly and more fittingly described.

[43] Therefore the most blessed Virgin Lydwina, as an odor of life to the good and sound, but made an odor of death to the evil, under a humble hut, as Job in the dunghill was lying: Not bearing the concourse to the sweet odor of her intestines, who yet as a morning star, was shining before God in spirit, made as a storehouse of heavenly spices, made as a cell of sweet perfumes; although indeed piece by piece her vital parts, both of lung and of liver and also of viscera or intestines, necessary to the integrity of the body, wasting with long torment and dire vomit she had lost. Yet all these things, thus lost piece by piece, in place of stench, like pure electuaries or aromatic species gave off an odor from themselves: and those who with their own hands rubbed and handled them, offer testimony of these things. Furthermore because of the concourse of devout men and devout women, desiring to see, touch and smell such a marvelous thing, lest by chance by the applause of men she should lose the treasure of graces which she was accumulating, and lest by the blasts of the favoring breeze she should be retarded from those things which she desired; finally she suffered none of them, which thus piece by piece she had emitted, to be preserved: she herself orders them to be buried. but all and individual particles of the intestines, both dry and moist, and also preserved in a little box, she ordered to be dug into the earth. Indeed therefore Lydwina, polished by various blows, destitute of the benefits of food, drink and sleep, deprived of the joy of bodily light, in a mean little house as in a workhouse, by the marvelous dispensation of the Lord, under the hand of the highest artisan still to be hammered, with the wine and oil of the most pious Samaritan sometimes is anointed, and according to the word of the Apostle, is reserved for some an odor of life unto life, for others however an odor of death unto death. 2 Cor. 2:16

CHAPTER VI.

On the death of the mother of Lydwina and on the greatest poverty of the Virgin Lydwina herself.

[44] Now because I have spoken of the infirmities of our Virgin generally; it pleases now to descend, as I have also professed, to certain special things. The mother Petronilla was a woman made old, but praiseworthy and fearing God. To the mother about to die and anxious, This one when she had advanced in her days, fell into a sickness, from which she also died. And when she was deploring the days of her adolescence, not without youthful vanity, yet sufficiently, as she thought, unfruitfully spent; at length into these words weeping she burst: "Lo," she said, "I die a poor little one, when I have done nothing good in all the days of my life: nevertheless for the prolongation of this transitory life, Lydwina transcribes to her all her merits; I would not wish even the smallest little worm to have to be killed. But would that, my only daughter whom I have nursed at my breast, you would deign to intercede for my faults and ignorances to the Lord: and I would die happy." Which when her most compassionate daughter had heard, suffused with too great compunction, from the depth of her heart she addressed her mother thus, saying: "Be of constant mind, my mother, and sustain the hand of the Lord patiently: at the doors is the Savior, who will not despise your contrite and humbled heart. Moreover if you wish my smallest works, as the Lord by his piety has deigned to make them, to become yours: behold to you as much as possible shall be, I wholly grant them in charity: labors and pains, ulcers and wounds, twistings and worms, vigils and tears, little prayers and any exercises you may receive: yet on this condition that you resign yourself through all things to the divine will, hesitating in nothing since to him is the highest care about you, as one powerful and able to save."

[45] But hearing these things her mother, with hands

extended to heaven, and to restore the loss she takes up a hair-cloth girdle: as if having obtained a secure fare, gave thanks to God, who had granted her to obtain such fruit in her daughter. The pious mother therefore migrates to the Lord: and as if she now possessed nothing of merit, stripped of her own, as she thinks, the humble daughter; as if about to do great things, puts the hand of mind and body to strong things: then a wide, thick and bristly girdle, twisted from horsehair, she procures to be bought for herself, that with it she may be girded as with a belt. she distributes her peculium to the poor, Which knotting tightly upon her wasting body through all the days of her life, on account of the wasting of the body, by which even the girdles wasted, she unceasingly bore. She began the small substance, which still living before her death the mother had committed, to distribute; and distributed into price, yet less than due, to exchange; exchanged to distribute to the poor: to find the divine manner of lending out for acquiring the heavenly pearl. But when she had opened her hand to the needy, she herself began to be in need more than all.

[46] But because the happy mediatrix daily with Mary the mother spent the night in spirit at the Bethlehem inn, she arranged to lie on straw and a plank, zealous of so great a king and his royal stable, when still a mattress remained, she ordered it to be taken away. And indeed besides this zeal there was a sufficiently miserable and multiple cause; both because she was suffering certain secret infirmities; and because the linen cloths with the mattress beneath her had rotted from the wasting of body and humors; and because with the mattress putrefied the feathers clung so tightly to her wasting body, that they could in no way by art or ingenuity, from the midst of her wounds without new torments of stings be taken away. On account of these things, as from the body was taken away the softness of the bed; and with straws placed beneath together was placed beneath her miserable members a harder plank; upon which always lying supine, days and nights with Christ she passed sleepless. Who without tears can report these things? Nowhere to me today is such a mirror, nowhere to me such an exemplar of piety. The best memorial was given to the Virgin, thus cast down upon the plank, through this, of him who hung naked on the cross, and a most clear representation of his wounds, thus assiduously to lie with grief.

[47] And behold in those days there came a winter exceedingly harsh, she endures a most dreadful winter, than which none in the memory of mortals of that time had been more vehement, so that from the prolonged ice and cold of the spread snow, by the common vocabulary, the "long winter," it received the name par excellence up to this day. The Virgin was lying therefore, as in the manger of the inn, in cold and nakedness, in gnashing and calamity, and so very often in the extreme members cold and rigid, but in the middle ones wholly powerless she was found. The swelling dropsy did not permit feathers to be spread beneath: to be covered above with double covers the combined coerced and voluntary poverty refused: for visiting the beloved, with the Lord permitting, the charity of many had grown cold: and with such great lividness, and weeps blood. from the intense ice, the virginal body was being suffused, and with such great swelling was rendered weak, that scarcely by warming or any help to its former and common kinds of sicknesses could it be reduced. On her cheeks also often clung drops of blood, flowing from the little vessels of her eyes; and very often waters, which with the strong ice forming from without, more tenaciously were being congealed. Without doubt in human manner alone she would have failed, if not the Lord in all these things dead marvelously had preserved the dead one. Finally if anything was given to her, fearing immediately it would be superfluous to her, as if it were the property of another, she sent it by her judgment to those more needy. For the Lord willed to be her leader, who does not abandon those hoping in him.

[48] In that time there was a certain great man, venerable in age an old man and of immaculate life, by name Wermold, her sanctity learned in a rapture Lord Wermbold, indeed a man of great fame and fearing God, reverenced by many: this man came to the knowledge of our Virgin in this order. It happened by divine dispensation, that on the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, the spirit of both, as much of the said Wermbold as also of the Virgin Lydwina, meditating similarly on the mystery of the Lord's Incarnation, with the Lord acting came together; in a marvelous manner indeed, with the spirits existing in the body, or outside the body, I know not, God knows. These therefore when with one exercise or one vow concerning the said sacrament, for the loosening of which the great John the Baptist professes himself unworthy, had humbly dedicated themselves; it happened that with their bodies separated, their spirits came together mutually in the third heaven, and with such great bond of charity they bound themselves; that returning to what is animal, what companion of such a rapture, and of what sort, or where he was, they panted bodily to know.

[49] There came therefore to the ears of the man of God the diffused knowledge of the Virgin: to visit whom immediately, visited by him delay set aside, with a quickened journey he hastened. But when he entered the little house, seeing the poverty of the house, and hearing the pitiable order of the thing that had been done; and attending to the swollen face, split and livid; the putrid little body, but not fetid; teeming with worms, but breathing good odors; from wonder the man full of piety began to weep: moreover pierced and transfixed with the dart of virginal equanimity, he bestows alms; there was between them a most grateful mutual conference about divine things, but the last discourse was about the necessities of her body (since without which the life of the wayfarer cannot subsist) held on both sides. The chief lover of poverty therefore had mercy on modest poverty: from his purse he soon brought forth thirty silver pieces: and thus with farewell said to the Virgin, until the morrow the man of God and devoted to the Virgin remained there.

[50] On another day the man full of the spirit of God, having learned the cruelty of the inhabitants of the town, he rebukes the hardness of the Schiedamites, who had not learned to have mercy on virginal miseries, as a zealous other Elijah, mounted the place of preaching: and with such great fervor of the word of God he began to strike the wild hearts, that you would believe a new man was raised up against the stony men. But the holy man, a lover of sanctity, not undeservedly revered the Virgin of Christ; wherefore to those coming more often to visit her he testified that he recognized God to do most marvelous things in her as in a new tabernacle; whence also he spoke this word about her: he predicts that she will contend long, "Truly great and ample a foundation has this Virgin placed, whose building by no means to perfection in a short time will be able to be constructed." Which indeed foreknowing many future things he openly predicted: since, if I am not mistaken at that time our Lydwina had not yet run the middle of her course in languishing: and if she was distant a little from the middle, yet far from the end, which the Lord had constituted for her, she was still.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VII.

On her new tribulations, and various anguishes of her soul, and manner of consoling herself.

[51] With the sermons of the above-said man of God weighed from the inmost heart, not yet to the setting had the sun come in our Virgin Lydwina, The poor father of Lydwina, but still seemed to ascend to the meridian. What therefore? A little after the already mentioned troubles, the Virgin began in her widowed and veteran father to draw new pains; inasmuch as he now toothless and poor, from the ^b labor of hands could not live: because to go to keep the vigils of the night in the town, as he had been accustomed, now he could least be able: since also he in the already mentioned winter, which had grown harsh more than usual, together with his daughter had ineffable miseries, running through the streets and squares of the town, according to the exigency of his office, at night; so much that he had the ankle of his right foot deadened and contracted. This man of sound mind, although little by little daily the inhabitants provided the necessities for his daughter; and not wishing to be helped from his daughter's alms, he himself did not wish, however veteran, to take for necessity from the offerings; but trembling said: "It is not permitted this old man to devour the alms of a poor daughter, since they are the price of blood and sins of men; but my poverty suffices me that I may gain the Lord."

[52] Meanwhile came Lord William, the illustrious Count of Holland, to Schiedam: this man when he had heard what the Lord was working in his handmaid Lydwina; content with an annual pension of 12 gold pieces, having had mercy on the venerable old man, having called him said: "For reverence of your daughter ask from me what you wish, for the sustenance of your old age." Who answered: "Riches of the world, O glorious Prince, up to this time I have not possessed, nor at present do I desire in any way to abound: twelve gold pieces will suffice me for the competency of life." But the illustrious Prince, noting the simplicity of the old man, having summoned the treasurer ordered twelve annual gold pieces to be given to the man, which are called the shields of the old French coin. Lest any fraud and deceit be done to the simple old man, he made him secure by a given caution. "Be," the pious Prince said to the old man, "of even mind, nor fear: because if you see that double gold pieces more are necessary for you, and wholly devoted to piety, you yourself now say it: since for relieving your want I have called you." The pious old man therefore was made from devout more devout, and from timorous made more timorous, giving thanks to God and praying more fervently for the beneficent Prince, he was hearing Masses. If anything was superfluous to him, he distributed abundantly to the poor. However decrepit and failing in sight, he was frequenting the church trembling and growing blind. The humble daughter was beseeching her elder father to stay at home, fearing what happened and what she was foreknowing, although she was silent.

[53] One day therefore, in the manner of old men, having left home, he is driven by a demon into a ditch, walking to Vespers, he had the devil meeting him in the way who under the appearance of a certain man known to him, lying thus approached the old man: "What," he said, "are you doing? or where are you going? Let us go outside the gate that we may refresh ourselves a little." The simple man believes the demon, whom he believes to be a man a friend, and accompanied the deceiver. Who soon drove the old man outside the city into a certain pit, full of waters, and disappeared. And when there was peril in delay, and impotent through old age he was endangered in the waters; there stood by at the right of the poor one immediately, who makes safe the sons of the poor: at whose nod a certain carter came along, driving his chariot through an unworn way unusually, and, as is piously believed, sent by God; who immediately stiffening trembled, but by God providing he is rescued. and drew the sinking old man to the shore; and recognized this man as the father of Lydwina, although changed in face. Therefore drawn upon his chariot he carried him into the town: whence with the rumor raised up through the little city, alas! it came to the ears of the Virgin, that her father had been drowned in the waters. About which thing certainly with a certain natural sword of compassion pierced through, immediately she was thinking of the cunning of the demon: and in the bringing of her father, with grief mixed with joy, that he lived, she gave thanks to God.

[54] Also at another time there was added also the most cruel

enemy to burn the daughter of the old man, namely Lydwina, Lydwina extinguishes the burning straw of her bed, in this manner. A certain brother of the Virgin had placed a certain burning candle, in a corner above the head of the little bed, in which his sister was resting, lest she be injured in her sight, less cautiously: which, with the Virgin occupied about the mysteries of the Passion, falling down, with part of the furniture having caught fire, in the pile of straw was now fiercely crackling, before the Virgin could detect the disaster of so horrible a danger. Accordingly when she perceived herself thus exposed in the midst of flames and crackling sounds, by herself with her hand unharmed: and there was no one to help; her left hand, which alone she could raise, she placed against the burning and flaming material, and thus extinguished the fire with one hand by rubbing: with which extinguished the same hand remained wholly unharmed. But on the following day all marveling and struck with wonder, to God alone, who had thus preserved his daughter in peril in the flames, with the diffusion of such a miracle, gave glory.

[55] Indeed just as to the children of Israel the Lord, as long as they ran in the solitude, did not delay to send manna: so to his spouse, she confesses she is sustained by divine consolations: not running into uncertainty but in the stadium, he did not deny the bread of internal consolation. For the sake of which many devout men of various Religions, when they saw the hand of the Lord weighed upon the Virgin in an unseen manner, piously sensing about the Lord, under such open wounds they suspected that unction also was imparted to her. Whence they often said to her: "You cannot hide from us, O dearest sister, that the Lord giving you such scourges in body, mercifully ministers to you his spiritual little gifts." Who said: "In my foolishness, my brothers, I say, that unctions although unmerited, with the most merciful Lord pouring from above, sometimes I receive: since without crumbs falling from the table of my lords, as a wretched little puppy I could not subsist in such a cast-down little body: but what or what kind I sometimes receive, to a little puppy of Christ so base and unworthy to tell is not in my interest at all." For only to the most timorous and more secret domestics she was accustomed to reveal the gifts of her graces soberly, as much as divine glory or fraternal charity required.

[56] But sometimes the Lord was suspending the breasts of consolation, which at some time ceasing, than which nothing graver could be inflicted on the Virgin: so much that she would have preferred scourges of body to be doubled to her, rather than be weaned in spirit from the breasts of paternal mercy. Plainly also hope which is deferred afflicts the soul: for which reason, fainting from weariness, after every customary exercise in the stimulations of body, and abandoned by God, for the fruitful passing of time, as if having him present, she was mentally speaking to the Angel: "O brother," she said, "now speak to me, do not be slow to announce to me about my spouse beloved above all things, whether perhaps he defers to lead me into his house: with her Angel she complains most lovingly, what kind is the preparation of his chamber, I ask now reveal to me: what he does, what he intends, and how he fares, to me also more certainly reveal. Does not my beloved inquire sometimes about me and speak? O, how long does he leave me in this valley of tears? What if so? What I shall do I know not: what I shall choose I am ignorant: for with the dart of his sweet love he has pierced me, and from the fire of his most flaming love he has wounded me. Lo, because I am dying. Therefore, O brother Angel, announce to the beloved, tell the spouse, that I languish with love: I speak impatient, conquered by love: and how does he not care for me failing from languor, but afflicts me? who yet has taught me to preserve mercy for any sad ones. I, my brother, by no means would answer such things to him, if it were in my right, as I am his. O if I could draw the beloved from lofty to low, just as he himself draws me from low to lofty: certainly I would not rest, without doubt I would not sleep, but rather I would draw him, but embrace him with arms, but put him through the inmost parts, but I would be united to his innermost parts.

[57] O my sincere brother, O most faithful paranymph, hasten, and then before the Spouse and the Saints pleads for herself. run through, announce to the beloved, tell the spouse the burning of my heart, the desire of my soul, the innermost depths of my inmost parts. One response I ask from him bring back, at least one word, bring back: greet him in the inmost recesses of his heart, and tell him, that unto death I persevere faithful to him, and that besides him within the lodging of my heart I admit no lover. You will also greet for me in the second place the most highly to be venerated mother of him Mary: you will greet also all my brothers and yours, the Angelic spirits, who minister before my God: you will greet finally the assembly of Patriarchs, the choir of Apostles, the army of Martyrs, the ranks of Confessors, moreover also my sisters in the Lord the holy Virgins, and the other Saints of God all: and tell them, that they also may deign to intercede for me, so that in their college I may merit to be made a colleague; and to their choirs, though a very small sister, I may be more quickly admitted." And in this manner she was passing time; if ever the manna of divine consolation being too hungry, for certain causes known to God, she would not receive according to her vow, as newborn she desired milk: which to catching solid food the Lord was adapting, to her as to a little one in Christ first milk was to be given, not food: although without doubt in spirit, one of those she was never, as is piously believed, lacking.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VIII.

On the response given to her by the Angel in the chamber of the mind, and also on the real visitations of the Angels made to her.

[58] When she formed these things with herself in a tranquil mind, and in silent manner as if beholding the messenger of her embassy returning, The Angel encourages the languishing one, reviving somewhat she would add a response: "O," he said, "chosen spouse of my Lord, your spouse with ineffable fervor of love, in return greets you, and lest from weariness or pusillanimity you fall, most cordially commands and exhorts; that you may remember him: and because for your love he for more than thirty years was a partaker of human troubles, namely by hungering and thirsting, in weariness, in labors, in vigils, by the example of the suffering Jesus, in straits, in cold and heat, in flight and in persecutions, in insults and blasphemies, in scourges, in pressures, in torments, in punctures, in sweats and in effusions of blood, in beatings and extensions, in piercings and woundings of hands and feet, in the thorny diadem, in derisions, in spittings, in most shameful death, in abandonment of disciples, in paternal abandonment, in protraction and fixing to the cross, in pains beyond measure; he wishes that you become mindful of him, often at least bring to mind.

[59] and he promises her a quick consolation: He nevertheless will quickly come, indubitably will bear you on high, to the chamber of his mother will lead you, in the chamber of the Father will place you. O happy spouse, indeed your King will come to you, your desired one will appear to you, your spouse will meet you. Behold because he has girded himself to meet, to heal and to console. He is at hand to minister to you, with the whole heavenly court, with his blessed Mother, and his most sacred Virgins, with the Angels and Patriarchs, with the Prophets and Apostles, with the Martyrs and Confessors, and all the inhabitants of the supernal Jerusalem. Beyond these what do you seek? Do you perhaps still waver? are you perhaps in expectation confused? His royal hall is adorned with tapestries: now his chamber is arranged, its curtains are hung, his little bed is strewn with flowers, its doors are fortified with lilies, but the windows are filled with roses, its tables are covered with silks, all delicious feasts are prepared, its storehouses full belching forth from this into that: precious vessels indeed of various kind, gold together and gleaming: its garden pleasant with flowers, planted with trees: spices flow everywhere. All these things, nay more to infinity and greater, are prepared, O sister. O how joyful he will come to lead you in wholly; and most graciously will say: 'Come now, my beloved; come from Lebanon, my friend; come from Lebanon; come you will be crowned.' Then the Angels before you will sing praise, the sons of God will jubilate before you, and will minister saying, 'Eat now, our sister: drink now, our friend: be inebriated now, dearest spouse of the Lord our God.'"

[60] so strengthened: Taught divinely by these and other internal eulogies, and exhorted also by most religious men, in whom Holland abounds for much time, she was driving away the weariness of her mind; exciting herself to patience, she was provoking the affection of her heart to the fiery flame of charity; and the torpor of her body placed under the pressure of the press she was exciting, to sustain any scourge of the Lord's chastisement. Whence after these things she was saying: "Eia now, my soul, trust: because your salvation comes, and your health will spring forth as soon as possible. My heart is ready, God, my heart is ready: I will sing to you in your glory." Upon the little bed therefore of her pain with such exercises, while her soul was subduing; sometimes from weariness, with the Angel thus to speak she was accustomed; so that by a certain special prerogative also the address, and dignified with the familiarity of the Angels companionship equally and service of her Angel she had visibly, she might name the Spirits themselves most many distinctly, and might most openly recognize to the custody of which men they had been divinely deputed. In the appearance of most beautiful youths they appeared to her: they bore the sign of the splendid Cross on the forehead, radiating on the face with such fulgor, that they seemed to surpass much the beauty and brightness of the sun. For because of the difference of the spirits of darkness, who sometimes transfer themselves into Angels of light, our Lydwina was affirming the spirits of light signed with the Cross on their foreheads.

[61] she attends to preserving purity of conscience: She was sometimes retarded from such a benefit, as was proved by certain signs, on account of the frequency of men coming: wherefore often, if she had contracted any dust from the colloquies of worldly men, immediately she hastened by confession to wipe it away, lest she be deprived of the sweet and holy company of her Angel. Those hierarchical spirits were teaching, whose interest is to illuminate, that the spouse herself might recognize her defects or her misery, and by recognizing make them plain; namely lest that solace which she most often enjoyed, with her own fault demanding, she should lack; and lest the souls, for whom she was suffering, should be frustrated of her relief. Indeed for the expiation of souls, as more openly in its place I shall say, marvelous things voluntarily she was suffering. Then she was accustomed, according to the custom of holy Mother Church, on the appointed day of Ashes, to receive Ashes from the hand of some Priest: and while the Priest delayed coming, the Angel minister of salvation, in such things supplied his place in the Virgin. Indeed when once her Confessor the said Lord John Walter, a good man, had come to her, asking whether she wished to be signed with the holy Ashes; immediately she answered: "Thanks to God now with all my heart

I give, sprinkled with Ashes brought by the Angel, Father: who through his Angel has anticipated me, signing me with his Ashes." With him stupefied and wondering what this speech was; she added: "Stretch forth, Father, your hand and learn by experiment, whether it is so." Which also he did: whence not only did he touch the signed one with his hand; but as aptly as he knew, with the ashes wiped off, he fortified his forehead with the same. The Angel had also taught her reverently to take the holy Ashes from Ecclesiastics, and to invite God's friends faithfully to do this same thing. ^a For the teaching of the Angel, as she said, was this; he teaches the manner of piously receiving them: that each of Christ's faithful about to receive Ashes, should humbly bear a lighted wax candle, with a coin bearing a cross placed upon it: not that of necessity, but of fittingness this was required; so that faith might be expressed in the light, charity in the ardor, and the mortification of the flesh might be signified in the cross of the coin.

[62] Another very marvelous thing also I narrate about our Virgin: for the Virgin herself had a certain little rod made from a stalk of ^b canopus, apt in time of heat or fevers for drawing or pushing back a little curtain, A cannabinous rod, lost by fire, which was an appendage to her bed. At that time also there had been a grave fire in that little city, so much that from piety very many of the neighbors came together to snatch the helpless Virgin from the whirlpool of flames: but she knowing what things were to come, and how the Lord had purposed to preserve her life, confidently forbade the neighbors to put hands to her little hut: but did not obtain this. For the neighbors began to break in the boards of the Virgin's little cell. Nevertheless being asked that they desist, for the first boards they hung up cloths, because she could not bear the light of the sun. And when for a while she had lain without the said boards, soon her eyes began to shed blood: on account of which also immediately the former wood was put back. Meanwhile the stalk is lost, there supervenes the rage of horrible fevers, which I have touched on above, in great anxiety not finding it, the excessive heat of the summer solstice concurs: with all of which as in a furnace the Virgin is baked, and after the departure of the febrile paroxysm, as if from afar returned to herself, that she was alone abandoned by all, at night, alas! she experiences. At length when from the suffocation of the enclosed fervor within there was no breathing or breath to her, thinking to put her hand in the customary way to the rod, she did not find it. The Virgin therefore wearied by fevers wept, because there was no ability to breathe: she wept, because she did not find the rod, which she desired: she wept, because there was no man, who could help the destitute one.

[63] But what the absent man could not, her present Angel immediately effected: the Angel brings another wood, and behold the Angel brought her a certain shapeless piece of wood, which placed transversely upon her body or left, she found. But she, seeing the wood rough and thick, immediately wonders, because instead of the tractable and light stalk, she has found such a shapeless thing placed upon her. She spent the night therefore as she could, with him cooperating who made the midst of the burning furnace as a wind blowing of dew, patiently she passed through. With morning made she immediately asks for her Confessor, namely Lord John Walter, whom without any other rumor simply she was accustomed to use. At length she asks, that from such wood by the hand of some artificer a tractable and light rod be fitted, whose fragrance being discovered during planing, telling him nothing who brought it, whence it came: but only that an instrument for pushing back her little curtain from it be made she constantly desires. The willing Father went out therefore to seek an artificer: but since in the flames of the fire the more suitable instruments of all carpenters and artificers had perished, scarcely a certain material thick plane could he find; yet he found one, with which they began to smooth the wood. Marvelous to say! the smoothed wood was breathing a marvelous odor, of the kind which those who were present said they had never before felt: yet they did not recognize the species of the wood. They snatch from it the cut and shaved parts on all sides, and there is a pious dispute between the artificer and the Priest John, who may retain more. There was not the least particle of wood, which from the sweetness of the odor they would not compare to yellow gold.

[64] The Priest runs leaving the first to a second ^c wood-worker, detesting the robbery: but as before so also afterwards there is the question, the chips are snatched away, who brought it and whence it came, and many similar things. The particles of the shaved wood are snatched by pious robbery, and a little rod is formed to the size of a slender ell. But the Confessor returning brought with him the smoothed little rod as Christ's Virgin had demanded, which he also delivered into her hands, and whence the aforesaid wood had come he inquired. To whom the Virgin answered: "The Lord knows, my Father, I do not know." For she was ignorant until through her Angel afterwards transported into the earthly paradise, from him she learned, the virgin herself learns it was brought from paradise, that from the front gate of paradise he had torn it. "Behold," her Angel said, "because from this gate I have torn off the wood which I brought to you: over which so much you wondered, because it was shapeless and thick, that at some time you procured it to be smoothed: whose presence however, as a scourge and punishment, the demons in their time will fear." Which when I heard, and I myself experienced with bodily eyes, in possessed men was proved. For I saw with my eyes those having a demon, with a cry and vigorous gnashing tremble, while a little portion of the said wood was presented. But after with the Angel revealing, and that it would be terrible to the demon she learns, Lydwina the little servant of Christ recognized the virtue of the wood, she grieved, because she had less appreciated the gift of God, which had thus been brought to her; and because she had procured that to be diminished, which with such mystery in future times, for restraining the malignant spirits, was fitting to be preserved. Soon, from then with the rumor flying through the streets, the virtue of the wood and its fragrance could not be hidden: but many flowed together, for the sake of seeing, touching, and smelling: among whom a certain wanton man importunately thrust himself in to touch it, and from then the accustomed fragrance for the most part, as is reported, not without the wonder of many, immediately it lost.

[65] Moreover since we have had discourse about the Angelic visitation, let us stammeringly discuss how great delight and refreshment she had from the presence of the good spirits. It happened that a certain venerable widow struck the ears of the Virgin, she obtains for her intimate that at least, if it were possible, she might merit to see her Angel coming in assumed appearance, just as he was accustomed to appear to her. But she: "I will pray to the Lord that, if it is possible, it may be done." Praying therefore Lydwina to the Lord, she obtained what she asked. The Virgin said to the widow: "With the door closed stand a little, and according to your little devotion you will see him whom your soul desires." She had rested a little with Christ's spouse: and behold the Angel in the appearance of a most beautiful young man came, whose face showed ineffable whiteness, but his garments the brightness of snow. His eyes sparkling in his head glittered like radiant stars: so that she also may see the Angel: but his head seemed to have a cap of wonderful beauty. The widow's heart was filled with jubilation, so much that she no longer had what she should say or what she should think, wholly absorbed. She was seeing as if innumerable hands near the Virgin, in the manner of poor people seeking alms, but no face was she seeing. Lydwina therefore said to the Angel: "Do not despise, my brother Angel, my sister, but your light-flowing eyes I ask turn to her." Which also that sacred spirit did in such a joyful and sweet manner, that not only did that widow take from it exultation of mind, but even on account of the fire of her heart from tearful groans, with detestation of bodily foods, she could not contain herself for a time. But sometimes the Virgin was saying to her intimates: she indicates how much she was refreshed by the sight of him, "There is not," she said, "under the sun pain, not grief, not trouble, not anguish of heart, not any sadness known to me: which, if by the accustomed piety of the Lord to contemplate the Angelic countenance is granted to me, as a drop of dew is absorbed by the presence of the sun, so in his sight is it not absorbed. Let each one weigh what is that fountain of life with himself and his elect in the homeland, if those who minister to him with such great glory, on account of the continuous vision of himself, so delight a mortal creature."

[66] and how she was accustomed to be led by him in rapture: Furthermore if at any time he was about to lead her, in the spirit or outside the spirit I know not, God knows, her Angel commonly observed this manner with her. For he would take her hand, and up to the image of the Virgin Mary often mentioned, standing in the church of the Baptist the Savior, as if to be taken leave of from it, he would lead: with her greeted, soon toward the east, to a certain most pleasant and most flowery Region, inaccessible to human sights, where of lilies as it were blooming, of roses and aromatic flowers and other delightful and verdant things, so great an abundance and fragrance was seen, that there no shriek of the North wind was thought to cause ice, nor heat of the South to burn anything. In all things the true daughter of holy obedience was striving to obey her guiding Angel. With him preceding she went, with him standing she stood, with him returning she returned. There was sometimes such great height and density of such flowers and verdant shrubs, so that it seemed to her that she could not penetrate: but by her Angel in the manner of Habakkuk she was carried to the place which she sought. O delightful companionship! O glorious colloquy of the Virgin with the Angel! For kindred to Angels is virginity.

[67] She was accustomed to direct to him a prayer in which she said: "Beloved brother and Angel of God, her prayer to her Angel, for the cordial trust which I bear in you, humbly and insistently I beseech you, out of reverence for our Lord Jesus Christ, that in the sight of my Spouse for me you deign to intercede, that he may remit all my faults, and confirm me in every good work; grant me to amend my life, and bring me to salvation; where by his joyful sight I may rejoice, by his taste I may be inebriated, and enjoy eternal life." To these Angels therefore, the ministers of God, to be venerated, she introduced her intimates, and exhortation to the worship of the blessed Spirits. as those who day and night watch around us, although they are by nature more excellent, more penetrating in intelligence, more free in faculty, more tenacious in contemplation; yet in many things familiar to us, administrative spirits, that they may be present, preside and profit, especially those who are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. These and many other things the Virgin devoted to God was inculcating, prudently persuading to walk in the sight of those, about whom it is written, "Who makes his Angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire." Ps. 103:4

NOTES.

PART TWO

On the Virtuous Progress of the Virgin Lydwina.

CHAPTER I.

On the Virgin's progress in certain virtues to be touched on generally.

[68] Indeed while the handmaid of Christ was being proved as gold in the furnace, like a watered garden with the South wind blowing she did not cease to sprout the flowers of virtues, and showed copious exemplars to others for sowing. And since charity begins with itself, she laid as foundation the cornerstone the fear of the Lord, in fear a good will, in good will discernment of self, in discernment humility, in humility patience, in patience taciturnity, in taciturnity obedience, in obedience holy poverty, in poverty sobriety, in sobriety purity of mind and body. From the fear of the Lord, to prepare for the Lord a perpetual habitation, the beloved spouse of Christ, as has been said, Founded in the fear of the Lord, began to build the house of the mind, knowing that if anyone stands in the fear of the Lord, with difficulty is his house subverted. For this in extreme anguishes as it were at hand she always had the word, which she would say: "O good Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." Indeed she always carried in the oracle of her voice the dart of such a timorous little prayer: since to fear God finally and to love had grown with her from infancy in the heart.

[69] What a tree of good will she was, the fruit indicates: because every good tree makes good fruit. She fixed her will in the Lord as a root from which originally the other gratuitous together and moral virtues proceed: to this she builds good will on top, so that nothing to think, say, or do premeditately did she wish, which she thought would displease the divine will. Whence this word, with most patient Job and B. Francis, the nursling of good will is reported often to have said virtually: "This will be to me, Lord, most acceptable, that afflicting me with pain you not spare: since the fulfillment of your will is to me consolation overflowing." Job 6:10 About the discussion of herself she watched more attentively, and she watches over her self-discussion: which always for every least thing stood under the judgment of any; both of God, by whose scourging she professed herself worthy; both of the Angels, in whose presence many of her faults she was lamenting by weeping; both of elder men, to whose discretion she was sacramentally and spiritually committing herself; both also of inferiors, in whose sight and comparison she was reputing herself most vile of all. For she had often in mind what our holy Harpist says, "Because I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me," Ps. 50:5 and again: "Because I am prepared for scourges, and my sorrow is always in my sight." Ps. 37:18

[70] To submit herself to all through the grace of humility given to her she did not shrink, excelling in humility since she affectionately reputed herself vile, so that she did not flee from being believed vile by all, estimated, called and even defamed. As also in the intimates of the paternal house was often found. For there was a certain bold-faced woman, the wife of her brother, insolent and very talkative; who with such great clamorousness vexed the Virgin, with God permitting, that you would believe her another wife of Job: sparing no one however excellent or patient: from whose lips rarely did any but biting words proceed. It happened however that John of Bavaria Duke, at a certain time under a dissembled habit secretly visited Christ's Virgin: she dissembles the clamors of her sister-in-law and when the clamorous woman loosed the reins of her chattering, ignorant that so great a Prince was conferring with Lydwina about the secrets of her soul; at length the Prince moved by the importunity of such a troublesome chatterer, said: "And how," he said, "O Virgin, can you sustain such a swallow in your house, which without bridle disturbs the whole house?" Who answered: "With even mind, my Lord, the fragilities and imperfections of such are to be tolerated, either that by the example of another's patience they may be corrected, and dissimulates the imperfections of others. or that they may be for the exercise of virtue to those whom the Most High knows to need such things, or at least lest to the fury of such more of raging and disturbing occasion be given." By which words not a little that great man was edified, and from his purse drew out money gave to the talkative woman. Which received a little while restrained was her slippery tongue, but whether wholly mitigated I do not affirm.

[71] Patience indeed sprouting radically from these had so bound our Virgin with its reins, she sustains insults inflicted patiently, that from those things which have been said not only virgin, but virago; not Lydwina, but S. Patience she ought deservedly to be called. There came at a certain time a certain woman, as is to be feared, of the daughters of Belial, raging and furious; who began to assail B. Lydwina with innumerable insults, injuries, contumelies, and reproaches: who as if she had nothing else in body but a gall-filled heart and the venom of asps under her lips, and was coming sent studiously to provoke the poor little martyr Lydwina to wrath; when she knew that she had by no means profited by calumnious and venomous words, she began with execrable spittings to deform her venerable face. But not seeing her Virgin moved by these, she began at length with cries and curses, as if she had suffered violence, to rouse the neighbors. with spittings inflicted But the patient Virgin stronger than the raging one, possessed her soul, in all these things not a bit moved, in patience, so that all were wondering. Nor delayed, our happy Lydwina, blessing for cursing rendered, service for insult, grace for contumely, charity for calumny, salvation for the deadly thing, beneficence for the spreading of spittings, immediately, namely on the same evening, to the same little woman she repaid. She sent to her through intermediaries secretly a blessing with a gift, thus heaping coals upon her head, she repays with benefit. saying: "Am I not bound to expend kindness on those, who do not cease to enlarge for me the way of charity, by which stretching out I may merit? To them I feel myself indebted, I confess myself procurer, who to run the way of the Lord's commandments (whose fullness is love) compel me."

[72] those reputing her fasting feigned, What more? No one is so desirous of precious gold or worldly glory, as much as she of contempt and disdain: for she knew that patience has a perfect work. Also certain little drinking women coming to her, were saying: "It is not in our consciences that we can believe you, woman, that without bodily food you can pass through life: from which thing we suspect hypocrisy and illusion in you." To whom she patient patiently said: "Not through this, my sisters, if you do not believe, are you unbelievers: yet do not disbelieve, that God has worked. Not in bread alone does man live, but in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Do you not piously believe, that in the desert he fed both Marys, she answers most modestly: namely the Magdalen and the Egyptian? Concerning me, if you do not believe, there is little care; so long as you believe that the Lord has worked. For why in the sight of mortals, should I wish to deny myself eating, or affirm myself not eating? since eating is in no way reproach; and not eating, as far as it is on the part of man himself, has nothing of glory: and whatever men say, the grace which the Lord works in me, I cannot at all deny. I could indeed be silent, if ceasing from inquiry men were silent."

[73] her speech rare, modest, grave. If discourse concerning her taciturnity is demanded, I am at hand. Her voice, as commonly, was heard sweet and sonorous: not by the gift of sickness, but of grace alone as I believe. One day out of three or four, as more commonly, which was left to her for peace after importunate fevers by the Lord, she would spend for the consolation of Christ's faithful in speaking more fruitfully. No one saw her guffawing, scarcely ever did he perceive her laughing from levity; yet seriously joyful, according to the fitness of the colloquial matter, and also of persons, she very often was seen. According to the doctrine of the Wise One, skillfully observing the time for speaking and the time for being silent, in the maturity of words and gravity of sense, she did not exceed the bound. Eccles. 3:7 "Good," as she said, "is colloquy, which good silence ought to excel." Wherefore she shuddered at the colloquy of all detractors, knowing that this kind is fed by blood and deceit: and because their throat is an open sepulcher, who with their tongues lick pus, even of the deceased.

[74] loving obedience herself, The praises of her obedience I do not think to describe, except that strong one, which she kept to men on account of God, in which to them as a dead corpse and a little worm, which is trodden by feet, she cordially committed herself. About the obedience, which she exhibited to her brother Angel, I shall write nothing, except what is read: at whose least nod however she trembled, and moreover shuddered. she commends it to Religious: Yet that holy obedience, which Religious vow as their own by profession, with most lively persuasions she was commending to them, saying: "My beloved brothers, with all meekness strive to observe the yoke of holy obedience: since of the greatest reward is obedience, which the Lord left to you by his own example, as to coheirs hereditarily, made obedient unto the death of the cross."

[75] It happened that a certain Religious of the Cistercian Order was elected to the burden of Prelacy: to whose execution he rendered himself difficult; and if in any way the care of souls, canonically superposed upon him, out of charity he could decline, he came to consult the Virgin. And because he feared to be recognized, as if speaking of another he began in this manner. nor does she approve for the sake of quiet "Know," he said, "dearest Sister, that a certain one of ours has been chosen for the office of Prelacy, to which, since he sees many dangers imminent to him, he has rendered himself difficult and unwilling; feeling because less aptly could he fulfill, those things which are deservedly required for such an office." To whom Lydwina soon answered: "Best Father, I fear lest the subterfuges of that Brother are frivolous and nothing: for under power is a monk constituted: he can flee honor; yet the burden, if strength sufficient for him, he ought not to refuse. Finally let him fear, lest fleeing the lesser peril, he fall into a greater." As if she would say, He will fall into Scylla while wishing to avoid Charybdis. For on account of obedience, she hoped it was lighter for the soul to be in Prelacy, to refuse the burdens of Prelacy, not procured but imposed, than to serve with yoke deposed under one's own will. What to these things? The Monk despises the counsel of the Virgin, casts off the burden, declines the Prelacy for liberty: but according to the oracle of the Virgin, what he less feared, that happened. Indeed (as some heard from his own mouth) such great winding paths of tribulations that religious man incurred, according to the word of the woman of God; that he would prefer incomparably to have undergone the peril of the burden

with honor with humility, than to have followed the loss of most perilous leisure and wandering of mind.

[76] or to change place under some pretext: This salutary doctrine therefore is necessary not only to religious following the asinine liberty, but also to any devout persons, with the Virgin herself persuading all and saying: "He who seeks the gain of his soul, and not loss, stable let him fix a stable place; and there in the hidden place, having found the secretary of his heart, let him construct for himself an enclosure; and without doubt in a short time, he will feel the Lord become propitious to him." Highly she execrated this kind of men, who at the whim of their volubility give their feet to commotion: "Not," she said, "does place sanctify, however much it be changed: because wherever a man turns, always he carries himself with him." But to seculars this word about obedience was customary: To seculars she urges that they obey their confessor. "Whoever wishes that in him the spirit of God should work, let him be obedient to holy mother Church, and in it to his Confessor, from whom great salvation depends upon him, as from the vicar of Jesus Christ: For so doing he will find rest, in no way otherwise."

[77] She was also a chief zealous one for poverty of things and for the poor, which that it was so the hut, the couch, Poverty of spirit excelling, and the penury of things attest: but poverty of spirit moreover the contempt of praise, and her deep self-denial commend in her. If ever she was asked at time of necessity, whether she was abounding; she answered, "I abound enough." When however from this she was rebuked by little women, to whom her penury was known; the humble handmaid of Christ said: "He abounds enough, who is content in what he has. For although I," she said, "do not have riches and delights common with men, nevertheless poverty and miseries are common to me with them; and abounding in these, giving thanks to God, I rest." A certain townsman coming from Flanders, and seeing the abject little house of Lydwina's father, offered her while still living to build from his riches a solemn house, in which more honorably she could rest, if she wished: she refuses a more honorable house: to whom the poor little one answered: "For me with life as companion, beloved brother, a more ample house you will not build: but if anyone in this place, for lodging the poor, after my death shall build a house, I beseech the heavenly Lord that the alms not return empty into his bosom." Which also with God as leader, through the son and physician of the above-said master Godfrey Sonderdanck of good memory named William, after the departure of the Virgin, we see to have been completed.

[78] in the rigor of life Parsimony I shall think it less necessary to commend except in the former age in the Virgin; since the hut was to her a palace; the straw or wooden couch, an ivory bed; the hair-cloth girdle, a royal belt; the rotting ulcers, precious necklaces; the horrid wounds, desired solaces; many tears, new delights; worldly tribulation, marvelous consolation; the teeming worms, companions at table; the pains and anguishes of body, as rich feasts. Indeed she was urging bodily abstinence, yet so that it should be seasoned with the file of reason and with salt; knowing that bodily exercise, without such companion, makes danger, moreover disposes to any ruinous discrimination.

[79] and she was supreme in the whiteness of modesty. Virginal chastity among the other virtues gave her such great distinction, that by a certain excellence she is commonly named Virgin up to the present day, although deceased. Some were coming sometimes vexed with flaming fires of lust, whom lamentably weeping for this misery, the most pure one by her counsels, prayers and pains drew from the jaws of the whirlpool, and led back to cleanness both of mind and of body. Moreover when the necessity of bodily trouble required, to honest matrons she exhibited her little body to be handled: yet upon the bare to be touched scarcely by the most honest ever did she permit. She knew that the best bulwark for virginity would be modesty, and that a firm barrier to chastity is to be touched by no one: although among virgins as a morning star she shone and as a light in hidden places, with her cross-bearing face hidden she did not lie open to any men. Truly therefore beautiful are the steps of this Virgin, as of a daughter of the Prince, who as the battle-line of an army ordered internally by these virtues, in the midst of the young tambourine-playing girls walks, leaning upon her beautiful Beloved.

CHAPTER II.

On certain works of mercy and on the supplying of defects and her spiritual refreshments.

[80] The Virgin of sound mind, although she needed no nourishment of corruptible food, Most liberal toward the poor yet for the devotion of some, who were venerating God in her, she sometimes retained alms, to be distributed for her own and others' necessities; most sparing always to herself for those whom she needed outside, she strove cordially to become a mother of other poor. She denied her hand to none, as long as a farthing or an obol remained: and to those to whom she could not extend her hand, she offered a compassionate mind, and presented a soothing word from the treasure of her pious heart; and cooked foods, sometimes raw, she sent. If ever from carelessness by intermediaries around the things to be brought something was neglected, patient she would say: "What is mine, I have done; what is good, you judge: she desires alms destined for them to be promptly given; but would that first from my desire, as I advised you, you had done so." But she said this, because she had such care only for the poor: because to them, as to future Kings and Princes of Christ in the kingdoms of heaven, for even an hour, the customary grain to be withheld or delayed she did not wish. She knew indeed the poor by name and their little dwellings, so that although she lay in hidden places, yet she saw all things; she was accustomed to perceive all things distinctly and sensibly, so that she was believed to converse as if with men.

[81] For these also to salt meats in winter she would order: the grain divinely multiplied for them to cook the salted with legumes, namely peas, she procured: cooked she would send to the poor of Christ with a blessing. Whence it happened at a certain time, that a portion of the fourth part of a cow, with certain neighbors, for feeding the poor fell to her as a share: from which when her ministers had cooked with peas a certain quantity, and had refreshed thirty houses to satiety; there was one who said, modestly she rejoices: "Lydwina, according to your command, we have provided thirty houses of the poor to satiety from your meats and peas; but nor does the pot yet seem diminished." To which immediately she answered: "Not by my merits, but by his own goodness God has done this. Did not the Lord promise, 'Give and it shall be given to you'? Luke 6:38" Indeed, marvelous to say! the domestics ate of these meats, at the same time ate the coming pilgrims; and with all struck by wonder, they attest the hand of the Lord is present, who once had filled with flour the hydria of a poor little widow, and gave that oil should not fail in the cruse. The rich were not fearing sometimes to ask for little morsels of our lying Virgin, and this indeed out of devotion: nor was she delaying to give to everyone asking for the love of God: she bestows on anyone asking as she can, nay rather whatever she thus sent in the name of the Lord of alms, with the feathers of holy prayer, by which they might more fragrance before the Most High, she zealously fortified beforehand. For prayer, is the pious companion of alms, and in the refreshment of the bowels it is best, to stabilize the hearts of Christ's children by grace.

[82] She also especially strove in a secret manner to feed and give drink at the same time to those poor, yet most solicitous for the secretly needy. whom she knew to have fallen from worldly felicity to misery, and whom she knew on account of shame not daring to beg. Secretly, lest their want be betrayed, she sent the necessities of sustenance, herself begging too, if ever meats for the poor were failing. Whence at a certain time she asked a devout man, that for refreshing the bowels of certain poor, a shoulder of pork, if he had one, cooked he would destine: for a ham divided among these another is restored: which also the man did: but soon, how grateful to God is a hand stretched out to give, immediately it shone. This man (as he himself confessed a little afterwards) to that place, whence he had taken the only and sole shoulder, lifting his eyes; immediately another, much larger, to be hanging in the same place he saw: wherefore asking his household more diligently, whether any of them had brought such thing of meats there and with them saying no; from the hand of the Lord to have been brought, as the deed required, he judged. Not undeservedly the man becomes more devoted to the Virgin, he becomes also more ready for the poor to give, with piety growing the friend of the poor more joined to God.

[83] But at the time, about which above was mentioned, To an epileptic woman thirsty namely in which the very least wine or water before the coming of dropsy she was using; there happened a certain novel thing, not so much marvelous as miserable and wonderful, which I propose to tell. A certain woman was laboring with the epileptic disease, who from the horror of the fall was grave to see, but graver to lodge, gravest to live with: who, as an abortion contemptible and despised, often fell down in the streets. This one therefore in the anguish of spirit the hut of the almsgiver Virgin as soon as she had entered, drink to be given to her she asked. And when of the little wine, which remained, the Virgin least thought, since alone then she was, water to the sick one to drink she showed, which there stored in a certain little vessel was contained. Drink therefore and drank the thirsty one all that she found: but what is this to one burning among such anguishes? Burns and burns out the languid one: a little wine given she insists that more she should receive. There came therefore then into mind of the handmaid of God, that a little wine remained, which also with finger soon she pointed out to her to drink: she drank again also another little thing which she found. The epileptic woman added to ask for a third; and not having liquor the Virgin brought forth a coin, saying to her: "Go now, daughter, with this coin to buy for yourself and as much as is necessary to you drink; but the little vessel which you have emptied put back in its place." She put back the vessel, rejoicing over the coin, the thirsty very little woman; and immediately, according to the word given her, that she might extinguish thirst to the tavern she seeks.

[84] But at the time of fevers supervening, the Virgin insists with her father, who then still was alive, is found restored in the full vessel, that he should offer her a little wine, only that her lips might be moistened, which were vehemently dry: for she did not remember at that hour that the epileptic had drunk all. The father therefore offered to his daughter the little vessel: but what for God's sake was emptied, heavenly from God filled with the best wine soon is found. Very marvelous! The Virgin is stunned, mindful of the piety shown to the woman: the most natural wine, than which nothing more excellent, soon she tastes: which indeed never losing its red color and best taste, inflicts stupor on the father. Nevertheless the Virgin conscious of her secret, whence it came, in no way at that time indicated. and with it continuing she uses it a long time. At length when for a long time that wine from the little vessel did not fail, by the carelessness of a certain woman it was poured out. The handmaid of Christ grieved, since at that time still, although very thinly, she was using wine: but she grieved more, because no one of men had ever brought her more suitable wine: because without water mixed other wines she could never have drunk;

this alone pure and unmixed she was drinking. From which matter it was plain how merciful to the poor of Christ our virago had been, who ordered an epileptic woman to drink from her little vessel: for which without doubt from the cellar of the most powerful God she received choice wine.

[85] the debts of her dead brother having been paid off, By these things indeed works of diffused piety to be multiplied, she seemed to be provoked immediately by a copious affluence of God's gifts. It happened once that her brother William migrating from the world, his sons, bound by innumerable debts, were brought to extreme miseries, which they could in no way in human manner refund. And when not so much by proximity of blood as by charity of spirit, for relieving the miseries of her despairing sons she had had certain jewels sold; and the price of those sold under a certain number of coins similarly gathered, with some of them exchanged so that they might be of one more common currency, all into one purse she placed. She ordered therefore that to the individual creditors, through Nicholas her kinsman, satisfaction be made up to the last farthing; and these things done, if anything of the purse remained, faithfully to be reported to her. What more? Satisfaction was made from the eight pounds of the coin of that region to individual creditors, the eight pounds, first placed in the purse, remain whole, according to the Virgin's wish: the coins which were remaining were numbered from the purse; but when by triple renumbering at the Virgin's order, the individual coins in the purse in her presence were distinctly turned over by finger; as many pounds and as many coins were found by Nicholas himself, as at first had been placed summarily by the Virgin's hand. Which when thus three times she wishing it, had happened; with silence enjoined on all present lest perhaps to anyone they should say what they had seen, henceforth that purse with the coins she judged should be called the purse of Jesus. She was expending afterwards from the purse to the poor of Christ magnificently, and the Lord himself was abundantly pouring in. And when it happened for the said silver to be numbered, after such expenses thus made, perceptibly the increase or supplement of divine liberality was becoming known.

[86] from which more than 40 pounds are brought forth. They sometimes asked her more cordial ones, how much after the death of her brother William she had distributed from the purse of the Lord Jesus: to whom she said: "Since I do not see the glory of the Lord to you in this matter being hidden, I say to you truly; that from the eight pounds beyond forty pounds into pious uses of the poor I have expended, besides those which for the debts of my brother I had repaid to his creditors." For six years before the death of the Virgin in many ways and many modes of necessities, into pious uses of the needy, the said money was distributed and again by the Lord multiplied, and after the passing of the Virgin half part of the same species of coin and figure was found in the same purse of Jesus. Similarly about gold coins placed there, before three worthy of faith it happened to her, that on triple renumbering, not without the wonder of those present they were visibly increased. Therefore two mites, namely of body and soul, our Virgin alone having, upon the bed of her pain, as a marrow-filled holocaust had dedicated, and whatever besides those she could acquire, reckoning as straw, on account of Christ the Lord into his coheirs and fellow-diners prodigally expended. Furthermore according to the word of truth for single a hundredfold, for earthly heavenly, for temporal eternal, for all these to be tasted the Lord gave her: from which one, with the rest reserved for later, I shall narrate.

[87] Indeed when sometimes into paradise of exultation or of pleasure, her alms are shown to her in paradise, as it pleased God, she was carried; she saw at a certain time marvelous brightness from heaven shining, especially upon the souls of wayfarers, whom there she was perceiving to have been raised with her by singular rapture; and she saw in that splendor as an army of most beautiful Saints flow together, among whom she notably discerned the Queen and Lady of heaven. She also saw in the meantime tables being more sumptuously covered with silken and precious cloths, and her alms also, which in those days she had distributed to the poor, as if brought down from heaven, most aptly placed. She discerns there also the cups, which she had offered to the thirsty in earthen vessels, in crystal and golden hydriae most reverently prepared, and other things which she had given to the needy sufficient many. There approached also a glorious, as it seemed, and most brilliant assembly to sit at the prepared tables. She also saw each bring the sign of his own singular warfare: to Christ and the Saints reclining they are ministered. yet there were there certain ones adorned with Priestly clothing, but carrying their chalices with the opening downward; among whom she recognized one of her brothers long deceased, by name Balduin, who from the womb of his mother by the devotion of both parents had been offered to the Priesthood, but by his own negligence, with the Priestly character set aside, bound in matrimonial bond, for this reason among the others with his chalice turned downward to the earth diminished. And what is more she was hearing there a sound as of those feasting at table, and she was joyfully recognizing herself ministering to them there. On account of which indeed when she returned to herself, in a marvelous way afterwards she strove greatly to amplify her customary alms. O how salutary is therefore the thought not to turn away pious eyes from the poor, not to despise a hungering soul, not to exasperate the needy with a word; but much more excellently and salutarily to feed and give drink to such, that by lending piously, we may gain the Lord Christ in the poor, saying, "Whatever you have done to one of my least, you have done to me." Matt. 25:40 For truly by the Wise One it is said: "Do not despise the petition of the afflicted, and do not turn away your face from the needy." Ecclus. 4:4

CHAPTER III.

On the visitation of the sick and those lying in childbed, and on the clothing of the naked.

[88] More solicitous for these is the Virgin, But indeed never would I have said sufficiently of our virago, unless about the visitation made to those in childbed and to the sick I should recall to memory the few things which follow. For she seemed to be the mother and holy midwife of those giving birth and of the infirm, from the assiduous care which she was bearing. Also for these as was fitting more delicate dishes, as for the weak, she caused to be prepared, especially for those who with right faith were leading a catholic life. For the sake of which thing it happened that a certain woman, devoted to the handmaid of Christ, and using the ministry of a pious widow, for a time made a stay with her, conversed with her, and with her on account of the visitation of such sick was held as more intimate for a long time: for it was the greatest consolation to her, to have of the same sex and vow a friend and companion, to whom she could uncover the piety of her mind. For which reason the said woman here and there, as was needful, according to the impulse of her compassionate spirit she was accustomed to send: yet that she might further prove her spirit, more profuse once than usual, as with exultation of heart, calling her, she said: "I ask you, dearest sister, that now you would wish to open the veins of piety, which you bear toward miserable persons, and go to the fish market to buy more delicate fishes, which you can find, for the weak and infirm; and with the best seasoning prepare them, as you know such sick wish to eat."

[89] The devout woman therefore did, as Martha, what the holy Virgin had commanded. Meanwhile this one, as Mary, fervently for the bearer of her ministry, which she had asked, she orders her to ask what she will, was beseeching the Lord. Scarcely had she entered the house, and our Lydwina rejoicing in spirit said: "Did you do, beloved, what I said? Did you not do it?" But she: "I did what I was more aptly able." To whom Lydwina: "A thing most pleasing to God, O dearest, you have done: now ask from the Lord what your conscience dictates piously to be asked; and with the Lord, that you may receive what you ask, I will labor." But to her the woman said: "If you recompense deeds with words, you will be to me the best sister and mother. I beseech that I may obtain pardon for my sins, and the grace of persevering: the rest I leave to your charity." and to her the house of perseverance, To whom Lydwina: "A great thing you have asked, but salutary: because pardon and the grace of perseverance. But concerning that, which you leave to me, the merciful Lord alone by his piety will provide. Go," she said, "go now also you, praying for me."

[90] and also the secret vow of her mind she obtains. In these words therefore the woman, who had been sad before, as if she had laid down a heavy burden, wonderfully went away consoled: from which matter it is gathered that our virago in the Thearchic light had seen, what explicitly to propound was not permitted: and that with a flame-bearing prayer the minister of piety, ministering for the love of Christ, she had commended to the Father of mercies, who with such great joy of spirit more than usual proposed security of asking, proposing trust of mercy had given, indeed believing him not to have lied who said: "Blessed are the merciful for they also shall obtain mercy." Matt. 5:7 And indeed Ambrose says: "The balls of burning crimes alms cools by the fountain of its benevolence, and with a certain watering of liberality overwhelms the fires of offenses: so that, although provoked by crimes, he is compelled to free the souls by alms, which he had disposed to punish, the Father of piety himself: he is compelled by us in a certain way, when he is constrained to change his sentence for our acts, and in one and the same man now to be moved by the severity of a judge, now to be soothed with the piety of a father." Again the Wise One says: "He who is inclined to mercy shall be blessed." Prov. 22:9 Why do I delay further on these things? The Spouse of Christ was accustomed to beseech her Angel, that by suggesting to her domestics he would persuade, to preserve piety toward the poor of the Lord.

[91] With the more devout and more intimate to her sitting at a certain time at table, she warns that the Angel had been he who three times came as a beggar: there was one at the door, with a certain most compassionate affection as it seemed, asking for alms. But the Confessor of the Virgin wondering at the unusual manner of asking, with quickened step rushed forth to the door: but did not find anyone. With him sitting down soon in a clear voice with the first modesty preserved, again is heard someone asking for alms: and the same Priest, as before he had done, suddenly rose: but a second time defrauded, he sat down. Another also came a third time asking for alms: the Priest rises on the contrary: but he whom he had striven hastily to meet (although an open street lay open to his eyes, nor was there an angle for turning aside) nowhere as before appeared. Wherefore greatly troubled, running together to the Virgin herself, they narrated the fact itself in order: who answered: "O slow of heart to rise to your brother Angel! would that you had more revered him from your hearts! To this he came, that he might prove you, whether among the feasts which you took, you were mindful of the Lord your creator."

[92] Then our Virgin Lydwina, just as she was sustaining true beggars, openly or secretly begging: so also on the contrary she was detesting those, she shuns false poor: who of piety make gain and rapine. Such also as companions of thieves, feigned hypocrites, whitewashed walls she affirmed to be avoided: who devour the alms of true poor, by their own will not necessity calling themselves needy; before God often found ravening wolves. For it happened, alas! that a woman in appearance religious, within wholly false and wolf-like, was running around to the houses of those whom she knew more devoted to piety, such a one, patched up from lies, especially those whom she had learned to abound. When therefore she had perceived this blessed Virgin to be of melting compassion, she hastened to go there, not because rich, but

rather thinking her poor in things, but the greatest zealot for the poor; for which reason she, about to lie about her extreme poverty, was thinking she would also receive ample blessing. But the Virgin was lying at that time wearied with most grave fevers, so much that she could not speak a word even to any of her domestics. Clothed therefore above with a mournful garment, she found by chance a certain domestic Catherine by name, drew profound sighs as from the innermost of her heart, forming a trembling and thin voice, she said she was secretly leading a celibate life, and on account of this matter, she alleged made despicable to her friends and relatives, with dire groans added. when she had taken alms from her confessor, But Catherine judging that she was speaking truly, led her for the time to the Confessor, namely Lord John Walter, since he also was a true Israelite. Who immediately with the complaining words of the feigned woman heard, the ample alms which she was seeking offered. On the following day indeed, when Lydwina was free from fevers, soon she ordered the said Catherine to come, and said to her: "Although, Lydwina was not unaware. dearest sister, I lay yesterday under the hand of the Lord, as I am accustomed: yet it is not hidden from me now how that lying woman came to you, and how with deceptive and feigned words she deceived you and my Father Confessor: and how with the goods of the Lord you were at hand to give to her. Therefore henceforth for giving to men of such way be more cautious: for as Scripture says, 'There is one who wickedly humbles himself, and his interior is full of deceit': and again, 'Not every spirit is to be believed.'" Ecclus. 19:23; 1 John 4:1

[93] She was generally occupied in clothing the naked, with the help of devout women wool-workers, although from devotion the salutary resolution was not present, to procure fine linen for linen, purple for wool, rest for labor. And when the substance of both cloths, both of linen and of wool, was being increased in her hand (that I may relate one out of many) it happened that a certain Priest was to be clothed. an example of cloth growing under her hands. And when suitable cloth for clerical decency was not found, there was a woman present who said, "I have adapted for myself cloth new and black: but what is this among so many? for it is only six ells, and my daughter is troublesome to me, asking for a hood to be made for her from the said cloth; and what shall I keep for my own use?" What more? To whom Lydwina: "Bring, I ask, to me that cloth which you have adapted, and the Lord will provide." Marvelous to say! The cloth is brought to the hand of the Virgin, who as if she wished to measure, leads the cloth and hand to her mouth: and soon with the Lord acting, such length follows, that both for the Priest fitting clothing, according to the clerical honesty of that region down to the ankles, is provided; and when after this both for the mother and for the daughter from the superfluous most abundantly remained what they were asking; all were stupefied over this fact, and did not cease to inquire whence it was thus done. Who answered: "Believe me," she said, "by the ministry of the Holy Angel for your peace it has been done, that the pious Priest might not be deprived of his necessary garment, and you might not be frustrated of the desired benefit." So therefore the Virgin clothed the naked with garment, indeed by her example exhorting us, to follow in her footsteps.

CHAPTER IV.

On the grace of information and consolation to all.

[94] Accustomed to give admonitions fitting the condition of each, Made a debtor to the wise and foolish, although she had not learned letters, the one codex for her was the book of the life of the crucified Jesus: from this, as from the most correct exemplar, the assiduous disciple strove with marvelous avidity to drink; so much that to despairing sinners penance, to the just discipline, to adolescents obedience, to the old wisdom, to Prelates vigilance, to Religious perseverance, to Priests chastity and holiness sufficiently inculcating she persuaded. The simple and mechanics were coming, asking counsel of life from her: to whom she said, "Do not be idle, dearest ones: for idleness is the sink and nourishment of evils: for it is written, 'Because you shall eat the labors of your hands, she bids young girls to beware of idleness: blessed are you and it shall be well with you.'" Ps. 127:2 To young virgins, since that age is more fervent by reason of wantonness, she said: "Much malice idleness teaches: on this account, dearest ones, as from a poison of virginity beware." There came also a certain girl to her house, whom scarcely entering her house, immediately she placed at work, nor did she suffer her even for an hour to wander; knowing that liberty, idleness, delights, beauty, riches, are incentives of pleasure.

[95] There came to her a certain widow saying thus: "I abound enough for passing this miserable life: what therefore do you advise? and a widow sufficiently wealthy whether to give a tranquil life to leisure, or to give attention to labor?" Lydwina answered: "Leisure I do not counsel you: for you know the art of wool-working, by which if you wish you may not eat bread idle": for she knew what is written, "Let him who was stealing steal no more, but rather let him work, doing with his hands that which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffers need." Eph. 4:28 yet she urges wool-working: And when the widow was fearing to trade, and was alleging the peril of cupidity, the Virgin answered: "The art of wool-working is good, and necessary for sustenance; which if you shall convert into cupidity, it is indeed dangerous; but if for the cause of avoiding leisure and for the relief of the poor and yourself, only you shall exercise it, there is no cause of fear to you. Yet in this matter use my counsel: that however the Lord may direct you in your doings, always you shall consecrate to the Lord the wool of one fleece, and you shall give to the poor: but if not, out of reverence for the five wounds of Christ you shall give to them as many coins, and your Angel will guard you lest you offend. Moreover I also urge you never to defraud your workers of their wages."

[96] It happened however that with the fortunes of commerce fluctuating, after manifold gains, that the said widow woman was suffering losses: to the same unjustly holding one gold piece, and when her merchant at a certain time, on account of past losses, she had deceived in one gold piece by computing; thinking that it was lawful for her on account of the just loss silently to take unjust gain; at length after a short space the same merchant died, with the gold piece reserved with the aforesaid widow. After some time had passed the merchant appeared to the holy Virgin, saying: "Tell, I ask, such a woman, that the gold piece, which less justly, under the computation held between us, she reckoned to herself, as quickly as possible to you she should restore, and from this wax candles for Masses to be celebrated you should buy me, that ecclesiastical suffrages may profit me, she prescribes the manner of restitution. but that her may not strike the avenging divine justice." Having said this soon he disappeared, marvelous I say very much. The Virgin announces to the widow what she had heard: the widow hears what she thought was hidden from every mortal, and was as if struck with blush together and terror; and with restitution made, henceforth is made more cautious, and never such a thing has she dared to attempt.

[97] To peace moreover mutually to preserve she was admonishing those between themselves bound by the bond of matrimony: she exhorts spouses to preserve peace mutually, but to those seeking counsel she said: "My dearest ones, you have assumed the sacred marriage, now salutary you should think not only in it fidelity of bodies, but also of souls: and therefore seek peace, hold peace, that the God of peace may be with you." How around man she was often tripling this word which she would say: "We," she said, "have one father, we eat of one bread, we all partake of one chalice, we seek one homeland, we are all one body in Christ, we are members one of another." A certain woman gave her daughter in marriage, and after the nuptials rejoicing over the conditions of her son-in-law, somehow boasted: to whom the Virgin said: "Not so much are to be weighed temporal riches, bodily beauty, nobility of birth, dignity of persons or following of friends: but the virtue and discipline of morals, she warns that in choice virtue is to be considered in the first place, prudence, fear of God; by what title the riches were acquired, or how they are possessed": as if she would say, "These things carnal men strike, which are transitory; but the things necessary to the salvation of the soul, they do not heed: for by parents riches are given, but from the Lord a prudent husband or wife." The holy Virgin also predicted to the one thus vainly boasting, that she would suffer many tribulations in her daughter: nevertheless she asserted the help of the Lord was never to be removed from her. Which indeed happened as she had said to her. For there came upon the daughter of the said woman tribulation of the flesh, and rebukes her vainly glorying in the riches of her son-in-law. which the Apostle mentions; there came sterility, sicknesses increased, scourges were multiplied: but in all these, with the prayers of the holy Virgin Lydwina suffragating, the Lord freed her, so that in the fear of the Lord she closed her last day with a salutary end. 1 Cor. 7:28

[98] At those days too a certain man and woman, according to the fervor of adolescence, which is like beasts with many, she castigates one using marriage more petulantly, had handed themselves over less reasonably to lust: whose life in spirit was not hidden from the Virgin. Therefore with virginal modesty preserved, the most modest woman persuaded the young woman, that she would desist from illicit abuses, otherwise the wrath of God would rage upon her and upon her husband. But hearing this the young woman, who thought all things lawful to herself, that the Virgin knew her secret sin, and that thus to be wanton was a crime; her eyes were opened, and wishing to abstain she promised bidding farewell. But what of amendment followed, I do not know: but this I find certainly true, that a little after the belly of that little woman swelled, on account of which all her friends and relatives rejoiced, thinking that she had conceived: but as soon as to the ears of the Virgin this rumor of joy came, Lydwina said to those reporting: "In vain these men rejoice, hoping for offspring for themselves in their kinswoman; because the swelling of her belly does not indicate offspring, and predicts the penalty to follow but a corrupted root, which she has within, and a lurking infirmity." Which also so afterwards happened: for the sickness grew strong, a lasting languor followed, troubles were multiplied, and the last of all terrible things death closed by its right the beautiful young woman, once given to petulance of the flesh.

[99] she helps those infirm in body with counsel: Very many of the infirm, to have counsel of health, flowed together to her: whom she not only in soul by sacred persuasions turned to God; but moreover, as if she were a chief physician, often she cured in body. For she did not, as Avicenna or the ranks of other physicians, trust in the strength of herbs, when thus to the suffering poor the poor most patient one was indicating plasters of health, she succors the tempted, since she had not learned letters; but in the word of the Lord alone, by which all things are restored. There flowed to her from every part many Religious, tempted, distressed, mentally afflicted, and crucified with various pains of both man, as to the mother of all the desolate of that time: whom although placed in extreme peril, as sons, she often recalled to salvation: for sorrow in the heart of a just man will humble him, and with a good word he will be gladdened. Prov. 12:25

[100] she refreshes the sad in spirit. On account of which the Lord had given to her his spirit, by which signally to the afflicted and desperate somehow she was speaking thus: "Whenever weariness or anguish of heart strikes you, even to the extremity of strength; run as soon as possible to the Father of mercies, as a little infant to the breasts of his mother; and there reveal to the Lord your way and cast every thought of yours upon him, and he himself will cause you to forget all your anguishes." At length after many salutary documents she would subjoin, "Not only with even mind, but cheerfully with giving of thanks, any trouble sent or permitted from heaven is to be borne, and what is more, as the rod of a beloved father, it ought to be embraced by the son; because in infinite ways any elect he is accustomed to prove, as gold in the furnace." And so in her most fervent speeches there was much fervent energy, which into the ears of groaning and grieving men passing over, pierced mind and spirit, by piercing as it were anointed with oil, and by anointing made a spiritual antidote: to rejoice with the rejoicing and weep with the weeping, was for her practical philosophy, according to the mind of the Apostle; yet with herself remaining always unharmed, in the midst of an infirm or perverse nation. Rom. 12:15

CHAPTER V.

On the virtue of fraternal correction, in which without respect of persons she was strong.

[101] And since light to one who shuns light, a flourishing vineyard to a toad, according to the common saying, are grave; She freely rebukes a rich profiteer, so to carnal men virginity, to the ambitious humility, to the envious charity, to those dead to God the voluptuous the crucified life of the spiritual. Sometimes there gathered followers of the pots of Egypt, drinkers and drainers of cups, that they might catch something from the sermons of this Saint. A certain profiteer garrulous and greedy, when he had heard many things about the Virgin, puffed up with the spirit of curiosity, as if walking in marvels above himself, with many standing by, said to her: "Tell me, Lydwina, what would you do, if you were to see the Lord Jesus on the high altar hidden under the species of the Sacrament, and on the other side coming in his bare and own species?" The Virgin was silent a little, and at last after tears said: "Although by many learned and venerable men so often I have been tested, never previously had she seen; I do not remember myself ever having heard anything so troublesome from anyone, as now from this profiteer I am compelled to hear." A thing rather marvelous. She had not seen the man, nor had she learned from man the infamy of his gain; nevertheless his cupidity in answering she expresses, his hidden deceit she recognizes, but to give the holy in answers to dogs, more sagacious than the inquirer, she refuses. What do I delay? Stupor seized all, because of the man's gain-seeking cupidity they were not aware; and confused on account of the same man with whom they had come, they immediately withdrew: for it is written, "As an arrow in the thigh of a dog, so is a word in the mouth of a fool." Ecclus. 19:12 As many dogs, according to the Psalmist, surrounded her: of whom with only one struck, all the others fled. Ps. 21:17

[102] A certain woman strove to join herself in friendship to our Virgin and her intimates, likewise a girl, handed over to an incubus, who had given shameful consent to the spirit of lust, which Doctors call incubus: which also was not hidden from the true spouse of Christ. And when she saw her as too familiar and shameless, often boasting herself of the privilege of chastity; fearing the sacred Virgin, lest perhaps she should infect the others with the disease of her lust by which she was stinking, with much patience before her present intimates at length she said: "As you say then, and vainly glorying in her virginity; you are a virgin?" To whom the shameless wanton one, with much boldness, answered: "I profess myself to be an untouched virgin." And Lydwina again added to her saying: "With the superfluous title of so great a name, as I fear, you glory: and if you wish to know, twenty-five such virgins, of the kind you yourself are, could freely dance upon one pepper-mill." Hearing which, conscious in herself about her most wicked crime, immediately confused she withdrew.

[103] But a certain young woman more intimate than others on account of this matter, said to the handmaid of Christ: "Why I ask, by disparaging a devout virgin, have you thus scandalized her?" And she said: "Let her, let her go: for such is she, as God knows her. Do not praise in her the fabrications of the devil. whom she also predicts will be exasperated by correction, Whence if you wish to experience the truth of her devotion, go and rebuke her between you and herself about the smallest defects, which you can easily notice in her; and if she has borne you patiently and humbly, know her to be devout: but if pertinaciously and contumeliously she has resisted you to the face, know her to be an empty and sealed vessel." Which also with the intimate of the Virgin afterwards testing, indeed so it was proved. For at the lightest word of charitable correction the feigned spirit of the woman began to smoke, by smoking to flame, by flaming to be disturbed, so that not a woman but a lioness, not only a foolish virgin but a most savage beast; not a modest woman but one possessed she was believed. But of what kind she was, her wretched death taught, and her more unhappy punishment, by which, with the Angel revealing to Lydwina, alas! she is tortured. For when after her death the Virgin herself was pressed to pray for her, and afterwards understands her eternally damned. the Angel was there who said: "Do not be vexed in vain for her, since with the feigned and hypocrites she has gone to her own place." Note reader with what lynx-like eyes the true Virgin saw through the feigned and fallacious virgin: who also brought forth the hidden crime of shame, caused the lurking spirit of swelling to be known: who also received such a response from the Angel. Better indeed would have been for her an open correction before the few honest ones, whom she could have infected; than a useless and hidden love in secret. Prov. 27:6 Indeed better are the wounds of one who loves, than the deceitful kisses of the one flattering.

[104] Nor think this, O reader, that she only preserved this kind of opportune correction toward the poor and lesser: To a Prince dealing somewhat familiarly with her nay rather the faces of Princes and the high pinnacles of Powers she was not fearing. A certain Prince came once to her from afar, about to consult her about arduous things which touched his soul: and when he had protracted discourse about various things further, at length with all modesty preserved, it came to those things which press the vein of conscience. And since by alluvion little by little the earth is consumed, and stones are moved from their place; she suggests the sins for which he should repent. that Prince began to weep gravely from the words of the Virgin, and she also began with the dart of truth to strike his breast about secret and forgotten sins, saying to him: "Your soul, my Lord, is not undeservedly in anguish, over minor offenses, which against your father you have committed: but I fear lest you have a cauterized conscience, neglecting the greatest which are of graver burden; and thus like the Princes of the Jews, straining the gnat, you swallow also a camel": from which matter certain particulars, not worthy of laughter but of weeping, she began to suggest, so that more and more with his stony heart struck, waters might flow out more abundantly. At length in this material of her words she closed the sentence: "Act," she said, "what you are doing, and make bitter mourning worthy for yourself, that when the Lord shall add to have mercy on you, he may grant blessing for contrition, peace for tears, glory for penance." That magnificent Prince among earth-born men went away, and with life changed for the better henceforth he studied to repress the wonted evils in himself and his. But not for long a time, prevented by death, he outlived that day.

[105] Similarly too to illustrious persons of various cities of both sexes, running to her by night with dissembled garment, she was belching forth words of salvation with much virtue: And indeed, as the Wise One says, "A golden earring and a shining pearl, rebuking in vain a luxurious woman, is he who rebukes a wise man and an obedient ear." Prov. 25:12 Again since the malice of some is sometimes confounded by reason, but never corrected; it happened, alas for shame! that whoever spurned the pious oracle of her admonition, found a harsher sentence with God. Whence a certain ^a greedy and garrulous woman was in those borders, who since she was giving to voracity and feasting all the days of her puberty, fell so precipitously into vices, that she was softening the hearts of many simple seculars and ecclesiastics, and was soliciting their minds to prodigality and other vices; made, as appeared in the work, a snare of hunters, a trap to the feet of the foolish, a house of hell to all cohabiting with her. Over which often rebuked through our Virgin Lydwina, she was made as an adulterous woman, who eating bread wipes her mouth saying, "I have not sinned." Seeing therefore that she was profiting nothing, but that her words least passed to the heart of this beast-like woman, she began as she could to call away her table-companions, as far as possible, from the midst of that house; lest perhaps she perishing, they too should perish: she began moreover those, whom she knew serpentine little ones by cleverness deceived and going astray, from the midst of flames to free.

[106] And when a certain Priest ^b was being held captive by the birdlime of this said woman, nor being able to draw a priest away from her familiarity, having called to herself the familiar man she addresses saying: "My Lord, I humbly beseech you, not henceforth in any way to thrust yourself into the company of this woman: because her contagious conversation will compel you to go far from the way of salvation. For you know, that to serve the gluttony of the belly, for a Priest of good fame, as you yourself have always been, is very alien and scandalous." He hears therefore, but does not obey: he promises with voice he will make amendment: but in deed immediately relapsing, he turns the word of the Virgin into a fable. After these things the wretched daughter of Babylon dies, who had been to several a cause of ruin: the said Priest, friend of the deceased, once companion at table, returns; and what he thinks about his companion in conscience, asks, saying: "Has not the Lord indicated to you about the state of the woman known to you, very recently deceased, what judgment she has received?" To whom the virgin answered: "And you, Father, do you desire to see her as she is?" But he: "I desire." "God is able," said the Virgin, "to do this, that you may see whom you desire." She prayed to the Lord and obtained. Not long after it happened, that together they were rapt in spirit, both the Priest and the spouse of Christ. And behold they see from afar a most foul crowd of demons coming, to this one she shows that dead woman and among them the most wretched soul, agitated with ineffable torments, so much that, from the horror of the whirlwind and dark flame, they were believing hell itself to be present with the soul of the woman, and also with her torturers.

[107] in torments: The Priest was shaken and invaded with marvelous fear, beholding only from afar in pains, her whom he had loved so much in delights: because, as he revealed to some, without special aid of God, at that time life among men henceforth he could not have led. But what it profited attend. The sentence of him saying was verified, "If they do not believe Moses nor the prophets, neither will they believe if anyone should rise from

the dead": for not in vain spoke he who said: "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and returning to his vomit once and again neither cast your pearls before swine." Luke 16:31; Matt. 7:6 He was a drinker, and in the manner of drinkers he reputed the word of the Lord as laughter; he turned the truth into a fable, the horror of the shown vision into guffaw. The Lord added twice, as if with the voice of a herald, citing the same with long languors; but by the prayers of the Virgin he was snatched; until the third, which was peremptory, came to him; and to return to his vomit he did not blush. But cited the third time, he made through an intermediary to exhort the Virgin, that she would deign to pray for him this other time. Who answered: "While I wished and was able, he did not wish: and now I wish and am not able to delay the Lord's sentence: for upon the bed of sickness he has ascended. she denies at length that she can succor him. Yet I pray the heavenly King to give him the grace of penance, and as much as I can I exhort him to compunction." Let lovers of pleasures therefore learn not to follow the petulance of the flesh, let the unpersuadable learn not to despise the wisdom of the simple, let the wanton women and little harlots learn to avoid folly: for it is written about the garrulous, "For she has cast down many wounded, and the strongest have been killed by her." Prov. 7:26 And it follows, "Her house is the way to hell, penetrating to the interior of death." ^c

NOTES.

CHAPTER VI.

On the burning zeal which she had for her neighbors, and how she freed from the snare of the demon even the despairing.

[108] A fervent intercessor for the salvation of souls, Deep piety had made the Virgin so zealous, that against the most bloody snatcher of souls you would believe not a woman, but a lioness with her cubs snatched, roaring in the lair of her couch. More without doubt she was being tortured for souls, from the piety divinely infused into her, than from her own or inflicted passion or sickness, as often was experienced. With Moses to beseech the Lord for souls was a solace, to bear passions the gain of a soul, to be mortified daily the spiritual breathing of her mind. For it was known to her often by divine revelation, if any burned, if any were scandalized, if any were saddened, or suffered such things. She prayed with prayers, beseeched with groans, compelled the Lord with tears, invited with promises, directed with doctrines, held her neighbor with threats: she burned, shone, was zealous: that the honor of the Lord should be made above on one side, and that the salvation of the neighbor should be obtained on the other side she desired. Her zeal therefore truth directed, which modesty restrained, constancy firmed, but charity moreover inflamed.

[109] [In the same little city, in which our Virgin lay, she orders a man tempted to hang himself, a certain man, famous enough and rich, driven by the spirit of desperation, was tempted to kill himself by hanging. Counsel of a Priest therefore being had on this, at length to some Priest of more deliberate experience he was forced to turn. When therefore the spirit of the Lord in the Virgin had most often been manifest by solid experiments, the Vice-Pastor came to her, and said: "A heavy burden and transcending all my understanding now hangs over me, dearest Virgin: for behold this man is preparing daily a noose for himself, by which to hang himself: about which what is mine I have done, I have celebrated, I have prayed; with reasons to show, which I saw expedient for his salvation, I have labored: but in all these I have profited nothing: nay rather daily he is more and more in peril. What therefore you think necessary, now teach: because what you order, we will fulfill." But the Virgin said to him: "A diabolic business is this, which this man suffers; wherefore in my sight I would say it is necessary, that this man should confess purely and nakedly his sins, that he be enjoined for a sacramental penance: and that it should be imposed upon the man for penance, that which the enemy has contrived to him for ruin." For the Virgin knew this to be of more deliberate counsel, because the demon, out of hatred of God and of his sacrament, would not permit to be done from the obedience of the penitent, what his serpentine malice had suggested to the man.

[110] And when the Priest feared to do such a thing, the virago knowing of divine counsel added: "Do, Father, what I say, at my peril, nor fear." Very marvelous! The tempter did not cease to rage: the tempted by the importunity of the tempter wastes away. Sent for is the Confessor as soon as possible, which while he strives to fulfill, and according to the word of the Virgin to the desperate one for penance hanging through holy obedience is enjoined, to which the malice of the demon in past times was provoking. The man therefore rejoices over the penance enjoined on him: having sought the opportunity he hastens to the noose: and when he could not conveniently do it, entering the chamber, he fixes the noose to a beam: At length hanging himself, from the place which he had ascended he strove to leap down. Marvelous indeed to say! Soon the proud spirits, who previously had hidden the noose for him, seeing the wretched one noosed by order of the Confessor, seized their man; and suddenly breaking the rope by which he had prepared to hang himself, the noose is broken by the demon with a certain terror and marvelous gnashing murmuring they said: "Now you will not hang yourself henceforth, wretched one: you will not hang yourself." And while they were saying these things, immediately by an importunate throw they cast that man between the wall and a certain chest in the middle. But when thus, with the demons withdrawing, for three hours compressed there, trembling both in mind and in body, he had lain; and had been found by the household of the house, who had sought him everywhere; returning to himself a little, he began to praise the Lord; henceforth in no way with God helping to undergo such a loss, firmly resolving. and the temptation ceases. O therefore admirable woman, without doubt illuminated by divine light, and not ignorant of the heavenly secret about the despairing man, who gave counsel rather to be wondered at than to be imitated; and no less with prayers and tears absent in body, was present in spirit, making success with the temptation. Our virago knew to act manfully, she knew to break the movements of the lion, she knew also to lead back dying sheep to life, she knew also to warm the pregnant ones in the bosom of piety.

[111] A certain woman also had perpetrated a certain crime, very enormous: which although I know not by what facility, A woman, to whom the demon was objecting the sin she had confessed in a scroll, perhaps superficially, she had confessed, nevertheless that to the pit of desperation the most wicked dragon by his tail might draw her, with a certain scroll, on which her crime notably seemed to be inscribed, the same woman in a nocturnal vision under sleep, as if he had right over her, beyond measure he was troubling. The ancient enemy moreover was suggesting that that sin was irremissible, and wholly even by penance irreparable, neither in the present world nor in the future to be remitted. The woman therefore sad began to give faith for a while to the illusion of the tortuous serpent: deceived, she began somehow to commit herself to the former evils at peril: she began again to expose her feet to agitation. But the pious Lord, who permits many things for the purgatorial punishment of the sinner for a time, in eternity did not suffer this one to perish. The remnants of sins sometimes make a feast day for their actor, with him procuring who sleeps in the secret of the chamber and in moist places. Therefore this woman with reins relaxed, desperate she flees to Lydwina: as if having suffered violence, enters the little house of the sacred Virgin: pouring forth tears, she lays out the bitterness of her heart: what she saw at night, what she read, what she heard, what of fear came upon her, what of fluctuating will again grew, with poured out showers of tears with bitterness of spirit disclosing, she most humbly demands counsel and help. To whom the Virgin: "A fabrication," she said, "of the devil is what you have seen: what I shall be able, that I will do: go now in peace."

[112] The woman believed the word which Lydwina spoke, and not to her foolishness: to whom praying for her for immediately she began as if the cause of the guilty or too much tempted woman, as if her own to the Lord judge to propound: she began with tears and prayers as if the mind of the pious father from her inmost heart to soften: she began from the consistory of strict justice, as if burdened, reverently to appeal to the tribunal of mercies of the Lord. On account of which soon the Queen of mercy immediately rapt she saw in the college of the girls, and Satan the adversary of the woman, for whom faithfully she had advocated, as if peremptorily cited and holding the scroll, she recognized. the fragments of the torn scroll are given into her hands, With Lydwina therefore supplicating the Queen of heaven, immediately the scroll by the hand of the Virgin-Mother herself, who does not despise the sinner, as if violently snatched away; snatched away, into parts is broken, a pile of the particles to Lydwina to be kept is delivered; and with the bloody Satan confounded, immediately the Virgin, rejoicing and glad as if with captured prey, returns to herself. She had therefore her Confessor called, who was not ignorant of her zeal and of the peril of the woman; and with the fragments of the scroll itself shown, narrated all as she had received. The sad woman returns also afterwards as before; and having laid out her complaint a second time, only this response she bore from her: "I said," she said, "to you that you should go in peace, and that what I could do for you I would do: and behold I say to you, that you should be of even mind, for nothing of evil to you will happen from this for the future. and to the woman serenity of mind is restored.

I also pledge, if you wish, before the strict judgment of God, that you should without delay believe that you will never suffer loss from the sin shown to you in perpetuity. Whatever also the enemy may say to you henceforth by mocking, by no means give it faith." Therefore the woman rejoiced and was relieved by these words, and although the most bloody enemy in his customary way returned, deriding him she was wholly freed, giving thanks to God, who had chosen for himself such a handmaid. O truly therefore pious woman full of the zeal of God! who, according to the wise one, bought those who were being led to death, and did not cease to free those who were drawn to destruction. Prov. 24:11

[113] It also happened that a certain most wicked man, from the foulness of the vices he had perpetrated, For a great sinner confessing his sins as her own. wished to confess to no Priest except through the mediation of the sacred Virgin: to whom as interpreter, at length converted to his heart, finally willingly he offered himself to lay open all things. And when with the Virgin resisting with all strength he had disclosed his foul sins, immediately as he had consented, sacramentally ^a grieving over the same and as if lamenting her own she confessed them to her Priest, receiving from him penance. With the time passed which the Virgin had set for the man, and receiving penance that man returned as he had promised, saying to her: "I reckon that according to my desire you have confessed all my sins, what kind of penance you wish me to do now tell, because I am ready to obey you." Lydwina said: "Your sins I have confessed as my own, and I have received penance: but this only I ask of you, that for one night upon your well-prepared couch lying supine you rest, yet on this condition, that neither to the right nor to the left, in any way throughout the whole night you turn yourself."

[114] she orders him only for one night to lie supine: The man therefore received, as if smiling at the lightness of the burden, his penance, and with farewell to the Virgin and the fitness of time preserved, committed his members delightfully to the soft mattress. But as soon as the delightful man, about to do the promised penance, entered the delightful bed; he began to be affected with weariness, he began to be vexed with stings in body, so much that he believed he had never in human experience received such a night, who yet without any infirmity lying supine, only of the liberty of turning himself where he wished was deprived. which he experiencing most difficult, And when thus wearied bodily health, the softness of the couch, the brevity of time, the horror of his sins, the perpetuity of the pains of hell, and all things as the spirit suggested he revolved; at length seeing himself overcome by a little penalty of weariness, within himself he began to say: "O me wretched and unhappy man above all sinners of the earth! in delights and on soft things healthy I lie, strong I rest: and nevertheless on account of a little space of time, because freely where I will I dare not turn myself, sleep flees from my eyes, nor does my soul take rest. O what, of what kinds and how great things suffers the infirm and putrid virgin body! seriously he is converted and confesses. Which for so many years subdued by the scourges of the Lord, subject to so many infirmities, in darkness and in an abject place thus has lain." The wicked man was changed from then into another man, the delightful one was made more ready to do penance, was rendered more prepared to confess his own wicked deeds, was also made to the Virgin more swift to obey, and to bear any hard and rough things more vigilant above measure.

[115] Our virago was therefore made as an overseer of the house of the Lord: for also through the letters which she sent, or through intermediaries whom she directed, or through sleep or vision by which she appeared to many, often did she indicate the ambushes of little robbers to true Israelites, lest by the sudden incursions of the infernal lion they should be overthrown, Through a vision taught of the reserved case of a woman, lest by the blandishments of the dragon they be drawn away, lest they be deluded by the noon-day demons. There is a village in Holland called Ouderschie, not far distant from the town where the Virgin lay. In this village therefore there was a certain woman entangled in a rather grave case of sin, for whose absolution the authority of the diocesan Bishop was required. And when the Priest had persuaded her that without delay, on account of the peril, she should approach the Bishop or his penitentiary, and she had promised; with negligence following she delayed or was unwilling to go there, adding peril to peril, not fearing the death of her soul. In these days meanwhile our overseer, and as will be plain an outstanding contemplator, was being lifted up on high, where having seen the ranks of Saints beautiful, whom she had been ordered to approach the Bishop, neglected, in their schools she recognized the four Doctors of the Church, more sublime than the others, Augustine, Gregory, Jerome and Ambrose, especially radiating; who said: "Go and tell that woman, who neglects to approach the Pontifical authority about a certain case which she committed; that, according to the promise made to her Priest, as soon as possible she should expedite herself." Which when she had indicated to her Confessor, she asked him that, out of reverence for God and the salvation of her neighbor, as soon as possible he should approach the little woman named to him, lest perhaps suddenly anticipated by the vengeance of the Lord, by tarrying she should perish by her own sloth. she has her warned: but in vain, But the Priest immediately did not delay to go there, and that so it would be, as the Virgin had commanded, the woman did not deny: but joining sin to sin, and amplifying iniquity upon iniquity, still the wretched blind one, what had been commanded to her, she scorned to fulfill.

[116] It is plain therefore how benign a zealot Lydwina was of fraternal salvation, marvelous Virgin; how benign in the fugitive sons of God, whom she recalled; how discreet and how assiduous in the despairing, whom she reconciled; how solicitous in covering the perils of those, whom she recognized as incautious; Weighing exactly the price of souls, who thus did not cease to gather the chosen sons of God, as a hen gathers her chicks. She was grieving sometimes with her domestic, because she was offering audience and answer to all comers, weighing the pains of body and anguishes of mind, with which she was laboring unweariedly: to whom she said: "O sisters, what is it that you say? Is it a little thing to you, that we gain for Christ souls, which the devil strives to take away? Allow," she said, "to come every poor one, every desolate one, every bitter in mind: for for all these greater things my Lord Jesus Christ sustained." Of greatest price truly each soul, of however despised a man, she burns with zeal to help them. is recognized to be, for which the only Son of the Virgin dies, for which the only-begotten of the Father on the cross in such shameful death is tortured. And to those standing by she sometimes said: "Look upon my face and my breast: how much of sweats they overflow, consider." And with them looking and marveling, from excessive heat equally and sweat, and on account of this more gravely rebuking her, she would answer: "This heat is not, not sweat, not labor, not grief to be compared with those things which for us the Lord bore: I have not yet reached the bounds of him who said, 'I desire to be anathema for my brothers': for love does not know how to have measure, since he has loved us above measure: because he received the spirit not by measure, our Lord Jesus blessed forever." Rom. 9:3

NOTES.

CHAPTER VII.

On the singular love of the cross and on the desire for the Eucharist, and also on the temptation made to her through the Pastor.

[117] She counts all her pains as nothing, The love of the crucified Jesus grew in this manner in her, and moreover the meditation of the most bitter Passion, so much that at all times it was her solace; and she did nothing else more gladly, than as the beloved the beloved, white and ruddy, chosen from thousands, to seek, and in his openings and wounds, as a dove nesting, continuously to dwell. For indeed the wounds of sweet Jesus and his most sharp pains so passed through the soul of the Virgin as swords, that her own which in the individual members and in every kind or species of infirmity excessive she was suffering pains, as nothing she reputed; although she seemed so marvelously and so miserably to be afflicted, that the stony breasts of those beholding her were moved. in comparison with Christ's passion, Her whole life indeed was spent in the actions of Christ, as in a little garden of consolation: whence indeed she was gathering roses, by perceiving wounds; spikes of nard, by attending to the thorny crown; violets and lilies, by seeing the bruises and wounds; cinnamon and balsam, while she was wiping spit and the dripping of blood. Indeed Lydwina drew sighs from the little channel of her heart, from the abyss of her breast gave morning and evening showers, and streams from all articulations or members of the body: she was rendering daily sacrifices to the Lord; which she follows with bloody tears. and with the watering of waters failing, flowings of her red blood through the passages of the eyes were dripping. But those tears, which thus out of love of the Crucified she was pouring forth, among the secretaries of her secret, she called her roses: and of these tears some still remain, which I have seen; up to this day breathing marvelous fragrance, as I have experienced.

[118] She received the sacrament of the Lord's Body, as a perpetual memorial of the Passion, with wonderful affection of spirit: so much that from desire of it and reverence, one day, of which she was compelled to be deprived, very often was thought the space of one year. Desiring to communicate more frequently, But she had about the middle of her sickness, in which the Lord had touched her, a Pastor, a man sufficiently lettered, but vehemently in those things which are of the spirit crude and inexperienced: who with the devil striving attempted to afflict the soul of the virgin with ineffable troubles. She had been accustomed from that first age, which is capable of deceit and of good, to communicate only twice in the year; with the suffering growing and similarly the meditation of Christ's Passion, to frequent the turns of receiving; at length, when one without the other provokes languor of mind or love, especially on great festivities, more ardently to ask it from the Pastors. the accustomed Pastor to repel, When therefore thus on feasts, more than the other healthy and worldly virgins of the world, she was humbly asking for communion; with angry voice the hard man was driving back her prayers, and thus with the little daughter of Christ asking for the true bread, there was not one who would offer it to her.

[119] O ferocious cruelty too much! From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there was not in Christ's daughter health: by no material bread is she fed, the worms of the body gush forth; they are fed, that the one not eating they may not wholly devour; hard in this and cruel, nor yet is she fed, who is Christ's daughter, alone Christ she hungers for, alone Christ she meditates, alone on Christ she is fattened and lives. O unheard-of cruelty therefore! because from the table of the children the more faithful daughter is repelled, although Christ is the living bread, the bread, I say, of the children, not to be sent to the dogs. But by whom is this bread denied? by whom

is Christ's daughter repelled? She is repelled by the Pastor of her soul, by the Shepherd of the flock, by the Father of her spirit: who, because Pastor, as an innkeeper he ought to have borne the care of the half-dead, infusing wine and oil; because Shepherd, to feed Christ's little sheep with his own bread it was fitting, to give food and drink; because Father, to nourish a daughter was permitted, to procure the best gift and spirit, which, alas! he least did.

[120] by no prayer does he allow himself to be bent: For this reason it happened one day, that that Pastor, whose name I pass over in silence, found the Virgin hungering and from hunger of the Body of Christ weeping. To whom he said: "Why do you weep?" But she said: "O my beloved father; if I, your unworthy daughter, held the key of the storeroom with me, as you do; and you yourself hungered as much as I; I would by no means, as you to me, thus withdraw the bread of life from you. O Father," she said, "do not spurn your poor little one, who has nothing of surplus, except that by meditating on Christ she may be consoled, and by taking Christ she may be sustained, and live in soul." Furthermore his mind could not be bent by these mellifluous words: She burns whenever she hears the Eucharist being carried, but harder than every rock he persevered. Moreover when Priests through the streets were carrying the Lord's Body to any sick ones, her spirit was kindled from desire of soul, as a famished one at the memory of bread when it is touched or smelled; so much that sometimes she was thought to be exhaling her spirit. Without doubt (as by faithful report I have received) by a certain mental illumination she was suffused within in soul, as often as with ardent love she thus communicated, and in a certain sweetness of mouth she rejoiced perceptibly; although with much labor she could pass down the species itself of the Sacrament.

[121] and by spiritual communion supplies the loss, But when on account of the hardness of the said Pastor she could not communicate at the pleasure of her fervor; lest at least of the spiritual refection with the other communicants she be deprived, she prayed to be made a participant of all those fearing God and consecrating themselves. From which matter it happened often, that she was repeating this little prayer saying: "Make me, kind God, by your liberality a participant of your ministers, who on this day under your marvelous Sacrament make the memory of your Passion, here and in all the churches which are in the whole world." and she teaches others to do the same. But to the simple she gave this doctrine: "When," she said, "to the solemnities of Masses you turn yourself, think indeed that heaven is opened, and the Angels are standing there or are present, and with them the holy choirs of heaven. Then under the solemnities of Masses revolve the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the innermost devotion you can." But to others she gave also these pious admonitions, saying: "You shall exercise yourself, O faithful soul, for the internal love of him whom you eat; for the perceptible delight of the soul; for the justice of him, whom you shall take: for," she said, "you do not take a small guest, but the son of the King of kings and the only-begotten of the glorious mother Mary; who shall reform the body of our humility, and conform it to the body of his brightness. For he himself is the food fully refreshing the penitent eater: food indeed comforting the laborer and the one advancing: food super-abundantly delighting the Israelite going out and migrating: food fattening, not inflated bodies, but devout hearts; not wasting flesh, but a hungering soul; not slothful bellies, but pious minds." These and other things which I have read about her customary words, very many and transcending common genius, she spoke.

[122] Moreover since Scripture says, "You have prepared in my sight a table against them who trouble me": what shall I say about the spouse of Christ, The Pastor more importunately solicited whom Christ exposed to new tribulations and persecutions, and his table at the time of raging persecution, not only not to be prepared, but to be denied permitted? Ps. 22:5 A matter worthy of weight this, which I shall narrate. Indeed the Pastor of the church in Schiedam, about whom mention was made above, perceiving externally the crosses of the Virgin, but not the unctions within; began with Leviathan instigating to turn the truth into doubt, to draw her patience into deceit, the lack of bodily food to suspect clandestine voraciousness; judging that the hand of the Lord was not doing all these things, but a feigned, lying and sophistical spirit. There intervened therefore certain solemn feasts, for whose contemplation she began to ask the said Pastor, for Communion to be received, nor did he consent. She called in also friends and fellow citizens: but as much constrained as asked to hear the Virgin's prayer he weighed as nothing. For which reason when the Virgin was rendering her vows to the Lord God with tears, and was asking that heavenly patronage would least be lacking to her; with the Lord suspending the hand of his omnipotence, he permitted the heart of this hard man still more to harden; that the beloved daughter, through a new martyrdom of mind, after humiliation he might glorify and exalt.

[123] The Pastor of the little sheep therefore becomes from day to day more severe, the Pastor in tempting by his ferocity becomes more bold against the Virgin, he decides to tempt her by offering an unconsecrated host. the Father becomes daily by his audacity more inclined to irritate the contrite and broken spirit of the martyred Virgin. And behold Satan put into his heart, that to tempt the Virgin he should proceed, namely whether any material bread, not consecrated, without difficulty she could take or swallow. But the just Lord, who does not leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the just; caused his handmaid about to fight in the stadium, about the duel to be committed through the Angel to be made known. "Behold," said the Angel, "a new battle threatens you, but by no means fear: for in a short time your Pastor will visit you, for the Communion which you request, about to inflict trouble." And so it was done. For with the feast of the Nativity of Mary supervening, again through her brother from the Pastor she caused the sacrament of the Lord's Body to be requested for herself. which the Virgin forewarned by the Angel spits out: Having obtained therefore the opportunity of fulfilling what he had thought, the Pastor heard her confession, and before those standing by lay bread or a material host, not consecrated, alas! into idolatry of the present people, he offered. O truly marvelous to all! Scarcely had she felt that host from the hand of the Pastor upon her tongue; and behold she began in heart and body soon to be altered, and to emit what she had taken; the smallest accident of that bread or the least taste not being able for a moment to sustain.

[124] But he fearing now of his idolatry, which foolishly he was attempting before the simple, now to have been caught; and sweetly she complains of having been deluded, with feigned boldness he said: "What are you doing, O insane woman? Whence to you such presumption, that you eject from your mouth the Body of the Lord?" To whom the Virgin: "O Father, do you think me so delirious and irrational, that I do not know to discern between the true Body of Christ, and lay or corruptible bread, which men eat? For easily I can distinguish this and that by this, because the true Sacrament receiving without alteration of nature I pass it down; but this bread which you administered to me, unwilling, whether I will or not, with all nature resisting and with the straitening of the whole body, I am compelled wholly to vomit up." But he conscious of his nefarious sin, with the pastor pertinaciously denying the truth. on account of the scandal of those standing by, on the contrary affirms again that he has given the Body of Christ. He returns therefore the way by which he had come to his church, and he who according to the Gospel ought to have given good gifts to his children, sufficiently declared himself in the deed to offer a stone for bread, a serpent for a fish, a scorpion for an egg. Luke 11:11-12 What do I delay? Behold again new hunger grows strong, again dire groans, again sighs, again wailings and tears: for the famished one is compelled to lack bread, the necessary medicine is withdrawn from the languishing one.

[125] Furthermore as if the Virgin were saying, reader, now attend: But the Angel sent to console the Virgin, "Who will give me the bread of life? who to the languishing one will provide salvation? Now the spirit of my womb constrains me: now I am deprived of the sweet presence of Jesus: I am affected by the hardness of my Prelate, moreover the scandal of the little people confines me." And when her eye languished from want, foretells that she is to be visited by Christ himself. and thus from the feast of the Nativity of Mary the Virgin up to the Conception of the same hungering she was always tortured; on the day of the glorious Conception the Angel stood by, who radiating and resplendent with excessive brightness, comforting the Virgin said: "Do not fear nor be sad, my sister Lydwina, about the molestation, which from your Pastor you have suffered; for your consolation is at hand. For the Lord Savior himself you shall see with your eyes, who will heal and bind up all your contritions." But she giving thanks to the Lord, everything, as she had received from her Angel, to her Pastor thus she indicated, lest perhaps he should attribute to diabolic illusion the very grace, which she was about to receive. But the wretched and blind one turned in contempt, what the pious daughter of God had notified him for the praise and service of the Omnipotent. For it is written, "Because the heart of Pharaoh is hardened and he did not hear the voice of the Lord." Ex. 4:13

CHAPTER VIII.

On the apparition of Christ made to the Virgin, and the impression of the sacred stigmata: and on the little crucified boy seen near her.

[126] Therefore when our wise Virgin according to custom was observing the vigils of each night, After solace given to a sad woman, and passing no time which she would not dedicate to the ascent of contemplation to God, or to the procurement of her neighbor's salvation; a certain woman, having a little son sick, to seek counsel of salvation, very sad entered the chamber of the Virgin. Who according to custom consoled and sent back with joy, with the customary exercises giving labor to the spirit, remained alone: for it was about the beginning of night, which commonly we call twilight, in the seventeenth year of her pain, the household believes Lydwina's cell to be burning; about the feast of the Apostle Thomas. As soon therefore as she had dedicated herself to her customary devotion, the household saw as if a great fire in the little chamber of the Virgin, and running more swiftly were hoping to extinguish it. And when they had found no fire and were stupefied, with them trembling from this the Virgin Lydwina said: "Go in peace, here is no fire or peril: and closing the door leave me alone I ask now in peace." Closing the door therefore the Seraphic Virgin began, suffused with the sweetness of heavenly contemplation and kindled with the fire of flame-bearing remission, to be lifted up into God; and by a certain tenderness of a compassionate heart to be transformed into him, who so ignominiously out of charity pleased for us to be crucified.

[127] she herself sees it full of great light, A little after, as between the eighth and ninth hours, with the veil drawn from her face with which she had covered herself, the Venerable Virgin saw as a solar ray shining in the chamber, she saw by the virtue of that splendor herself and whatever lay around her, as if at midday of the sun to appear there; she saw also her Angel standing beside her, radiating with snowy whiteness; whom touched a little while her whole body everywhere was restored for the time: she saw the Angels coming, as the strongest youths, and in her the Angels bearing the insignia of the Passion,

one of whom carried a cross, another a lance, another nails, another a thorny crown, another a reed with the thorny crown, and a column with the other insignia arms of the Lord they bore in their hands, standing in order beside her couch. She sees also coming to her she who stood near the cross of Jesus, the mother of the Lord, whom many of the Saints accompanied. And when at that time the Virgin was resting only upon straw supine, and the bed because of those coming contiguous to her side honestly enough in the manner of virgins covered lay; at length according to the promise of the Angel there appeared the Spouse himself, in the form of a most beautiful little boy; who resting upon the little bed before the Saints standing by, with a bland and congratulating face was delighting the Virgin. and finally Christ wounded

[128] But that little boy expanding himself in the manner of one crucified, immediately under the species of a man of perfect age extended seemed. But the beauty of the little boy was white in the beginning; but when he appeared under the form of a man, wholly ruddy and bloody he was seen. And at length as if crowned with a thorny diadem, and as if he had come from the wine-press, in that lividness which he of old dying on the cross contracted, with the Virgin fully awake, as she was accustomed, visibly visible with bodily eyes he appeared. The places of the nails were seen indeed, and in the right side the side-wound of ample length. This one therefore the Virgin so beholding marvelously was stupefied, and joy mixed with grief the virginal mind ran. The mind rejoices at the sight of the Beloved, so lovably appearing: but wounded to the marrow with the lividness of his wounds, imprinting upon her his own wounds; with compassionate tenderness the heart of the loving one was struck. And when thus in light the mind of the Virgin was wholly absorbed, the ensign-bearer himself so appearing, poured out brightness luminous and ardor at the same time, and in the midst of such immense light, to the Virgin his spouse he left clear in flesh five signs.

[129] Therefore the ensign-bearer of God fearing, that wounds so open in the future could not be hidden; when from this she feared the concourse and applause of men, she prayed to the Lord saying: "O my Lord God, let this sacrament of your condescension remain between me and you: for your grace suffices me." Marvelous to say! which she asks to be covered with skin and obtains: for immediately skin was drawn over the five wounds themselves; with this preserved however that in the remaining succeeding years of life, never was she afterwards without pain and also lividness, as from tender affection from the Lord Jesus Christ then she asked. These things therefore thus completed in her, she saw the blessed Virgin reverently receiving from the hands of each the arms of Christ, which the said Angels were bearing, and offering them to him to be kissed; and with the arms kissed in order henceforth not to appear. These are the arms of our salvation, which the true Son of God, for thirty-three years as long as he lived, gathered in the garden of our fragility: she kisses the instruments of the Passion; these are the fragrant spices of the Mother of the Lord, which in the field of penality, as another Ruth, behind the back of the reaping Jesus, Mary skillfully gathered, and thus to be kissed to Lydwina about to be crucified, as a bundle of myrrh about to dwell between the breasts, virgin to virgin she commended: for indeed, if I remember well, thirty-three years together in all or thereabouts, our virago underwent the cross, in flesh fixed to Christ.

[130] and Christ turned into the appearance of a crucified boy When therefore secretly our ensign-bearer Lydwina perceived herself fixed sensibly; she saw at the feet of her little bed a cross standing, in the likeness of the magnitude of those which with sacred unction are carried to the sick to be anointed, laboring in extremes: and she saw hanging on the cross a little boy, compassionately marked with bleeding wounds. The soul of the Virgin therefore was melted by so pious a sight, and began to praise the Lord saying: "I give you thanks, Lord, who have deigned thus to visit me your unworthy handmaid." Furthermore when wholly dissolved in the praise of God she said this, her aged father heard his daughter speaking, and much marveling to whom she was thus speaking, rose, and rising secretly approached her little cell, that he might see, and finally into a bloody host who or what it might be. He therefore meanwhile who thus appeared, raising himself toward the ceiling of the cell, which was above her head, seemed to withdraw: on account of which the Virgin grieving, and fearing lest he should thus withdraw, began to cry out and say: "O Lord! if you, Lord, are truly he in whom I believe, and you now wish to separate yourself from me; I beseech that before you depart, you would deign to leave me an evident sign, by which I myself may know infallibly, that you yourself are and not another." Soon he who first seemed to ascend to higher places, under another species manifested himself, namely under the species of a certain beautiful Host, three times above the place, in which the Virgin was lying, turning itself. But for them according to custom was placed beneath a clean little napkin, above which finally the Host itself was seen to stand.

[131] Then when this between Christ and his spouse signed by the Lord was thus done; upon the bed she receives and presents it to her household: her aged father, who had seen nothing yet of those things which were thus being transacted, since he was simple and pious, in the customary way sat upon his daughter's bed; and whether anything she wished to be done by him at such time of night he inquired: for he was ignorant who and how great a one there beside him, had taken the first place. To him therefore the Virgin answered: "I ask you, father, that you rise quickly from the bed, because beside me I have the crucified Lord Jesus." The father amazed by the words of his daughter, rising as quickly as possible, saw a most beautiful Host there, and having called the household and neighbors to see the marvels of the Lord, fear and stupor invaded him and all who came: for all were beholding one and the same Host; but not uniformly and in the same way, as also will be plain. For it was a venerable Host, which thus was seen, greater in quantity than those with which are usually communicated, as generally the common and devout people; smaller however than those with which by the Priests of Christ are accustomed to be celebrated the divine mysteries: of a spherical figure also it was said, and with rays to the circumference everywhere diffusing themselves, having within the effigy of the Crucified with bloody scars: but in one side specially one drop of blood above tenaciously existing, which contained the quantity of half a pea. The Host itself lay also so luminously and manifestly, that by all it could clearly be seen: but the venerable Virgin of Christ herself, this as hanging above the little napkin in the contiguous air was beholding.

[132] who also themselves see bloody marks on the host, When the Virgin, at the sight of this most sacred Host, both in spirit and in flesh exulted exceedingly; and those who then were present, lest in such joy she should fail, feared; one approaching placed her hand over her heart, and perceptibly the leaps and commotions of the heart and vital parts of the Virgin beyond human manner to be done recognized: for indeed her heart exulted in the Lord, and was delighted in God her Savior. But the vision and discernment of this most sacred Host, to those worthy of faith present there, in various manner became known. For her father, pious and simple, saw it bloody in the five places of the Crucified: William her brother, in as many places in equal manner, as her father, saw: but of the devout women some saw it in five; but some in four places only to be bloody. Yet one more familiar to the Virgin beyond the others, who was called Catherine, yet various ones variously, beheld this Host beyond the others in the right side and right foot, as if the blood were flowing, but in the left foot, only coagulated with blood. This devout woman also saw the Host itself to be greater than the other common ones, but smaller than those by which it is celebrated on the altar.

[133] The difference therefore was not in the Host itself, which was one and the same, but in the manner of the apparition of the same, to different ones made differently. For to one, namely Lydwina it appeared hanging in the air, but to others placed on the surface of the little napkin: to some also it appeared having blood coagulated, to one only fluid with blood. for the greater evidence of the miracle. To these also in only four places, but to others in all five wounds of the Crucified having blood: to one only it seemed to be of as much quantity as is the common Host of our daily sacrifice, but to all the others as has been said of smaller quantity than is the Priestly Host; greater however than that by which the common people are communicated was discerned: and that it was thus, as also they saw all those who were present to the spectacle of so great a thing, they were adjured having touched the sacred Gospels. Without doubt for narrating the glory of God these things were done, and for the assurance of the virginal mind, lest she should waver; moreover also for cutting off every wound of doubt to posterity, who could say, "The hand of men has fabricated these things, which the eyes of our fathers saw, and the Lord has not done all these things." Now the blasphemer cannot say, "This counsel was from men": but because this has been done by the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

CHAPTER IX.

On the new vexations taken up again by the aforesaid Pastor against the Virgin, and on the inquiry made about this by the Prelates of the Church.

[134] On the same night therefore, in which the Lord thus magnificently caused mercy to be done with his handmaid and spouse Lydwina, she also sent a messenger, The incredulous Pastor summoned comes that very night, who should narrate so great a fact to her Pastor her adversary, that with the eyes of his flesh he might perceive the presence to be present, which so much by maligning he had denied. But that Pastor hearing this as in sleep, although he gave little faith to it, yet with unwashed hands came to the Virgin, with troubled spirit saying: "What do you wish to be done for you at this time of night?" To whom Lydwina: "Do you not see, my Father, the fact which has happened here?" "I see," he said, "a fabrication or figment of the devil, and not another thing." Again Lydwina, "Not at all, and saying it is the devil's mockery my Father, is it a fabrication of the devil, but my true God, whom you see, who has created you and me, and who made from the beginning heaven and earth." And when he could not suffocate the evidence of the fact; nay indeed in a similar manner drop by drop, as the others, with blood sprinkled the Host he perceived, stupefied and beaten back what of this matter he should do he was hesitating. But at length with a certain feigned exterior boldness, he compelled all who had come, he imposes silence on her adjured: immediately from the cell of the Virgin to go out: and with the door firmly closed over himself, he began forcibly and importunately to adjure the Virgin, by the terrible judgment of the living God, that to no one of men what had happened she should dare to reveal. The Virgin therefore obeyed the man, until afterwards the greater Prelate came by command.

[135] Furthermore the Pastor inquired of the Virgin, what she wished to be done with the Host. But she, very perplexed

what she should do, and to her asking that the host itself be offered to her, or what she should let go, began to hesitate within herself and to say: "I am too much constrained and straits are to me on every side; if my Lord is taken away from me, I fear lest he loose his tongue into blasphemy; but if I preserve him with me, it is less even and less just, because he himself will disappear. I know what I shall do: O Lord," she said, "my God: for you know that I am tormented in this hour, nor can I be without your presence now: wherefore I will take you, provided it shall please your minister my Pastor to minister to me." And with these things thus revolved in her heart, to the harshly reproaching Pastor she said: "I beseech, my lord, that you grant me this Host." To whom the Pastor: "Do you wish then the devil to be ministered to you?" But Lydwina to him: "Not the devil, but my Lord to be ministered to me I ask." To whom the Pastor: "I will minister to you the true Host, to be brought from the church: about this Host I do not know what it is, or whence it is: and so I dissuade you from taking this Host." at length scarcely indignant he obeys, But at last he gave her the Host, which there he found, saying: "Take then the figment of the devil, and not another, yet by your estimation, such as you have believed it to be." But truly our most meek Lydwina, having compassion on the incredulity and hardness of her Pastor, with her whole heart most reverently received the Host: which by every mode, by which the other consecrated Hosts had been accustomed to make delight of spirit and soul, so also now in the taking of it it was done.

[136] But on the following day, which then was the Vigil of B. Thomas the Apostle, the Pastor fearing likely that the novelty of so great a thing would immediately shake the whole city, but on the next day publicly asserting that she had been deluded, went down to the steps of his choir, and with the people called together said: "Behold," he said, "dearest ones, how Lydwina, the daughter of Peter of John, not being fully in possession of her mind this night by the devil has been deceived, under grave and perilous temptation: whence I humbly ask prayers to be made for her, and the Lord's Prayer to be said, that in the faith constant she may persevere." And having shown the Sacrament to the people he stretched to the house of the Virgin, with the crowds following him, who had heard all these words. To whom again in the entry of the house of the Virgin he said: "Be it known to all of you who stand by, that Satan entered this night to this Virgin, to tempt and deceive her. Moreover also he left with her a certain fictitious Host, and not consecrated; which was not true God, but a fabrication of the devil wholly, for the truth of which matter I am ready to be delivered to the fire. Indeed," he said, "what was done was delusory: but this, which now I hold, the Sacrament, is the true God: to no one ambiguous, he brings the Eucharist to her from the temple, because also by Priestly hands rightly and Catholically consecrated. If therefore anything of those things which were done at night even in a small thing you have perceived, know this plainly to have been the fraudulent work of the false Satan, who often transforms himself into an angel of light. But that the Virgin herself too to the diabolic illusion may be able more strongly to resist, behold now I give to her the true Sacrament of the Body of Christ, for the protection of her mind and body: and pray for her, that she may take it to salvation." With these things said entering, he sat beside her.

[137] O how much material of suffering for the Virgin! O how great insignia of patience now flash in her! for she is not provoked, she does not act perversely, she does not speak sinister; and obstinate in his incredulity, but with mature words the hardest man she approaches, saying: "O, my Father, less justly you have spoken, and far from the truth; because you have said, this fact to have been a figment of Satan. Have I not said to you before this happened, by the Angel revealing, that thus you might give glory to God? Are you not conscious of my secrets? Have you proved me daughter of Satan? Yet I pray the Lord, that what you do may not be imputed to you for sin." But neither by these things was the crude Pastor moved, nay rather he afflicted the afflicted one, he tore the torn one, he mortified the compunct and desolate one. he ministers this one to her. Whence soon to the Virgin's responses with indignant word he said: "Do you wish to receive the Body of the Lord, which I have now brought to you?" But she: "Indeed, provided that you yourself wish." With the Sacrament therefore ministered to the Virgin, the Priest returned to the church, with the crowds following him. And although for a time truth fell in the streets, and equity could not enter: yet at last the strongest of all, truth, conquered falsehood.

[138] Furthermore what the perfidious enemy daily strives to effect against the pearl of Christ, With the thing divulged a tumult of the people arises against the Pastor: this with wisdom of God more movable than all movable things through the mouths of the simple sometimes is seen to turn back against the enemy and avenger. Indeed when on account of this perturbation stirred up by the Pastor the whole little city was moved, so much was that man stunned in mind, that ecclesiastical immunity, because of the fury of the people, by no means trembling did he dare to leave. For the sake of which matter the Rectors of that city came together to the Pastor and said: "Tell us, Pastor, pure truth: that we may appease the fury of the people stirred up against you." To whom he said: "I do not know to say anything else, than what I said to the people in the morning; who asked what he had done with the Host, namely that all that which this night was done with the Virgin Lydwina, was a certain diabolic mockery and execrable temptation." To whom again they said: "If it was a mockery, as you affirm, of Satan, why did you not keep the illusory Host? and if you did keep it? where have you placed it?" Who said: "I delivered it to the fire to be burned." Again with the Clergy the Rectors say: "Show us the fire or its place, so that by the inquiry made we may know, whether perhaps he was true Lord, who did these things, or perhaps a certain fictitious thing." But the Pastor was silent.

[139] With the rumor of the people growing against the Pastor, again they are forced to approach the Pastor a second time, to inquire about the marvelous fact. Who answered: in his responses he varies for the third time. "Into water I cast the Host, which you mention." And when they on the contrary again disputed, a third time he said that he had cast the Host into a sewer, lest perhaps because of the madness of the simple and rude people idolatry should follow. And when the people heard these words, they murmured more against the man, because the Host, which many worthy of faith had seen marked with such notable miracles, he had cast into a most foul sewer. And sent again from the majors, they say to him: "Behold because of your fault a great tumult arises among the people, and very great disturbance. From which matter we advise you by the counsel of the elders of the City, that you not presume to leave the enclosures of sacred places, nor appear in the streets. It would have been safer for you to have first said the naked truth: for those who were present and saw her, since you have changed your sentence in words three times, cry out against you and testify."

[140] A message is therefore sent to the Bishop, that on account of the imminence of peril, he should come to the place of Schiedam, all delay set aside. On that night indeed prevented in sleep, and often admonished that he should depart to the city of Schiedam, The Chorepiscopus of Utrecht is summoned to Schiedam. because his presence there was needful. There came therefore hastening Lord Bishop Matthias, suffragan of Utrecht, and with him many people and Officials flowed together. But the Pastor hearing that so many Prelates of the church had come, was stunned and deeply disturbed in mind. And fearing the nefarious deed committed, and sufficiently despairing of help, secretly sent through an intermediary, and a friend sent to the Virgin, asking her, that what foolishly he had committed against her, she would not by any means wish to avenge: The Pastor asks the Virgin to help him. but since in herself she was kind and merciful, thus the fact itself which he had committed, she would more kindly and more mercifully excuse: seeing also that great peril was threatening him, which only her clemency, as known to him, could meet. But the Virgin since she was most sensible and not less modest, promised she would do for him, whatever with the honor of God preserved, in good faith she could do: for she did not know to render evil for evil, but good, taught by the example of the Savior, who for his crucifiers on the cross deigned to pray to the Father.

[141] What further do I delay? The Prelates who had come approached the house of the Virgin; These laymen ordered to leave, whom sad and groaning the Pastor, yet still most crude, follows. A canonical studious inquiry is made by the Prelates of so great and marvelous a fact: a serious discussion is made of the execrable insult of the Pastor: a copious information is made of those who had seen or been present. But when the meek Virgin was greatly zealous for the honor of the Clergy and Priesthood, she asked the Bishop, that with the plebeians sent out of the chamber, he would deign to hear her alone with the Prelates: and he consented. But she seeing that now without scandal of the little commoners she could speak, mindful of the former desolation and blasphemy of her Pastor raging against the Omnipotent, from the depth of her heart dissolved into tears, and with a pledge exacted about the Pastor's indemnity, said: "I ask, my reverend Lord, that you not deny me two things, before I am compelled to respond to questions." But he, as a pious father consoling her, said: "Confidently ask what you will; and what shall be just and consonant with reason, indeed I shall do." With strength therefore resumed in some way, she began: "Above all I ask," she said, "to be absolved especially from the bond, with which I am bound: for by the strict judgment of the living God my Pastor adjuring me has bound me: wherefore about such singular matter to respond I am not able, unless first by the authority of the greater I shall have been absolved: moreover I humbly entreat your Reverences, that in this matter to my lord my Pastor damage in things, or trouble in body you not bring."

[142] But when they wondered at her advocating and praying for her adversary, she explains the whole matter as it had been done, they promised they would do in all things, as her soul desired. But she said: "Before you therefore my Lords, here in charity gathered, I protest and offer myself, for the truth of those things which have been done around me, to undergo the supplice of death. Know therefore that my Lord Jesus Christ here bodily, in the form of a crucified boy, at the feet of the little bed hanging, has appeared on the cross; the likeness and magnitude of such cross the ministers of the church at the time of the sacred Unction to the sick are accustomed to carry. But he was thus crucified, as was seen, with five wounds marked, which copious brightness surrounded: whom when on account of his lovable presence more ardently, as is fitting, I beheld, fearing lest he would wish to separate himself from me, soon to him I said, as I could: 'O Lord, if you are truly he in whom I believe, and you now wish to separate yourself from me; I beseech that before you depart, you would deign to leave me an evident sign: by which I may know ineffably, that you yourself are and not another.' And he who seemed to withdraw, under another

appearance, namely of a Host, deigned to descend upon me. And because I desired to take this most sacred Host, my Pastor delivered it to me, just as I had desired. For which reason I pray your little daughter, that if by any negligence or fragility my Pastor has offended in this matter, according to the faith promised me, as far as your interest, for the love of God and my prayer, you deign paternally to have compassion, and wholly to remit.

[143] O venerable Virgin, and to be imitated from our inmost hearts, moreover and to be admired. without any complaint about the Pastor, For when that man, harder than Nabal, and more cruel than a witch, affected her with reproaches and contumelies, withdrew the communion of the Body of Christ from her so often hungering, did not blush in act to provoke her to idolatry in an unconsecrated host; and what is greater, as deceived and vexed by demons and on this account endangered in faith, defamed her before the crowds; there is not something less that she should pour tears for him before God, offer prayers before the Prelate, moreover excuse him before judgment. With these things therefore tranquilly brought forth by the Virgin, when they did not dare to make the first pledge void, the minds of all the Prelates were mitigated: and with the witnesses heard the whole matter is proved. and with each witness brought forward, long discussion and watchful inquiry concerning the truth of the miracle seen was made. For the rest the glory of God could not be concealed, the innocence of the Virgin together and her patience flashed through every surrounding region, the wicked and lying spirit was detected in the mouth of the Pastor, that henceforth he who was glorying in his malice should not glory, once powerful and pertinacious in iniquity.

CHAPTER X.

On the reception of the Sacrament afterwards granted to her at pleasure: and on the evident signs of the stigmata impressed upon her.

[144] Indeed having obtained peace of heart with the Pastor, she began more confidently to request sacred Communion, From this point more freely and when received to hunger for it more and more daily; since she perceived the singular sweetness of the Lord by communicating, where the giver is given and the gift, where the gift is the same as the giver, where the giver gives wholly himself. That food was truly not rare to her, but continuous; illuminating the mind of the Virgin to humility, not to inflation; inflaming her affection to charity, not to emulation; restoring and strengthening the powers of the soul, not to destitution. That food was indeed a sweet dish, and with great fruit the Virgin communicates: refreshing the virginal spirit with devotion; it was also a rich feast, effecting the continual memory of the Passion; it was also a clear breakfast, prefiguring the day of fruition for the future. Deservedly therefore this bread is still sought by the young girl, gleaming with the whiteness of virginal purity: worthily for it burns the friend of the Lord, made in the fervor of charity a concubine: justly she languishes for such food, one day to be the spouse in the brightness of eternal charity. O how sweetly this reverend spouse of Christ ruminated the virtue of the Sacrament, than which nothing is more effective! O how deliciously in it she was made joyful and grew fat, than which nothing is sweeter! O how vigorously her mouth brought forth praises, than whom nothing is more worthy of praise!

[145] but the grace of the received stigmata while she strives to hide, She began therefore, in the fatness of this bread, in the places of the wounds of the impressed stigmata to sustain strong pains; and as a flame-bearing lamp, by inextinguishable charity to be borne up. And although the happy Virgin strove to hide the sacrament of the highest King in all ways, as long as she lived: nevertheless when the fullness of time came, to the glory of her impressor she could not be hidden. For the love of Christ had transformed the beloved of the lover into a similar image, and therefore it was of the glory of God to hide, although sometimes it is of the glory of Kings to investigate the word. But what in the Virgin on account of humility was hidden from men, in her life with God revealing could not be hidden; but also after her death, as is known to some, she revealed. But that she might cover the secret of the Lord, she wore a glove on her left hand, which was emitting a marvelous sweetness of fragrance. But on a certain night, while still alive in the flesh, our most bright Virgin appeared to a certain matron, to a certain matron in vision so marked she is shown: bearing five stigmata in her body, at whose joyful sight, the said matron was drawing solace of mind and spirit in a marvelous manner. Who when in the morning she had hastened to the place where the Virgin lay, she began diligently to inquire if perhaps she were thus with her in the body, as she had seen her at night in the spirit. But she from humility not affirming, nor willing to lie about that which was asked, this only exulting in spirit, by a certain nod seemed to show, namely that with her left arm shown taking and pressing the hand of the matron, with great joy she said: "O head, head!" as if to say: "My secret to me, my secret to me."

[146] In the region of the English there was a certain merchant, who had never seen Lydwina in the flesh with his eyes, A Merchant is warned in sleep nor had he perceived her to be named with his ears, as he said. This man was suffering in the leg from an incurable disease, so much that he could by no means be cured by the medicine of physicians: who once miserably grieving and groaning from sadness of spirit, at length fell asleep. And behold while he was thus sleeping, he was admonished in sleep, through himself or through a messenger to be sent by him, to cross over to a town of Holland by name Schiedam; that for curing his incurable leg and also of the water, with which the Virgin Lydwina for the time languishing had washed her hands, to bring: because with such washing his leg washed would immediately receive health. In the morning therefore the weak man rising, calls his servant, and for crossing over to Holland portions out a talent; and orders more studiously that he diligently inquire of the place Schiedam; the name of the languishing Lydwina there notably expresses; and affectionately exhorts and commands concerning the washing of her hands to be brought back. With the winds blowing favorably, the servant came with God willing to the place; he obtains the water of washing, which out of charity the Virgin could not deny, he asks for water, with which she may have washed her hands: obtained, he again boarded the ship; and according to the immediately desired wish, from Holland to England joyfully he brings it back. Marvelous to say! Marvelous God in his Saints, marvelous in his majesty! For immediately as that merchant washed his leg with the water brought to him, the wasted flesh without delay changed into living, his leg was restored to its former state, nor did he feel any pain in it from then. So therefore it happened that through her admirable virtue, whose hand had been washed or dipped in the waters, a man existing in remote parts was cured, and the incurable wasting of the flesh was wholly put to flight.

[147] A certain woman of honest life, whom at some time I saw in human form, Another Woman laboring with incurable fistula related to me what I narrate worthy of faith. For in the time of Lydwina's life she labored with a certain grave sickness, but secret. She, as she was a domestic and familiar with the Virgin, and according to the counsel of the Virgin was passing her life most diligently, came more confidently to her to seek counsel, which was needed for such peril. To whom soon the Virgin indicated all the infirmity, its origin, and moreover the peril, she revealed to her: "I know," she said, "that you have a fistula in your body, which on account of continual dripping later will be amplified with the succession of time: by the same Virgin's touch is cured. nevertheless I advise you to approach physicians as soon as possible, from whom if you receive cure, give thanks to God; but if not, according to the good pleasure of will return to me." She therefore went to more experienced physicians, whom she could have; but superfluously: and indeed that she had a fistula was indicated to her: but sad left she returned to the holy Virgin; and how all despaired of the cure of the hidden sickness she intimated. But when Christ's ensign-bearer knew the pains of the woman, as much in mind as in body, with the spirit revealing; with prayer first poured out more devoutly, the place of pain with her sacred hand gently externally she touched, and the evil of the despaired-of fistula radically she extirpated. The honest woman rejoices from this; she rejoices up to this day still recalling it, for the praise of the benefactress Virgin, the venerable matron; nor does she suffice to commend this and other benefits. By which deed it is plain clearer than light, how precious the hand of the Lord is in the Virgin, The author weighs the certainty of the aforesaid grace whose gentle touch plucked out a hidden and deadly disease from the body.

[148] Let no one marvel that our Virgin was thus marked more secretly with the wounds of the Savior, when Paul is read to the Galatians to bear the stigmata of the Lord Jesus Christ; when Luke is said to bear the mortification of the cross in the body; and Francis is proved, as a seal-bearer, to have received open wounds also. What do men marvel at, that the Lord chose from all the little women one strong, nay rather perhaps more, women? Is God the creator of all things so despising the female sex, that among many illustrious men this illustrious virago he has not decreed to number? and excellence: God is not a respecter of persons, but in every nation, sex, age, grade, whoever works his justice, is acceptable to him. Other soldiers of Christ, as the Apostles, have carried around the public trophies of Christ through the whole world; some, as for instance the Martyrs, poured forth glorious blood for Christ; but others, as Confessors, have crucified themselves with vices and concupiscences for the reward: but this Virgin by no means more despicable in the female sex, lurking as in a prison, Christ's wounds seems to have renewed for more than thirty years, and he congratulates the Saint herself. upon the couch of infirmity of every kind.

[149] Therefore, generous daughter, to be ennobled with the wounds of Christ, bear the seal and banner of Christ-form patience. Now, beautiful spouse of Christ, to be adorned with such illustrious jewels, bear the sign of virginal modesty. Now, beautiful primiceria, to be accompanied by so many maidens, bear the title of Holland. Now, vigorous ensign-bearer of Christ, to be surrounded with so many virtues, bear the banner of patience. And indeed, O Virgin, I do not dare to be silent about your praises, I do not suffice to narrate your virtues; but woe is me, if I do not say what I know about you. The stones can cry out, if ungrateful I should withdraw my hand. For it is good to conceal the sacrament of the King, but to reveal and confess the works of God is honorific. Therefore let it suffice for the present to have said these things stammeringly about the progress of the virtues of the Virgin.

PART THREE.

On the Perfective Charity and Life of S. Lydwina.

CHAPTER I.

On her charity in praying and suffering for the salvation of the living.

[150] Therefore while our Virgin, as chosen myrrh and also as the best gold, The Virgin spends herself wholly to gain souls for God, had been proved; she began, as incense of the most fragrant devotion, and as a thymiama of most careful mixture, again to offer herself before the Lord; and as if she had profited nothing up to then, for the gaining of many souls, in body and spirit to burn herself wholly in the flames of charity: she began, with Daniel, to be a woman of desires; she began, like the Queen of the South, to desire the wisdom of the true Solomon; she began on Jacob's ladder to arrange the ascents of her heart;

she began, a humble disciple, to prove the length, breadth, height and depth of the cross of Christ. For indeed having gained the solitude of nocturnal silence, with tears she watered her couch, she covered her cheeks with blood, she filled her breast with sweats as if of baths, she adapted her body to harder pains. Made strong in spirit, she esteemed her body as nothing, without doubt bearing as it were the insignia of the Passion; as a friend, for the little ones in faith her little sons she was begging three loaves from a friend; as a daughter, for her prodigal brothers she was solicitous before the most compassionate father; as a spouse newly betrothed, for miserable sinners she was pouring out prayers before the future spouse the judge.

[151] Very many, whom we have seen and heard, [whom a certain one asking that she ask the impediment of his progress to be removed,] as to a mother of children, ran to her: who having had a sweet colloquy with her, bidding farewell, were hoping for her little prayers. For at that time a certain Canon of the clear life of the Regulars, in which our Germany abounds, that he might become nearer to God, with fervor said to her: "I ask you," he said, "Lydwina, instantly entreat the Most High, that he would deign to take away from me, that which most offends the eyes of his majesty, and which to my salvation he knows notably to be an impediment." But she, "I will pray willingly." But that devout man had a very sonorous and clear voice, in which he still possessed a certain little human glory of singing. She prayed: this man began to grow hoarse: but that the Lord did this, the outcome of the matter taught. The voice of the Canon fails from now; and for succoring himself through remedies to his organs injured by hoarseness, he loses irrecoverably the grace of sonorous voice. impatient he considers physicians to be consulted far and wide, that he may again rejoice in the sweetness of his sweet voice. At length when in vain in mitigating foods, drinks, ointments, and electuaries he had labored; a certain Canon having a clearer eye of mind, before a most experienced physician, as if smiling said: "I tell you, master physician, that the companion of my journey once asked from the virgin Lydwina that she pray the Lord for him, that by his piety he would deign to remove from him whatever of himself more offended the eyes of his majesty, and what seemed contrary to the salvation of his soul. And behold what he asked, now, as I reckon, he has from the prayers of the Virgin: wherefore to me it seems in vain nay rather superfluous, what in remedies is being sought." Hearing these things the physician, who knew the Virgin, added saying: "If the matter is so, the codices of Hippocrates and Galen will by no means be able to succor." By this deed therefore it is more clearly plain, that the Canon unknowingly of his impediment happily asked the Virgin; and how more effectively, what was necessary for his salvation, the more devout Virgin for the devout man obtained. The grace of form, a sonorous voice, strength of body and its health, are of little price, if not in the Lord, but in such gifts of his more than deservedly we glory.

[152] by the same a blessed drink The dearest Virgin had her dear little nephew ministering to her, the son of her brother a boy of twelve years, for whom she prayed the Lord more devoutly, that upon the boy the Lord for a memorial of those things, which around her he deigned to do, would send a little fever; not indeed unto death, but only for chastisement, that both of his ministry and of her to whom languishing he was ministering he might be mindful in the future. When that twelve-year-old boy had a vessel, from which he was accustomed to drink; about the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the handmaid of God ordered that vessel full of the thinnest beer, turned into a most sweet drink. which was a little above barley water in value, to be placed beside her little couch. Which when it had been done, in the morning that vessel was found full of the best liquor, as if with aromatic species from heaven seasoned, and prepared by Angelic hands. And so very many drank from that cup, to whom as they said, no such liquor before was known on earth, to whom never did it harm, but profited and pleased very much. The boy then was drinking from it, the little nephew of the Virgin, and soon with fevers diffused everywhere through his members, from that time until the feast of B. Martin the Confessor, as if admonished by the Lord through the Virgin's prayers, he labored. whose little nephew taking it begins to be febrile. Therefore the Virgin prayed and immediately he was freed. No wonder that one and the same cup was thus obtained from the Lord by the Virgin's prayers, that what to one, namely the little twelve-year-old, was presented as a memorial sign of future mature age; to the others of more mature time, who had tasted, might become a perennial solace in recalling.

[153] I have known also several in the world, who were more devoted to the Virgin while she was living in the flesh, her fame among drinking-companions defended by a certain one, to whom this word through her became known, which she was accustomed to say: "The wanton mind," she said, "does not know indeed to grasp this, that virtue is perfected in infirmity, but also is obtained while not yet had": for which matter I narrate a great thing. There was a man in that little town Schiedam, Otger by name, rather strong for drinking and voracious; sitting at a certain time at table with drinking and eating companions, other men in the tavern: and when they were sharpening their vain-speaking tongues after the drink against the chosen handmaid of Christ, at length it came to venomous detractions and words of blasphemy, namely that either voracious she ate in secret, or that she had a demon, not eating in the open. But hearing these things Otger, because they were thus tearing the handmaid of Christ with deadly obloquies, although he himself was devoting himself to drinking cups, yet unwillingly giving ear to their barks, and placing himself as a wall, in these words for the Virgin's innocence answered: "Let us be silent I ask, companions, about the Virgin: for our own foolishness suffices us, by which we daily sin against God. This Virgin is good and holy, and whatever in her is done by the Lord is done: nor is it safe to inflict against God's friend a biting sentence, when nothing of evil openly about her is known to us. Nay rather to us, who are evil, it would be troublesome to hear, if such things with truth were said by emulators."

[154] and patiently bearing the slap inflicted on this account, But they, as if warmed by the cup and not bearing with even mind the words of Lydwina's defender, presumed much greater things, at length saying: "In sins you were born and nourished, and do you rebuke us?" But one of them, giving him a hard slap, said: "Go, vilest of men, go: do not presume to disturb our society." To whom, having received the slap, he answered: "To the honor of him, for whose name I have so answered you, this slap I receive patiently": and having said these things he withdrew. Marvelous to say! The Virgin lies in remote places, lies in hidden places, nevertheless what the man answered his detractors is not hidden from her; and how he bore the slap patiently to the glory of God and her honor, to her Confessor, before it was spread to the ears of men, in order she narrates saying: "I ask," she said, "Father, that with quickened step you approach the house of Otger, and in the name of God and mine faithfully comforting him, say, Lydwina greets you, and on behalf of God gives thanks to you, it is revealed to the Virgin, because for the glory of God and her honor zealously you were zealous, and you received a slap patiently, for which the Lord himself will return grace to you in the opportune time." Soon therefore in the morning her Confessor Lord John Walter so did, and the man marveled and said: "And whence does she herself know what has been done? for yesterday evening late it happened what you say, and to no one of men through me has it been made known." To whom the Confessor: "Let it suffice for you that she herself has known, and has commanded you these things. Be more even-minded, and the Lord will provide."

[155] And then that man began to leave associations; he began also to decline vices; and made a frugal man he began, like another Job, in temporal things to undergo manifold scourges; he began, like Thecla, to be cleansed under the Lord's threshing-sled: for God scourges every son whom he receives: for indeed without scourges, as from a distant region, from the region of unlikeness returning, salvation is rarely made. What more? Although that man, accustomed to eat with pigs or pig-like men, from then in things, in friends, in domestics, in his own members, was shaken with stormy anguishes; with loss growing for him, at the same time with grace holy patience was growing; so much that where pleasure had abounded, where vanity had preceded, where iniquity had accompanied, there followed for pleasure the tranquility of patience, for vanity decent maturity, for iniquity superabounding charity. Indeed that man worn down by long sickness, as if by rods, and matured, with the burden of body as well as the dross of former sin laid down, joyful and rejoicing at length, like another Job or Tobias, migrated to the Lord.

[156] Moreover since the Apostle orders to bear one another's burdens, our virago also was accustomed, in a weak body with stronger spirit, to assume the infirmities of others, The torment of a woman devoted to her the Virgin receives in herself, that she might fulfill the law of Christ. Gal. 6:2 A certain woman devoted to God, wearied by excessive pain of body, when she was sitting in the atrium of the Virgin's house, and weeping from the atrocity of her punctures was crying out; immediately with her Confessor called, the Virgin asks what is the matter. To whom the Confessor: "She is of our domestics and fellow-sisters, who compelled even to gnashing of teeth, seeks rest, and does not find it." And when she had had her called to herself, she said: "Do you wish, sister, that I should help you in this your infirmity?" To whom the woman: "I would indeed wish, I would wish: but let your own manifold infirmity which you suffer suffice you: but only pray God I ask for me." The Virgin prayed the Lord, and immediately with the woman freed, the Lord added to the wounds of the Virgin double, so much that day and night with gnashing of teeth, beyond the usual custom, not without the stupor of those seeing, in a marvelous way she was tortured.

[157] she heals a boy placed on her couch, Moreover at a certain time, when the little son of a certain woman, tortured with a certain disease sufficiently horrible, was emitting mournful cries, nor was taking rest, brought upon the couch, which lay contiguous to the Virgin, immediately being silent he rested. And when they asked him whether he was better, he said, "Now it is well with me." But the Virgin, who was accustomed to invite little boys to the love of chastity, having addressed this boy thus brought back to his former health by divine grace with soothing words, to the love of virginity, as much as that age received, she began to exhort; which afterwards growing up a little he learned to love, and made more devout in religion by professing he dedicated the loved one.

[158] A certain Priest, a true Israelite and on account of his chaste life most dear to the true Virgin, suffering most acute fevers, A Priest from fevers was at last in peril unto death: his sister therefore, who gave great faith to the words of the Virgin, came to consult the Virgin saying: "How long, O my sister Lydwina, will my brother suffer these most grave fevers?" To whom the Virgin answered: "About the first Sunday of the coming Lent your brother will be freed, do not fear greatly." Which also so was done: for with the Virgin pouring out

prayers to the Lord, who freed Hezekiah from the disease of death, she frees on the foretold day. and above nature granted him fifteen years of life, the man once a son of death, as if from the Lord given to the Virgin, immediately was made well. The truth of this matter a certain religious man learned from her, at the time in which these things about the aforesaid Priest were happening, although then compelled to promise, that as long as she lived he would not reveal it.

[159] She was also accustomed, for perils and disasters to be warded off from peoples, often to suffer in body, she averts various disasters from her country, more often also to pray: so much that in her little town she seemed to hold the place of that man, of whom in Ecclesiastes is said: "A small city and few men in it: there came against it a great King, and surrounded it, and the siege was perfected: there was found in it a poor and wise man, and he freed the city by his wisdom." Eccles. 9:14 Thus I would say about our Virgin. For it happened at a certain time that father against son, and son against father, on account of partiality's distance, in that province arose: for which reason very many sons of peace, seeking flight, sought safer places, that they might save their soul. especially in the time of civil war. And when the rage of persecution day by day grew hot, there came a certain fugitive from afar, who said: "I am too much constrained and anguishes are to me on all sides: I know that the jaws of death at such a perilous time I cannot escape, unless by the prayers of the Virgin who lies hidden in Schiedam I shall have been preserved." Whence when a certain one had related these words, with humility she answered: "I give thanks to my God, who makes simple men's hearts to have such trust in me poor little one: nevertheless confiding I confide in my Lord God Jesus, that while we are existing in the little town of Schiedam, it will be equally well or better, just as also with the neighbors round about."

[160] and she prevents a hostile fleet from approach. Furthermore with war raised up and innumerable damages inflicted through the neighboring little cities; behold a fleet of ships, with all strength awaiting the ruin of Schiedam, began to come, that they might destroy it. And indeed coming in a strong multitude, laboring they labored with oars, and giving the rafts to the wind as much as they could, by no means to the place, which they were attempting to destroy, did they arrive. The army of armed men labored, the Virgin Lydwina devoted herself to prayers: she prayed and conquered. The best kind of fighting for a Christian recruit is suppliant prayer: for Bethulia, with the nations of the Gentiles overcome by the power of the Assyrians, is read to have been saved by the prayer, tears, and fastings of the holy widow Judith: moreover also Achior, confessor of the power of the Lord of lords, by the anticipating industry of the pious woman, is preserved from the blasphemous Holofernes.

CHAPTER II.

On the charity which she had for the souls existing in Purgatory.

[161] Considering the pains of Purgatory She began by the unction of the Master as to ruminate the mellifluous words of Bernard concerning the region of expiation, in which he said he would go for the sake of pious business to that great region, and would see how the pious Father left the sons to be glorified in the hand of the tempter for a time. For she was considering how holy and how salutary it is to pray for the dead, especially those who are not to slaughter, but to mercy; not to destruction, but to chastisement there are reserved; and are vessels, not of contumely, apt for destruction; but vessels of honor and grace, mercifully prepared for the kingdom. Having therefore taken up the spiritual arms of Christ, she was rising to their aid, that at least their labor sometimes might be terminated in rest, their misery be converted into glory, their scourge be changed into a crown. For at night rapt in spirit to the places of pains, she saw souls being tortured, she also most often beheld with marvelous compassion flame-bearing fire being carried around in the greatest height. rapt to see them, Furthermore when once her Angel asked her, whether she wished to help one of the souls, pointed out with finger, she answered: "I wish indeed." But he: "Now then prepare yourself to pass through the midst of the flames." To whom Lydwina: "And willingly I will strive to do this." And passing through the midst of the flames, she frees a soul by passing through the midst of the flames: she saw there the torturers as with a drag or with terror contracting themselves, and as if bearing heavily the charity of the helping Virgin. But she when she had passed through, saw that soul, for which she had exposed herself to the flames, to be freed from the pains; and freed, with joy and giving of thanks, afterwards to hasten to the heavenly joys.

[162] Someone asked her, whose father had died at that time, that for him she would deign to pour out prayers: likewise another by suffering something for her, for whom she was led to that region where the soul of the said man was being tortured: and her Angel said to her: "Behold this is the man, for whom you have promised to pray." But immediately as the spirit of the man saw her, he said to his companions: "Marvelous things now I see: for from the time that to be purged I entered this place, a spirit living in flesh I have not seen, except the spirit of this Virgin, over which blessed be the Lord God, who has magnified his mercy to me in this hour." A little afterwards, with the holy Virgin praying and suffering for him in her body, the man was freed, as also afterwards was revealed to his wife.

[163] Once the Virgin saw the spirit of a certain deceased tormented by special pains, so much that fixed on iron stakes, for another she obtains a milder pain, he moved even the mind of the Virgin to pity. And when trembling, who he was, to inquire from the Angel she did not dare; the Angel said to her: "This is the brother of that one, for whom his sister asked you to intercede: if therefore you will now piously ask anything for him, it will be done for you." Who said: "I pray therefore that from these iron stakes, on which he is fixed, he may be freed." Who immediately loosed from those special pains, was led to the common place of those being purged. And when the sister of the deceased, that she might know about the state of her brother, was troubling the Virgin; groaning the Virgin at length said: and divided the rest with the sister of the deceased, "If I shall tell you what I know, do not be troubled I beseech you." And she: "I will by no means be troubled." And when the Virgin had said what she had seen, as desirous of fraternal salvation, she ordered certain alms to be distributed, and among other things she advised a capon to be prepared for the poor sick one. But she did in all things as had been commanded and persuaded. And behold at the cockcrow of night a troop of demons came, one of whom seemed to hold a capon in his hands, in the likeness of the other which had been distributed to the poor; with which he most gravely beat both, as much the Virgin as the sister of the deceased, in the face. What more? The sister of the man suffered afterwards certain infirmities in her body, on account of her brother: finally she takes the whole upon herself. which when, because of the excessive atrocity of pains, she could not bear; the Virgin prayed the Lord for her: and with the sufferings soon taken from the woman, what was remaining, charitably in her own body she supplied: and the soul was at length freed, with the Lord being propitious, who through the prayers of his little servant so great and so marvelous things deigned to cooperate.

[164] she prays unceasingly for the souls: Out of zeal for souls often pouring bloody showers from her eyes, she said: "O Lord my God, would that I could give my flesh and blood, for the satisfaction of those souls, whom with your scourging you chastise." For these she was beseeching the Father with groans, for these she was imploring with sighs, for these she was watching in prayers, for these she was procuring sacrifices from Priests; for these, that they might not be detained under the hand of the torturer, she was burning herself wholly in holocaust. A certain man, by name Balduin, called of the Field, was made infirm in body, who on the night of the Conversion of Paul the Apostle migrated from the world. On the same night rapt in spirit, she saw a man, unknown to her by face, standing at the foot of a mountain to ascend, but impotent. Who seeing her, said: one of them seen by her she carries up the mountain, "Have mercy on me, I ask, Lydwina, have mercy on me, and carry me up this mountain." But she, having taken the man on her shoulders, carried him onto the mountain, but with very great difficulty. "What," said the Virgin, "are you called?" But he, "Balduin of the Field I am called among men." With morning made, when her Confessor for the sake of visiting had entered her little chamber, he found her as if exhausted from heavy labor, and with grave difficulty breathing, on account of which cause he said: "What are you doing, daughter? Why are you more than usual by panting weighed down? and brings back enormous weariness," The Virgin answered: "If you wish to know, Father, I now come from the mountain, to which I have laboriously carried on my own shoulders a certain man, Balduin of the Field, and with sweat and labor now wearied I breathe." But he when he had heard the man's name often, yet not recognized him by face; it happened that he, ignorant, coming there to celebrate after three days, where that deceased Balduin had passed to the Lord. But the place is called Ouderschie, not far distant from the little town of Schiedam. And when there he heard the deceased Custodian of the church, inquiring equally about his name and surname, he recognized that he had also died on the same night, on which he had appeared to the Virgin about to climb the mountain.

[165] A certain Priest, by name Peter, through the course of his whole life given to the allurements of the flesh, for a Priest giving grave penalties for a luxurious life, had resolved to amend his life: who prevented by quicker death and very contrite, could not fulfill condign satisfaction for his sins. At length when the Virgin was praying the Lord for the deceased, immediately carried by the guiding Angel to that region, she heard a mournful voice as from the abyss of a certain pit: which with the Angel revealing, she recognized to be the soul of the said Priest, for whom so ardently she had prayed. But when she marveled that he was for twelve years in so horrible a place detained, the Angel looking at her said: "Do you wish to sustain something for the liberation of the soul of him, whom you hear?" "I wish," she said, twelve years after his death suffering, "willingly." Immediately her guide showed her a place, in which a whirlpool of waters so horrible and black was seen, that as a cataract or whirlpool of many torrents, flowing with impetus, was thought. "You must cross," said the Angel, "the whirlpool of all the waters which you see, if you desire to free the soul." But she when she was afraid to enter the terrible sound of the tumultuating waters, the Angel was animating her to cross constantly. And so soon, clothed with virtue from above, and overcome with excessive charity, as a generous bird for the catching of generous prey, she exposed herself to the waters, and with excessive labor, when she had crossed the ford, she obtained victress what she had wished. She saw immediately the Priest's soul, she frees his soul. whiter than snow, flying away from the pains; then as if in a most beautiful little stream dipping itself, and dipped with jubilation ascending to heaven. At the same hour when she had returned to herself, she was found by her household to be wet with so much sweat, that to the bystanders it was by no means doubtful, that coming from elsewhere, in spirit she had been too greatly wearied. And so according to the counsel of the Wise One, at night she did not prevent grace: which according to the Apostle in the flesh

above the flesh wholly expended itself. Ecclus. 7:37; 2 Cor. 10:3

[166] There was also another Priest, quite pleasing and devoted to our Virgin: praying for another, converted by her before death, whom also with her sacred admonitions, straying in the way of morals, while she lived, she had called back from the vanity of the world. This man when after beginning penance, the years of his adolescence, not without sin spent, he was deploring with bitterness of spirit; some time after his conversion he was prevented by pestilential disease. And when with him dead she was succoring him with her tears and prayers as she could with maternal affection, it happened by divine will, that she herself rapt in spirit was greatly distressed, because concerning the state of the Priest brought back through her she was desiring to know. Then the Angelic spirit of God, who was accompanying the beloved, began to ask, if she wished to know anything about her friend the Priest: if also somewhat to suffrage for the same she would be promptly ready, he more seriously inquired. But she answered: "If it will be the will of God and without my detriment, I greatly desire it." And soon the spirit rapt her to the place of pains, where she saw a most foul pit, full of terrifying torments, and said: "Is not, brother, hell this place?" The Angel answered, "By no means would you say it to be the place of hell, although next to hell."

[167] And when she looked around, she saw there a certain place disproportionately more terrible, she learns that he is specially tormented, as if constructed of the blackest stones, whose height exceeded the power of human sight: she heard then marvelous cries and gnashings, groans, howlings, tumultuations, hammerings, strikings; with which the souls so cruelly by the torturers without pity were tortured, that if the rumor, cry and crash of the whole earth could be heard, they would be thought by no means to transcend the horror of the place itself. And when she asked her Angel, who and what kind of place was this, he said: "The place, which you see, is of the reprobate, do you wish to see?" But she terrified beyond measure, said: "I do not wish to see; for even to hear what I hear, henceforth wholly I shudder." But that the Virgin might continuously behold the flame-vomiting places of torments, still uncertain of her salvation: she noted singularly a pit, upon which a certain Angel, as it seemed, sad in face was sitting. Furthermore when she learned that that Angel was the custodian of the soul of her Priest, for whom she had prayed, and the cause of the sorrow of his countenance from certain demerits of the same; indeed that he had there a special purgatory, she heard immediately from the Angel. But when this dearest spouse of Christ, thirsting for the salvation of her friend, had beheld the Angel; soon at the nod of that guide the pit is opened: from which a most foul and smoking flame burst forth, and a voice with most clamorous wailing, was heard from above. "Do you know," said the Angel, "that voice?" To whom the Virgin: "I know most well." And the Angel said to her: "Do you wish to see it?" "I wish," she said.

[168] Immediately that spirit ascended, as most fiery iron, with confused voice saying: "O dearest Lydwina, O most pure mirror, who will grant me that sometime the Lord in you, and you in the Lord I may be able to mirror." Very marvelous! and the soul seen so terrifies her, how quickly she saw the soul of the man ascending, as from the abyss of the pit; with such great fear was she stunned, that even the new girdle, thick and bristly, with which in the customary manner at that time to the flesh she was girded, in the thicker or sounder part through the middle was broken. Nor suffering delay, with that terror as quickly as possible she returned to herself. And when she was asked, that her hair-cloth girdle snapped. how in that hour she had fared, she was answering: "Believe me," she said, "believe, if it please; that, unless the love of God and his honor, for whom I do not refuse to suffer all things, conquered me; if for similar terror also all things, which are contained in the circuit of heaven, according to my wish ought to be given to me, I would by no means wish to undergo similar terror." What do I delay? It happened from this that a few days succeeding she saw that Angel, whom she had seen mourning, made cheerful and joyful. The spirit of that Priest was at length led, with the pit left, to the common place of expiation; and with the pains, which from charity our most holy Virgin was suffering, suffraging, with the Lord having mercy, who loosens the fettered, unloaded and expedited from the due pains he ascended to heaven.

[169] Furthermore how prudent and circumspect she was in her responses, Accustomed to speak most sparingly about the state of the souls shown to her, from these things which are to be noted will appear more clearly. For when a certain wordy woman, to know God's secret judgments about the soul of a certain deceased, was very troublesome to the Virgin; and alleged a certain languishing Religious, as an authentic man of that time, lightly to those asking about any of the deceased definitively answering; the prudent Virgin, made more cautious by another's peril, answered: "It is not in my interest to judge anyone: but if that Religious, whom you praise with such great praises, by revealing easily as you allege, while living has acted well, that deceased one now perceives." For indeed she had heard from the Angel that that man himself, although continent and devout, was yet sufficiently exposed to torments; because with revelations he had mingled many things from his own sense less true, and under the pretext of such revelations reputed holy in the common view, he had received gifts and vain praises of men.

[170] Moreover when the Count of Holland, Duke William, had entered the way of all flesh, [She discretely eludes the question of the Countess of Holland about her dead husband,] and his relict, through the lying report of some, how according to the Virgin's word her husband dead had obtained salvation, and how Lydwina herself dead for three days had revived, had heard; immediately, as is the custom of most powerful Lords, whether it was so, or also whether the Virgin had said such things, through a secret intermediary more curiously she inquired. But the messenger when he had come, began to search her more curiously, just as had been commanded him by his Lady, saying: "Behold, dearest Virgin, because fame has come to the ears of our Princess, that you for three days dead have revived, and because you ought to have said, that the soul of her husband of good memory, Duke and Count of Holland, free and wholly absolved had flown to the heavens." To whom the Virgin answered: "Know, best brother, that if I had been three days dead, my fellow citizens and neighbors indeed would have buried me: moreover if your Lord were so quickly free from all purgatorial pains, I, who have now spent the seventeenth year in these sicknesses, might sufficiently bewail the prolongation of my sojourn and of my pains." But the messenger having heard these things, suffused with blush, what more to say he did not have; but frustrated of his desire, he announced the Virgin's response to the widowed Princess.

[171] Whatever therefore without injury of her own conscience, and also without detriment of fraternal salvation she could conceal, she was accustomed to keep as a secret. Concerning religious men, whose celibate life, or of Priests, whose honest conversation she knew, she spoke more confidingly: concerning seculars of good fame more sparingly compelled: concerning men and women of pestiferous life, she rebukes the diffidence of a Priest, even adjured, she revealed very little. It happened one day that a certain Priest, sufficiently honest and famed among the common people, near the little bed of the Virgin, with many sitting, sat. And when a vessel full of mustard seed was at hand, and talk about the pains of Purgatory was turning among them, at length the Priest said: "I would wish to be in purgatory so many years, as there are grains of mustard in this little vessel; provided that at last about the salvation of my soul certainly it might be plain to me." Hearing these words Lydwina, as if sighing answered: "O Lord, what is it that you so speak? Why do you trust so little in God's mercy? If you knew what and what kind of place Purgatory is, desiring a long purgatory, if only he might be certain of his salvation. or what kind of place for those being purged, and how great there is manifold torment, you would by no means have brought forth this discourse." That Priest died not long after, and about the state of his salvation before the handmaid of the Lord discourse was being mutually ventilated by friends: who answered: "It is indeed well with the soul of this man, on account of his probity; but it would have been better for him, if while living he had placed greater trust in the virtue of Christ's Passion; moreover he would have received a milder sentence in purgation." By which words indeed it is plain, how advisable it is to fear the Lord, how pious to hope in the Lord: for it is of the law of fear, to curb the soul lest it swell; but of the reason of hope, to raise up the dejected lest it succumb.

[172] So therefore it is plain how ardent was the heart of our Virgin for succoring the souls of the deceased; she understands how great merit it is to aid the deceased. how after the impression of the secret stigmata in flesh, as Angelic, she was passing through the valleys of weeping and grieving souls; and how with prayers, tears, and various sicknesses afflicted, the same with the Lord permitting she was relieving. The daughter of God knew indeed, that a good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, for grace shown to such deceased, the Lord will return into her bosom. Whence it happened, when for freeing souls she willingly was taking during the day Angelic little refections; with solemnities coming tenfold for the grace of the deceased, and a hundredfold in consolations she was receiving back. Prov. 19:17 For he lends to the Lord who has mercy on the poor.

CHAPTER III.

How on account of the ardent memory of Christ's Passion to various places, especially where Christ suffered, she was being snatched.

[173] Since indeed frequent meditation had inflamed an fiery affection in her, Traversing individual places in her raptures, visceral exercise of piety was informing a benevolent effect toward souls; the assiduous study of contemplating was transferring a high-flying embrace to the places of Christ's Passion. To the mountain of myrrh often carried by Angelic solaces, under the silence of night, our Virgin Lydwina is believed; and there how our Savior accomplished the mysteries of our redemption, to have contemplated. Then (to use now the words of the illustrious man Jerome, with which he addresses Paula) whether through a certain species, or certainly in spirit, whether in body or outside the body I know not, God knows; yet the Virgin herself is recognized to have traversed the places of the conception of the Lord in Nazareth, of his nativity in Bethlehem, especially in and around Jerusalem; and the place of the salutary crucifixion, namely of Calvary, where the Lord raised up the triumphal horn of salvation and the title of virtue. (which she at some time also obtained for her Confessor) For there was not a famous place there of the Holy Land, which in spirit or in appearance her foot had not trodden. For indeed for her Confessor, who marveled about this, she obtained from the Lord a similar grace of rapture; so that even with the seal of Confession set aside, that he himself had been with her in those places he did not blush to confess.

[174] In such raptures so fervently was she petitioning the Spouse, that if you had seen now at the manger weeping, she is poured into affects fitting for each thing: now at the lap of the virgin mother caressing, now on the cross fixed to the crucified one, now at the place of sepulcher reviving, now at the feet of him about to ascend like a puppy crying out, you would guess that you saw another Paula with her blessed eyes. She was often admitted, as with the Savior placed before her, now to the kisses of the feet, now of the hands, now to the opening of the wound

of the side: where tarrying for some time, she drew so much sweetness of spirit, that she seemed to wholly forget herself. If ever on account of the fervor of spirit to that place, where her Spouse commending his spirit into the hands of the Father expired, by rapture-attractions she was soothed; soon by conforming herself to the beloved, into love and bitterness of compassion she dissolved her own spirit also, as if dying together and failing wholly with the spirit of the Spouse, to whom she lived to the marrow. She then brought back after such touches of the Spouse visible signs of punctures in the flesh; by which, as by seals of pilgrimage as testimonials, something beyond spirit or imaginary species to have received could be known.

[175] Certainly when our most holy Virgin, across the torrent of Cedron, She accompanies the Lord to Calvary: before the Lord in the garden was rapt in his bloody sweat; she saw and diligently noted his prayers, and the manner and order of the Lord's sweat. Nay rather having received after the agony the kiss, she heard the Lord familiarly saying to her: "Do you wish to go with me to the place of Calvary?" Who said: "O Lord God, my Savior, the only hope of my life, with you to go, at other times from those raptures by no means fantastic she brings back thorns with you to suffer, with you to die I am prepared." And the Lord similarly led her to the same place which he had said. And when she was returning from these most sacred places, she would bear on her lips pustules, on her members fissures, in her joints punctures, in her flesh particles of thorns and briars: about which also the Angel was saying to her: "These visible and sensible signs with you, O my sister, you have brought, that you may know that you are not through dream or fantastically, but truly and experimentally ^a in the sacred places to have been." And at another time when the Virgin was thus rapt, a foot twisted by a fall, and was passing through most fragrant places, she came to places which on account of the slipperiness of the streams seemed impassable, where she perceived a fall and also a straining of the right foot: wherefore when she returned to herself, not only did she suffer the stings of pains in the joint of the same foot, but even to the eye lividness and swelling, moreover most manifestly dire torments for many days through the contiguous members she tolerated.

[176] In a similar manner indeed she was seen very often, as if coming from afar, now injured in the fingers, other visible signs, now in the feet: now from the city of Rome, visiting the seven holy churches; now from the monasteries of most devoted Religious, especially of Canons who lead a reformed life; now from the most diverse parts of the kingdoms of the world led back by the Angel. Indeed by divine dispensation it was done that, on account of the redundance of interior graces, the spirit overflowing communicated to the body the remains of consolations; to which, as to an instrument of reaping and also as to its little ass, she was communicating also her passions. For the soul of the holy Virgin in the body, and the body with the soul together were fighting in the last agony, together they were running in the stadium, together they were laboring in the little hut. Wherefore no wonder if together they walk, if they are consoled, if they glory in the Lord, if the preludes of future glory, if the first-fruits of the spirit, if the participation of the children's table, in the manner of a pledge, in the manner of a drop dripping from heaven, by receiving, they at the same time travel and feast.

[177] also the fragrance of heavenly odor, I have heard from those who with the testimony of their conscience told me, that when the holy Virgin after such raptures seemed to come to herself, not otherwise than a storehouse of the choicest spices was fragrant: nor could she contain herself, but as a vessel full of new wine and without vent, the whole hut at once and those standing by, by breathing out with an impetus of spirit, she filled; as through industry often was observed, through devout and very worthy of faith. They often applied with a furtive manner their faces, nostrils, and mouths, that they might take or feel whatever they wished of the spirits or remains of her breaths: for her little breast was not seen to be anything else than a chosen vessel of the Lord's ointments, a wonderful vessel, indeed the work of the Most High. O with what ointments of sweetness! O with what pigments of holiness! or how many electuaries of sweetness was the Lord's wine-cellar overflowing, the storehouse of heavenly spices, the abyss of divine graces!

[178] and such great sweetness in spirit, Asked indeed most frequently by some devout ones, how in those delights she could contain herself; especially while with a certain full draught, with Peter on the mountain led apart, she was drinking from the flowings of sweetness; the humble Virgin answered: "As one less wise I say, because I cannot hide from you: good for me that the Lord has humbled me in infirmities: for without them I could by no means bear the weight of customary mercy and consolation. Accordingly when I shall have abounded in consolations, that for her to bear it would not be possible without pains of body; I learn afterwards in my miserable body to suffer incredible pains." And what do we marvel at? For Peter says, "It is good for us to be here": but him whom internal sweetness to holy inebriation of spirit had somehow raised, fear of the paternal voice humbles; whence below follows, "And they fell upon their faces and feared greatly." Matt. 17:4, 6 Good is the consolation, which not swelling inflates, but fear consolidates: which pride does not cast into the wind of mind, which arrogance does not dictate to walk in great things; but the patience of the perfect cross consummates. Thus therefore in the manner of the daughters of God our Lydwina, with the leading of her leader, was being taken to various places of spiritual recreations: but soon like children, returning to the schools, the rod and ferule of her master, namely of Christ, grew heavy upon her. Many consolations she was receiving from the Spouse, and after these for any hard and rough things to be borne she was being touched, whence it is written, "You visit him in the dawn, and suddenly you prove him." Job 7:18

[179] But lest I should pass over in silence how Lydwina, moreover exact knowledge of places. most dear to God, knew the monasteries of the devout, houses, cells, workshops, persons and exercises; and how very often though never before seen in the world, she discerned them by name and surname. And when religious men marveled over this, and inquired whence she thus recognized them by name, she said: "The Lord has given to me." A certain Prior of a religious house of Regulars ^b of Briel, having a little conference with her according to custom, so distinctly understood the arrangement of his convent from her, as if all the days of her life throughout all the corners of his convent she had been conversant. And when the man marveled at her words, she also added: "Know, best Father, that with all the Brothers resting in the dormitory I was present, and the guardian Angels of the individual Brothers in the little cells I noted."

[180] A certain man, called William of Haga, had a son Henry an adolescent, who, she is present in spirit to a youth taking the Carthusian habit, his father ignorant and unconsulted, had entered the Carthusian Order in Brabant: and when on account of the celebrated fame of the Virgin, he entered her little house, behold immediately Lydwina, as it were by name and surname, greeted the man graciously, moreover to him, for the prosperous success of her devout son the deity and also the omen more graciously imploring, announced. Hearing that man himself to be named by her whom he had never seen, he was vehemently stupefied, and what this greeting meant, with the recollection of his beloved son, he immediately inquired. Who answered: "Your son, O William, by the gift of almighty God has entered the Carthusian Religion, whence we ought to render immense thanks to the Lord." Marvelous indeed! The father had not seen her: nor had anything been known to the father about his son, in Brabant leading a celibate life: and indicates to the solicitous father what has been done with the son. but neither did the Virgin know any of them, but in the spirit of God she names both, announces new things about the salutary change of the son to the father, whom according to the flesh he ought first to have known. Furthermore when he and several others were laboring sometimes to fathom the secrets of the Lord, as searchers of majesty to be oppressed by glory; she answered: "Do not I ask be troublesome to me, dearest ones: for about the leaves which the Lord will give me, with fraternal charity conquering me, I am often compelled to bestow; but the root I shall give by no means": as if to say, "What in words in the manner of flashing lightning you can receive, gratefully take, but the secrets of God to search more deeply, and to provoke me to boasting or arrogance do not wish."

[181] with great light often she is found surrounded: But how often she saw the King of kings surrounded by the Apostles, as by glorious Senators, how often she enjoyed the society of the Saints, the prolixity of the work forbids to write. Very many saw the cell of the Virgin often filled with such great splendor, that even thinking it to be a fire, with no small trembling they hastened. Moreover while the Virgin suffused with such lights was radiating, those looking struck with fear could not bear the brightness of her face. Her household would ask her, how she could bear that light, considering that she could scarcely bear natural light even for a moment, and she answered: "Believe," she said, "believe, that the light of grace or of divine contemplation differs so much from the light which we see, as the smallest ray of this material sun differs or is distant from its full or fontal light. Nor wonder if any light of nature the weak eye refuses to see, but the light given from heaven not at all: indeed he who formed the eye of man himself knows, and at the same time by offering such light confers without injury the faculty of vision." And so without doubt she seemed to foresense the excellent word of the Prophets by which is said, "Because with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light." Ps. 35:10

[182] She consoles a pious Priest, saddened by her taciturnity, Moreover the sacred Virgin was accustomed to invite certain devout ones, as an eagle her young, to fly: she was accustomed also to animate the armor-bearers of Christ, as a standard-bearer, to battle; she was accustomed, especially before her death, as primiceria, to call together athletes dejected with sorrow, after strenuous labors, for refreshment. A certain Priest, a man of pure and dove-like simplicity, drawn by a certain familiarity came to the Virgin, that from the abundance of the house of God with which he saw her to abound, he might taste a little; and concerning her revelations, for his salvation and also of others, he might be assured. And since the Virgin had very many friends, but few counselors; she did not wish to any simply asked things to offer a response, but in the better manner she could she sent the simple and good man consoled back. For which reason that Priest began to be saddened and anxious, fearing lest by his carelessness he had inflicted trouble on the Virgin: whence immediately before the altar of the Virgin Mary in the church prostrating himself, he began most bitterly to weep.

[183] Furthermore, because after the tempest the Lord made calm, she consoles him, appearing to him between two Angels, immediately the man was made in excess of mind, and saw a certain Virgin between two Angels, as another Esther among young girls, coming to him, who at the same time the Antiphon, "Salve Regina," was singing with him. And so when he had returned to himself as from elsewhere, he ran without delay to revisit the Virgin, whom he had feared he had offended, saying nothing to her of those things which he had seen or heard. But when the Virgin saw his mind more clearly, she said to him: "What are you doing, Lord? Has your sadness not

been turned into joy? Tell me, good Father, be not silent." But he answered: "Were you she, whom I now saw before the altar of the Virgin Mary prostrate, and whom singing together with me I heard? Never, as long as I have been in human life, has such a thing happened to me, nor has the sweetness of spirit and mind so filled me." But she was silent at that time: but in the progress of days more strictly required to speak the truth, and with him singing Salve Regina, that she had been her, who was thus led among the Angels in jubilation, she did not deny. O how agile the spirit of the Virgin, which joined itself to the absent without delay! How pervious and clear, which recognized another's mind so penetratingly! How pious and clement, which so sweetly made joyful the sad and desolate one! And how with charity and humility preserved, in all these things, she did not exhibit a foot even a little to ostentation!

[184] A certain woman continent and honest, was miserably tortured with the spirit of desolation, A woman vexed with the spirit of desolation, who by no one on account of excessive sadness could be consoled. With passions growing therefore, where to turn herself not knowing, with Priests consulted afterwards, thinking and saying it was a certain phantasm, she did not find rest. Coming almost to desperation, as the last of all she consulted also Lydwina. The pious virago therefore received the cause of her poor beloved; and that she should act manfully and be comforted in the Lord, with lively persuasions and admonitions strongly animated her. With a few days having passed therefore, it was granted to both to be made in excess of mind. Each saw a spacious palace, constructed with marvelous artifice; where marvelous harmony of songs, where ineffable sweetness of foods, where inestimable delight of any fragrances was felt. [Among these the complaining woman began again, as it seemed to her, to uncover the anguish of her spirit; she began also to trouble the Virgin Lydwina, neglecting those delights, anew, as she was accustomed. and rapt together with her to heavenly things, To whom the Virgin: "Let your laments cease, let complaints yield, let the little words of your passions go far off: for this place is not of sorrow, but of solace; not of grief, but of joy; not of passion, but of exultation."

[185] And so when she had said these things, the most holy Virgin led her into a certain place apart, she ineffably refreshes her. which she could estimate as nothing other than a storehouse of electuaries and royal condiments, and a reservatory of spices and pigments of the whole universe. Finally with such great sweetness of spirit there the woman was refreshed, that she not only wholly forgot the anguishes of mind, which hitherto she had suffered; but even returned to herself, for some days scarcely did she deign to smell bodily food. From then the woman was made more secret to the Virgin, was made more accustomed to receiving further consolations, was made more constant in warfare, with the Lord comforting her through the oracle of the blessed Virgin: For she had learned from the spouse, of whom it is said, "He led him about, and taught, and kept him as the pupil of his eye." Deut. 32:10 Indeed several times also by other beloved friends of God, by night, among the scaling wings of the heavenly soldiers, with Paul and Co-Apostles; and also among the dances of the girls, with Catherine, Barbara and the other Spouses of Christ accompanying her, she was seen: for winged creatures come together with those like themselves, Scripture attests. Ecclus. 27:10

NOTES.

CHAPTER IV.

On the consolations which she received from the glorious Mother of God, and on the grace of milk granted in the night of the Nativity.

[186] Certainly what of miracle around the image of the Virgin Mother herself, which in those days had come to Schiedam, happened when our little Lydwina began to say the Angelic salutation before the said image; By the curiosity of her Confessor, hiding himself in her cell, what in simple view the tender little virgin said the Virgin Mary somehow smiled at her, our simple discourse has expressed above. But also this little thing I shall take care to add, what in the days of proved virtue the Lord effected around his spouse, and what specially happened concerning the Virgin Mary around Lydwina I shall make known. With a certain solemnity supervening, about midday, the Virgin asked her Confessor and the others, as one desirous of divine consolation, that for the space of three hours they would leave her alone in peace: for she was hoping, in the customary way, to be relieved by the presence of her Angel; whom, with the spirit dictating to her, she estimated as at the doors. With them therefore going away, her Confessor secretly returning, in a certain little place of the chamber hid himself, awaiting to see with bodily eyes the presence of the Angel, whom often from the Virgin's confession he had perceived to come. But when she considered herself alone there, she began, as she was accustomed, to revolve the benefits of the Spouse; she began to strike the Lord with prayers and supplications; she began for the relief of her pains, as a paranymph, to invite her Angel.

[187] And about the first hour after midday the Angel came, hindered from the more familiar visitation of the Angel, and approaching the little bed of the Virgin there he stood, nor as the day before yesterday did he wish to approach nearer. Which when she saw, her soul was troubled, fearing lest in anything she had offended the Lord; and soon she began to weep bitterly, and to say: "What is it, my brother, that you delay to approach me? Why do you withdraw your benign countenance more than usual? Have I committed a fault, on account of which I now have you less placated to me?" And the Angel said to her: "By no means is it your fault, that I do not approach you; but rather of him, who lurks in the chamber, awaiting about you my experiment." And having said this, he disappeared. But the Virgin, as if defrauded of her bread, more troubled, deservedly grieving for this reason; wept more bitterly. Moreover when she thus was deploring, her Confessor confused rose, and humbly acknowledging his fault, promised that he would by no means do such things. But the Virgin seeing that he was the one, who by his presence had impeded for her the Angelic consolation, most bitterly wept a third time, saying: "What is it, O Father, what have you done to me? Are you too wavering? Or do you seek the experiment of him, who with his most pleasing presence is accustomed to console me?" But he not knowing what to say, ashamed not a little, from sadness of heart immediately withdrew. What wonder if the famished, if the crucified, if the languishing one was troubled? Since the little one asking had asked for bread, nor was there one who offered it to her: moreover he who was father of her soul, by his curiosity had blocked the way, and by his sensuality had wounded her.

[188] not long after she is rapt to the orders of the Celestial Ones, It happened however after that tribulation, that the Lord in the tribulation made success in this manner. For she was rapt, as the day before and day before yesterday, before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, upon which the aforesaid image was placed; then led through the place of pains; finally to the ranks of the Saints, with the Angel leading, she came. She saw therefore that fair sight of certain venerable Patriarchs, she saw the truthful number of Prophets, she saw the glorious choir of Apostles, she saw the white-robed army of Martyrs; she saw also there the copious assembly of holy Anchorites, of famous Doctors, of reverend Pontiffs, she saw the most verdant college of fellow-Virgins, moreover thousands of thousands praising and jubilating before the Lord, thus rapt she was contemplating. There were there so many and such delights, that by no means afterwards is it sufficient to bring forth even the smallest part. who exhort her soul to patience. And behold some of the Saints began to exhort the Virgin to patience and endurance, especially of those things which she was to suffer in the future. "What," they said, "of evil do we now suffer, we who once for Christ on earth so much sustained? What do former passions harm us, for which into infinity Christ's consolations we now receive? And if through fire and water we have passed, now, as you see, we have been led out into refreshment."

[189] Meanwhile while she was thus being comforted by the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, then the B. Virgin appearing once, she saw coming the Lord of Angels and the Lady of the world, who said to her: "Dearest daughter, how have you come here so uncultivated without a veil of the head?" To whom Lydwina: "O glorious Lady and beautiful Mother, you yourself know that my leader has thus led me here: by his command I stand, by his order willingly I appear, nor in any way other do I presume to will than he wills." Again the glorious Mother Mary asked her saying: "Do you wish your head to be covered with the head-covering, which I bear in my hands?" But she frightened too much looked at her leader, hesitating what she would answer, lest perhaps she should err relying on her own will. At length when the Queen of heaven Mary repeated this a third time, she humbly answered: "My Lady, no will should I have here." Then her Angel said to her. and again, places on her head the peplum, "If you wish to have it, take it." But she more fearing, begged to have the offered gift: but on account of the words of her leader which she had heard, more and more she feared to accept. When bodily she had returned to herself, behold the glorious Lady with a multitude of Virgins, holding the head-covering itself in her hands, appeared beside her, and said: "Often, O dearest, I have asked you whether you wished to have this veil, and you were unwilling to indicate your own will about it: behold because now with the head-covering itself I cover your head: which when it came from heaven, will remain upon earth only for seven hours. But you will give it to your Confessor, to whom you will say, that he may give faith henceforth to the graces of the Most High, and upon the image of my name, which is venerated at the Northern part in the parish church, he shall bring it back." And having said these things she disappeared.

[190] Moreover the Virgin began to give thanks to the Lord: which finished she put her hand to her head, which after 7 hours the Confessor is ordered to place upon the image of D.V., and considered the head-covering brought from above, of what substance and form it was. When she had ruminated on those things which she had seen in the holy choirs of heaven, and the time had drawn near in which the peplum should be returned according to the command of the Virgin Mary; she sent at the very hour of night before dawn for her Confessor, and indicated all things in order, as they had been done, to him. But he, as he saw and touched, that the peplum had been granted to the Virgin, was amazed: but the peplum itself seemed crisped, of sky-blue color, holding the middle between white and green, of imperceptible texture, filling the whole house with the sweetness of odor. With the last hour of the seven standing near indeed, the Virgin asked the Confessor, that without delay the often-mentioned peplum

he would deign to carry upon the head of the image: and because day had not yet dawned, the Confessor himself was making excuse with her saying: "It is too early, and the place of the image of Mary is very high and difficultly accessible." But she answered, "The Lord will provide, my Father, for the entry; and a ladder to the Northern part of the church you will find. Wherefore I beseech you now, do not delay to fulfill what I desire."

[191] he finds all things needful for this unexpectedly, Marvelous to say, with the man leaving the house, immediately the key-bearer of the church, namely the custodian, met him: likewise at hand, as had been said, a ladder is found in that very Northern side: which immediately placing at the altar of the Virgin, the peplum upon the head of the image he let down: which by the Angel was swiftly taken up. But the bell-ringer of the church, since he was ignorant of the mystery, and noted the ministry of the Priest himself in climbing and descending, said: "What I ask of novelty is this, that you have wished with a ladder to visit the image of Mary at dawn?" Who answered: "You do not know now, but you will know afterwards." It is plain therefore according to the truth of Scripture, that the happy and undefiled, knowing not the marriage-bed in transgression, received a chosen gift from the hand of the Queen, and a most acceptable lot among the choirs of the girls of the Lord. Wisd. 3:13 Truly nothing seemed to be on earth than a sister of Angels, foster-sister of Virgins, companion of Martyrs, disciple of Apostles, handmaid of the Queen of heaven. For indeed in her meditations as if in body and spirit presentially she were there, she herself most piously affected by the Marian mysteries, with her nursing she nursed, with her bearing she bore, with her exiled she was exiled, with her grieving she grieved, with her seeking she sought, with her standing under the Cross she stood: for this was a salutary solace to the Virgin, this her happy company, this and her spiritual service, this and her distinction of companion-like familiarity. What more pleasing could the Virgin Lydwina offer to the Virgin mother, than to exhibit herself as the bearer and handmaid of the cross prompt anywhere? What more becoming for Mary, than to show herself benevolent in such little joys to her handmaid? What more acceptable to both before God, than after manifold addresses and also touches, to divide the crumbs of divine graces to devout little sons, falling from the table of the Lords? How assiduous in duty this one, how beneficent in benefit that one, how munificent both were, the following miracle will explain.

[192] Indeed when at the sacred time of the Advent of Christ, our Virgin Lydwina was meditating to renew herself with new exercises; it happened that a certain widow, by name Catherine, was warned through a vision, that the breasts of the Virgin, [she confesses her breasts are to be filled with milk on the night of the Lord's Nativity;] to whom sometimes she was obeying, under the very night of the Lord's Nativity would be filled with milk; and that she going to ask a little sip from it, should by no means delay to receive. Rising therefore in the morning the widow, approaches the Virgin secretly, saying: "Behold, dearest Lydwina, do not deny I beseech the truth of those things which I am about to tell you. This very night indeed with a clear voice I have been warned thus and thus, to come to you, on the very festivity of the Lord's Nativity: since, with the Lord cooperating, your breasts will be filled with milk." But the most humble Virgin began to marvel and to be stupefied, because she knew this widow much panted to know the secrets, which the Lord daily was working in her. For which reason first she was silent: at length yet conquered by the word of God, which neither to be deceived nor to deceive knows, she answered: "Observe therefore the secret silences of that most holy night, adapt the due palate of mind, that you may be made a participant of the gift promised to you, and the little sip which you desire you may obtain."

[193] The day of the Nativity therefore most desired by the elect came, so that at the same hour in which the Virgin bore the Lord, in whose nocturnal quiet silence she committed herself wholly to contemplate the sacrament of the Lord's Incarnation: and when by divine will she was rapt to the colleges of Virgins, she saw there the glorious Mary having given birth, with an innumerable multitude of sacred Virgins, singing praises and hymns with ineffable harmony, to whom no one of the other Saints seemed joined. Sitting, as it seemed, also was the Virgin in the midst of them, as the most beautiful queen of all; having a little boy in her lap, just as once in the inn reclined. What joy, or what jubilation there, neither can the tongue say, nor the mind express: only he who receives, only he who knows to love fervently, only he who tastes can unfold. At the same hour indeed, the breasts of all the Virgins swelled full with milk, it happens to her and to other Blessed Virgins: just as the glorious mother of the Lord was filled with the supernal gift on the night of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The breasts of the most sacred Virgin, namely of Lydwina, also were full of milk with the others: but for a short time, namely about to last for an hour. On account of this however the Virgin asked her leading Angel, that not forgetful of his promise, the widow so piously troublesome to her he would not defraud of her intent. To whom soon the Angel answered: "Do not, beloved, be solicitous: for for a time you are deprived: but with the Lord favoring, who gave the first milk, indeed he will give also the second. When the widow shall come, to suck from your milk, this alone you shall do, namely that the nipple of your breast with your left hand you shall rub, and immediately it will be filled with most true milk."

[194] after which to the widow conscious of this secret Then when silence held all things, and it was the third watch of the night; the ingenious widow hastened to visit the Virgin, whom she believed to abound in milk, with the breast full from heaven. To her immediately Lydwina, with prayer sent beforehand, according to the command of the Angel, strove to rub the nipple, and it began to swell with the fullness of milk. The widow therefore drank from the fullness of that breast with a third draught, as much as she could more honestly draw; and with such great fullness remaining, that one of the breasts at a little pressure, the same milk is given to suck, as an overflowing wave was awaiting exit. But that milk was of such vigorous sweetness, that even the same widow could scarcely for a long time turn herself to the accustomed foods of nature, except overcome by the strict command of the Virgin herself. Her Confessor Lord John Walter also at other times received similar grace about which in his writings, noted by his own hand, more fully he has mentioned. O truly great devotion of the Virgin to the Virgin Mother! O truly effective exercise of the meditator; which in a body worm-eaten, gnawed, lacerated, but virginal, merited an abundance of such milk, and for the sterile widow offered heavenly milk as drink. It is written moreover, "And kings shall be your nursing fathers and queens your nursing mothers." Isa. 49:23 This one therefore I do not doubt to have had a place among the young girls of the King, among the concubines of the great Solomon I do not dissent from possessing a house, and among the royal nursing mothers I do not despair of receiving a chamber.

CHAPTER V.

On the grace of her sublime contemplation and of understanding, and on the most clear spirit of prophecy.

[195] Snatched from her senses she does not perceive her side being burned: The marvelous virago of Christ often was suspended in such excess of contemplation, that above human sense happily rapt, what externally in her members was being done sometimes she was ignorant. For at a certain time of shrieking cold, it happened that the most happy woman had a potsherd, full of burning coals, at her side: which thus incautiously left, the force of the fire burned the flesh of the side up to the rib. And when by chance her household came to her, struck with fear they said: "O Lydwina, do you perceive that fire has burned you?" Who as if she had acted in remote places, answered: "The fire, dearest ones, I did not see, nor have I felt its heat: nevertheless my side I now perceive." And they said to her: "We have sinned against God and against you, sister, because not only the skin and flesh have been burned by fire, but the force of fire has almost burned one of your ribs." "Blessed," she said, "be the Most High, who has so anointed me within, that I have not perceived the burning of the fire."

[196] unlettered although she penetrates the mysteries of the scriptures: The Virgin was traversing, in spirit subtle and agile, that sublime region which is full of delights and of the riches of the Lord; where reason without obscurity, where memory without forgetfulness, where understanding without error conceives and discerns all things. But the handmaid of God had reached through the meditation of the Passion, and the accustoming to contemplation, and also the singular influx of the divine spirit, such great serenity of mind; that although without a teacher she had not learned letters or the Gospel, yet by the illumination of the internal mind she penetrated, fathoming the mysteries of the Gospels and of many other Scriptures. She had (as I have received from others) a tenacious memory in place of a codex, bindng intelligence in place of skill, purged affection in place of limpid discourse, the sevenfold unction in place of magisterium, practical patience in place of continual exercise, the book of life in place of the doctoral grade: for Scripture says, "Blessed is the man whom you shall instruct, Lord, and shall teach him out of your law." Ps. 93:12 She had learned to think of the Lord in goodness, and to seek him through the sighs of holy patience with simplicity.

[197] A certain one of the Order of Preachers and Professor of sacred Theology, had heard various ones variously, in the manner of men, speaking about our Lydwina: whose spirit could not take rest, adjured, to explain the manner of the Incarnation done by the whole Trinity, until he himself had known and seen her. And when coming from the Utrecht diocese he had found the little dwelling of the Virgin, he began to confer about various things. But at length to searching the root of the understanding of Lydwina the handmaid of Christ more curiously it came. "I ask you," he said, "O Virgin, tell me the form, how namely by the whole blessed Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God alone was made in the womb of the Virgin Mother." To whom the Virgin of most profound humility, accustomed to be silent about boastful and lofty matters before the learned, raised an excuse, as she could. Which that lettered man receiving ill, with a harsh word again he approaches. "I adjure you," he said, "by the terrible judgment of almighty God, that with all simulation set aside, if you know the truth of this question, do not delay to tell." But hearing such an effective kind of inveighing, she feared; and touched with sorrow of heart within, she began most strongly to weep; and by the redundance of tears, even moved her proponent to compunction.

[198] with a most apt similitude she does this; Having regained her strength as best she could, with much shame the Virgin burst forth into this sentence: "For answering," she said, "my Father, such a great question, I set before my eyes such a pious similitude, saving correction. I take for myself the solar body, from which three distinct rays proceed, which are brought by union into one ray. Around the solar body itself I imagine these rays broad, at the extremity tending to a cone or sharp ray, in the manner of a lance indivisibly and impartibly terminating, and in the same point of a certain ray penetrating the interiors of a little house. But by the sun, for the present I take for myself the super-blessed Divinity; by the threefold rays however proceeding from the sun, the operation of the three Persons, to effect such Incarnation, I understand; by the union however of the threefold ray into one ray, indeed I take the inseparability of the operation of the three Persons to the aforesaid Incarnation; but the point of the three rays, or the sharp ray from the three conjoined rays

proceeding, as far as is for the present, I call the Person of the Word or of the Son, terminating the Incarnation, whose yet Incarnation effectively the three Hypostases or Persons, impartibly or indivisibly, have worked: when however a little house the same ray penetrating I have said; by this, plainly invisible and translucent entrance of the Son of God I take into the womb of the Virgin, from whose most pure bloods he took a little portion for himself, which with the unity of the divine supposit safe ineffably he united."

[199] Having heard which, the most learned of men was so filled with stupor and admiration, and asks, but in vain, that the matter be kept secret. that before many openly with conscience he said, that he had never heard from Doctors so appropriate a metaphor. But the Virgin when she had said these things, asked the man urgently, that he should reveal to no one; knowing that to lie hidden is safer than to lie open through ostentation; moreover since there is one Lord of sciences, and by him thoughts are prepared. Yet as much as the Virgin strove to bind the man, so much more diffusely over her responses he filled the whole earth: nay rather wherever in any places he was made against the detractors of the Virgin a most lively defender and advocate; who first had approached, as a suspicious inquisitor, not asked. Nor let anyone object against the Virgin saying, "I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his shoe," says John the Baptist. Indeed the Virgin had protested herself sufficiently unworthy: but the very importunate adjuration of the man made all her viscera tremble; for even to answer the Pontiff Caiaphas, although undeservedly, yet adjuring, Christ willingly offered himself. Mark 1:7

[200] The spirit of prophecy shone marvelously indeed and without doubt to be marveled at in the handmaid of God, the woman, to whom she had promised her husband would be amended, so that not only did she exhibit herself present to the absent, as was touched on above; but in truth future things she predicted, and searched the secrets of hearts: absent things also, as present, most clearly she beheld. A certain woman had a husband harder than Nabal, and most fierce to her whole house; so much that neither did he permit any of the domestics to serve God at will, nor his wife to have tranquil cares even in secret. Coming therefore to the house of the Virgin, for her husband to the Lord of the Virgin she fervently asked prayers; that God by his clemency might turn the wolf into a lamb, whom as a beast in the house she was sustaining. To whom Lydwina: "Sustain," she said, "patiently: for it will succeed better for you." What more? Days succeed to days, the last things become worse than the first, words to words, blows to blows are heaped up: the woman seeks death, and does not find it; she attempts hanging, and does not receive it: at length about to sink herself in the port of the town, with the devil instigating, she ran. And when she thus desperate was running with a swift course, at length having been driven to desperation, another spirit was present who compelled the running step to halt, and in this manner by suggesting compelled the wretched woman to speak within herself: "So often," he said, "O unhappy one, have you visited the Virgin, and her so benevolent often have you experienced: indeed now you will see her, before you die." And so a little she began to crush the head of the dragon, ignorant however that the good spirit of the Lord was doing these things.

[201] And when the Virgin was beholding the bitterness of the woman with lynx-like eyes of mind, and she runningly at the door of the house, orders to return to her husband, as if about to take leave was striking; the Virgin cried out to her domestics saying: "Rise quickly, for someone comes to the door, whose soul is in bitterness." When therefore the woman entered, she prostrated herself with arms over the little bed of the Virgin, scarcely having spirit remaining. To whom Lydwina: "What do you have? Is it going rightly between you and your husband?" But she answered: "How do you ask this? Because I seek death, and it is not pleasing to live longer. By your counsel I have sustained: by your word I have borne words and blows: to death I now hasten, because the miseries of this life with my husband I do not propose to pass." To whom again Lydwina said: "Return I ask, dearest, to your husband, return to your bed; believing without delay on the part of almighty God, that never henceforth such things there with your husband will you sustain, that at the same moment he is to be made mild. nay rather peace in the future I announce to you." The impatient woman believed the holy woman, and with blessing received returning to her house, her husband in bed sleeping she found; and beside his side, according to the Virgin's command, fell asleep. A new thing I shall say. The spirit of the Lord fell upon the man that night, and he was changed somewhat into another, nor only I would say into a different one. Indeed he was so marvelously by the power of God's right hand changed, that as if from old new, from wolf a lamb, from lion a mild calf, not without the wonder of all who knew the man, he was thought: for he was saved crueler than every beast, through the faithful woman, on that day.

[202] Also a Religious of the Order of devout Canons in ^b Schoonhoven, greatly beloved by his fellow-Canon brothers, A Religious tempted by the Prior of Schoonhoven, as a new little recruit from the world, according to the accustomed rage of the most wicked enemy, was vexed with bitternesses and burdens so much, that all hope of living for him, and trust of persevering under regular life was failing. Having complained to some, whom he thought zealous of his salvation, words of consolation generally he received: but because this torture is not quickly cured by word, but by the constancy of faith together and perseverance of mind; crucified himself internally, he drew other his brother-confreres externally to tears of compassion often. But the Prior, fearing God and zealous for souls, from whom I also learned this, Nicholas Wit by name, when he saw the man wasting away, what was to be done he deliberated longer. For he feared the relapse of the strong and young man, he lamented the damage of the soul about to be endangered, and about to be led to her almost despairing, he was foreseeing the reproach of friends, nay rather from consequence the scandal of little ones he greatly feared. Why do I wander through many things? Recourse is made to the Virgin, with the said Prior leading the Brother with him to the front of her house. But she was at that time under the Lord's scourges, marvelously tortured with the alternate calculus: wherefore she ordered the Prior to come to her alone, with the others dismissed outside, considering that for that time the frequenting of a multitude of men she could by no means bear.

[203] she spontaneously indicates his name and cause the Virgin, The venerable man approached therefore, sprinkled with the wormwood of paternal compassion, because he saw the vessel of sanctification, examined and purged sevenfold, under the hand of the smelter thus penitentially again to be brought to the file and to be polished before him. But the Virgin seeing him, said: "Dearest Father, you see that many pains and penalties surround me, for which little present is the discourse to you: but because in word I have anticipated you, I ask pardon, because torment constrains me to anticipate the discourse. Your brother, whom as a companion you have led here, by the Lord now in the furnace of temptation gravely is proved: but persuade him to endure patiently, for in a short time he will be freed: yet let prayer be made insistently for him to the Lord, for great is the grace prepared for him, and the reward in heaven greatest." And when the pious Father Nicholas had heard these speeches, and predicts that he will persevere. he sat astonished, because the name of the Brother, who was the cause of his coming, he had heard from her; moreover even in the extreme pains of the stone, sound in mind and foreseeing of future consolation he perceived her to be. After this the Virgin dismissing the Father, said: "Farewell, dearest Father, and make me a participant of your prayers: but your Brother in the virtue of holy patience take care to stabilize." And he who heard told me these things, and thus in order afterwards done in the Brother, as the Virgin had predicted, by his own writing testified.

[204] a sailor devoted to her It happened also that the merchants of that land, made a great preparation of ships for the sake of sailing, as commonly they usually do to the parts of the ^c East: but among them was a skillful shipmaster, beyond the accustomed manner of sailors everywhere fearing God, and on this account familiar with the Virgin: for he was accustomed, about to sail to remote places, to commend himself to the Virgin's prayers. But with his companions coming together on the feast day, this one alone, to consult the Virgin, withdrew himself from the others. And when they greatly insisted, that on the appointed day of the feast together they should leave the port, Lydwina, not ignorant of God's judgments, she forbids him to set out on the appointed day with the others, to her beloved friend through an intermediary announces saying: "Thus says Lydwina, that you not in any way commit yourself with the others to the waves of the sea, unless first you bid her farewell, just as you have been accustomed yesterday and the day before yesterday." The man came therefore, but on account of the decree of his companions sufficiently unwilling, and said: "I do not wish, my dearest brother, to suffer a refusal in the matter which I am about to ask." But he: "Ask whatever." "I ask," she said, "from my heart, that on the day appointed by your companions you not expose yourself to the sea, for a certain cause known to me, which in its time without doubt you shall experience."

[205] And when he alleged many things to the contrary, especially his solitude and the multitude of others, again Lydwina said to him: "Believe me, dearest, do not take the journey with the others: and though left alone, the Lord will be with you, and going and returning prosperously by his piety accompanying will lead you back." The shipmaster more discreet than the others was amazed, whom she knew would be overwhelmed by a hostile fleet. and passing by the decreed day, with the others sailing ahead with joy and mocking, sad alone returned home. The other fellow-soldiers committed themselves to the sea, mocking the companion left on land with insults and derisions. They give the rafts to the wind, all things succeed prosperously: but the best beginning the worst, so I would say, fortune follows. Pirates supervened about to commit a naval battle, all that fleet perished, partly by the sword, partly by shipwreck, partly with the sailors and armor-bearers led into captivity. But the man shipmaster, although suffused with sadness, followed his companions; and with winds blowing he escaped the perils of any pirates, and with the waves of the sea chosen came to the desired end; and prosperous, with merchandise and many gains joyfully he returned. It is plain therefore what penetrating mind of our observer there was before God, by whose sound counsel, with the others perishing, this one alone crossed safely and returned enriched to his own.

[206] It was the custom of the handmaid of God, as elsewhere has been said, as Aaron, between the living about to perish and the dead, after the aforesaid fire of her homeland to place herself in the middle before the Lord, and frequently before her more secret ones to bring forth in the middle the word of the observer, that the wrath of the Lord is over Schiedam; the wrath of the Lord is over Schiedam. Furthermore when she saw, that the wrath of the Lord was implacable, and the iniquity of the people of the land had matured and was near harvest, having called some to her she said: "Behold that I have prayed for our people: but since many scourges the Lord has decreed to inflict by his avenging justice, only this sign of his mercy in his wrath over us he will deign to show, namely that we shall suffer a fire." And indeed on this account she caused to be called to her a certain woman Catherine by name, she prepares a shelter for her fellow villagers, who when she had caused new buildings to be built, and had kept some boards for herself, said to her: "The boards which you have kept as superfluous,

do not be sluggish to transfer back behind this house, that it may be made a storehouse for those poor neighbors, in which, at the time of the coming fire, some of their household goods may be able to be preserved. And so it was done. But as the day of the fire drew near, having called to herself the aforesaid Catharine, she sends her friend on pilgrimage she addresses her thus: I know that you made a vow of pilgrimage to visit the Blessed Virgin ^d at Bois-le-Duc, and now it is the fitting time to go thither, to return shortly. Catharine said to her: Why do you urge me to go on pilgrimage into a foreign city, when you have foretold that the conflagration of the fire will occur in our own? To her the Virgin Lydwina: Do confidently what I say, do not waver; for the Lord will provide what is better. The woman therefore went and returned, and found her house utterly reduced to ashes.

[207] The woman wept for the loss of her belongings, and wept for the burning of her house; on this account the Virgin had the desolate woman summoned as quickly as possible, saying to her: O head, head, you have long desired to live together with me in one house, she denies that the flames will reach her own house. and now you are compelled to dwell with me, nor from now on shall we ever be separated, except by the coming of death: therefore take comfort in the Lord, and equanimously give thanks. They remained thereafter together in one house, as has been said. Nor do I wish to pass over here from the memory of those who shall read, what happened at the very time of the fire to our holy Virgin, very much to be noted. For when the force of the fire was spreading everywhere, and her neighbors were thinking of keeping their bedclothes, such as they could, behind the Virgin's house for safekeeping, certain simple folk came together to take away the boards of the Virgin's little chamber, as was touched upon above, with the same intent, namely, to deliver her from the midst of the flames which were drawing near. To them she said: Let me lie, dearest ones, as I have lain hitherto: the fire will do me no harm at all. Not withstanding these and other words, out of piety, she herself remaining, they took away the boards. But I shall say nothing about this for the present; let it suffice that what she had foretold came to pass. For, as the Wise Man attests, "The soul of the just announces truths more than seven watchmen sitting on high to watch." Ecclus. 37:18

[208] She foresees a duel must be prevented. It also happened at a certain time that two soldiers, with the devil, sower of tares, busily at work, were about to engage in a duel: the mother of one of them, anxious for her son, weeping and crying, came to the Virgin, saying: My son is about to engage in a duel, pray for him, Lydwina. To her the Virgin: Do not torment yourself in vain for your son, for by the Lord's granting he will suffer no danger. And indeed, by the disposing of the governor of hearts, hatred was turned into a kiss, the sword into a cup, tumult into silence, the duel into peace. There is no doubt that the discipline of the peace of both was increased upon the back of the Virgin, who asks those things which are of peace from the Lord at all times.

[209] At a certain time of a plague, it happened that the Virgin was marked by the Lord in two places of her body beyond the rest. Laboring under the plague, Moreover, when she desired the Holy Eucharist, the Curate, of whom mention was made above, fearful with the dread of death, came to her; and as if the contagion of the plague must cling to him through the smell of the Virgin's breath, he anxiously stopped up his nostrils and mouth. When she saw this, she said: This is not a disease, O Father, by whose touch or smell either you or anyone else ought to be infected through me: for it is the work of the Lord, and not of man or nature, by which you consider me to be afflicted more than usual. But he, confused, fell silent, and at length with feigned boldness said: Would, Lydwina, that I may live as long as to see your end. To whom presently the Virgin answered: My end you shall not see, she announces to her Curate that he will die first, Father: rather shall I see yours: wherefore I beseech you, set in order your house, as you would wish when dying to appear before the Lord. But he, as he had been accustomed, with a shameless brow scorned her, but afterwards learned by experience, being struck by the Lord, what he would not understand from the Virgin while in health.

[210] A little after, therefore, the proud man was humbled, and remembered the word which the Virgin had foretold him: whence, sending a messenger, he humbly begged that all be forgiven him, which as a suspicious and malicious man he had formerly caused, and she urges him to restore unjustly possessed goods; and further earnestly entreated that she would deign to intercede efficaciously for him. But she, when she heard that he was sick, grieved for the dying man; and sending peaceful words back to him, she greeted him saying: I beseech you, Sir, that you make a pure confession, and restoring all things belonging to others, seriously dispose all the affairs of your house: for you shall die, and shall not live. Hearing these things, however, he grew angry, like a deaf asp, stopped up his ear lest perchance he should hear the voice of the charmer charming wisely: moreover as quickly as possible he sent back a man, who said to her: I am conscious of nothing in myself regarding others' goods, nor do I know what I ought to restore. When the Virgin perceived that the man was blinded, again she sent one who might more particularly announce to him but in vain. what and where those goods were, which although he had held as his own, nevertheless by the right judgment of God were not his, even in truth. But since he himself was less wise and less understanding and did not provide for his last things, he turned the Virgin's counsel into poison; reckoned her prayer as an insult; felt grace as an injury; and so he died. But of what sort and in what manner he was seen after this death, the Most High knows, whose judgments are a great abyss, and whose business it is to render to each according to his works.

[211] Another man, called John Angeli, Curate of the church of Schiedam, succeeded the aforesaid unnamed man in the cure, himself also a Hollander by nation. He, being held of a milder disposition, drew more to confess to him in the word of truth daughters, of whom one specially frequented the Virgin's house daily, to the other, to whom had been told the marvelous sweet fragrance about her, and she herself was indeed very devout. When, with eyes fixed on her, he saw her frequenting the Virgin's house, greatly amazed, he said: What is it, daughter, that you daily frequent the house of the ailing Lydwina? Thus being often pressed by him, at length she answered: I marvel at you, said she, that you, a prudent and circumspect man, are the Virgin's Confessor, and you yourself do not experience sometime what I myself experience in her daily. But he: What are these things which you so experience? And the woman said: If you knew the gift of God which I experience daily at the Virgin's, you would visit her more often, nay rather could hardly be separated from her. To which the Curate: Do I hear these things in dreams, or in truth? But she said: Observe in the early dawn her hand, while you hear her confession, and you shall feel what I tell you.

[212] The said Curate therefore observed the hour marked for him, and having heard the Virgin's confession, asked that her hand be given him: captured by experience of her, which, smelling it as if anointed with heavenly unguents, he began to cry out and say, O little vessel filled with the Holy Spirit! O storehouse of divine unguents, why have you concealed from me until the present day the graces of visitations of the Lord of this kind? So many times have I heard your confession, and understood nothing of these things; so many times have I offered you the sacred Body of Christ, and could perceive nothing of these things; so many times have I spoken to you, and of all things you revealed nothing to me. But she answered: and thenceforth illuminated and penitent, Truly, Father, if you remember well, I did not conceal it wholly: but with the Lord concealing, perchance you were not able to grasp everything plainly. Why do I tarry? At once without doubt, as that man drew in that most sweet odor, not only did he sense a change in all his senses, but rather conceived in his inner man a certain illumination and radical compunction. Whence, as if suffering a vomit of the soul, he began of his own accord to disclose horrid sins to the Virgin, began, with the spirit breathing upon him, to draw deep sighs from his heart, began to bring the hidden poison into the open, and with weeping eyes to promise amendment from the innermost parts of his heart.

[213] he explains his sins and their gravity, But when he seemed to melt like wax before the face of fire, she herself began to disclose to the man certain sins which lay hidden in the deep bilge, to weigh the things disclosed, to lay them forth as if in the judgment of God, and leave the things laid forth to be judged by his own conscience. Whereupon when he had received with trembling the circumstances of time, place, and other matters for these things, fearing in mind, and overcome with shame, he began with pious impatience to cry out with tears and to say: Who, O little vessel of the Holy Spirit, has revealed to you these things which you say? Surely he who has granted you such knowledge of my sins, has doubtless indicated many other things about me. And with these words spoken, going out through the back door into the Virgin's little garden, he wept bitterly. After this, the man returned, proposed better things, promised satisfaction, and for himself most heartily begged that prayers be poured forth by the Virgin, as from a mother, henceforth more devout. From then on, relying on divine grace, he began to abstain from many superfluous things, to tame the flesh with fasts, to chastise the belly with hair shirts, and with other modes of penance to redeem the time he had lost. And when he thus chastised his body and reduced it to servitude, not long after, in this salutary and holy resolve, he entered the way of all flesh through the plague: and she gains him for God. and thus the Virgin brought back the man, the daughter the father, the sheep the shepherd, to the path of righteousness: and as if set as a watchman in Israel, she announced his wickedness to the impious, and delivered her own soul. How much doubtless the Virgin suffered in the flesh for the deliverance of his soul, because of the length of this work, I have taken care to pass over at present in silence ^f.

[214] She knows from afar of two shipwrecks. How often she was present in spirit to those laboring in childbirth, in infirmities, in tribulations, in like manner I pass over. Yet I shall relate two, lest I should seem to have altogether kept silent about the praises and wonders of the Lord in this matter. Now since the town of Schiedam has some inhabitants who seek their living by the practice of seafaring, it often happened that fishermen especially were tossed by stormy waves. On this account our Virgin Lydwina, much anxious for her fellow-citizens, with tearful eyes, as if she had been present, at the time of shipwrecks used to lament the deaths and dangers; moreover she foretold: O, said she, what sad news we shall hear today before sunset: for such and such today have escaped the dangers of death as before, or such have been drowned or perished. A little after, on almost the same day, there commonly followed the mournful report, the cry struck the city, weeping was spread everywhere in the streets.

[215] Moreover, at the time of the impending submersion ^g of the southern parts of Holland, and she delivers a woman in peril from the flood. a certain woman was resting in a village which was near to the dike, over which the swelling sea bursting through occupied the whole region. She heard the voice of most violent waters tumultuating among themselves, and was greatly terrified. And while she was thus anxious because of the storms and tempests, she saw in spirit Lydwina as if coming to her, who was consoling her soul, and

led her safely home. Marvelous to say! At the same time at which that woman was in peril, the Virgin made plain to those standing by, in clear words, what and what kind of perils of the waters were heaping upon her aforesaid devotee: and thus by the gift of God she lay cast down under a hut, and nevertheless her eyes were to the ends of the earth.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VI.

On her most fervent charity and desire for martyrdom, which she had to imitate the footsteps of Christ.

[216] There had grown up in her indeed not only clarity of understanding with the gift of prophecy, but rather the insuperable power of love had kindled her affection into lamps of fire and flame, so that many waters could not quench charity. Truly the Virgin, known far and wide for the whiteness of her purity, by which she bore in her body, not in vain, the pains left of the happy signs, began with incredible fervor to thirst for the triumph of Christ's Passion, Seeing the glory of her crown, still unfinished, and to emulate the Martyrs' white-robed candidate army, whose faith could not be tainted, nor hope confounded, nor charity extinguished, nor patience broken, nor virtue weakened. Therefore, about the twenty-eighth year of her infirmity, she obtained the glorious crown in this manner. The Lord granted her in a certain ecstasy of mind to see a most precious crown, in which gems and stones of various colors, most shining, appeared inserted; yet not yet perfectly rounded, yet to be perfected in the future. And when she had come back to herself, she began to think about the crown shown her; and at length to beseech the Lord, that he would deign by paternal chastisements so to fit her clay vessel, that her soul might not be cheated of its desire, and that she might at length merit to receive the glorious crown shown her.

[217] Lydwina offers herself to bear whatever. Moreover, considering that the glory of such stupendous beauty in no way befitted the smallness of her merits, turning over the infinity of Christ's merits with all the bitternesses which he bore for us on earth, she ventured to place a few exercises of her own pains upon the scale. But since there is no proportion of the finite to the infinite, the humble handmaid began before the Lord to examine herself, as though she had accomplished nothing. And how, she said, O Lord God, will anyone imitate your footsteps, unless he has borne whatever troubles of the flesh, snares of demons, contempts of the world, insults of men? And moreover, has not annihilated himself wholly from an entire and incorrupt spirit? Place, I beseech, O Lord, your handmaid upon your paths and in the footsteps of your feet.

[218] Certain men from the retinue of the Duke of Burgundy, Afterwards, when she was thus knocking at the ears of the Friend, it happened, by the strong arm of warriors, that Duke Philip of Burgundy took possession of Holland, as if owed to him by hereditary right, through the individual cities and places, homage being rendered by the inhabitants; and having received them, afterwards stabilized them with garrisons of armed men. He also himself came to Schiedam, the oft-named town. It happened therefore, about the beginning of the month of October, that certain of the hired soldiers, whom the common folk of Holland call Picards, sitting together, brought to the Virgin by the Curate, conspired among themselves against Christ's handmaid Lydwina, like Satan against the just Job, glorying in the malice conceived: for they had heard, by fame flying through the world, that she neither ate nor drank, but only took the Body of the Lord. And when, filled with food and drink, which are often material for rage, they were burning; they came in their unbridled mind together to the door of the Pastor of the church, pretending that they wished to see the daughter of his confession, and showing that they wished to honor her with peaceful words. But, alas for shame! and alas for grief! like Herod in guile. And when the Pastor of the church heard the men speaking mildly, he quickly believed them: and as if rejoicing in them, led them to the Virgin.

[219] Hardly had they entered the Virgin's little house, and behold, in the manner of fools they began to shout, him being repelled with insult, and shutting the door from within, as if they were barbarians, they presumed to cackle and make tumult around her bed. She indeed said nothing to these things: but like a little lamb lent ears learned to the attacking folly. But the Curate, seeing what was being done, was dismayed in mind, and to check their raging fury, he labored earnestly with prayers as he could. But they, who, it seemed clearly, had come with a fixed purpose to rage, drove away the Presbyter of Christ with insults; moreover they were not ashamed to call him the concubine-keeper and fornicator of the Virgin. This, they said, is your concubine and the consenter of your fornication, on which account you strive to defend her with your lying words. But he, grieving too much, began to weep, and turned aside to the other part of the altar which stood erected there, unable to bear the mockeries which the shameless men attempted. But the attendants of the devil, seeing that they could fulfill their malice, they shamelessly uncover her; since there was no one who barked or dared to resist manfully of all her neighbors or household; presently a candle being lighted in the hall, they took down the veil which hung before the Virgin's bed; and impudently drawing off all the coverings, with shameless eyes and hands they most basely handled the little body lying on its back, swollen with many kinds of diseases, infirmities, and dropsy.

[220] Now there was at that time the small daughter of Lydwina's brother, and her niece Petronilla dashed to the ground, very frightened and tearful seeing these things, named Petronilla: whom, because they saw her in a girlish way oppose herself, with a certain impetuous fury hurling her against a stool, they wounded so gravely in the groin and loins, that from then on she did not cease to limp even to death. Moreover, when they saw that virginal body, swollen like a wineskin because of the dropsy: all shame cast aside, they rage with tongues and hands, in the fury of their spirit, now beast, now harlot, now glutton they named her; and with other venomous reproaches thought up from their hearts, they raged against the Virgin. Nor was it enough for the sons of Belial thus to have afflicted Christ's daughter with injuries, thus to have uncovered the poor woman, and thus to have seen and struck with polluted hands the bride of the Lord; nay, upon the pain of her former wounds, when she was swollen with dropsy, they left, witch-like, new wounds by their cruel and inhuman handlings: and afterwards, their bloody hands having been washed, as quickly as before, lion-like, they returned to afflict her with blasphemies and insults.

[221] The Curate was standing, seeing all these things; but he did not dare to speak a word and they leave her swimming in her own blood, as long as these things were being done: and the little girl, his little niece, was being much tormented by the injury done to her. So the Virgin alone, her blood flowing onto the straw and cloths nearby, when she heard so many blasphemies, and without doubt feared the judgment of the Lord; at length said to them: Why do you not fear to interpret sinisterly the works of the Lord in me? Or do you not know what judgment threatens you? But they, more and more, as such a kind of wild beasts is wont, cackling and rejoicing, as if they had done a service pleasing to God, departed, leaving her. What more of these? The rumor of such great outrage came to the ears of certain matrons of the city, and coming together, alas for grief! they found the Virgin Martyr lying in her blood; the matrons break into lamentation, and the girl Petronilla, cruelly injured and broken. And behold weeping and much wailing: behold rumor and outcry: behold weeping and grief, over the nefarious crime committed, over the flowing blood, over the wounded and shamefully uncovered body: for such things in the region of Holland, which always venerates the female sex, none had seen nor heard, of the sort which happened to the Virgin. The venerable matrons also gathered up the blood spread around of the reverend Virgin: and since she was wounded in three parts of her body, with diligent care applied, they spent that whole evening in tears and laments, because of the things which had been done.

[222] and the murmuring of the citizens against those savage men. Meanwhile, that new Prince, altogether ignorant of what had been done, bidding farewell to the citizens, passed to a nearby place, which is called Rotterdam. There was murmuring among the people, the hearts of good men were stirred up over the execrable business of unheard-of cruelty, over the brutal manner of such unwonted malice, which the mercenary soldiers, attendants of the devil, disturbers of peace, shedders of blood, contemners of virginal honor, with their Prince unknowing, so monstrously presumed against the martyr of Christ, his daughter and spouse. Whence the elders of the city, coming to her, were consoling her, saying that they wished to approach the illustrious Prince, and to complain about the iniquity perpetrated by the aforesaid tyrants. To whom Lydwina said: The Virgin forbids that they be prosecuted; Do not vex the Prince because of me, nor do you wish to contaminate your hands because of them; there is above one to whom vengeance is reserved, and now their judgment is at hand. And indeed not long after the sin, the Lord God of vengeance requited some of those who had given their work to such cruelty, as I have received from the writings of trustworthy men. For one of them fell headlong into the sea, and the water entering his insides, he died suffocated. but God takes vengeance; Another, turned to madness, died in Zeeland. A third is said to have been killed in a certain battle by the English. A messenger also from a certain other of their masters, struck, as he said, by some sickness or other, was sent to ask pardon: and this man with tears not only obtained pardon from her, but also favor. In sum, they were clothed with a curse, who had so cruelly detracted from her; were covered, as with a cloak, with their confusion.

[223] Further, when the handmaid of Christ afterwards lay alone, behold her Angel came, her Angel congratulates her, shining like the sun in his strength, who addressed his beloved with honey-flowing words: Hail now, dearest sister, and rejoice with great joy: for the crown which you saw earlier as imperfect is now more fully perfected, as your soul desires. And he said: Know also, O beloved sister, that according to your vow you have been set in the footsteps of the Savior's feet, because of the irreverent touch of the men which you endured; and also because of the mocking reproaches and wounds which you received in your body. These are the jewels of the crown which you saw: these the pearls and precious gems; they themselves are also the stones which you considered to be lacking from your diadem, by God's working. O truly therefore to be counted in the number of Martyrs! Henceforth a Martyr, and he himself the author, whose soul, although the executioner's sword did not take away, nevertheless she has not lost the desired aureole of martyrdom among her little clients. It did not befit you, O Virgin, squared for so many years under the hand of the supreme craftsman, to be without the triumphal crown among the attendants of the faithless enemy; and what the cause of justice did not confer on Abel, nor faith on Stephen, nor the liberty of the Church on Thomas, nor the assertion of truth on Jeremiah, nor the rebuke of impiety on the Baptist, nor zeal of the law on the Maccabees, nor the person of Christ on the little Innocents; this now your exceeding charity, a well-conscientious mind, the ardor of voluntary suffering, a cause known to God alone, repay in recompense, so that they proclaim, cry out, and testify that you are called a Martyr.

[224] The triumph of others, although in the time of war pleased the Church in death; you Christ has appointed to be perpetually crowned with laurel in time of peace by the manifold death which you sustain. The death of others was bitter, for the faith of Christianity, as from pagans; the death of others more bitter, comparing her passion with the martyrdom of others. because of the defense of Catholic truth, namely from heresiarchs: yours, that I may say so, a most bitter death, as from the sons of the Church, false brethren, Christians only in name, from the household of faith, in a dropsical body, withered, worm-eaten, corroded for twenty-five years, purged by the infinite hammerings of the Lord. Indeed zealots of justice proclaim you to be a woman of virtue; they believe you subsist without food, drink, sleep; they cry out that you are a mirror of cleanness and chastity; they magnify you as a cluster of the chosen vineyard under the winepress, and as the dawn of excellent patience; everywhere the people devoted to God proclaims you as mother of the many poor of Christ. It is little if the sons of iniquity detract from you, if lawless men call you voracious, if they defame you as harlot, concubine, drunkard, demoniac and sorceress; if they uncover you, if they spit in your face, if they lay bloody hands upon you, if they inflict wounds; for your case is being pleaded, your conscience excuses you, the sentence of God knows you exempt from every crime: the crown awaits you which the just Judge will render to you in that day.

[225] Finally, there was sent by the illustrious Prince Philip a certain Captain, in time of war, a noble French man, The Duke's Captain, through his soldiers having under him many men-at-arms, to guard the city. He, making his stay in Schiedam for some time, also himself learned, by the reporting of many, what and how great things the Lord daily did in his handmaid Lydwina; moreover what injuries had been done before against the sacred Virgin by his countrymen or fellow-soldiers was not hidden from the man. Nevertheless, whether the magnalia of the Lord concerning the Virgin Lydwina which were being noised abroad were true, he thought again to prove by more certain experiment. Therefore this Captain sent men, not such as the devil had procured before, explores her abstinence, but honorable and stalwart in the military art. These, having received the mandate of their superior, entered Lydwina's chamber as though to keep watch around the Virgin, to observe whether perchance she might offer food by day or by night: that if the woman should be found deceitful, as has been proved in other feigned cases, she herself should perish; but if it should be established to be as it was said, she should be deservedly praised among the people. And they, as soon as they entered the house, began to search everything above and below; so much so that they permitted none of the household to dwell in the house at that time, and nothing remained even to the unguent jars, which they did not visit. There were, if I am not mistaken, six in number, surrounding the little bed of the spouse of the highest Solomon: which is believed to have been done by God's pious ordaining, inasmuch as strong is the testimony of virtue and truth which is offered in such a matter by unknown ones, by foreigners, moreover by men unaccustomed to the spirit.

[226] Meanwhile a certain widow, Catharine by name, seeing that the Virgin so lay day and night, a single widow admitted to attend her; alone among foreign men, unknown and rather ignorant of the language; moved by piety, she boldly approached the Captain, asking that for God's sake and for feminine honor free entrance be open to her. And he, as a pious and prudent man, granted that her request be done, on this condition that whenever she entered the cell of the reclining woman, she should be searched by the guards whom he had set there to watch. And she pledged: and so for nine continual days and nights the Virgin was guarded by six men, that no one should approach her, except the widow Catharine: who, as often as she entered to her, daily endured the scrutiny of those soldiers regarding food and drink. Wonderful to say! in all the time during which she lay thus alone, no night passed in which she was not rapt with most sweet contemplations unto God. And those who saw the glory of God in the Virgin, not eating nor drinking, and at length testimony is given to the truth. bore witness, and their testimony is true. When nine days had passed, the men-at-arms came and bade farewell to the Virgin, promising to do magnificent things in reverence of her, and earnestly besought to be most reverently commended to her prayers. And they, departing, praised the Virgin everywhere: for indeed Scripture contains, "Wine is strong, the King is strong, stronger than the King is a woman, but strongest of all is the truth," and moreover, to honor the truth is holy. 3 Esdras 3.

CHAPTER VII.

On the renewal of her Martyrdom on the occasion namely of the excessive grief over the death of her most beloved brother.

[227] The omnipotent Lord, mindful of the crown which he had formerly shown to his bride, On the grace of raptures taken away from the Virgin although she had placed her nest on the cross, although she had taken care to make the chamber of noonday in the wounds of the Beloved; nevertheless decreed to add this for greater perfection, that nourished on heavenly delights, she should learn to be weaned before her happy death, and going around the breadth of creatures, she should retain this alone, namely to seek Christ the Beloved on the cross, to mourn like a pigeon chick for food, to complain that she was forsaken by the Father, to be crucified together with the Virgin mother standing under the cross. Therefore he who hides the sun in the clouds and bids it rise again; this one, after through the martyrdom of the flesh he had placed the one chosen from thousands in his paths; by the withdrawal of salutary or customary consolations, that she might be fitted for new burnings, as if a solitary crucified, he forsook her for a time and for a moment. Wherefore let us attend whence came to the Virgin such renewal of crucifixion.

[228] A certain young man of Cologne nationality, Gerard by name, the hand of the Lord being upon him, to flee the filths of the flesh and the vanities of the world, Gerard of Cologne learns and to lead a celibate life, taught by the Holy Spirit, began to delay how he might attempt this: and at length, hearing the flowering fame of the Virgin, presently hurried to ask counsel. When therefore the Virgin had beheld him, as if cheered by the presence of a spiritual brother and fellow soldier in the Lord, she seemed to put on a new spirit. The man sitting by the Virgin's little cot, sacred colloquies about God going before, because of which she became more eager in spirit, the Virgin disclosed: I wish, he said, O Lydwina, since I have not yet experienced perfectly the things of the spirit, to lead a celibate and anchoritic life, provided that I could dwell in some province far from men and friends, as in the parts of Egypt: but what greatly causes me fear is that without tempting God I could in no way obtain the necessities of life in such remote places. The Virgin Lydwina, formerly gone forth to Egypt by her counsel, attending diligently to the resolve of the good fervor of the spirit in the man of good disposition, as one conscious in this matter of the spirit's secrets about future things, is said to have thus answered. Beloved brother, do not fear, I beg; but now putting on a manly mind, first fit yourself to patience and longsuffering: for when you shall have transferred yourself into that vast solitude, you shall be tried a little in the beginning, but before the sunset of the third day you shall be fed with slender nourishment, which by the help of Almighty God's grace shall be increased daily. You have indeed put your hand to the plough, do not draw back, if you wish to be found a faithful athlete.

[229] With these and other spiritual exhortations brought forth and received on both sides, Gerard was made more manly to undertake all arduous things for Christ, was made more inclined to the contemplative life, and there in solitary life more certain by the Virgin's presage of God's help in the horror of such solitude. Therefore, bidding one another farewell, and binding themselves with the glue of charity, the young man took companions, and having begun the journey, he came as far as Egypt. But the companions, seeing the horror of vast solitude, the unusual company of wild beasts, the lack of bread, having dismissed Gerard, returned to the parts of the faithful: but Gerard, henceforth a brother of wild beasts placed in vast solitude, set himself in a leafy tree, which he climbed more by skill or cleverness than by greatness of strength. What more? living without the use of human food, The devout man was made more devout, and he found as the Virgin had foretold: for as the zeal of his meditation grew, so grew also the little gift of heavenly nourishment, and grew also the secret of angelic conversation. And while this man, devoted to God and the Angels with assiduous contemplation, had several times in spirit seen his sister Lydwina, it happened at a certain time that one of the Virgin's brothers passed from this world, and that she, by divine dispensation, was for a time suspended from her usual ecstasies of mind.

[230] Now the cause of such suspension, as afterward appeared, was a grief somewhat excessive in the death of loved ones, to whom it was revealed that, by the death of her relative; which she had conceived at the death of her said brother, because he had been faithful to the aged father, and to the Virgin herself very agreeable and dutiful; nevertheless, having suffered something of humanity, grace was for a time withdrawn, so that she might not dare to glory in the flesh, she who, living above the flesh, fixed as on a cross for so many years, had learned to imitate the Lord. To live in the flesh beyond the flesh and without contagion, the Catholic Doctor has taught to be angelic: but to live in the flesh above the flesh for time and times, without the company of any of the household, thus to be afflicted with infirmities, belongs to a divine gift, which a philosopher of sound mind would not deny. And indeed, to the Son, that the Virgin did not bear too moderately, from whom she learns on the cross, forsaken by the Father, Mary the mother stood by; who, although she could not help her hanging son in death, yet then showed charity by dying together in heart, since she was unable to die together with him in body:

but although very differently, for many years the aged father saw his daughter, and the brothers their sister, tormented by infinite tortures of pain, whom they could in no way relieve; yet they did not cease to show daily the piety of their mind and the charity of their heart. And indeed, the Son of God, dying on the cross, took care of his mother and of his beloved disciple, whom he wished to be bound by the bond of perpetual love, before he cried out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani." Charity does not forbid keeping piety toward God and toward one's own, humanity does not know how simply not to grieve in the loss of friends, the ordered perfection of charity dissuades grieving even a little more than is becoming: and so it is here. The Lord did not prohibit the Virgin from extending grace to her beloved dead, nor did he regard it as anathema to suffer something human for her brothers: yet he willed that the bride should become more an imitator of himself alone through this, that grieving a little at the death of her household and exceeding even in that grief more than she ought, he suspended from her the benefit of her accustomed rapture.

[231] There was at that time a certain reverend Prelate, An English Bishop, on pilgrimage to the holy places, of the English nation, who, for the cause of his pilgrimage, had decided to visit the Holy Land, which the Lord deigned to tread with his most blessed feet; as well as Mount Sinai, where the blessed Virgin Catherine obtained her tomb, and the other devout places of the Saints. Therefore, taking with him a venerable retinue, he strove to carry out what he had conceived in a vow; and having traveled through the lands of the Gentiles, with the guide of his journey, whom he had hired for this at a price, at last he thought to visit for a while the places of the former holy Anchorites of Egypt. But when he had seen the little cell of Master Gerard the hermit, the Lord directing his way, in a certain high and leafy tree, he was first astonished, but at length taking courage, he humbly asked him to respond for the reverence of his God. And he, looking down, and finding Gerard and examining him; saw men in pilgrim dress standing at the foot of the tree: and they also saw a man fat, but angelic in countenance, sitting among the branches of the tree: and speaking together,

[232] Tell us, they said, Abba, for how many years have you been hidden, during which no man has seen you? And he said, For twelve years I have beheld no one here. And they said: What therefore is your food, that hiding among untamed wild beasts, you appear to be overflowing with such great fatness? And he said to them: He who fed the sons of Israel in the desert, feeds me with his most sweet bread, by which I am sustained at the fitting time. They said to him a third time: Tell us in conscience, if you know one after yourself on earth, who is fed by no earthly food. And he answered, I know. There is, he said, he also learns from the same in the parts of Teutonia a certain province called Holland, in whose little town which is called Schiedam, a certain Virgin lies languishing and infirm, who is fed or given drink by no bodily food. Do not wonder that I am here solitary, because she is far clearer than I in virtue, more conformed to Christ in patience, and more gracious to the Lord. For she, in lack of corruptible and earthly nourishment, is a sister to me; often a companion in refreshing the mind; she is a fellow disciple of Christ with me in the contemplation of divine things. One thing, however, he said, is what I cannot sufficiently marvel at; namely, that for some days now I do not enjoy her presence in the Lord, the extraordinary sanctity of the Virgin because in the usual degree of contemplation, as I am accustomed, I do not behold her, and nevertheless I do not perceive anything about her departure from this world.

[233] To whom again the men said: You say, brother, that you do not see her at a certain time: tell us therefore, we pray, if you know, what could be the origin of such withdrawal or suspension. And he answered: and being asked to go to Schiedam I know that sometimes, the Lord permitting for her humiliation, she is accustomed to grieve a little more than is becoming at the death of her loved ones: from which, as I may conjecture, she is for a time thus suspended from the sweetness of her former consolation. But this one thing I earnestly beg you to do, that on returning to your own country, if you should happen to pass through Holland, you should inquire for the place of the Virgin's dwelling, and regarding three matters on which I should be more fully informed than I know myself, you would be willing to ask the Virgin herself. The first is that she tell you how many years I have spent in this solitude: the second, at what age or in what year I first attempted this life; the third, what is properly the cause, that I have been deprived of her grateful presence these days. This he said doubtless so that either he himself might be free from their little questions, lest he too be delayed from his usual contemplation, or at least that going to visit the Virgin's little dwelling, one of them might be animated to lead a life more celibate.

[234] he visits her: They, when they had heard the man, departed: and when they had happily come into Holland, God guiding, seeking the little town in which the Virgin dwelt, they found the house they sought. Telling therefore what they had heard and seen, last of all they proposed their little questions. To these she replied: And how, dearest ones, will I be able to satisfy you? The Lord himself knows what is of these things, but you should regard me as supported in this matter. The Bishop, silently considering the Virgin's words, since out of humility she deferred, said to her: From the mouth of the man of God, O sister, who responding to Gerard's questions, we say these things to you; therefore do not be reluctant, under the cloak of superfluous humility, to reveal what you know in this matter, as your conscience dictates; but for our consolation, who have come from such remote parts, we beseech you not to refuse to disclose. And she: Of the divine will, she said, I dare not resist: wherefore, saving better judgment, I shall say what I feel. To the first which you ask, namely how many years he has passed in this solitude, I say, seventeen: to the second, namely at what age he began this life, I answer, nineteen.

[235] To the third I shall speak more broadly. And indeed when you ask, she says that he enjoys higher contemplation what is properly the cause of my withdrawn presence with him, I answer: It is indeed clear, that I, languishing here in the midst of seculars, cast down by the Lord, hear, whether I will or not, worldly things, and am constantly constrained, in accordance with the demand of the matter, to satisfy them with a safe conscience; from which it is no wonder if I am sometimes sprinkled with dust, if I am delayed from spiritual things, if I am hindered from higher meditations, if I am suspended from the sweetness of accustomed consolation, if I do not enjoy his presence in the Lord, nor does he rejoice in mine as he says. But he, according to the pleasure of his own will, being separated from men, converses among Angels, meditates on the region of Saints, keeps his mind undefiled from the dust of earthly things, holds his mind raised up in the citadel of heavenly things: therefore it is fitting and right, that he ascend and be led more sublimely in the light of contemplation, because he leads a life apart from men, that he be filled more frequently with the consolations of the Lord, that with both eyes of the mind he be refreshed more delicately, that he be fattened also in both inner and outer man more amply and perfectly. Nevertheless, let your reverence know for the present, that over the death of my brother I grieved somewhat beyond what was fitting: and from this I have deservedly lost the alternations of accustomed sweetness, for as long as the Lord shall will. And the three men, hearing the Virgin's answer, were much edified: and thanks having been given, with a request for her prayers, they departed rejoicing.

[236] It happened afterward that the Virgin familiarly spoke of the aforesaid Gerard, that the fatness of his neck hung down overflowing the border of his garment, and how he could in no way sit or lie comfortably; moreover how day and night he was compelled for the greater part of the time to bend the knee. This holy man passed from this world, as she received from the Angel, in the year 1426 of the Lord, on the twelfth day of the month of October: and his spirit, and she understands him to have died on 12 Oct. in 1426. she saw flying away to the heavens, the Lord granting, who certified the glorious Prelate Ambrose of the departure of the most holy Confessor Martin, and made him present at his funeral. If therefore, O discreet reader, you know what it is to feed on the bread of heaven, altogether unknown to me and to you; if you know how to separate the precious from the vile; what by right conscience will you define concerning the Virgin? Or what by sound judgment will you be able to say of our famished Lydwina during the intervening time? Surely nothing else, if I am not mistaken, you will affirm her to have been, so deprived of accustomed consolation, than a certain piece of drying wood, which is watered neither by dew nor water; than a little boy weaned from his mother's breasts; than a thirsting and unfruitful land, which awaits the voluntary rain from the Lord. Indeed such a soul is as a root in the thirsting land, as the experienced knows, and in this Virgin shone more clearly, as shall be said in what follows.

CHAPTER VIII.

On the death of her father: and on the heaviness of the Lord's hand made upon her, because of the death of the virgin Petronilla whom she loved.

[237] Lydwina's father dying a holy death The hour came that the man of venerable old age, Peter, the father of holy Lydwina, should die. He, when leaving his sons and grandsons, coming near the end, as a memorial of a sound and serene conscience, left this word to his own: Dearest ones, behold I am entering the way of all flesh: but this is no small consolation to me, that my conscience does not accuse me of anything belonging to another. The said old man also saw the glorious Virgin Mary before he died, from whom he received a promise, that about the feast of the Conception, which is celebrated in the month of December, he should be called from the world. This was not hidden from his only daughter, who earnestly asked her Confessor, who was to celebrate Mass on the day of the Conception outside the city, to anticipate on the vigil the Mass which he was to celebrate, that she might more freely be present at the funeral of her departing father: and so it was done. For on the day of the Conception itself the old man is buried, and she is certified about her father's salvation by her Angel revealing it.

[238] Now when after some time she was again rapt in spirit to diverse places of punishment, the demons afflict her, she saw again certain most hideous demons gathered into one, holding one of their wicked companions under the form of Lydwina's father who had just died, whom they seemed to mock in a wonderful manner: and these said to the Virgin: Behold, we hold your father under oath as a companion in punishments, and condemned in torments. When she heard this, being greatly saddened, she wept beyond measure: but when asked why she wept, she answered: Behold, the spirits of darkness affirm my father to be damned; which I wish in no wise to believe: nevertheless, seeing his appearance, hesitating, I can in no way restrain myself from tears. lying that he was damned. Again at another time, when the Virgin was to receive a little consolation, there again appeared a band of demons saying: Well, well, for now we hold your father enslaved under our power:

for he is ours forever. And when they had thus mocked the Virgin, it was given her by divine power to know that it was not her father's spirit, but one of the malignant and reprobate ones in a deceiving form, to try her patience: whence she said to the demons: Now I know that it is by no means my father, therefore depart in confusion. They were immediately scattered, and departed in confusion like smoke before the face of the wind.

[239] A few days afterwards passing, the Lord also summoned the Virgin's niece, named Petronilla, whom Lydwina most tenderly loved, both because she was modest and pious, and because at the time of the raging soldiery of certain Picards she had been a companion in pains; whence she had also remained lame. But how this virgin, the little niece of Lydwina, was pleasing to the lover of chastity, After a vision of a funeral led by the Saints, the following vision made to her friend demonstrates. At a certain night time Lydwina was in ecstasy of mind, in which she saw an innumerable multitude of citizens of heaven, as if advancing in procession, so that first Patriarchs, second Prophets, third Apostles, fourth Martyrs, and so on up to Virgins inclusively, in a certain alternate order, were discerned to succeed one another. Banners were being carried, lights of unusual splendor were following; and the harmony of this order seemed to extend up to the Virgin's little chamber. which she herself followed bearing three crowns, When they stood there before the little chamber gathered, they seemed reverently to take up a certain funeral bier, which stood in the middle of the house, and taken up, to carry it in the order in which they had come in sequence to burial: whom Lydwina herself seemed to follow with two crowns in her hands, the third placed over her head.

[240] Now when the Virgin, returning to herself, was ruminating on what she had seen, she learns that her niece would die; she began to ponder within herself, whether perhaps she should be released in the near future: but soon, God revealing, she learned that it was Petronilla her niece, who was being foreshown as about to be called from the midst of a depraved nation: moreover, the Lord Jesus deigned to reveal even the certain day of her transition to the bride Lydwina. She therefore earnestly begged the Most High that he would anticipate her customary day of fevers, so that she might the more effectively console her niece, about to die on a certain day. The day preordained by the Lord arrived, on which the holy Martyr Pontian is venerated in the diocese of Utrecht, on which the young virgin began to labor unto death, wherefore she asks her fevers to be anticipated, on which also the Virgin Lydwina was expecting her fevers at about the eleventh hour. Marvelous to say! it happened that those horrible fevers were anticipated seven hours, that is, those which ought to have come around the eleventh hour near midday, came in the early morning at the fifth hour. For shivering and gnashing of teeth invaded her, so much so that the household marveled: unexpected burning heats followed, which when finished, like a lioness, to strengthen the young virgin, she seemed to resume her strength. The virgin began trembling to move toward the contest, that she might strengthen the same in her agony. the female champion began to fortify the mind of the virgin with the virtues of faith and hope: the former prepares the little vessel to be released soon, the latter promises oil to be poured in from Christ's merit: and so the dying woman strengthens and consoles the one about to die in the Lord. And so it came to pass that the dying virgin received a double crown, which Lydwina had recognized herself as bearing in spirit, because of the chastity of mind and body; and a third, which she had similarly borne on her head by vision, because of the loss and injury from the barbarous folk which she had suffered, to be crowned now by the Bridegroom as one who should possess.

[241] after her death she fell into great sadness; After she had thus sent ahead to heaven the illustrious handmaid of Christ, dutiful and familiar secretary of her chamber, and the little client of her unwonted martyrdom, she began to be scourged again by the Lord with manifold chastisements, and to be humbled daily with sadness of mind: nay, she also began to be tormented inwardly with aridity of mind. For she had desired, before the coming of the torturers, of whom mention was made above, to be placed in the footsteps of Christ, which was fulfilled by the martyrdom of the flesh outwardly: she desired afterwards, if I have followed well, to be placed outside those again, according to the good pleasure of the Lord, which perhaps has now been done, through the inward forsaking of her failing mind. For I say a very marvelous thing: for as soon as she was bereft of her most sweet niece, she incurred at once both grief and sadness of mind: from which in some manner being again suspended from her accustomed consolation, she reckoned herself forsaken and cast off.

[242] And when, because of the excess of human grief, she perceived herself deservedly deprived of her former sweetness of spirit, she began to bedew her little bed with new showers, and from the inmost parts of her breast to pour forth blood through her mouth; therefore deprived of her accustomed consolations and thus again like a novice, through each day, to invite the Master and Bridegroom to return. And now pains as of a woman in labor, because she had offended the Beloved; now cries of the mind, because she had lost the Bridegroom; now anguish of heart presses her round about, for there is no one to heal. Earth is iron below, heaven brass above, so much so that she is compelled to say that of the Psalmist: "My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily, 'Where is your God?'" Ps. 41:4

Once it pleased her to weep over the years of her adolescence, with the sinful woman at the feet of the Lord; once it was pleasing to weep over her neighbor, as if four days dead with Martha, before the Lord; often it was becoming to weep over the Passion of the Bridegroom, with the Mother of the Lord: and now, as formerly, she is compelled to pour forth bloody tears, over the taken-away Lord and Master, with Magdalene at the door of the tomb; with whom she can rightly say that word: "My heart is burning, I desire to see my Lord, I seek and do not find."

[243] Religious came to her, to console her in the days of distress; she grieves inconsolably; devout matrons gathered, to relieve the sadness of her spirit: but every consoler was burdensome, every speech of a creature was distressing, since the Lord alone was her hope. Finally, the Confessor and the household women secretly came to her, saying: Why are you so vainly consumed? Why do you so pour forth tears? Have we not heard, sometimes when you wished to teach us, that in the day of evils one must be mindful also of good things? To whom she said: Why are you troublesome to me, and why do you mortify the half-alive? Why do you not fear to add upon the pain of my wounds? He indeed who has not tasted the sweet gifts of God grieves less, because he does not distinguish sweet from bitter: but he who has tasted the sweet gifts of God, and when these are withdrawn is compelled to take every bitter, to him death is a refreshment, provided that there be no hope of returning to the former sweetness. And the Virgin said: Would that I had to undergo all the troubles of the world, always saving the divine will, which I place first, and could have my accustomed graces. He does not grieve to lose who weighs not the price of a thing: he grieves less, however, who does not know: he grieves least who does not care, but despises.

[244] attributing it to her sins; A certain widow devoted to God, seeing the beloved Virgin thus afflicted, with cordial affection suppliantly begged her to deign to open to her purely, how it stood between God and her conscience. She, as if forced, answered: Through the demerit of my sins, I am deprived of all inward sweetnesses, namely around the taste and perceptible effect of the most holy Sacrament and of his other secret gifts: but I hold this alone as remaining, and this precisely from the fullness of divine goodness, which has been left for my solace, that I run through the life and conversation of the most loving Jesus, from the manger up not however does she abandon meditation of the Passion. to the gibbet of the cross, with an eager mind, without any other thought. Nevertheless hold this as certain, that as regards the inward and former taste, I have gone away into a far country, I have departed into a region of unlikeness, I have gone away, I say, into a region of bitterness, wormwood, myrrh, and gall, everywhere filled. Indeed, in my view, no other form of consolation remains, no other faculty of exercise remains, than to seek the Beloved through the nights on the bed of the cross, and dying of grief and forsaken by the Father, without sweetness of spirit, to turn him over in memory; and thus without a tasty kernel, to peel the insipid bark.

[245] And who now of such crude and undigested spirit, man or woman, who with our beloved Virgin, How great was this affliction of the Virgin. wounded within and without, does not groan and sigh together for recovering the Beloved's presence: for whose presence Mary the mother, full of grace, says she grieved together with Joseph for three days? for whose venerable infancy the aged Simeon, proved and crowned, is read to have longed so much? for whose glorifying transfiguration Peter, the best fisherman, forgetful of the rest of the brethren, is convicted by the Gospel's witness of wishing only that three tabernacles be made? whose honey-flowing presence the disciples did not wish to be without even for an hour? over whose dead body, to see and anoint it, Magdalene is said to have wept so much? for whose friendly assistance in heaven Stephen the Protomartyr esteemed the stones as sweet, and awaited to render his spirit? for whose joyful fruition Lawrence cried out that the glow of the coals had given him refreshment? Whence I seem to see the Virgin, suffering with pious impatience, moreover saying: Let rottenness enter into my bones, and let it spring forth beneath me; on this condition, that my beloved, white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands, may return again or appear: from whose presence may I rest in the day of tribulation, that I may ascend upwards to our girded people.

CHAPTER IX.

On the most sweet visitations given back by the Lord: and on her patience in the last sicknesses, graver than the first.

[246] Therefore the Virgin's soul thirsted thirstily for God the living fountain, Being altogether purged by these probations if perchance the desired one should come, if perchance the beloved of the soul, the blessed Christ the Lord, should return. Moreover, in those days the special exercise of Christ's forsaken bride in the middle times was this, namely, to cry out to the Lord with the voice of the heart, to seek God in the day of tribulation, to have the days and ancient years in mind, to sweep her spirit by night of the least defects, to refuse every consolation of any creature, to draw forth bloody tears (which she called her roses) from her eyes, to recall only mercy and justice, saying with the Psalmist: "Will God cast off forever, or will he not add so as to be more favorable still?" Ps. 76:8 "Will God forget to be merciful, or will he restrain his mercies in his anger?" If without doubt languid love torments and afflicts the lover, I shall say that this our Lydwina, far above all the mortals known to me, was failing with languor. and firmly strengthened in the love of the Bridegroom, For languid love, if it be true, does not receive consolation in the world, but rather casts away all things; it is not contaminated by the enticements of the flesh, but lives more purely in it; it is not overcome by flatteries, but clings more tenaciously to Christ; it is not wearied by difficulties, but perseveres in them more ardently; it is not overcome by violence, but conquers much more tenaciously; it is not satisfied though bound in the body, but thirsts more eagerly for the fountain; the fountain, I say, of living water, that is, who alone can refresh, who alone knows how to inebriate, who alone deigns to satisfy the beloved when he shall please.

[247] rendered more humble and cautious for the future, But why have I delayed? The lovable disciple of Christ learns and relearns, through such a suspension of consolation and languid love, to grow strong anew, to know the usefulness of the Beloved's presence, to attend to her own infirmity, to fear the pains of eternal separation, to recognize whether she loves without pretense, to fit herself to mightier graces, to seek the Bridegroom more diligently, to receive the sought one more graciously, to guard the received one more cautiously, and to possess the guarded one more delicately. From then on she began to ponder, how sometimes as a young girl she had through carelessness not opened the latch of her door to the Beloved, how through negligence as an older woman she had not kept the customary practice, and why for this he had turned aside and passed on, yet to return to her on the day of fuller mercy. Thus pondering, she had in mind the ancient days and the eternal days, which she would sometimes possess in perpetuity: and thus she began to modulate the instrument of spiritual harmony with the plectrum of deep examination: and thus at last, purely and nakedly, like a handmaid in the hands of her mistress, she subjected herself again under the scourging.

[248] While she lay thus dried up for five continuous months in the taking away of the rain of heaven and of the dew; she seemed nothing other than the humble Canaanite woman, who did not shrink from being reckoned a little dog; after five months of such desolation, nor like the woman of Sarepta, gathering two pieces of wood, namely of the manger and the cross, who recognized her poverty; nor like Esther, growing pale and fainting before great Ahasuerus, who, kissing the extended royal rod, humbly embraces it, and indeed with her rightly speaks to the Bridegroom: "I have seen you, my Lord, as the Angel of God, and my heart was troubled, for fear of your glory; for you are very wonderful, Lord, and your face is full of graces." Esther 15:16 How often she broke forth into such sentences of words before the Lord, how often she fell on her face in spirit, how often she fainted, how often her countenance was changed into various forms, the pen does not write, the tongue does not explain, but rather let him silently ponder who has experienced the sweetness of the Lord, much or little. Oh would that the Lord might return, and speak to the Virgin's heart! would that he might become more favorable, who turned the heart of Ahasuerus to gentleness! would that he might sustain the beloved in his arms, and caress our little and humbled one!

[249] Seeking, the beloved sought the Beloved, and seeking she found: for indeed he who was being sought was standing by; on the feast of the Visitation and she who was seeking did not know, that he was standing behind the wall, looking through the windows, peering through the lattices. Now it came to pass that on the solemnity of the Visitation of the glorious Virgin Mary, which is celebrated by the Church on the second of July, when the Virgin is read to have visited the bride, the King the soldier, God man; then also our Virgin was visited, and the Bridegroom showed his face to the bride, she is again visited by the Lord, he who had long been hidden, and the Beloved made his sweet voice to sound in the ears of the beloved: at whose sight the spirit rejoiced, at whose voice the soul was melted, at whose smell the dead woman revived, at whose touch her inward parts were moved, at whose embrace all the Virgin's bones trembled, saying: "Thou shalt give joy and gladness to my hearing, and the humbled bones shall exult." Now indeed the sun, which had been before under cloud, began to shine brightly: now the stormy sky ceased to be darkened by showers: now a serene time followed the tempest. For with such sweetness was the Virgin beloved of God filled at the return of the Beloved, that to those entering her cell it deservedly seemed a paradise of aromatic spices. Indeed through this it was given to her household to understand that the heavenly perfumer had cured her inward wounds, whose spreading delights were perceptibly diffused.

[250] with heavenly fragrance, The men and women who chanced to come in at the time of such a visitation, when they had sensed an unexperienced and incredible fragrance there, marveling like the sons of Israel said: "What is this? For we never perceived such fragrance." Tell us, Virgin, whence is this? She answered: The Lord knows what it is, and whence it is, what you sense. One thing, she said, I truly know; for when men say and reckon some great thing of me, I feel myself to be a frail little woman. which thereafter persevered with her. She knew that in the day of good things she must be mindful also of evils; and what is acquired with labor is possessed with love and fervor. But it happened thereafter that what the trembling Virgin strove to hide, for the pearl of humility, the Lord divulged by open report to his own glory. For after that tribulation her breath was so breathing and fragrant to those coming, that when she was either sweating or moving or being moved a little, she was thought an alabaster of precious unguent or a little vessel of choice ointment, rather than a human body.

[251] From that time she began as if hastening to the end of her course daily, thenceforth hastening toward her end and to be refreshed more frequently by the unwearying refreshments of the Saints, so that even in winter time now supplied with violets, now with lilies, now with roses, and other flowers yielding fragrance, she seemed to have come as if from a paradise of delights. At length her goods were established in the Lord, and she began, like a vine bud, through humility, as if she had done no good, to grow up anew; as a blossoming palm branch, to spread the odor of fragrant edification among the peoples; as a cluster of Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi, to ripen in the rays of the true sun; and as the purest and most refined wine of libations, to sacrifice herself wholly to the Lord. Henceforth nothing troubled her morning or evening, with great and constant quiet of mind, long or short, high or deep, dear or harsh, bitter or sweet, day or night, confusion or glory, alien or her own, no bodily or incorporeal substance, no fertility or aridity of spirit, no adversity or prosperity: but all things, provided that they tend to good and not to evil, according as they were discerned to proceed from that imperial court of the supreme and ever august King; were thus balanced as on an equal scale in the Virgin's spirit, resolved and established in God.

[252] and feeling most humbly about herself, She wished to feel nothing else about herself, after the humiliation done to her by the Lord, than to be a clay work under the hand of the potter; to confess nothing else before men, than a fragile and womanly vessel on the turning wheel; to proclaim nothing else before the Angels, than an abortion, withered and useless, cast out of the womb, under the sole hope of the merciful God. Who is faithful among the young daughters, friends, or brides of our time, like Lydwina, going in and out at the King's command? Let her therefore say: "It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your justifications," and again, "Now I have begun to say, this change is of the right hand of the Most High." From then on, fixed on the cross with Christ, she burned with wondrous desire to reach her Bridegroom in heaven, whose seal she kept hidden in her body, for whose reverence she merited to shed blood, by whose nod she had decreed to receive wounds and ulcers, in whose absence she had learned to endure the arrows of languishing love. From then on the marks of manifold disease began, she began in all members like a whirlpool of waters, to flow back through each member of the Virgin, so that there was no empty place in her whole body, but was fitted for suffering vigorously; nor was there a portion of virtue in her soul but was fitted for meriting efficaciously from the Lord.

[253] There are some infirmities, or rather scourges inflicted divinely on the reprobate, to experience all kinds of infirmities, which the various tongues of nations call by diverse names, and which are not subject to physical speculation, more monstrous and more like to a demon; and these the happy disciple of Christ never had on earth. But of the others, virgin and natural, of which the Doctors of the faculty of medicine speak, she escaped none: as those who heard from her own mouth while she lived, testify. Simple and mixed species of diseases, in a transcending manner and less than customary to physical consideration, she always endured from the beginning of her being laid down, and more often toward the end I should say: yet about the end of this life more gravely, so that deservedly by her Teutonic name, "Lydwy," and in Latin speech "to be open widely or broadly," having obtained the name, she merited to be called "B. Patientia" (Blessed Patience).

[254] She endured the Epileptic disease three times in one night about the end of her years: with epilepsy, but neither before nor after did anyone perceive any such thing of her: she herself however foretold to her familiars that on one night alone she would be cast down by that grave disease; and earnestly asked that they would deign to observe her. When she was reproved about this, why she did not drive away these sicknesses from the hands of the Lord by prayer, since she had enough of her remaining ones, she said: Let no one reprove the judgments of God on me in this: for he who gives me the rod also prepares much grace. She suffered apoplexy and madness also, I have received from those who saw; apoplexy, madness, which madness she had specifically foretold to one of her familiars, that thus by the Lord's willing it had to come to pass. For about half an hour or so only once was it observed by one of her family, but neither before nor after did it happen to her. Of apoplexy, how often it occurred I do not know. When asked also how she had been during the time of dementia, she answered: Nothing else seemed to me, than that my senses were flying about or being carried around through the air.

[255] But that the more glorious crown of the woman of God might be perfected, she began at last in the region of the brain, as if by new hammerings, to be exceedingly wrenched, and with chronic passions joined to the last, with most savage stone, to be tormented anew as if under the winepress. Nothing else indeed would you have seen before death but a certain skin drawn tight by the heat of fire, her nerves stretched out like strings on the wood of a zither; her bones as if fried in a frying pan. The stone, of which she had foretold that it should be of the size of a pigeon's egg, and should bring death, she suffered notably for two months in the lower region; so that within the space of one hour she would thrice lose the use of her tongue, stiffen by contracting her limbs, and from the pain expel bit by bit little particles of her teeth, and lying almost lifeless would move those standing by to bitter tears from compassion. Of the aposteme of her virgin breasts, and other new pains of the excessive pain both of teeth and eyes, of other passions, how much she bore about the end, I shall never sufficiently describe: indeed, let him who can grasp it grasp, in what manner and how much the Spirit of God can do in a virgin; and after he has grasped, let him tell the Churches. And if anyone living is unwilling to understand the wondrous works of the Lord, of pains and inner consolations, from what has been said; perhaps sometime, God granting, he may learn when about to die: for Scripture exhorts, "Understand, you senseless ones among the people, and you fools, be wise at last." Ps. 93:8

CHAPTER X.

On the wonderful things done by the Lord concerning the restoration of her members, and how she foreknew and foretold her death.

[256] Moreover, lest to anyone be given occasion for gnawing at the life

or the death of the Virgin, let us see how concerning some of her members, both outwardly and inwardly, almighty God provided. The right arm dissolved, It has been said above that the material fire, which the common people call holy, consumed the Virgin's right arm to the very bones; and that the nerves, like strings placed on a zither, could be plucked freely; and again that said arm, for a long time hanging by only one firmer little nerve, clung to the rest of the body's mass. Indeed, to all who shall see the present writings I wish to make known what happened concerning her arm before death. The Aldermen's letters attest that the Virgin, bound with bandages and swaddling cloths, had to be turned about the shoulders, otherwise in its time, because of the decay of her members, she would have fallen apart into small parts; and when all the physicians, as was shown above, and also the surgeons, and somewhat restored, were despairing of the Virgin's health, at last after a long passage of time there came a certain one, as if sent from God, a man most expert in the art of surgery, who, leaving the other members in their present state, promised by the gift of God to restore the arm itself to wholeness. And having made a plaster of balsam, as he explained, unadulterated, he placed it in its place, according to the demand of the ailing member and of his faculty.

[257] He also said to the Virgin: I hope in the power of God to put this arm back in its place: but full of ulcers, but hold this for certain, that with whatever medicine it shall be restored, you shall never be free from ulcers and apostemes, which shall sprout forth in the muscles of this arm itself as well as in the rest of the flesh. The Virgin indeed, wisely, as she was wise, hearing this, gave thanks: but as the man had said, notwithstanding the precious plasters or the completeness which the surgery procured, she never remained free from such eruptions after such closure: nay, until the departure of her soul from her body, now a part, now the whole arm, was immobile from the frequency of apostemes, as yesterday and the day before. and almost immobile, she predicts it shall be restored. Wherefore she used to say to her peers: You see that my right arm, once restored to me, because of continually sprouting ulcerations or aposteme-formings, I have not been able to move from its place for greater exercise; nevertheless confidently I trust in the omnipotent Lord, that before my soul is released from my body, I shall glorify him in praise with both hands: which afterwards was proved to have been done, but in its proper place.

[258] Moreover I do not think this should be passed over in silence, her intestines are restored to her, how she had back, solidly and entirely, some of her inward parts, namely the lung, liver, spleen, and other neighboring members, before she went to Christ, without doubt restored by the Lord. Some came, more curious to know than zealous to be wise, to the Virgin, saying: Since we have often heard it said of you, sister, that you sent out your liver, lung, and the other members, especially your intestines, piece by piece, and that you teemed with innumerable worms; tell us how you were able to live without them. To them the humble Virgin replied: It is indeed true, God and my conscience being witness, what you have heard, namely that I lost those members in pieces, which once God through nature had bestowed; and that worms boiled forth from my body for a long time, is evident; and that it was grievous to my nature to suffer these things, is not hidden: nevertheless what the Lord from the multitude of his power afterwards supplied in me, in some supernatural manner, he himself knows. As if she wished to say: Regarding the members which nature gave at first, and which were lost in pieces, I agree it was as you say: but the supplying of them, which the grace of God alone, after their privation, secretly restored, I neither silently deny, nor shall I take care openly to reveal to you. For he who supplied flesh for the formation of Eve, and who for nature's forming members of the body created nature itself, God bestowing nature as "naturing" and "natured," kept this for himself transcendently with other things, which the purely physical man cannot grasp. Wherefore it is no wonder if animal men did not understand the Virgin's word.

[259] Hence it is plain that, whereas from her deeds, words, diseases, cures, and graces the cause of magnificent praise has been given to many devout men and women, and impenetrable to curious investigators, to others, lovers of pomp, who strive to walk above themselves, by the just judgment of God, as to bewitched ones, is permitted the material of biting ruin. For as Scripture contains: "The Lord is placed for the ruin and resurrection of many," not because he has given the cause of ruin, but because the ingrained malice of men has so presumed. Luke 2:34 So perhaps it is permitted here also; and as the Lord her Bridegroom is placed for a sign which shall be contradicted, so his chosen bride is placed to imitate him, especially by the pomp-lovers of this world. Again it is written: "Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, so that no one else might presume to judge the Virgin and bow down their back always": earth-bound philosophizers, cast down to the ground, not yet illuminated by theological faith, do not know how to scale above the stars, do not yet know how to savor the things of the spirit, do not yet know how to penetrate how wondrous God is in his works. Ps. 68:24 What wonder? It happens sometimes that even some Theologian, not yet blinded, can know, say, and weigh sublime things; but not yet savor according to the spirit: what wonder therefore, if it should happen at times that a mere natural philosopher, not a Theologian, should doubt.

[260] Let the Theologian, lover of the Bible and most expert zealot of the Scriptures, judge of the Virgin; let the natural philosopher assent, but with the foreign woman let him cast off the hair, cut the nails, wash the garments; whom a faithful Theologian, first let him simply believe, that Almighty God is able; let him truthfully confess, that he is all-knowing and knows; let him faithfully reckon, that clement and good, he is willing, in the female sex as in the male, in the poor as in the rich, in the barbarian as in the Greek, in the fisherman as in the philosopher, to work his marvels above all understanding, as from of old and as in the ancient days. Why do you marvel that in a little woman virgin, a poor Hollander, born in the land of simple fishermen, having learned humbly to venerate the works of God God and Lord has done so many stupendous things? Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who was his counselor, when he founded the earth, when he formed Eve from the rib, when he sent forth his signs in the midst of Egypt? Who turned Moses' rod into a serpent, and again the serpent into a rod? Who made Moses' hand leprous, and again healed it in an instant? Was it not the Lord? Miriam his sister was unclean for seven days, and Naaman the Syrian was cleansed of leprosy under Elisha: Hezekiah is said by Isaiah to be about to die, and yet is cured; Moses on the mountain and Elijah in the desert are fed, without the hand of a mortal baker: Heliodorus is scourged in the temple, and did not see the scourger: Jerome is beaten in the spirit, and bears livid stripes in his body; he is presented in judgment, yet found in his little bed: Ambrose is seen in Milan, and celebrates funeral rites at Tours in France. What more? The blind sees, the lame walks, the lepers are cleansed; the Angel descends into the pool, and the water is moved; all indeed run or are carried, but through the day only one is cleansed; Petronilla the bedridden is straightway bidden by Peter to rise, rising she ministers, and after ministering is bidden to return to her bed.

[261] Who will give me a reason for all these and infinite other works, both natural and supernatural? and not to seek the reason of them: Will you not say that the Lord was able to do this, and knew how to do this, and willed to do this? The Lord, I say, of powers, the Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of all creatures, the Lord of the whole earth. One work therefore the Lord has done in our land of Holland, and all we marvel: he formed a whole person, he prostrated a whole person, he wounded a whole exterior person from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, he again cured a whole person at the pleasure of his own will: and who reprehends him? Is it not the curious Scribe, is it not the envious Jew, is it not the one who is wise carnally? Whoever therefore will wish to think piously about all these things, for this is foolish will not say that every word, which has been done, said, or written concerning the Lord in the Virgin, is impossible: but whoever is stiff-necked, let him reply to the things touched upon above, and we concede it to him; if not, let him captive his understanding unto the obedience of Christ, let him learn the wisdom of a true not smoke-vomiting Theologian, let him take the form of a humble disciple, and believe us; therefore let him confess, that God is powerful to visit the body and soul of man, now one or both together with sufferings, now either one with consolations, not only in one and the same body, but also at the same time, namely month, day, hour: as by ocular faith in other Virgins in Holland and elsewhere we experience daily.

[262] Is the hand of the Lord shortened? Or is the eye of man evil, and injurious to divine power. because God alone is good? And I say: The Lord strikes and heals, wounds and cures, makes poor and enriches, mortifies and quickens, leads down to hell and brings back: and to investigate the cause of all his works is foolish and dangerous. If anyone wishes to know the kernel, I will tell him: The Lord in truth gave such great grace to his most patient Virgin, that when her Guardian, namely the Angel, deigned even a little to move her or touch her, often her face shone with exceeding splendor, her body was strengthened with instantaneous wholeness, a fragrant odor was diffused from her members and breast, very sweet indeed. What more? She remained nevertheless impotent to rise, and capable of enduring; ready to sustain sicknesses, she was rolled about to divine consolations; again a beggar to be visited at dawn, and suddenly to be tested at the same time in the same body and the same subject. What wise man will investigate these things, and understand the mercies of the Lord? But what? The wise man hearing will be wiser, and the one understanding shall possess the reins: but the obstinate shall still sin in all things, nor shall they believe in his wonders.

[263] Also she herself, long before she departed from the world, The Virgin understands herself now ready for heaven, several times foreknew and foretold that the dissolution of her tabernacle was at hand. For she had been accustomed, from the beginning of the Lord's visitations, to say to her Confessor and also to other familiars, in veiled words, how she had seen a tree of marvelous appearance, full of rose buds; and how she had understood from the Angel that she would not see death until that same tree should receive full growth, and the rose buds which she had seen should receive open bloom. And when she was asked if the said rose tree had come to perfection, she answered: That tree has nearly and fully grown up, and the rose buds are opened: therefore I do not doubt that I shall be released soon.

[264] One day also, as she lay thus solitary, she was rapt by a certain sweetness of spirit into paradise, where she contemplated three gates or entrances: but for the benefit of her neighbor she is still delayed a little: and when she had been admitted to the entrance of the first two, she saw from the third splendor-bearing rays shining forth, which beyond measure seemed to exceed the sun's rays

as she looked; but at the entrance of the third gate, when she was awaiting to enter and had already stretched her step thither, her grandfather met her, whose life we disclosed in the beginning, namely John son of Peter, who with arms opened and familiar gaze, as if about to bring her in, came forth; but at last said to his beloved daughter: My sweetest daughter, not yet does entrance lie open to you to this place: for it would not be useful to those who ask your help for themselves; nor would it profit you to merit, you would confer less help to the souls in purgatory, and you would give less sacrifice of honor and praise to the Lord. Further, when you shall have accomplished all that the Lord has decreed concerning you, free, about to reign with us, you yourself shall ascend. And the most happy Virgin, when she had come back to herself, was truly desirous of the glory which she had seen, and, mindful of the elder's words, she was often anxious; nevertheless most ready to suffer whatever the Almighty should will, for his honor or for her neighbors' and her own salvation.

[265] After this night followed day, darkness light, and such unction upon pains, to a certain Prior visiting her that when a certain Prior of the venerable Regular Canons of St. Augustine, asked by her, came with hastening step, he felt there such fragrance of sweetness, that he did not doubt that Christ's daughter and bride had come from the storeroom of divine visitation, lying there. So the venerable Prior of the Canons sat beside her, and with flowing words they began to speak together of heavenly joys. At last the Virgin, burning with desire, concluded saying: I ask you, sweetest Father, that in these Paschal solemnities, provided you can conveniently, you deign to return to me your poor little daughter; perhaps about to confer more broadly on the things which we have now conceived: yet if you do not find me living, please pray for me. By this it was clear, that she believed she would sing Alleluia in the Paschal time with his Saints, who, not yet satisfied by divine colloquies on heavenly joys, she hints obscurely that she will die at Easter, longed thirsting to see the living fountain itself, to drink of it with full draught, to live in it always. For by word of mouth she foretold to some that she would be laid down in the days of Pascha: but she would not explain the day. For she had desired alone with Christ to remain while dying, at a future time, as will appear more clearly in the following chapter: wherefore she did not indicate a determined hour or day.

[266] Some at that time were asking her, nor miracles to be done at her death, whether at the time of her passing the Lord would do some miracles for the glory of his name: and if perhaps he had disposed to lift her from the earth after death. To whom she replied: Simple folk think they shall see wonders of me at my death, but they shall not see them: yet what the Lord shall do after my passing, it is not for me to investigate nor to say: for I am his creature and instrument, and my soul is subject to him. Therefore I earnestly beseech all my friends, both present and absent, that within the thirtieth year after my burial they should not move me: but what the Lord shall wish to do after thirty years, he himself alone knows. The Lord gave her, through the spirit, to see the form of her burial, as he had revealed to some in life: from which she devoutly begged that she might not simply be placed on the bare ground; and she prearranges her burial. since by God alone leading and guiding, against nature's custom, beyond thirty years the foot of the infirm and languid woman had never trodden this corruptible earth. The Virgin also decided, as she had received from the Angel, that all things necessary should be prepared for her burial: moreover she exhorted her household women that, setting aside all delay, they should take care to bury the dead body. Thus the holy woman proposed and did what was her own with all humility: but for her glory the Lord disposed and effected otherwise, as one who is indeed glorious in his Saints, wondrous in his little worms, doing and about to do many prodigies.

CHAPTER XI.

On the wondrous unction of this Virgin, and on her most happy passing from this life.

[267] Therefore as her life was drawing to its close, when the day of the Virgin's nuptials now drew near, The Virgin asks pardon of her household for her errors, she ordered all her household to be called together to her, and when they were all gathered, she broke forth in this manner: I ask, she said, humbly, and I beseech you all in the Lord Jesus Christ, that whatever I, poor woman, through my negligence or carelessness, by word or deed, against you or any of you, have done amiss, you would deign to forgive me from your hearts, for the sake of merciful God: to whose charity I commend you from my innermost heart from now on and always. But they, suffused with most tender compassion, returning tears for tears, prayers for prayers, vows for vows, said: Our presence, O dearest sister, you have not offended in word or deed; but you have been for us an exemplar of all virtue and patience; wherefore may the merciful Lord do well to you, especially on the day on which he shall call you. Yet having pity on us, we beseech, when you come into the embrace of the Bridegroom and into the kingdom of the Father, be mindful of us.

[268] Who, seeing and hearing these things, would not be dissolved into tears? weeping together, Oh, if for certain they had known the certain day of her passing, how would they have endured it? They weep and hope: they fear and tremble: they weep together, not knowing that Lydwina is in a short time to be taken from them, the mirror of holy patience, the Virgin of most excellent fame, the light of the sacred vestibule, the dawn of devout souls, the chariot and charioteer of all the continent. O how mournful a day therefore should I call it for the household? If they had foreknown that they were to lose a matron of the family, to send ahead the storehouse-keeper daughter of the family, that the neighbors were to see that perfume-cell fly away, nor knowing that her end was so near, not only would the company of the necessary ones have been present, not only would the devout confraternity of neighbors have been present, not only would every multitude of citizens have flocked in, but also the people of all the neighboring cities would have run together in bands. Doubtless, because of the Virgin's fame, which had shaken the whole region, there would have been such a tumult of innumerable people at her end; that likely, as appeared after her passing, some peril would have followed. Therefore the Lord deigned to anticipate his beloved with secret silence, lest perchance the pearl might be cast before swine.

[269] Truly our victorious heroine, marvelously polished under the hammer of the supreme architect, who was already hastening to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and more marvelously gilded under the craftsmanship of the heavenly Bezaleel, when the day next to Easter began to redden, was poured through with immense joy; and was sweetly absorbed, though superficially, in the glory of Christ's Resurrection in an ineffable manner. For now, wearied, unable to bear the weight of God's glory, she most earnestly begged the Lord that, according to the pleasure of his will, he would deign to draw his little maidservant of his Passion into the odor of his ointments; whom for so many years he had consoled with his rod and staff in this mortal prison. For because of the overflowing abundance of the tenderness of joy, which the Lord at that time familiarly showed to her, she could no longer bear the burden of the body: wherefore with Paul she most eagerly desired to be freed from the prison of this death, and asked to eat the Pasch with Christ and his brothers perennially in glory.

[270] by whom on Easter day (as she herself revealed after death) Therefore he who alone had struck, alone was eager to heal; and he who had wished to mark the solitary one with his stigmata, on the same day of Easter, did not disdain to anoint his bride with the sacred unction. What I shall say of the Unction, this I have received from those to whom the Virgin Lydwina after death deigned personally to reveal it. Nor is it wonderful if the Lord alone anointed her alone in a secret room, because something similar is piously believed to have happened to some. A similar thing is said of Blessed Dionysius, whom, celebrating in Paris in prison, the Son of God communicated with his own Body, saying: Receive this, my dear one, for your reward with me is very great ^a. Of Blessed Anthony of Padua ^b it is said that he said to the Brothers bringing him the sacred Unction: I have this Unction within me; but although it is not necessary that you do these things for me, yet it is well pleasing, and useful to me. By these examples it is sufficiently clear, that Christ Jesus sometimes did not disdain to become again the minister of the salvation which he wrought; especially for such of those, for whom merit, or solitude, or privilege is worthwhile, such as our Virgin was; full of merits, surrounded with ulcers, hidden under her little house, famous among the peoples, the stigma-bearer of Christ, was without doubt before all the virgins of our time singularly unique and admirable.

[271] Therefore when all the household were absent, in the very dawn of Easter day, as she lay contemplating, appearing in great company of saints, behold she saw the Lord Jesus Christ coming from the heights of the heavens: whom she had long awaited, her Angel announcing him to come, with his most blessed mother Mary, with the twelve number of the holy Apostles, with very many Saints and Angels of the heavenly kingdom. The Lord Jesus placed himself at the right of the little bed, but his glorious mother at the left of the same, all the others existing in a fitting order around about. She then saw there a little adorned table, and on it a most fitting little vessel, as if containing sacred unction, a most beautiful cross, and a most shining candle, which illumined the whole chamber in a wondrous manner. Moreover, because her whole body at that time was being shaken with all anguishes, from top to bottom; it pleased him to whom, as about to die, there was no appearance nor comeliness, to fortify his beloved with the sacred Unction. For there came a splendor shining around the whole virginal body, so that she herself, before them anointed, reverently uncovered by Angels, could not see at all in that light. She saw then the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of such wondrous splendor, as a Priest prepared, vested, and adorned, and she felt each member of the body usually anointed to be anointed, without any utterance of words. When these had been anointed, she perceived the covering to be rolled back over herself again by the Angels.

[272] Christ also placed a candle in her hands, and held it with his mother: but a Cross, and certain that she was to pass to heaven without purgatory, about to remain there invisibly standing until the hour of her passing, he left standing there. But she, when she had been anointed, began to beseech the Lord, saying: I beg, most kind Lord, that as through yourself you have deigned to bend down to me, your little handmaid, and have not disdained to anoint my little body with your most holy hands, that you may wish so to enlarge the end of life with passions and griefs, that I, going out of the prison of the body, may contemplate your most sacred face, without any other purgatory. To whom the Lord: I have heard, daughter, your prayer, and have heard you: after two days you shall sing Alleluia with your virgin sisters in the kingdom of my Father. And having said these things, he disappeared. Oh what great joy is poured around her, who after two days is thus called by the bridegroom to the feast! Oh noble deposit, which is attained by the ministry of so great a Pontiff, which with such a holy unction

is smoothed, and visited with so great a function and benefit! Was such a phoenix seen in our land? Did such an eagle draw forth such marrow? Surely a rare bird, great-winged, full of feathers, flew to Lebanon, and brought thence the marrow of the cedar.

[273] After the sweetness of this unction, she had as companion and colleague the Angel, with whom, as friend with friend, she familiarly spoke. The bride of God understood indeed, because of this, herself a poor little woman, in the ministry of Unction to be reserved to the Lord alone; since she had dedicated to the Lord alone her little body, once open to worms and disfigured by countless deaths; and keeping her spirit unspotted in virgin members, purified and possessed under the spirit of patience, she had sacrificed it as a fatted holocaust. She received the Cross left behind so that alone she might tread the winepress of death; and hoping for the sweetness of a new fragrance. and that she might cast every thought and every heap of sufferings straightway to the end itself, to him who hung naked and alone on the cross. When morning was come, with no living man yet knowing what had happened, Master John Walter her Confessor came as was his custom, so that he might receive a small portion of her crumbs and visitations. For he had seen her that night in spirit, with Angels and Saints rejoicing and exulting: and therefore more and more he sought to investigate some novelty, by smell, by sight, and by hearing, from the Virgin; and coming, he smelled so excessive a fragrance, like of a balsam unction, that unable to be satisfied with mouth, nostrils, and all senses, he led her in a certain inebriation of spirit, saying: I rejoice with you, sister, and congratulate you highly, that this night you have been in jubilation. For I know that the Lord has deigned to visit you with his goodness; and that he has left such traces of sweetness, is plainly evident. Tell me therefore, how it is with you? Has not your Bridegroom foretold that he will come soon? Shall a new Alleluia be sung? she confesses to her Confessor that she shall soon die. I beseech you, daughter, if it can be done, do not be slow to say. To whom the blessed bride of Christ said: I give thanks to my Lord God, for he has deigned to visit his handmaid without my merits. But I wish you to know that labor and pain will immediately grow in my body exceedingly. Yet I do not wish it to be hidden from you, when I know how to sing the new Alleluia: moreover I hope that with those whom I saw I shall sing that very thing, and I do not at all doubt that I shall have myself more lightly and gently. We do not doubt that this was plainly said about her death or passing, as the last event of the third day of Easter showed.

[274] Further, since the illustrious handmaid of God had for a long time earnestly begged the Lord, on the third day of Easter she asks to be left alone with a boy, that without the consolation of any man she might die solitary, as desiring to tread the winepress alone with the Bridegroom; that no man or woman might remain in the house of all the nations with her, with pious industry she labored. For when the third day of Easter came, on which the most sacred Virgin did not doubt that she was to be released, having called together all the intimates of her house, whom she could have at hand, thus gathered together in her little cell, she addressed them, saying: If I have found grace in your eyes, O Father Confessor, and all of you brethren and friends who stand by, suppliantly for the mercy of God I beseech you, that on this day you leave me solitary with only the boy, namely my little nephew Baldwin. Moreover I shall call you true friends and household if you leave me alone without visitation: yet when I wish anyone of you, I shall send my little nephew for him. O most Christian daughter, an example of true devotion to all in the hour of death, who strive alone with the One alone to tread the winepress of your suffering; desiring to die solitary. did not the pains of one in childbirth suffice you, which hitherto you have sustained in vigorous spirit in your decaying little body? Scarcely are you able to form a word, and do you strive alone to contend in agony? Does presumption compel you to agonize alone with Christ, or devotion? Do you not fear to tempt God? But perhaps you do not doubt that the Lord is with you, fights with you, perseveres with you to the end. Do what you do, strong woman-contender, without doubt your victory is at the ends of the earth. For the Lord is with you, most strong woman; the Lord, I say, O bride of Christ, is with you, who will not leave you without your laurel. Now your matter is being transacted, O faithful contender: the Lord is near, O bearer of Christ's wounds: so that through him by whom death has been swallowed up in victory, he should not forsake you most faithful to him, but should crown the faithful champion.

[275] All therefore having departed, For indeed in that three-day period none saw her plainly in the face, for she was striving with all her might to hide the sacrament of the King, and henceforth to appear to the Bridegroom alone, with all others renounced. Clearly if they had foreknown that she was to die on that very day, even under oath they could not have departed, as some told me, who in person that morning heard her giving leave. For all were hoping to see her soon, thinking that the Virgin was going to do something secretly at that time, as was her usual custom. And when all had withdrawn further from the house, the Virgin began faithfully to commend her agony to the Lord; and from the seventh hour until the fourth after noon, because of the torment or pricks of the stone, she began to labor with spasmodic pains and to grow rigid; she suffers the final agony, from her chest she was tormented twenty times with a dire vomiting; she was casting out little bits of gall; and so, with only the boy ministering to her, at length dying of pain of heart, with broken words, as best she could, she said: Beloved son, would that my Lord knew how much I am constrained in this hour. But the boy weeping, since he did not know what he should do, truly troubled, said: Do you wish, my friend, that I call to you Master John your Confessor?

[276] and by a sudden summoning, When meanwhile the opening of her throat, tormented with dire vomiting, admitted neither the office of speech nor of breath; the boy thought she was about to fail in those deficiencies and to be extinguished, and running, he called the Confessor, namely Master John Walter, who knew the Virgin's secrets greatly, and summoned with weeping the other household women whom he could find. And they, weeping together, when they came to her, saw that her life had failed in pain: and since there was neither voice nor sense, what ought to be done over her, they were much uncertain among themselves. One, having lit a candle, thought her spirit was being carried up on high: another, wishing to test whether she might yet live, put his mouth and nose close: she is found dead, another sought the Virgin's ears with mournful voices, to know whether she wished to have the holy Unction. Behold weeping, behold cries and grief, behold turbulence fills the whole house. And who would not weep? And who could, without tears, commemorate Christ's bride taken unexpectedly from the midst? Did she not, treading the winepress alone as she had asked, fail? Did she not, under the most terrible stone, as she had long before said, twisted give up her spirit to heaven? It is pious therefore to bewail Lydwina, unexpectedly taken away: more pious to rejoice with Lydwina, borne to heaven.

[277] At last, with the spirit suggesting it, one of the women standing by, her arms whole and fittingly composed, Catharine by name, remembered a word which the Virgin, while she still lived, had said about her right hand, and said to her peers: Allow us to see the disposition of her body: for I remember that she often said that she hoped to magnify God with both hands before death. If therefore we find her hand joined to the other, we shall surely know that she has departed to the Lord. And looking at her, they found the fingers of both hands touching each other under her breasts, according to the Virgin's word which she had spoken: and what is more, all found and saw her last belt, which she had used next to her flesh until her mother's death, and with the belt being removed from her body without the knots being loosed, taken from her body by angelic hands, placed unhurt beside her shoulders, with all the bindings or knots preserved inviolably, as she had fastened it on her body. With such haircloth belts, as with military belts, with whatever sicknesses she daily labored, until her mother's death, she was continuously girt: and she had not put off this last belt for the three years before her death at all, nor had any living man seen it in the intervening time; to be taken off doubtless rather by angelic hands, and thus to be manifested to men after her death. Truly it is to be believed that such a girdle, by his power, without loosing the knots, was drawn from the Virgin's body; which was afterwards dreadful to demons. who of himself, with the tomb closed, by the gift of his subtlety, notwithstanding the guards, once rising came out; and leaving the shroud there, sent outside the sealed stone, which had been placed at the door of the tomb, rolled away. That belt is preserved to this day, giving off a wondrous odor: which I handled with my hands, and which, as I have experienced, is everywhere burdensome to demons. Therefore he who looses the belt of Kings, and girds their loins with a rope, has done all these things.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XII.

On the glory of her blessed soul, in which after her death she was seen by some; and also on the wondrous regeneration and beautiful disposition of her body.

[278] It has been made clear how our sacred heroine, as a pilgrim in this world, She appears to her Confessor in the form of a most beautiful dove, according to the vow of her heart, received falling asleep in the Lord: but in what manner it pleased the Father to give her the kingdom, has not yet shone forth; but it shall appear more clearly, the Lord giving, through what follows. For first her Confessor, as he lay on his couch at night, saw with open eyes that blessed soul, in the form of a most shining dove, whose neck with its beak appeared entirely golden, her feet ruddy and bright, but the feathers of her wings silvered over, but the rest of her body exceedingly white like snow. What, I ask, do all these things mean? The dove form, does it not signify much offspring? And indeed our Lydwina, all beautiful, like a domestic dove, bore many to Christ. What of the golden beak? Does it not designate the Virgin's words or golden doctrines? Does not the neck like gold signify her obedience, by which she voluntarily submitted herself to the yoke of the Lord? What else do the red and ruddy feet proclaim, than that she imitated the footsteps of Christ's Passion? The silvered feathers of the dove, unless I am mistaken, indicate the clarity of her contemplation. Indeed the Psalmist says: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I shall fly and be at rest." Ps. 54:7 The snowy whiteness of the rest of the body suggests to me the purity of mind and body. Thus therefore sleeping among the midst of the heritages, she received glory: thus our silvered-winged dove flew to Lebanon: thus the latter end of the bride's languishing life is shown in the paleness of gold.

[279] A certain virgin, as pious report believes, pleasing to God,

A certain Virgin sees her received by saints, the sister of the said Presbyter, as she was guarding the venerable deposit, neither wholly waking nor sleeping, but only somewhat veiled by a light cloud of sleep, saw the chosen bride of God being borne up through the sacred Angels to the heavens, and the souls of the Saints coming to meet her with great light, and saying: You are welcome to us, pious sister little Lydwina: truly you come well; for indeed your coming brings us new joys pleasing in the Lord. Thus, then, there was given to the Virgin a pleasing reception of the heavenly timbrel-players, thus was given to the Bride the kindly applause of the harpists playing their harps, and thus did the venerable assembly of the heavenly Word-born meet the joy of our earth-born one.

[280] To another she appears joined to her Bridegroom. A certain widow also, devoted with the purest heart to this our deceased, when in the first watch of the night she was observing between sleep and waking, saw coming as it were a college of Virgins and other Soldiers, entering her chamber, preparing themselves in order at the nuptial table; and there came a most beautiful youth and sat down: but Lydwina, prepared and adorned in bridal manner, as of imperial style, sat across from her husband, who said to the widow: Remember, my dearest sister, how I often said to you while living in the flesh, that I should have a comely Bridegroom in the heavens, beautiful beyond all the sons of men. Do you see now that I am joined in his most chaste embraces, whom I saw, whom I loved, in whom I believed, whom I cherished? And now I enjoy his sweet presence, of which I shall never be deprived for a moment. To whom the widow replied: Behold, I congratulate you and rejoice with you: for now see what those nuptials mean, of which we often spoke: and now my eyes see the day of your very great glory. For the nuptial days of Lydwina have come: and it is given her to be covered with white and shining fine linen.

[281] Two virgins distressed, separated by place, In those last days there were two virgins, known to me, truly wise in fame and in fact, who were chastened under the hand of the Lord, but not unto destruction, rather unto salvation. Of these, one, living in remote parts, was accustomed with most tender piety to have compassion on the Virgin Lydwina while she lived: anxious about Lydwina's solitude, the other had conceived only from common report a knowledge and love of her. Therefore, when both were for a while somewhat vexed in mind about the Virgin's passing so solitary, because there was no one who might tell of her end; with vows and prayers sent ahead, they received from the Lord through the spirit such a document concerning her passing. On a certain night, namely the fourteenth of the month of April, on the very day our sacred Lydwina passed to the Father, they were in ecstasy of mind, and saw the place where she had spent the bodily days of her infirmity with groans and infinite pains. And when simultaneously in time, place, and manner, at the same moment they see her in spirit, even objectively they met in the spirit, they saw Lydwina, as in that very hour laboring in agony (whom yet they had never seen in the flesh) utterly forsaken by men, and as if deprived of all consolation whatsoever.

[282] Further, when in that so miserable agony she had struggled, it came to the giving up of her spirit. And behold, immediately they saw the Lord Jesus, and how, after she had commended her soul to the Bridegroom present, as a bridegroom proceeding from his chamber, with his most blessed mother, and with Angels and many Saints, orderly surrounding the Virgin's bed in a circle. But when the Bridegroom Lord thus stood beside her, he began sweetly to invite her: he began also, according to the Virgin's former vow, sweetly to call the beloved out of the prison of the body. She indeed, with a reciprocal affection of love, strove to commend her spirit into his hands, saying: My Lord Jesus Christ, you know all my desire, and my groaning is not hidden from you. You therefore are my one and only desired one, and my redeemer: receive, I pray, my spirit. To whom again the Lord: Come, my chosen one, for now your spirit shall rest from its labors: come, my bride, that you may feast with me in the kingdom of my Father: come, my dove, that you may recline with your sisters in my chamber. Then the Virgin's very soul, as if loosed from the flesh, seemed to leap into the most loving embraces of Jesus, and being received by him, to linger a little, as a beloved one leaning upon her Beloved.

[283] Further, when the Bridegroom had held the bride's soul for some time in his arms, from him to the Virgin mother, he seemed to present her to his mother Mary; who, as if kissing a daughter and pressing her to her breast, gave her to her leading Angel, who had been her companion and director in life. And when he had received her, there was with him a multitude of the heavenly host, praising the Lord and inviting her to their fellowship. They also saw this blessed soul clad then in most white fine linen, and given by these to the Angels, and crowned above with a garland of spring-green roses ^b, and so illustrious with Cherubic clarity, flaming with Seraphic charity, presented before the Lord. And when the whole heavenly city was rejoicing as at the coming of a new guest, gloriously clothed and crowned, the Lord began to invite her, saying: Come, my chosen, receive the crown which I have prepared for you in eternity. And having said this, she received the kiss of peace from the Bridegroom, with the Angels rejoicing. Then immediately she is clothed with a purple, star-dropping, and splendid garment; she is wrapped around with a robe of heavenly color, glistening with precious gems: then was placed a crown on her head, which was set round with pearls and precious stones, which also a garland of wonderful appearance and beauty crowned above. And when thus crowned by the Lord, with the Angels singing the hymn ^c, "Jesus, crown of virgins," she was presented to Mary, the Virgin of virgins, who offered her a golden chain with the kiss of peace: which, woven with inestimable gems, she placed around her neck. She was joined to the choir of Virgins. Finally after this she seemed to be led to the choir of Virgins: who likewise with Angels singing the Responsory ^d, "Regnum mundi" (The kingdom of the world), most reverently received her, as the new bride and companion of the Lamb, into their fellowship.

[284] It may suffice to have seen this for the virgins, for the consolation and strengthening of their minds; and also for the repression of blasphemers, who judge only by the accidents of those who die sweetly known to them, and who in no way rely on the truth of Scripture saying: "If the just man be overtaken by death, he shall be in refreshment." Wisd. 4:7 What, O reader, do you think these mysteries, shown not as dreams but revealed to the two virgins separately existing, yet concurring in one in spirit, signify? Does not, from the beneficent largesse of God, that essential glory, which the Theologians call "Aurea" (the Golden), is given to the Blessed? Who of sound mind will hesitate that our Virgin Lydwina merited both the Aurea and the Aureola itself? She was adorned with manifold Aureola. For she who held with Angels charity, with Patriarchs faith and mercy, with Prophets the knowledge of future things and of hearts, with Apostles poverty, with Confessors abstinence, with Virgins celibacy, in an eminent way; who for thirty-three continual years, under such prolonged languor, lay in an abject little hut; what wonder if she received such great glory among the Saints? Therefore a hymn to all God's Saints at the coming of such a splendor-bearing bride, glory to the sons of Israel, praise to every people approaching her: for indeed "raising the needy from the earth, and lifting the poor from the dunghill," he decided that all these things should be made known, for it is written, "Thus shall he be honored whom the King wishes to honor." Esther 6:9

[285] Truly when the man of desires, John, the Virgin's Confessor, who had most truly contemplated the Virgin's soul in the form of a dove, Lydwina's Confessor, on the next day, namely Wednesday after Easter, is said to have come to the place where the sacred pledge of the virginal little vessel was being kept: as soon as he entered, he perceived there such sweetness and fragrance of sweet odor, refreshed by the fragrance of wondrous odor, such as in former times, while the most blessed woman lived, he remembered having ever sensed. For the house of the dead Virgin seemed to him nothing other than an aromatic place, a storehouse of unguents, a cell of balsam: so much so that it was believed rather the house of the Blessed, the workshop of Angels, and the habitation of another world, than the earthen house of men.

[286] Therefore, when by night he had learned from the Angel revealing to him how and in what manner the most sacred body of the Virgin should be handled, he orders the face of the dead to be wiped with a cloth: and of how great merit she was before God; immediately, as he entered the house, he began to weep, and on his knees before all, he adored her. With this done, according to the oracle of the Angel, he commanded one of those who were keeping the body, that taking a linen cloth she should wipe the virginal face; knowing that under that squalid color, with which she had died and passed from the world, a new beauty or new splendor of face would shine forth. Behold, I tell you a mystery. Immediately, when one of them had done what had been ordered, which soon appears splendid, behold, her face came forth white like the image of an excellent picture, painted most diligently by the craftsmanship of a distinguished painter. Taking off also the clothes, which had been placed around the body at that time, they found the rest of the body beautiful, smooth, firm, and perfect, as if at the same hour anointed with the purest color through all its members.

[287] just as the rest of the body was wholly restored. Who now of our pomp-lovers or barkers against divine wisdom, who now of the drinkers of your Averroistic natural philosophy, will judge that this little body, transmuted by so many species or modes of disease, stuffed within by so many stings of pains like a hedgehog, once full of so many swarms of worms, undermined with so many fractures of fissures and apostemes, rotted into so many small parts, wasted away by so many burnings, fistulas, ulcers, wounds, pustulations, fevers, and itchings, retained again to itself the human likeness after death? Who, knowing according to the flesh, of the sons of Hagar, of the merchants of the land of Teman, will believe that the same body, now for so many years dying, having neither the appearance nor the beauty of a man, now however truly dead, could be made beautiful, handsome, pleasing with shining color, tractable, yielding, delightful? Alas for shame! The one wise carnally will not believe, nor the blind Jew, nor the dull and worthless Hagarene ^f, nor the inflated Philosopher, unless with Thomas he shall touch, see, and examine, and thus be drawn to sensibly experience rather than piously and faithfully believe.

[288] with a notable miracle, O who of the orthodox and also of the illuminated Theologians, if he should see our Virgin thus, would not marvel, not be astonished, not magnify? And who of sound mind, even a simple worshiper of God, would not rejoice in such beauty? Who has a heart of stone, who, if once he saw the Virgin as leprous and humbled, now however should see her showing forth a glorified appearance or face, would not weep with her, would not congratulate and rejoice together with joy? For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, who in the spring time brings back leaves to the stripped trees, who gives new hair to stags and fawns, who makes the feathers of the hawk

and eagle to be renewed, who appoints the flow and ebb of the sea, whose hand is not shortened; this unheard-of specimen, this sign, he conferred on her dead: showing that he who is wonderful in death, did still more wonderful things in her life.

[289] Indeed the great and everywhere truly wonderful and holy man ^g Malachy, born of a barbarous people, that is, Irish, not only because dead she had no signs of death, is so attested by the honey-flowing Bernard, that although dead, in his countenance he was in no way paler, not more shrunken, not wrinkled in face, not with hollow eyes, not with drawn lips, not with burnt teeth, not with a neck consumed and thin, not with curved shoulders, not with flesh wasted away in the rest of his limbs. These things, not less to the praise of God and to the magnificence of the Virgin, though in a rather uncultivated and barbarous style, I have felt should be turned. None of the things that have been said, in the time of her inflicted languor, nature gave to our Lydwina: but more than these, the grace of God after death conferred, beyond and above nature. And what more? To the dead body the Most High gave a beauty which even in life nature could in no way have given.

[290] What therefore and what sort of image of the dead Virgin? To whom I: The image of her body, by the grace of Lydwina, by the glory of the dead woman, was such. Her face once squalid from languor, but more because living she had been so deformed in many ways. but now vivacious after death and white, more like a living one, nay more comely. Her eyes were deep and hollow; now however level and even. Her cheeks were formerly swollen because of dropsy, at times otherwise; now however serene, equal, and beautiful. Also her nose was ulcerous, once split with the forehead; now long, solid, and manly. Her lips before were cut, split, and broken along with her chin; now however becoming, ruddy, and whole. Her teeth once broken to pieces and black; now however restored and very white. Her neck once consumed and sometimes swollen; now is rendered more like snow, smooth and fleshy. And briefly all the remaining flesh of her head and body, compact, beautiful, and comely to those looking upon her.

[291] Moreover her body, which had been a swarm of sprouting worms; yet one of her breasts fuller than the other appeared whole, smooth, and ruddy, as the virgins said who were observing her: and where at least it should have given forth a stench, it smelled like any pharmacy of spices. Especially one of her breasts, which at the time of the sacred Nativity three times had swollen up with milk by heaven, while the other had less, was to the touch full of virgin flesh. Nowhere on her body could cut, fissure, fracture, or the least thing be found; where previously pustules, fistulas, ulcers, former apostemes, frequent pestilence, where fire had everywhere filled her. This distinguishing mark, however, stayed with her after death; namely that because of the handling of the Picards, in three places scars, as marks of victory, she retained: and certain traces of wounds remained. which like scarlet thread were plainly distinguished in the rest of the flesh. Whatever therefore of sickness the hand of the Lord had given, remained solid and continuous, without fold, without spot, without any wrinkle: but what the tyrannical hand of men had inflicted, as a memorial of triumph, was indelibly left on her virginal members.

[292] Indeed this beauty of the dead body was uniform, with incredible consolation to beholders. and this beautiful uniformity of her members was so delightful to beholders, that to some it brought admiration, as to the more experienced; to others joy and exultation, as to the more devout; to many insatiability of her sight, as to religious and devout souls. The virgins with others, who continuously day and night observed the sacred deposit, confessed that they were burdened with neither thirst nor sleep nor hunger; and this because of the wondrous sweetness of fragrant odor and joy of spirit, which at the sight of the most precious funeral bier they continuously perceived. For it was so unusual and so splendid a spectacle that to all simple folk looking upon it, it was a clear confirmation of faith; it was also to the devout sick a shining comfort unto patience; it was to the spiritual a sweet and loving consolation; it was also a magnificent matter for running to the sight for those far off.

[293] There is a great gathering for the spectacle, Truly as soon as the fame of the dead Virgin of Schiedam struck the province, and the fame of so great a miracle was divulged everywhere to the ears of men; immediately neighbors from near at hand gathered round about, and from far off countless peasants and citizens also; that they might at least see with eyes of flesh the dead woman, whom so famous in sicknesses, so frequent in divine consolations, so illustrious in perfections, they had heard commended. They were therefore admitted, in that three-day period in which that holy body was kept, from each town, even of boys, camp, and village, in bands men and women, old and young, virgins and boys, great and small, the sucklings at the breast. What shall I say of boys and little ones? Indeed of boys there was such a concourse, that those who with difficulty had come girded, and three-year-olds of small stature, could not see the Virgin because of the crowd, impatient said: Why are we wearied? And crying out in this manner, they inflamed the people to greater devotion; that what is written might be verified: "Out of the mouths of infants and sucklings you have perfected praise." Ps. 8:3

[294] There was moreover among them a yearling infant, who was carried between his mother's arms, sucking at the breasts: among whom a yearling infant moves all. who, when he saw the Virgin's presence, immediately as if spurning the breast, with serene little face and hands joined, so seriously and reverently fixed his eyes on the Virgin, that he moved those looking on to tears, and softened men and women of stony spirit to reverence the virginal pledge. There was also given to each of the boys and infants one loaf, in memory of the wonderful things which the Lord at that time was doing; whence very glad and rejoicing, as from a wedding, they returned to their own. Thus the daughters of Tyre revered her face; thus some miserable daughters of Babylon, of whatever sex, state, rank, and dignity, came to this most sacred funeral, and returned with tears and exultation.

[295] Truly also now the venerable and virginal vessel was venerated by men on earth, the body is arranged for burial, whose glorious soul the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem had received in the heights. But the Confessor of the most holy Virgin Lydwina and the other devout, to whom the Virgin's vow about her burial was known, were striving to give her over to burial: but fearing the commands of the Prince ^h, who had said that he would come to see her before she should be buried, they delayed. The elders of the city of Schiedam also had forbidden her to be buried, because of the Prince, whom in this matter they with trembling were eager to please. At length, however, when the Prince's coming was not hoped for, leave being received, she was clothed by the household women in a little tunic; and with the belt, as she had used it, she was girded: a little membrane too, on which the most sweet names of Jesus and Mary had been inscribed, as she had desired in life, was so placed under her head; and thus arranged, she was laid in a wooden coffin. Then when Master John, the Virgin's Confessor, had gathered the little bag of bloody tears scraped from the cheeks of this bride of Christ, which she called roses (lest he should be cheated of even the least stranger's portion of his daughter in Christ) he placed that bag under her head. the little bag of her bloody tears being placed under her head. What mystery this work may have, the Almighty knows: yet let all truly conjecture, that these bloody tears she wished to be called her roses; both because she poured them forth for love of the Lord's Passion, and because out of charity for the conversion of sinners, and because from the withdrawal of divine consolation, which she suffered for some time, and because from the cold and calamity of winter time.

[296] Therefore when it grew light on Friday after Easter, which is the eighth day from the Passion of the Savior, very many more than before gathered together to see the works of the Lord, which prodigies he had set upon the earth. But a woman, mother of a family, her face is darkened by the touch of a married woman: stirred by a certain curious spirit of superfluous devotion, attempted to approach the Virgin's face; and placed a heap of certain little beads, which German folk are accustomed to call "Pater-noster" (rosary), reverently drawing them around over the Virgin's face: at whose rash touch the face of the dead Virgin visibly underwent a change, not without the amazement of many who then stood by. Nor is it any wonder if such a thing happened through a woman joined to a mortal bed-fellow in a dead body: because something similar is said to have happened at the touch of a certain less chaste man, who touched the Virgin's hand while she yet lived, according to the testimony of those who were present and saw. For it was not without a mystery known to her, that she so begged her household still surviving in life, that immediately after her death they should give her over to burial. I have no doubt but that she foreknew in spirit that such a thing was to happen, from the folly of certain curious people, about her body: because she had as it were a double spirit of prophecy, and revealed so many and so great truths sometimes about herself and about others. For not yet had her hour come, that the Lord should will her to be common to all: nor would I assert it safe to give what is holy to dogs, or to cast a pearl before swine.

[297] From then on, at the request of the Virgin's household, the funeral rites are celebrated, and also by the counsel of the venerable Religious, and at the persuasion of the other Priests, who had come together from every part, it was decided that by no means should the burial be further delayed, but as quickly as possible it should be borne with praises venerably to the mother church. And so, with the praises of the Clergy and the tears of the peoples, she was borne with wonderful honor to the parish church, namely of St. John the Baptist, of the little town of Schiedam: and there, with the mysteries solemnly celebrated, as a heavenly pharmacy fragrant, she was stored up and buried. For indeed in that church the little infant drew the first fruits of her spirit; there she learned to greet the Queen of heaven: there as a girl, crawling on hands and feet, before she was entirely laid low, she bade her last farewell to Mary: there afterwards as a woman, prostrate, she was often rapt in spirit: there at length she received her tomb after her falling asleep.

[298] ⁱ She was buried at the southern side of the aforesaid church, her body is honorably buried. in a very humble place, in a monument made of fired bricks and cement, which was ornamented on top with beautiful stones of suitable sculpture. For it did not become that she, of whom while living rottenness and worms oozed for so many years, whom the Lord for so many years nourished without corruptible food or drink, on whom he inflicted so many scourges perennially, should be allowed to see the common corruption of worm-eaten flesh, or that the swarming decay of worms should first inherit her when dead. Therefore she who so often died together with Christ suffering in the flesh while living, although in a despised house for thirty-three years possessed a mean little hut, yet when dying, by God's giving, attained a glorious tomb. The happy and blessed heroine passed, and most valiant contender of women, from this world to the Father, namely in the year 1433 of the Incarnation, on the fourteenth day of the month of April, on the feast of the holy Martyrs Tiburtius and Valerianus,

in the days of illustrious Philip, Prince of Burgundy and of Holland: and she was buried on Friday after Easter.

[299] The Author's jubilation on the Virgin's glory. Therefore let the glorious God be magnified in his saints, who has raised this young woman, lately sought in the utmost ends of the earth, like Abishag, to such excellent glory. Let each citizen of heaven rejoice together, to whom once joined through grace and manifold virtue, now made a fellow-dweller, she contemplates God in his kingdom. Let the most holy mother Church rejoice, from whose womb such a little plant is produced, and set, like a new star, to fill the ruins in the splendors of the Saints. Let all Holland congratulate, in whose green garden a Virgin of such a famous name is gathered; and as the evening of the world approaches, such a white lily, as another Esther among girls, is found. Let the happy little town of Schiedam moreover be praised, which possesses such a noble deposit in a corner, because of which a dripping of dew shall doubtless drop down from above in its time. Let the religious daughters of Zion hope and rejoice, after whose exemplar a banner-bearer of those suffering is set up on a high mountain, and she triumphs deservedly crowned with laurel by many trophies. Let the timbrel players, daughters of the earthly Jerusalem, virgins, rise up; let them be animated and see, daughters of Tyre and Sidon, widows, and let them proclaim the most blessed one enthroned on high: for our heroine has received from the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. Let the daughters of Babylon however now be converted, or at least blush, for thus the Most High has regarded his humble handmaid; and let them ponder in their heart what the bridegroom of the bride shall do in the gates, when he shall sit with the senators of the earth.

[300] Thanks be to God for the third translation, which he has given to his aborted and unworthy little puppy. Amen. And thus ends the Legend of the nourishing Virgin Lydwina, composed by Brother John Brugman, in the year of the Lord 1456, then Reader of the Convent of the Friars Minor near St. Omer; and copied by a Professed of the same Order, by name Brother Arnold of Ostend, in honor of the aforesaid Virgin, in the year of the Lord 1457, as best he could in the convent of ^k Dunkirk: who, desiring nothing for his labor except the help of the Virgin, devoutly commend themselves to her.

NOTES.

APPENDIX

by the Masters of the Fabric of the church of Schiedam.

Lidwigis or Lidwina, Virgin, at Schiedam in Holland (Blessed)

[301] This work, by God's favoring grace, was completed at Schiedam in the year ^a 1498, to the honor of the undivided Trinity; and also, to the honor of the nourishing Virgin Lydwina of Schiedam principally, at the expense of the people of Schiedam, was printed: whose historiographer Brother John Brugman, of the Order of Observants, was previously an illustrious preacher; who because of singular devotion by which he was affected toward her after her death, edited this history.

[302] We Hollanders also, by a special prerogative of victory, granted to us by God on the day ^b of Valentine, conferred on us within the walls of Schiedam, are constrained to extol her with praises: in gratitude for the victory obtained through this Virgin, from when the satraps of the Lord of Wittenhorst, hired by Holland as standard-bearers of Holland, undeservedly conspired, and moreover attempted to overturn their County from its foundations; that they might finally obtain their goods, by binding and imprisoning them. But the omnipotent and blessed Lord destroyed the crime ^c of their conspiracy. While all the Hollanders were supping at the seventh hour by the evening sun, a certain Zealand matron, by the bidding of God, came up: from whom the trumpeter of the Lord of Wittenhorst inquired what hour it was: who presently said, ^d "SEVENE IS" (it is seven). Understanding "NEGHENE" (nine), he raised his voice, quickly calling his accomplices, lifting to the stars "Wittenhorst, ^e Breroe." The Hollanders, ignorant of this kind of clangor, suspecting nothing evil, astonished unexpectedly, from the other side cry out far and wide "HOLLANT, HOLLANT." The outcome of the war was held in doubt ^f; "bus bas" (the sound) resounded back and forth from their little mortars and arrows, reverberating in the heavens, so that each one seemed to get goose flesh. At last, God helping, the Hollanders obtained the victory. At night, about the ninth hour, their satellites fleeing, our adversaries of Rotterdam coming up, to two shots of a crossbow, drew near the town of Schiedam.

[303] It must not be passed over in silence, how the venerable intercession of the aforesaid Virgin Lydwina, the printing being arranged, salutarily poured forth before the heavenly powers, has been heard for us: wherefore the Masters of the Fabric of St. John the Baptist of Schiedam made these expenses: that learned men, who rejoice in Latin speech more than common disdain to use, may these editions, though of rough workmanship constructed, not bite with a dog's tooth, but may deign to read over with the dove's eye of the mind. If they were to behold daily the concourse of strangers, who are cured of their infirmities and bodily defects, they would not bark so often with rabid mouth. Wherefore we ask you, that you everywhere make known and extol the name of this Virgin before the great, and that her canonization may be promoted by Catholics. that at length in the number of the Holy she may be called Holy. We of Schiedam, needy and destitute, cannot without heavy expenses obtain the canonization of the same Virgin from the Apostolic Lord: and already we see ourselves powerless, and it appears to us utterly impossible, nay we know it for certain. We flee for refuge to the learned, skilled in Latin, relying on their kindness and benevolence, that hereafter before princes and nobles, and common rich persons dwelling round about, the name of Virgin Lydwina may be amplified: God, who is the rewarder of all good men in his glory, shall requite them. Farewell all happily. From Schiedam at St. Anne's.

NOTES.

SEQUEL

on the nourishing Virgin Lydwina.

Lidwigis or Lidwina, Virgin, at Schiedam in Holland (Blessed)

The last face of the book was again occupied by a two-part image, with this title, Image at the end of the book. Life of the nourishing Virgin Lydwina of

Schiedam. In the upper part on one side sat Sts. Mary and Anne, with the child Jesus standing on the ground and leaning on his mother's knees between them; before whom a certain person knelt in a cassock without tonsure, who seemed to represent one of the Masters of the Fabric; whom, standing behind his back, Blessed Lydwina, with crowned head and unbound hair, pressed the right hand with a cross and a little rosebranch to her breast, reverently inclining to the Saints; but she had placed her left hand on the shoulder of the person kneeling before her, as offering and commending him, in the manner in which patron saints of the persons there represented are commonly seen in stained-glass windows or cenotaph panels. The lower panel contained an Angel in flowing garment seated, with hands expanded on either side and wings holding two shields, of which the one which was under her right hand had on a pure surface a black Lion leaping up, and a transverse line, which four counters of alternating black and white had divided, striped; with the inscription "Schiedam": but that which was under the left hand had three hourglasses of sand in a likewise white surface, with the inscription "In Hollandia" (In Holland).

TRANSLATION OF THE BODY

from Schiedam to Brussels.

from the Manuscripts of the Archive of the church of St. Gudula.

Lidwigis or Lidwina, Virgin, at Schiedam in Holland (Blessed)

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

[1] In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Amen. Since the place of burial of Blessed Lidwina is publicly known to the citizens of Schiedam, In the place of the chapel of Bl. Lydwina in the chapel once distinguished by walled work and screens, at the southern part of the parish church, next to the side door of the temple, where a stained-glass window hangs, accustomed to display the life of the Saint painted, with certain painted rhombi still extant: John Baptist Grammay, about to undertake the elevation of the bones of the said Virgin, by the mandate of the Most Reverend Father Commissary, took as companions in counsel, toward the end of August in the year 1615, while living in Holland, P. Jacob John of Amsterdam, formerly Guardian of the Friars Minor at Trudonopolis, and Erasmus Paschasius, Canonical Priest of Arnhem, the Catholics buy the place of burial who until the end took part in the process: and the business also being communicated to P. Marcus Tempelius, Superior of the Society of Jesus in Holland, and to Edward Potter, a noble man; and having drawn to his side John Muylwijk, first Consul of the town of Schiedam; he proceeded to the purchase of the sepulchers of the Saint and those adjacent, through the mediation of Arnold Jansonius and Margaret Bertels, spouses, living at Rotterdam: and this that the purchase made through an outsider should not be suspect to the common people.

[2] It must be known, moreover, that the length of the chapel, which projected somewhat from the wall between two columns of the church, where many miracles were formerly done was only that of two tombs with a middle space; the width similarly, the capacity altogether of six tombs or so; reckoning eight feet for each tomb in length, three in width: at whose head was an altar sacred to the Most Holy Trinity, and before it, next to the screens of the chapel, was the raised tomb of Blessed Lidwina: at which possessed and sick persons cured, and the town delivered from diseases and necessities through the Saint's intervention, the survivors, even heretics, remembered and publicly reported. Otherwise the sepulcher, which projected level with the ground and with the floor of the church itself elevated a few years ago by seven feet, with the screens of the chapel cast down, nothing smelling of Blessed Lydwina, except the said window, was apparent.

[3] Having therefore bought the Virgin's tomb and the neighboring place, as has been said, on the 22nd day of September of the same year, a little after dinner, they would have gone to the digging, after some disturbance had not certain Catholics, as we think, ignorant of this counsel, having corrupted the digger with money, stirred up some tumults: for the matter being divulged, and the digger being sent to prison, it seemed more expedient to defer the matter for a little. At length, with all things quieted, after various comings and goings by the said Gramay, Jacob, Erasmus, and the spouses, Tempelius being called by letter, and Nicolaus Hereng, Canon of Lutos, being brought to assist, before witnesses called for this on the 15th day of December (although the two latter did not appear), with Jacob and Erasmus Priests as witnesses, and Eustasius Reynierssen Bos, and many laypersons, they proceeded to the opening of the sepulcher, in the appearance of some sepulchral cave to be constructed under the ground, which was done by Judocus de Vlueg the digger, and Cornelius John the mason, sworn of the town.

[4] While however the digging was purposely being prolonged, until the people who had professed what was said above about the chapel and tomb should have dispersed, after digging about eight feet, the bones of Bl. Lydwina are dug up there appeared the old floor of the church and earth more compacted, and, as appeared, long unmoved. Digging further, however, there appeared the foundations of the wall lengthwise, by which the chapel had been enclosed, and next to it a stone sepulcher of brick work, which, broken at the top and in more than one place, had admitted earth and sand. When the workmen were with difficulty dissolving it, the bones which were found scattered among the very rubble and earth they threw out: which bones, gathered by the witnesses above mentioned, were placed and carried away in a contracted sack: and a sepulcher was soon made in the same place of new stones, and closed, with the rubble of the ancient sepulcher placed over it. The said bones, and transferred to Brabant in the year 1615 with some stones extracted from the middle of the sepulcher, in which likely the loins had rested, were placed and locked up by Gramay in a chest decently adorned, and thus transported to Brabant.

[5] In witness of all these things thus done, we the undersigned witnesses and spectators have strengthened the present writing with our hand and seal. Done at The Hague on the 18th day of December 1615. To the greater glory of Almighty God.

Br. Jacob John of the Order of Friars Minor, deputed by the Most Reverend Father Commissary to this act, in faith and testimony of the truth of the things placed above have written and subscribed these things.

And I, Erasmus Paschasius, Priest, Canon of Arnhem, because I was present with others, having been asked, at the act of elevation and translation, and saw all things done as narrated in the verbal process by the R. F. Jacob in writing, have noted the present instrument with my hand and seal.

✠ Eras. Paschasius Pr.

John Baptist Gramay have similarly subscribed in faith, with my family seal added ✠

As witnesses among others of the translation from Holland, have subscribed in faith,

Christopher le Ceingne, Cleric of Cambrai.

Nicolaus Heren, Canonical Priest of Lutos.

[6] Thus far the Verbal Process, which the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Lancelot de Gottignies, Bishop of Ruremonde, at the instance of the R. F. Dorotheus Louffius of the Society of Jesus, The truth of the said Relics is proved, took care to have required and transcribed from the archive of the noted church and Canons of St. Gudula at Brussels, where the original instrument itself is kept under number 123, together with the following writing kept there under the note of the same number, making most certain faith about the truth of the relics translated to Brussels, as will soon appear, bearing such title: "Status of the Relics of the body of Bl. Lydwina Virgin," and it is of this kind.

[7] The Virgin near death had asked that her head be veiled with a parchment mitre, from the mitre on the skull marked with crosses, according to the witness of the writer of the Teutonic Life, formerly published.

* A small part of that mitre adhering to the skull was found: it is carried in a small chest with part of the hair.

[8] and the straw clinging to the hair, She had also commanded that a straw pillow be placed under her head, and that her body, lest it touch the ground, be raised by pieces of wood placed under it, according to the same witness.

* Even the straw is seen firmly adhering to the hair, with astonishment.

[9] the form of the sepulcher, She had been placed in a stone sepulcher, before the altar of the Holy Trinity, in the eastern chapel of the parish church of St. John the Baptist of Schiedam, according to the same witness.

* The same thing has been found, and some stones with earth are reported, from which statues can be made, if so the Prince shall see fit, and the Dean of Lutos carries the delineation of the whole temple, and of the chapel and tomb expressed in a wax type.

[10] in which place no one else is buried; In the said chapel, in Catholic times, no one ever was buried: but the more noble of the town and the territory, for the sake of devotion, chose burial in the precincts of the chapel, as the extant coffins testify, and the * book of Libitinarius (register of deaths), where are noted all and each who for eighty years have been buried in the temple.

* The Dean of Lutos, the Guardian of Trudo, Eustatius Reyneri, Arnold John, and others read and examined the book, which is open to all, before and after the purchase of the sepulchers.

[11] upon which, with earth filled to 7 feet, In the time of the heretics, the whole church was raised up to seven feet and more up to the floor, and the very chapel of the Saint, in which for seven years, at the side of the sepulcher of the Blessed, only two * women had been entombed, according to the same book. Yet the sepulchral pit of them did not exceed the depth of four feet: and thus it was higher than the old floor of the temple: and this in conformity with the statutes of that place, extant in the register book.

* All the bones of the said women, in the presence of the witnesses named in the process, are, as and where it is said, found, and cast out into the cemetery with the remains of the coffins, and in this were buried 2 women. in which they had lain.

[12] At the side of the altar was a picture of the Saint, * receiving a branch of olive from an Angel, and holding a Cross with her left hand, there had been there a picture of the Blessed, as all those who are over forty years old as citizens of Schiedam attest.

* There is extant with the copperplate engraver at Antwerp an image sculpted after this example, and is commonly had printed on paper.

[13] miracles in the window In the glass window illuminating the chapel, the Life * and miracles of the Blessed were painted: and that one about the shipwrecked still remains with other parts.

* This window, represented by rough painting, the Dean of Lutos carries.

[14] image on the altar Above the altar was an image of the Saint, standing, crowned, bearing a Cross on her breast, with the same witnesses.

* The Dean has placed on the bier one of the same form, from a part of the broken and coagulated sepulchral stone.

[15] On the wall of the church the same was painted lying on a bed, votive offerings on the wall, with men of various condition and sex imploring her help, with wax members, ships, figures suspended from projecting iron, in memory of * those cured by her intervention.

* More miracles performed and narrated by witnesses of the elevation, if it shall seem fitting to His Highness, shall be registered by the authority of the Apostolic Vicar, those who saw having been heard.

[16] Of her furniture there still remains a deformed comb, in the hand of a private person in Holland, comb, lantern, belt, and at its proper time can be had: a lantern of ancient work: that one Father Wyringus, working in the College of the Society at Mechelen, received from the widow of Verburchtius, with a promise of restoring it (and handed it over to be kept by the Professed House at Antwerp, where it is still to be seen in the sacristy) a cross and part of the belt: which I understand was reclaimed by the Apostolic Vicar.

[17] The mouth of her sepulcher before the altar, some feet above the ground, the sepulchral stone was covered with a large stone * showing the effigy of the Saint engraved, which the heretics, raising the floor of the temple and hoping to remove the memory of the Saint, turned upside down.

* This stone still remains: and, if need be, can be had.

[18] Above the stone a stony rim made a cavity, in which possessed and sick people, lying down, above which the possessed and were liberated many times, as those who remain as elders testify.

* Concerning the possessed liberated in the time of the late Pastor of Schiedam, witnesses can also be heard by the authority of the Vicar or Apostolic Nuncio.

[19] the bones placed within a casket; The smaller bones having been consumed, the larger ones with the head remain, and have been placed on a bier or chest by the Dean of Lutos, of the length of two and a half feet, of the height of one and a half feet, and almost equal width, which, lined inside with green satin, has a small ark at the side serving for smaller Relics, and is clothed on the outside with gilded leather: the sacred bones themselves however are wrapped in fine linen, with two stones taken from the middle of the sepulcher, according to the witness of the verbal process.

[20] whose translation was followed Would that the people of Schiedam had cared to describe and to consign to public writings the innumerable miracles performed at the sepulcher of the Blessed, or at least the more illustrious and attested, how much incitement these would provide for confidence to be conceived toward this blessed Virgin! Yet the testimony of the Schiedam Magistracy concerning the miracles in general, expressed above after the Life, and the continued memory of the same miracles preserved among the citizens until this century, ought to suffice all. It certainly sufficed the Most Illustrious Archbishop of Mechelen, Mathias Hovius, requested by the Belgian Princes Albert and Isabella, so that by his authority he might approve the cult of Bl. Lydwina thenceforth to be given at Brussels: which he did in this letter, which from the original the aforesaid Bishop of Ruremonde deigned to transcribe with his own hand and to fortify with his seal, in these words:

[21] Mathias, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See Archbishop of Mechelen, approval of the Archbishop of Mechelen. to all who shall see these, greeting in the Lord. Since according to the custom of the Church Christ's faithful are bound to pursue with all veneration the sacred relics of the Blessed, who were dwellings of the Holy Spirit and lodging of happy souls in this world: that in the meantime frauds and impostures concerning them may not give occasion for error and scandal, the holy Tridentine Synod commands that none be exposed for public honor, unless by the Ordinaries of the place their truth be recognized. Since therefore it has been made known to us on the part of our Most Serene Princes, how they claimed the bones or body of Blessed Lidwina from the power of the heretics, and the same by suitable Priests and witnesses has been exhumed, elevated, and by God's favor translated to Brussels: We, having seen and heard the verbal process and the depositions of witnesses, the multitude of miracles, both while she was living and after her death, performed by her intervention, and having considered the things which are wont and ought to be considered in similar cases, by our ordinary authority permit the said relics of Bl. Lidwina to be exposed with due ceremonies and honor, and to be proposed to be venerated by Christ's faithful. And that this may be done more zealously, to all Christ's faithful, pouring out prayers before the said Relics in a humble spirit and contrite heart, with an Indulgence of 40 days. and praying for the exaltation of holy Mother Church, the concord of Christian Princes, and the extirpation of heresies, relying on the mercy of Almighty God, on the merits and intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and of Sts. Peter and Paul, as well as of the other Saints, we mercifully in the Lord grant forty days of Indulgence. Given at Mechelen, under our own hand and seal, in the year of the Lord 1616, on the fourteenth day of the month of January.

And it was signed Mathias Archb. Mechlin. and from the green silk linen hung the seal impressed in red wax. In the fold was A. Leens Secret.

This copy collated with its original, the place ✠ of seal, agrees in all things. Thus I witness on this second of September 1671.

Lancelot Bishop confirmed of Ruremonde.

[22] Aubertus Miraeus inserted this very diploma into his Belgian Annals at April 14, one bone as a gift from the Archdukes through Aubertus Miraeus and having received it from there transferred it to his Theater of Belgian Cities, printed in two volumes and of plainly regal form with Atlases, by the Most Celebrated Man John Blaeu, where, exhibiting a description of the town of Schiedam, he mentions the holy Virgin, as one who was the principal ornament of her fatherland and most worthy of the memory of posterity. Miraeus adds: "The said bones of Bl. Liduina, enclosed in a silver ark, the Most Serene Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain, preserves in her domestic oratory: from which one exceedingly large bone, enclosed in a silver cross and crystal glass, was sent as a gift in the year 1616, by the same Infanta and her husband Albert the Pious, through me Aubertus Miraeus, to the illustrious College of noble Canoness Virgins at Mons in Hainault, which city was then laboring under pestilence: and on the 14th day of September it was placed there in the Basilica of St. Waldetrudis, by Henricus Franciscus Busignius, Abbot of St. Dionysius, with all the Clergy, Senate, and people accompanying. Nor was the reward of piety wanting; namely the epidemic ceasing from that time." Thus Miraeus. The matter, described more fully as it was done, was sent to us by the R. F. John Blauwart, sent to Mons the city is freed from pestilence, then Rector of the College of Mons, and afterwards, as also before, Provincial Superior of the Gallo-Belgian Society, as the Instrument has, translated from French into Latin.

[23] The undersigned Distributor of the noble and illustrious Chapter of the church of St. Waldetrudis at Mons in Hainault, attests and verifies to all whom it may concern, that in the year of our salvation 1616, on September 13, Lord Miraeus, Apostolic Prothonotary, Chaplain of the oratory of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, after being received by the Virgin Canonesses, sent by their Highnesses with letters, in the company of two other Priests, came to the said city of Mons, to the Senior Ladies of the said Chapter, about to gratify and honor them with a certain distinguished Relic of St. Lydwina, enclosed in gilded silver. Therefore to testify gratitude and the estimation of such an excellent gift and of the givers, the aforesaid Senior Ladies decreed in full Chapter Convent, on the day following, which was of the Exalted Cross, that a Translation should be made of the said Relic, with a solemn procession, to be instituted by the Ladies themselves, which should be accompanied by all the Clergy, all the Orders of Religious, the ordinary Senate, the Magistracy, and the people: which procession should be led from the church of St. Elizabeth to the church of St. Waldetrudis. by a solemn procession through the city At the beginning of this procession, with all things duly prepared, and with the Abbot of St. Dionysius vested in pontificals, and holding the sacred deposit in his hands, the diploma of Approval was read, by which the Archbishop of Mechelen permits the veneration of the said holy Relics. Then Lord Beugmes, Counselor of the said Chapter, delivered an oration: and they proceeded most solemnly toward the aforenamed church of St. Waldetrudis, with about six hundred wax torches shining before; with the Religious, Priests, and Canoness Virgins, each bearing a candle of white wax; with altars along the way the pomp was led, it was brought to the church of St. Waldetrudis. elegantly adorned with various things, for stations to be had. All these things moreover are faithfully extracted from the collection and memorial book of those things which happened under the Lord Distributor Tahon, described by his hand. The aforesaid Relics are carried by the Celebrant in the ordinary processions of Rogations, and others in which the venerable Sacrament is not carried around. And these are most true: in faith of which I have added my manual sign, in the quality of Apostolic Notary, on the 25th day of August 1670.

J. du Ternos Not. Apost.

[24] Also to Antwerp a certain Virgin devoted to God, coming from Holland, brought a notable particle of the sacred bones of Bl. Lidwina, together with painted panels, another particle brought to Antwerp, representing the life and miracles of the Virgin, which it is credible were formerly for ornament of the chapel of Schiedam, and when it was about to be destroyed by the heretics, were withdrawn from their mad insolence by pious Catholics. Both these, namely the Relics and the panels, were received by the Most Ample and Most Reverend Abbot of the most celebrated church of St. Michael of Canons of the Premonstratensian Order, and for the solace of the pious Catholics coming from Holland into Brabant, he placed them in the chapel of the Holy Apostles: where they stood exposed for many years, many of the Religious remember and testify. But because no legitimate writing was found concerning this matter, whence it could be known whether and by which Bishop the said Relics had been recognized and approved, now it is had privately. it seemed to one of the last Abbots that he would act more prudently and more in conformity with the sacred Canons, if he ordered them to be joined to other certain and approved Relics, and no longer allowed them to be exposed separately. Thus the knowledge of them was gradually abolished: and the panels themselves, which by their antiquity were already less fit for the ornament of the temple, were withdrawn from sight; and all veneration of Bl. Lidwina in that place ceased: which meanwhile grew notably at Brussels.

[25] For the Most Serene Princess aforenamed, Isabella Clara Eugenia, widowed of her most pious spouse, in the year 1621, when whatever free time from public business and study she had to spend on sacred matters, A greater part of the body also turned her mind to exposing the body of Bl. Lidwina to more open cult: and ordered that two reliquaries of ebony and silver be made, of one form, which form will be more fully described below: and with the sacred deposit divided through them, she kept one in her domestic oratory, the other she sent to her beloved daughters the Discalced Carmelites, for whom in the year 1607 she herself with her husband had founded a cenoby at Brussels. Witnesses of this matter still remain today in the letters of Francis a Rye, Archbishop of Caesarea, who was Chaplain and Grand Almoner of the aforesaid Most Serene Princess, of this tenor: We make known and by these presents attest, in the year 1626 given to the Teresians of Brussels; that we, by order and mandate of the aforesaid Most Serene Princess on the 23rd day of December 1626 at the gate of the monastery of the Reverend Nuns of the Order of Carmelites, called Discalced, of this town of Brussels, have deposited the sacred body and relics of St. Ludovina, into the hands of the Rev. Mother of the same monastery and of the other Religious women there present, and receiving it with all honor and reverence; with the R. F. Hilary, Provincial of the aforesaid Order, and Lord John de Sylvere, Guardian of jewels of the aforesaid Most Serene Princess etc. present. Moreover in the memoirs of the said Convent it is had, that there is the greater and more notable part of the venerable deposit.

[26] In the year 1633 the same Most Serene, as the aforecommended P. Dorotheus Louffius writes in his letters to us, made a Testament; and in it bequeathed her entire treasure of holy Relics, the other part by testament, gathered from every side, truly most copious, to the noted Collegiate church of Sts. Michael and Gudula, that they might there be exposed publicly to the devotion of the faithful and honored with greater piety. It remained that, with the most religious Princess also dead, the aforesaid sacred relics should be transferred from the Court to the aforesaid church: but the same causes which hitherto delayed the solemn funeral rites worthy of such a departure, also held this among the other parts of the testamentary documents in suspense; until at length in the year 1650 the Most Serene Archduke Leopold, governing the Belgian Provinces for the Catholic King, and the Most Illustrious Archbishop of Mechelen, to whom the execution of the testament had been committed, consented that the Translation of the Relics should take place. Which on the 7th of January, immediately preceding the festivity of St. Gudula, in the year 1650 translated to the church of St. Gudula was done, but secretly; that is, lest, because of the straits of most difficult times, with wars then at their greatest urgency, and with a great sum of money

to be expended in constructing the altar which was to receive the Relics, expense in decorating pomp might be spared; the honor of the deceased Princess and of the living King might not be well consulted. The Translation was cared for by a triumvirate of three deputed from the College of Canons to this purpose, together with faithful custodians applied along the way, as can be seen in the Chapter Acts. There was erected in the middle of the church, before the choir screen of the greater choir, a most august platform with an altar, on which all the Relics, orderly disposed, on the feast day of St. Gudula and through the whole Octave, stood exposed for the veneration of all the people. Then they were taken to the chapel of the Venerable Miraculous Sacrament: which from three hundred years ago, after it had poured forth copious blood, sacrilegiously pierced by impious Jews, is preserved with the greatest honor in the said church. exposed for public veneration. In the most elegant marble altar of this chapel, and around the panel representing the Lord's Supper, arranged gracefully with little niches ornamented, each reliquary received a stable place, each to be more solemnly honored on its proper days. Now in these little niches above the panel, in the middle of the platform, is placed a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary: at whose side in the nearest niche is seen conspicuously an oblong ark, of ebony and silver worked, about one foot high, containing the bones of Bl. Lidwina, on which two silver statues stand, one of Bl. Lidwina, holding in her left hand a gilded effigy of the crucified Christ; the other of an Angel, reverently offering a heavenly branch to the right hand of the same Lidwina.

[27] Faith of all the aforesaid is made by the Chapter Register, where the individual Acts are noted written each on their own days; and successively are read the following things. "1649, The same is noted in the Chapter Register. November 29, the Lords depute to the Archduke the Reverend Lords, Dean, Treasurer, Gaigne, Tailler, and Lopes, Confessor of the Archduke himself, and the Counts Fuensaldaña and Piñaranda, to promote the handing over of the Relics. December 24, the Lords, having understood the intention of the Most Serene Archduke Leopold, that for the next feast of St. Gudula the Relics should be translated, decreed that an altar be constructed in the most ample form before the Odeum, to place them there and expose them for public veneration. In the year 1650, January 7, the Lords depute the R. D. Dean and others, that they may meet the Most Illustrious of Mechelen, as executor of the testament of the Most Serene Princess Isabella, that with him they may deal about the manner and form of bringing the holy Relics to this church. Afterwards the deputed Lords reported that in the house of the said Most Illustrious Lord it had been concluded that the said Relics should be brought secretly to the church of D. Gudula. Wherefore the Lords deputed D. Dean Prats, D. Treasurer Domburgh, and D. Canon Tailler (of whom the last, afterwards, was created Dean of Antwerp; the first, Bishop of Ypres) to direct the bringing of the said Holy Relics to this church; and to apply faithful custodians to them on the way. Which so brought, in the designated boxes, placed in the sacristy of the venerable Sacrament, were locked up. On February 4 was given the honorarium to those who had brought the said sacred Relics."

April 2: 15. April

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