9. Of the hardness of her bed and the cold she suffered in winter

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ commending St. John Baptist amid ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM many virtues for his rough raiment and abstinence, added also this. " For they, that are clothed in soft garments, are in the houses of kings" (Matt, xi 8). But this virgin was not nourished in a royal palace; but in her father's house, oppressed by divers and grievous maladies, she used for a time under the stress of her exceeding great weakness a small feather bed, not to caress the flesh by softness, but to support the weakness of nature a little in order that it might serve the spirit. But when from the multitude of her wounds she could not bear a bed of feathers, because the feathers hardened by the oozing matter tormented her as she lay, the easy bed was taken away and for a time she lay upon the bare straw ; for three years she even rested uneasily with her naked back upon a hard plank taken from the bottom of a bin. Lying therefore upon wretched straw, the poor virgin full of sores, the sister of the beggar and poor man Lazarus, left her bed to the son and daughter of her brother for their rest ; who day and night by mutual charity in turn ministered to her needs. About the year of the Lord, 1408, so ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM severe a cold reigned through the world the whole winter, that in duration and bitterness it afflicted men much more than usual, and destroyed the plants of the earth and the fishes under the water. In this most terrible winter the sick slave of Christ covered with wounds was frequently so frozen from the fear ful cold and her nakedness, that her limbs became black, and the tears of her eyes congealed; so that she was unable to see except by melting them with the application of heat. Very many other pains also she suffered at that time from the presence of the cold, such as could scarcely be endured by the strong, and if the Author of nature had not supernaturally cared for and preserved her, she would undoubtedly have lost her life. In the accumulation of all these so many miseries and needs of her own, as a kind mother and loving nurse she was ever mindful of other poor, taking away from her own necessaries in order to aid them in their want. However, the rich of this world who live in luxury, and exult in much wealth to the loss of their souls, v/ere entirely forgetful of her, and stretched not a help ing hand to the poor sufferer. Many ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM also not knowing her holiness despised her, and deeming her mad mocked at her mental ecstasies. Then was fulfilled in her, that which is read of holy Job. " The simplicity of the just man is laughed to scorn ; and the lamp despised in the thoughts of the rich " (Job xii 4, 5).