15. Of the death of petronilla her mother

It seems fitting also to insert in the present page the passing away of the noble woman Petronilla, the mother of this holy virgin, and to associate the woman to these noble men in due order of virtue. After eight years then had passed from the commencement of the virgin Lydwine's illness, her mother Petronilla, who had been most attentive to her ailing daughter, also fell into a sickness of the body ; of which, as of one of the children of Eve, she died. When therefore she was nearing death, and giving heed to her imperfection, mourned that she had not lived righteously enough, she begged of her beloved child ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM whom she knew to be pleasing and dear to God, that she would aid her when departed by her merits and prayers. And she, casting- all her thought and hope upon the Lord, said that she was quite willing to die, renouncing her own choice so much, that she would not that the smallest little worm should die in her stead. Hearing this, the holy and faithful daughter, deeply touched, and compassionating her mother from her heart, urged her with holy words to trust in the goodness of God ; so as to bear with patience the scourge of the Lord and death which none can escape. And therefore for her succour she most willingly offered her, and utterly resigned whatever meritorious good she had hitherto gained in the exercise of virtue, in toils and the endurance of patience. When her mother had heard and gratefully accepted this, trusting in the mercy of God she commended herself into the hands of her Creator. And the virgin, abiding faithful to her mother through all unto death, and considering what she had now done, and deeming her self as emptied of all her former good works, to commence afresh a new pen- ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM ance, girded herself with a hair girdle, hard and broad, adding new pain to the old, that God might be propitious to her and to every faithful soul. But after some years the virgin girded with the hair cloth, when on account of the dropsical humours of her body, the first girdle was rotted, again with mighty zeal girds herself with another new one, and suc cessively with many others that were laid aside as worn out, until with the last she passed from this life.