5. Of the cypress rod which an angel brought her from para dise

This virgin in the time of her sickness had a certain light twig with which to open or close the curtain of her bed, wherewith also she was wont to knock in case of need and call one of the household. It happened, therefore, on the occasion of the burning of the city, that many things were piled up round her bed on account of the threatening danger;1 and thus by the carrying out 1 See Part II, Chap. XVI. John Brugman in his second Life gives fuller details, from which it appears that the townspeople, fearing that Lydwine's cottage would take fire, stripped off the roof and left only the bare walls standing. But then to protect the ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM and the bringing back of things this rod also was lost, but where it was the virgin knew not. Afterwards, however, on the night of St. Apollinaris, bishop and martyr,1 when the virgin for the intensity of the heat could scarcely draw her breath, she sought the rod to open the curtain, and found it not. Dis tressed therefore, she grieved much hereat, for she could not help herself; and there was no one else at hand to aid her. At once then the angel of the Lord appearing consoles her in her sad ness, promising to restore another and a better rod. And without delay, the pain of her fever ceasing shortly after, the angel as she felt gently placed a stick about four feet long upon her breast and retired. And taking it with outstretched hand, in a certain sense she thought little of it; inasmuch as, twisted in appearance and heavy in thickness, it was far from the lightness weak eyes of the sufferer from the glare of the summer sun, they made a roof for her bed with planks, drew the curtains, and hurried away to save what they could of their burning property. One can imagine the suffocating heat from which poor Lydwine suffered that terrible day and the follow ing night.

ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM of the lost rod, nor would it be for her so light and manageable. Murmuring therefore at this, she said silently to her self : " Am I even now well content ? " But what should she do, since she was as yet unaware of the virtue of the wood ? She then asks Master John, her confessor, to go over to a carpenter, and ask him to shape this stick with a plane to the form of a yard measure. The priest therefore enters the house of a certain artisan, who of his many tools had scarcely one plane fit for this work, the rest having been already burnt in the city fire. And when he had commenced to shave the wood, and had set his instrument well into it, such an odour of sweetness evaporated therefrom, and within it was bright with so fair a colour after the fashion of wax, that although outwardly it seemed ugly, nevertheless without hesitation he declared that it was cypress. Whereat both wonder ing, since the priest could not tell the carpenter of what kind was the wood or whence it had come to the virgin, they eagerly seized upon the shavings and other pieces cut off. Then, by the advice of the carpenter, the priest went with the unpolished wood to another ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM better workman, that he might finish it off to a nicer shape. But when be tween them they remarked in wonder the same concerning the odour and colour of the unknown wood, and for reverence and the strangeness of the thing appropriated the pieces cut off, the priest in astonishment, not suffering the wood to be further lessened, carried it back in haste to the virgin. And when he had asked her whence it had come to her, and of what kind it was, she confessed that she did not know its species ; but she told the priest how she had obtained it. Afterwards, however, on the feast of St. Cyriacus, martyr,1 the angel coming back led her as usual to the gardens of Paradise, and, reproach ing her for her little esteem of the rod, very clearly showed its worth and its place and the tree whence he had broken it. Then, coming back to herself, she narrated in order to her confessor what she had learnt of the angel, griev ing that she had caused it to be cut down. When therefore the news of this sweet-smelling wood began to be noised abroad, and many were wishful to see and touch it, and because of it the ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM modest virgin suffered many visits, it happened that on account of the touch of a certain man,1 the aforesaid wood lost the fragrance of its most sweet odour. And thereupon the virgin grieved that it had been shown to another, because of whose contact the heavenly odour evaporated. But she was wont to say that the devil would be chastised by this rod, as she had learnt from the holy angel.2