27. Of the wonderful placing of her arms, and the shrouding of her body

And after her death certain marvels were discovered about her body, con- ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM earning which sure witness is possessed. For her right arm, which for many years had been so dead that she had not been able to move it by herself, but after wards through a sharp operation by a certain surgeon it had become some what movable, after her death, when her holy body was uncovered, contrary to all hope and knowledge, no one knowing how it had come to pass, was found beseemingly lying with her left arm on her breast, with the hands as it were joined and the fingers bent. For she had been wont while still alive to say to some that she hoped that yet before her death she would praise God with both arms outstretched, which also came to pass and was clearly seen by many after her death. For many years also, and about thirty before her death, she used many hair girdles to chastise her flesh, girded with the last of which for about three years, she ended her last day. When therefore she was dead, and having been uncovered for the burial, was about to be clothed again, those who were there found the aforesaid girdle about her shoulders, loosed from her body in a manner un known to men, but whole and round ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM and not untied from the links of its fastening.1 She had also asked long before her death of the above named Master John her confessor that he would not suffer her after her death to pass a long delay upon the earth, but would at once see that she was clothed, and according to the manner arranged by her have her buried. And although he would willingly have done this, he was pre vented by the violence of the magistrates of the city, whom he could not resist. For they had bidden him under penalty of his goods and body not to remove her from the place. The body therefore remained until the morning of Wednes day clothed in the wonted manner, and placed in a wooden chest, and set in the same place where it had lain for nearly twenty years in life. And the same venerable body was clothed after the fashion of religious sisters in a robe of wool, girded without by the hair girdle 1 Michael d'Esne, Bishop of Tournai, in the begin ning of the seventeenth century, says of this girdle : "It is still preserved, fragrant with a wondrous odour of sweetness. In fact I have handled it with my own hands, and I know by experience that the demons dread it exceedingly." Quoted by Bollandists.

ST. LYDWINE of SCHIEDAM which in life she had been wont to wear next the flesh. Then above her head was placed a round coif or a kind of circular mitre made of vellum, on the circle of which the glorious names Jesus and Mary were written with black ink, with which several hearts had been depicted as if transfixed with arrows or sharp darts. And all these things necessary for her burial she had pre pared many years before, and thinking of her end she held them by her accord ing to that word of the prophet, " Make ready to meet thy God, Israel, for the Lord shall come and He shall not be slack to render to each according to his works." But under her head, as she had desired, was placed a certain bag with her sweetly redolent tears of blood, which she had called roses, which from great charity and sorrow of heart had distilled from her eyes. These indeed flowing from her eyes in course of time, and congealed upon her cheeks, Master John her confessor, gently moistening with her other common tears, had care fully scraped off, and diligently storing them in a bag had kept by him in a clean casket.