SPIRITUAL POWERS AND PROPERTIES OF THE CHURCH.
It is allowed on all hands by Catholic Christians that liberty has been
sometimes permitted to the devil or his angels to enter into the bodies of
men (just as of old Satan was allowed to try the patriarch Job), and to
obtain such an absolute command over their powers and faculties as to
incapacitate them, more or less, for any of the common duties of life. On
this point, those who accept the Written Word of God as a portion, and a
very important portion, of His Divine Revelation to mankind, through
Christ, can have no doubt. In the New Testament, numerous instances of
possession by evil spirits are recorded.
The case of the daughter of the woman of Canaan, who cried out to our
Blessed Saviour, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, Thou Son of David, my
daughter is grievously vexed with a devil,”[35] and obtained from Him the
gracious and merciful reply, “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt,” is
familiar to all.
So likewise is that of the man with an unclean spirit, recorded in the
first chapter of the Gospel according to S. Mark. Here the spirit
acknowledging that Christ was the “Holy One of God,” received the rebuke
of Jesus Christ. “And when the unclean spirit had torn” the man suffering,
“and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all
amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing
is this? What new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth He even
the unclean spirits, and they do obey Him.”
Again we read, “Unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him,
and cried saying, Thou art the Son of God.”[36] And when His apostles were
called and formally ordained, it is written that they were “to have power
to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils,” power which in due course
both the Gospels and the recorded History of the Church assure us was duly
exercised.
Another miraculous intervention, by which our Blessed Saviour manifested
His divine power over evil spirits, and freed suffering men from their
frightful influence, is here given from S. Mark’s Gospel at length: “When
He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a
man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no
man could bind him, no not with chains: because that he had often been
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by
him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And
always, day and night, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying
and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran
and worshipped Him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to
do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure Thee by God
that Thou torment me not. For He said unto him, Come out of the man, thou
unclean spirit. And He asked him, What is thy name? And he answered,
saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he besought Him much that
He would not send him away out of the country. Now there was nigh unto the
mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought Him,
saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter unto them. And forthwith
Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into
the swine; and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea
(they were about two thousand), and were choked in the sea. And they that
fed the swine fled, and told it in the city and in the country. And they
went out to see what it was that was done. And they came to Jesus, and see
him that was possessed of the devil, and had the legion, sitting and
clothed and in his right mind.”[37]
With these solemn and awful facts before us, it is impossible to doubt
either of the power or influence of the devil and his angels. That such
power had been known amongst the ancient nations, and that certain persons
had entered into compacts or alliances with evil spirits, seems to be
generally admitted. And although the fact of the Incarnation had sorely
crippled the influence of the enemy of souls, it is clear from the last
promise given by our Lord to His apostles, “In My Name they shall cast out
devils,” that such authority and action would still be needed. For
possessions were not to cease, as a reference to the Acts of the Apostles
shows: where it is recorded that the very authority bestowed by our
Blessed Saviour was actually and efficiently exercised; and there is no
reasonable evidence to show that such divinely-bestowed powers have ever
ceased. All through the History of the Church, here and there, from time
to time, as man needed and as God willed, such direct supernatural powers
as those referred to, appear to have been put into operation. For the
Church can bless and the Church can curse. The Church can bind and can
loose. She can commend to the protection of God Almighty and His holy
angels, and she can deliver over to Satan. She can bestow light and peace
on her true and faithful children, and send out the disobedient and
impenitent beyond the consecrated confines of her spiritual powers and
graces. As effects of Christ’s most gracious promise, such ordinary and
extraordinary works were wrought; for the glory of His great Name, and as
a testimony of the truth of the Church Universal.
For generations, up to the very earliest age of Christianity, there have
been officers of the Church duly set apart and ordained for the particular
work of exorcism. Amongst the minor orders of Western Christendom the
exorcist has always found a place; and although, in later years, this
special work, when undertaken, has been more frequently done by persons in
the higher or sacred orders, yet the very office itself, and its title, as
well as the existing forms for casting out evil spirits, abundantly attest
the Church’s divine and spiritual powers.
In countries which are specially and eminently Christian, where churches,
sanctuaries, and religious houses are numerous; where, by the road-side
and on the hill-top, stand the signs and symbols of the Faith of
Christendom; where the Sacrament of Baptism is shed upon so many; where
post-baptismal sin is remitted by those who have authority and
jurisdiction to bind and loose in the Name of their Master; and where the
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, God manifest in the Flesh, reposing in the
tabernacle, or borne in triumph through aisle and street and garden,
hallows and feeds the faithful--there the power and influence of the Evil
One is circumscribed and weakened. Sacred oil for unction, and holy water
and the life-giving power of the Cross, and the relics of the beatified as
well as of the favoured and crowned servants of the Crucified, make the
devils flee away, and efficiently curb their power. Hence it is found that
in countries where the Catholic Faith has been halved or rejected,
Superstition has taken the place of the first theological virtue, Faith;
and the Prince of the Powers of the air comes back again with his evil and
malignant spirits to vex mankind anew,[38] and mar and stay the final
triumph of Him to Whom all power is given in heaven and in earth.
A remarkable case of the Supernatural will here be put on record, which
occurred in the diocese of Exeter during the seventeenth century.
Preliminary inquiries and comments concerning the various incidents would
be obviously out of place; for the well-authenticated story itself is
unfolded with a simplicity and yet with a power which efficiently serve to
stamp it as true.
“About 152 years since,” writes Mr. Fortescue Hitchins, in his “History of
Cornwall,” “a ghost is said to have made its appearance in this parish[39]
(Little Petherick[40]), in a field about half a mile from Botaden or
Botathen (in that county). In the narrative which is given of this
occurrence, it is said to have been seen by a son of Mr. Bligh, aged about
sixteen, by his father and mother, and by the Rev. John Ruddle, master of
the grammar school of Launceston, and one of the prebendaries of Exeter,
and vicar of Alternon. The relation given by Mr. Ruddle is in substance as
follows:--
“Young Mr. Bligh, a lad of bright parts and of no common attainments,
became on a sudden pensive, dejected, and melancholy. His friends
observing the change, without being able to discover the cause, attributed
his behaviour to laziness--an aversion to school--or to some other motive
which they suspected he was ashamed to discover. He was, however, induced
after some time to inform his brother that in a field through which he
passed to and from school he was invariably met by the apparition of a
woman whom he personally knew while living, and who had been dead about
eight years. Ridicule, threats, and persuasions were alike used in vain by
the family to induce him to dismiss these absurd ideas. Mr. Ruddle was
however sent for, to whom the lad ingenuously communicated the time,
manner, and frequency of this appearance. It was in a field called ‘Higher
Bloomfield.’ The apparition, he said, appeared dressed in female attire,
met him two or three times while he passed through the field, glided
hastily by him, but never spoke. He had thus been occasionally met about
two months before he took any particular notice of it: at length the
appearance became more frequent, meeting him both morning and evening, but
always in the same field, yet invariably moving out of the path when it
came close by him. He often spoke, but could never get any reply. To avoid
this unwelcome visitor he forsook the field, and went to school and
returned from it through a lane, in which place between the quarry-park
and nursery it always met him.
“Unable to disbelieve the evidence of his senses, or to obtain credit with
any of his family, he prevailed upon Mr. Ruddle to accompany him to the
place. ‘I arose,’ says this clergyman, ‘the next morning, and went with
him. The field to which he led me I guessed to be about twenty acres, in
an open country, and about three furlongs from any house. We went into
the field, and had not gone a third part before the _spectrum_, in the
shape of a woman, with all the circumstances that he had described the day
before, so far as the suddenness of its appearance and transition would
permit me to discover, passed by.
“‘I was a little impressed at it, and, though I had taken up a firm
resolution to speak to it, I had not the power, nor durst I look back; yet
I took care not to show any fear to my pupil and guide; and therefore,
telling him that I was satisfied in the truth of his statement, we walked
to the end of the field, and returned: nor did the ghost meet us that time
but once.
“‘On the 27th July, I went to the haunted field by myself, and walked the
breadth of it without any encounter. I then returned, and took the other
walk, and then the spectre appeared to me, when about the same place in
which I saw it when the young gentleman was with me. It appeared to move
swifter than before, and seemed to me about ten feet from me on my right
hand, insomuch that I had not time to speak to it as I had determined with
myself beforehand. The evening of this day the parents, the son, and
myself being in the chamber where I lay, I proposed to them our going to
the place next morning; we accordingly met at the stile we had appointed;
thence we all four walked into the field together. We had not gone more
than half the field before the ghost made its appearance. It then came
over the stile just before us, and moved with such rapidity, that by the
time it had gone six or seven steps, it passed by. I immediately turned my
head and ran after it, with the young man by my side. We saw it pass over
the stile at which we entered, and no farther. I stepped upon the hedge at
one place, and the young man at another, but we could discern nothing;
whereas I do aver that the swiftest horse in England could not have
conveyed himself out of sight in that short space of time. Two things I
observed in this day’s appearance; first a spaniel dog, which had followed
the company unregarded, barked and ran away as the _spectrum_ passed by:
whence it is easy to conclude that it was not our fear and fancy which
made the apparition; secondly the motion of the _spectrum_ was not
_gradatim_ or by steps, or moving of the feet, but by a kind of gliding,
as children upon ice, or as a boat down a river, which practically answers
the description the ancients give of the motion of these lemures. This
ocular evidence clearly convinced, but withal strangely affrighted, the
old gentleman and his wife. They all knew this woman, Dorothy Durant, in
her lifetime; were at her burial: and now plainly saw her features in this
apparition.
“‘The next morning being Thursday, I went very early by myself, and walked
for about one hour’s space in meditation and prayer, in the field next
adjoining. Soon after five I stepped over the stile into the haunted
field, and had not gone above thirty or forty paces before the ghost
appeared at the further stile. I spoke to it in some short sentences, with
a loud voice, whereupon it approached me but slowly, and, when I came
near, it moved not. I spoke again, and it answered in a voice neither
audible nor very intelligible. I was not in the least terrified, and
thereupon persisted until it spoke again, and gave me satisfaction; but
the work could not be finished at this time. Whereupon the same evening,
an hour after sunset, it met me again near the same place, and after a few
words on each side it quietly vanished, and neither doth appear now, nor
hath appeared since, nor ever will move to any man’s disturbance. The
discourse in the morning lasted about a quarter of an hour.
“‘These things are true, and I know them to be so, with as much certainty
as eyes and ears can give me; and until I can be persuaded that my senses
all deceive me about their proper objects, and by that persuasion deprive
myself of the strongest inducement to believe in Christian Religion, I
must and will assert that the things contained in this paper are true. As
for the manner of my proceeding, I have no reason to be ashamed of it. I
can justify it to men of good principles, discretion, and recondite
learning, though in this case I chose to content myself in the assurance
of the thing, rather than be at the unprofitable trouble to persuade
others to believe it, for I know full well with what difficulty relations
of so uncommon a nature and practice obtain belief.’”
So much as regards the record of the appearance found in the volume
already referred to.
The following extract from Mr. Ruddle’s MS. Diary, was taken by the Rev.
R. S. Hawker, M.A., vicar of Morwenstow, the accomplished and well-known
Christian poet, and appears in his interesting “Footprints of Former Men
in Far Cornwall” (London, 1870), and still further amplifies and
illustrates this story, the practical and eventual issue of which is now
to be recorded:--
“January 7, 1665. At my own house I find by my books what is expedient to
be done; and then Apage Sathanas!
“January 9, 1665. This day I took leave of my wife and family, under
pretext of engagements elsewhere, and made my secret journey to our
diocesan city, wherein the good and venerable bishop then abode.[41]
“January 10. ‘Deo gratias,’ in safe arrival at Exeter: craved and obtained
immediate audience of his lordship; pleading it was for counsel and
admonition on a weighty and pressing cause. Called to the presence; made
obeisance; and then, by command, stated my case, the Botathen
perplexity--which I moved with strong and earnest instances and solemn
asseverations of that which I had myself seen and heard. Demanded by his
lordship, what was the succour that I had come to entreat at his hands?
Replied, license for my exorcism, that so I might, ministerially, allay
this spiritual visitant, and thus render to the living and the dead
release from this surprise.
“‘But,’ said our bishop, ‘on what authority do you allege that I am
entrusted with faculty so to do? Our Church, as is well known, hath
abjured certain branches of her ancient power, on grounds of perversion
and abuse.’
“‘Nay, my Lord,’ I humbly answered, ‘under favour, the seventy-second of
the Canons[42] ratified and enjoined on us, the clergy, Anno Domini 1604,
doth expressly provide that _No minister, unless he hath the license of
his diocesan bishop, shall essay to exorcise a spirit, evil or good_.
Therefore it was,’ I did here mildly allege, ‘that I did not presume to
enter on such a work without lawful privilege under your lordship’s hand
and seal.’
“Hereupon did our wise and learned bishop, sitting in his chair,
condescend upon the theme at some length, with many gracious
interpretations from ancient writers and from Holy Scripture, and did
humbly rejoin and reply; till the upshot was that he did call in his
secretary and command him to draw the aforesaid faculty forthwith and
without further delay, assigning him a form, insomuch that the matter was
incontinently done, and after I had disbursed into the secretary’s hands
certain moneys, for signitary purposes, as the manner of such officers
hath always been, the Bishop did himself affix his signature under the
sigillum of his see, and deliver the document into my hands.
“When I knelt down to receive his benediction, he softly said, ‘Let it be
secret, Mr. Rudall,--weak brethren! weak brethren!’”
Some details from the same Diary as to the exact manner in which the ghost
was laid give an additional interest to the narrative.
“January 12th, 1665. Rode into the gateway of Botathen, armed at all
points, but not with Saul’s armour, and ready. There is danger from the
demons, but so there is in the surrounding air every day. At early morning
then and alone, for so the usage ordains, I betook me towards the field.
It was void, and I had thereby due time to prepare. First I paced and
measured out my circle on the grass. Then did I mark my pentacle in the
very midst, and at the intersection of the five angles I did set up and
fix my crutch of raun [rowan]. Lastly I took my station south, at the true
line of the meridian, and stood facing due north. I waited and watched
for a long time. At last there was a kind of trouble in the air, a soft
and rippling sound, and all at once the shape appeared, and came on
towards me gradually. I opened my parchment scroll, and read aloud the
command. She paused and seemed to waver and doubt; stood still: and then I
rehearsed the sentence again, sounding out every syllable like a chant.
She drew near my ring, but halted at first outside, on the brink. I
sounded again, and now at the third time I gave the signal in Syriac--the
speech which is used, they say, where such ones dwell and converse in
thoughts that glide.
“She was at last obedient and swam into the midst of the circle: and there
stood still suddenly. I saw, moreover, that she drew back her pointing
hand. All this while I do confess that my knees shook under me, and the
drops of sweat ran down my flesh like rain. But now, although face to face
with the spirit, my heart grew calm and my mind composed, to know that the
pentacle would govern her, and the ring must bind until I gave the word.
Then I called to mind the rule laid down of old that no angel or fiend, no
spirit, good or evil, will ever speak until they be spoken to. N.B.--This
is the great law of prayer. God Himself will not yield reply until man
hath made vocal entreaty once and again. So I went on to demand, as the
books advise; and the phantom made answer willingly. Questioned, wherefore
not at rest? Unquiet because of a certain sin. Asked what and by whom?
Revealed it; but it is _sub sigillo_, and therefore _nefas dictu_; more
anon. Inquired, what sign she could give me that she was a true spirit and
not a false fiend? Stated [that] before next Yule-tide a fearful
pestilence would lay waste the land;[43] and myriads of souls would be
loosened from their flesh, until, as she piteously said, ‘Our valleys will
be full.’ Asked again, why she so terrified the lad? Replied, ‘It is the
law; we must seek a youth or a maiden of clean life, and under age, to
receive messages and admonitions.’ We conversed with many more words; but
it is not lawful for me to set them down. Pen and ink would degrade and
defile the thoughts she uttered, and which my mind received that day. I
broke the ring and she passed, but to return once more next day. At
evensong a long discourse with that ancient transgressor, Mr. B----. Great
horror and remorse; entire atonement and penance; whatsoever I enjoin;
full acknowledgment before pardon.
“January 13, 1665. At sunrise I was again in the field. She came in at
once, and, as it seemed, with freedom. Inquired if she knew my thoughts,
and what I was going to relate? Answered, ‘Nay, we only know what we
perceive and hear: we cannot see the heart.’ Then I rehearsed the penitent
words of the man she had come up to denounce, and the satisfaction he
would perform. Then said she, ‘Peace in our midst.’ I went through the
proper forms of dismissal, and fulfilled all, as it was set down and
written in my memoranda; and then with certain fixed rites, I did dismiss
that troubled ghost, until she peacefully withdrew, gliding towards the
west. Neither did she ever afterwards appear; but was allayed, until she
shall come in her second flesh, to the Valley of Armageddon on the Last
Day.”
Another example, giving with singular power and effect a very striking
Glimpse of the Supernatural, from the experiences of a venerated and
exemplary Roman Catholic clergyman, the late Rev. Edward Peach, of S.
Chad’s, Birmingham, is here given at length. The events narrated occurred
in the year 1815, and Mr. Peach deliberately affirmed of the following
account that it “_may be relied on in every particular as being strictly
true_.” “I,” he continues, in a formal record of the successful exorcism,
“was the minister of God employed on the occasion; and truth is more to
me than all the boastings of pride and vain glory.”
The authentic record stands as follows:--
“Some time after Easter, in the year 1815, I was informed that a young
married woman of the name of White, in the parish of King’s Norton,
Worcestershire, a Protestant, was afflicted with an extraordinary kind of
illness, and that her relations, who occupied a small farm, were convinced
that her illness arose solely from the malice of a rejected admirer, who,
they said, had employed the assistance of a reputed wizard at Dudley to do
her a mischief. These were their terms. I paid but little attention to
this story. Afterwards I was informed by a sister who frequents our
markets, and supplies with butter a respectable family of my congregation,
Mr. Powell, Suffolk Street, that the young woman was married in the
beginning of the preceding Lent; that her former admirer repeatedly
declared that, if she did marry any other, she should never have another
happy day; that the day after her marriage she was seized with an
extraordinary kind of mental complaint; that she became suddenly
delirious; that she raved, and declared that a multitude of infernal
spirits surrounded her; that they threatened to carry her away; that she
must go with them. The poor sister informed my friend, with tears
streaming down her cheeks, that she continued in that state, day and
night, for nearly two months, and that the whole family were almost
exhausted with the fatigue of constantly attending her, for, she said,
they could not leave her alone, lest she should put her threats of
destroying herself into execution.
“At the end of about two months, according to the relation of the same
sister, the poor creature was so spent that her medical attendant (who,
during the whole time of his attendance, declared that her illness arose
more from a mental than corporeal cause,) declared that, in all
probability, she could not survive four-and-twenty hours. The clergyman of
the parish was called in to assist her in her last moments; but he found
her in a state not to be benefited by his assistance, and he departed.
“Amongst the neighbours who came to make a tender of their good offices
for the relief of the afflicted family was a Catholic woman. Her offers
were accepted, and she was frequently with her. Finding her reduced almost
to a state of inanition, and hearing her speak of these infernal spirits
every time she opened her lips, the thought came into her mind of applying
to her some holy water. She accordingly procured some, dipped her finger
into it, and made the sign of the cross upon her forehead. Instantly the
poor sufferer started, and, in a faint voice, exclaimed, ‘You have scalded
me.’ However, she leaned upon the bosom of her attendant, and, what she
had not done for a considerable time before, she fell into a gentle sleep.
On awaking, she continued to hold the same language as before. The
Catholic put a little holy water into her mouth. But the very instant it
entered her mouth she seemed to be in a state of suffocation. She and the
others who were with her were alarmed, and expected that every instant
would be her last. In a short time, however, she swallowed it, and after
many convulsive struggles she regained her breath, and exclaimed with
violence, ‘You have scalded my throat, you have scalded my throat.’ In a
few minutes she fell again into a comfortable sleep, and continued so for
some hours. The next morning she appeared refreshed, and spoke reasonably
for a short time. Being informed of what had been applied to her, she
seemed to wish for more. The swallowing was attended with the same
sensation of scalding, and the same convulsive struggles as before; but it
seemed to give her ease. From that time the danger of death seemed to
decrease by degrees. She enjoyed lucid intervals from time to time; and
invariably after the application of holy water, although attended with the
same sensations as before, she fell into a slumber.
“One remarkable circumstance deserves notice. In one of her paroxysms, she
insisted on getting up, and going out of doors. She said that there was a
large snake in front of the house, that she would go and kill it, and then
one of her enemies would be removed. Nothing would satisfy her, till this
same sister, who gave the account, assured her that she would go down and
kill it. She went down, and, to her great astonishment, found a large
snake, and succeeded in destroying it.
“This in substance is the account which the sister gave of Mrs. White’s
extraordinary illness. At the same time it was asked whether I could be of
any assistance to her, or whether it was probable that I could be
prevailed on to go and see her? My friend who related to me the whole of
the above account, asked me to go. I replied that I knew nothing of them,
nor they of me; but that if she would walk over, and examine into the
state of the poor woman, I would go, if there appeared to her to be any
probability of my being of service. She went, and, on her return, she
informed me that all she had heard seemed to be true, and assured me that
all the family were desirous of seeing me, and particularly the young
woman herself.
“However, I still delayed, till at length, on Tuesday in Rogation Week,
May 2nd, 1815, a special messenger came over to inform me that Mrs. White
was in a worse state than ever, and to request me to go and see her
without delay.
“I obeyed the call, and I may say with truth that it was the most awful
visit I ever made during the whole course of my ministry. The distance was
about six miles. No sooner had I cleared the skirts of the town than I
heard the distant thunder before me. Before I had proceeded two miles, the
storm was nearly over my head; and I may say the remainder of my walk,
and during the time I was with her, there was hardly cessation of one
minute between the claps of thunder. I do not say that in this there was
anything supernatural, but, knowing the business I was upon, it was truly
awful.
“When I arrived at the house, I was informed that she was in a dreadful
state, and that the strength of two persons was necessary to keep her in
bed. I went up-stairs, and on entering into the room, before she saw me,
the curtains being drawn on the side where I entered, she turned to the
other side of the bed, and struggled so violently to get away that it was
with difficulty that her husband and two women overpowered her. In a few
minutes, before she had lifted up her eyes to see me (for she had turned
her face downwards) she stretched out her hand to me, in a convulsive
manner, and fell speechless and spent upon her back.
“After a time she opened her eyes, and in a faint whisper, answered a
question that was put to her, and said she knew who I was. She revived by
degrees, and in a short time could speak in an audible voice. Her friends
having requested me to try if I could discover what it was that weighed
most upon her mind, for they said they had tried to no purpose, I
requested them to withdraw. Being alone, she related to me, as far as she
could recollect, the circumstances of her illness, and I found that they
corresponded exactly with the accounts given by her sister. I questioned
her as to the cause, but I could not discover that it was owing to
anything weighing heavy on her mind. She was positive, she said, that it
was the young man who had done her a mischief.
“I then proceeded to explain to her some of the articles of the Catholic
Faith. She listened with every attention; and when I assured her that she
must believe the Holy Catholic Church before she could obtain relief, she,
without hesitation, declared that she did believe, and that she believed
from the moment she knew what holy water was, and experienced its effects.
From the time it was first applied, she said that the devils seemed to
keep at a greater distance from her, and that the number seemed to be
diminished.
“Such were the ideas on her mind at the time. She was convinced, she said,
that it was not the effect of imagination--that she was not
delirious--that she knew everything that was said to her, and that she
could recollect everything that had passed. I asked her to tell me where
the holy water was. Her voice immediately faltered; and with every
endeavour, I perceived that she could not point out with her finger, nor
tell me by words where it was. She was like an infant attempting to point
out an object.
“I looked about and found it. I dipped my finger into it, and made the
sign of the cross on her forehead. She started as soon as I touched her,
and was a little convulsed. I asked her what was the matter. For a few
moments she could not articulate; but as soon as she could speak, she said
that it scalded her.
“After a little more conversation, I desired her to join with me in
repeating the Lord’s Prayer. She consented, and without difficulty
repeated the first words. But when we came to the petitions, her voice
faltered; she was labouring for breath, and appeared to be almost
suffocated: her countenance and limbs were convulsed. The greatest
stammerer could not find greater difficulty in pronouncing words than she
did in pronouncing every word of the petitions. At one time I was inclined
to desist, thinking that it was impossible for her to finish it; but we
laboured on, and at length came to the end.
“After a short pause, she again began to converse with a free voice,
without the least faltering. I explained to her the nature of exorcisms,
and proposed to read them over her. She consented, and said that she would
endeavour to offer up her prayers to God during the time in the best
manner she could. As soon as I began the exorcisms, she fell into a state
of convulsive agitation, not indeed endeavouring to get away; but every
limb, every joint seemed to be agitated and convulsed, even her
countenance was distorted,--it required constant attention to keep her
covered.
“Now it was that I felt in a particular manner the awful situation in
which I was. All alone with a person in a distressed condition,--the
lightning flashing, the thunder rolling, and I with an imperative voice
commanding the evil spirit to reply to my interrogatories, and to go forth
from her. I acknowledge that my flesh began to creep and my hair to stand
on end. However, I proceeded on till I came to the conclusion, and nothing
happened except the violent agitation of the poor sufferer, which
continued uninterrupted during the whole time.
“After I had finished, she became calm, and in a few minutes began to
converse with me with the same ease as before. Among other things, I asked
her whether she had felt any particular sensations during the time that I
was coming to see her? She said that during the whole afternoon she had
felt the most determined resolution to destroy herself; that she employed
every means to induce her friends to leave the room, or to make her escape
from them; and that if she had succeeded, she would have laid violent
hands on herself the moment she was at liberty. I explained to her the
nature of baptism, the necessity of receiving it, and the effects produced
by it.
“During the course of our conversation, discovering that there were strong
reasons to doubt whether she had been baptized at all, or whether the
essential rites had been observed in her baptism, I conceived that it
would be advisable to re-baptize her conditionally. I proposed it, and
she readily consented. I gave her what instructions were necessary, and
repeated several acts of contrition. Finding her in dispositions the most
satisfactory, I made use of the holy water, and baptized her, subject to
the condition, _if she was not baptized_. During the time she trembled
like a leaf, and the features of her countenance were distorted, like
those of a person in acute pain. Upon my putting the question to her, she
replied as she did before, that it gave her as much pain as if boiling
water had been poured over her.
“Immediately after the ceremony was concluded, she began to speak to me
with all the cheerfulness of a person in perfect health and spirits. We
conversed together for a few minutes, and I took my leave, promising to
see her again the next day. Her sister went to her, and her first request
was that she might have a cup of tea and something to eat; and before I
left the house, she eat and drank as she had done before her affliction. I
went to see her the next day, and found her down-stairs in perfect health;
at least, no effects of her illness were perceptible, except a weakness of
body. From that time to this, she has enjoyed good health, and not the
least symptom of her former complaint has been felt. It is more than a
twelvemonth since.”
A second example of successful exorcism, now to be narrated, is from the
pen of an eminent and well-known clergyman[44] of the Church of England,
whose literary labours in the early part of the Oxford movement, were
recognized and rewarded by high authority in the English Church. Only a
slight verbal alteration here and there to make the narrative of itself
quite intelligible, has been made by the Editor.
“The subject is almost too sacred for pen; and I only put it on record to
show the goodness of God, and to indicate that His powers are not
withdrawn, nor His Arm shortened. It is some years, however, since the
event to be related happened; and the subject of it has long gone to his
last account. I must scrupulously refrain from any indication of place and
person; though, in these latter days of rude and coarse unbelief, when
such interpositions of the Almighty’s mercy are laughed to scorn, _some_
may find comfort and edification from its recital.
“The son of a farmer, who had just come of age, having heard a sermon of
mine, which I had preached some five years previously, came a distance of
more than thirty miles to seek at my hands ghostly counsel. From his
childhood he had been led to indulge in breaches of the seventh
commandment, and these after a while were certainly of a heinous
character. He believed himself (when I saw him) to be possessed by an
unclean spirit. Wherever he went, he asserted that he saw a hideous black
figure, darkly draped, with a form like a man, but with the face of a
beast, sitting opposite to, huddled up, and staring at him. It would
appear for weeks together, at home, abroad, in his sleeping-room, in the
field, in the market. Sometimes he would throw himself on to the floor in
an agony of distraction, and pray God that it might be removed. For a
short term he would cease to see it. But in due course it reappeared. And
at last (an event which had never happened hitherto,) it would likewise
haunt him in dreams. On one occasion he declared that it seemed to
elongate itself into a long serpent-like figure, and, as he asserted,
tried to creep down his throat. But wherever he went he almost always saw
it. Thinking it might be the result of bodily ailment he consulted a
physician; but with no effect.
“I am free to say that I was not long in coming to a conclusion, that it
was a case of possession; though I did not arrive at that conclusion until
I had taken counsel from one of the most pious and holy clergymen I ever
knew,[45] and had commended the subject to God Almighty in very earnest
prayer.
“The result was that I unfolded to the subject of this apparition my
intention, with God’s help, and his own sanction, to cast out the spirit,
according to the old rule and custom of Holy Church. Prior to this he made
a full and frank confession of his whole life, and resolved by God’s help
to amend. Having made an appointment, a fortnight hence, with him, and
being resolved to consecrate my proposed act, by special deeds of fasting,
self-denial, and prayer, I was alarmed to hear, by letter, of his most
serious illness a few days later. His relations asserted that he was
suffering from epilepsy, and that the fits were rapid and most severe.
“The following day, taking with me a book containing an authorized form of
exorcism, I went to see the sick man. His sufferings seemed to be
excruciating: his fits shocking to witness. At a half-lucid interval he
saw me; and, starting from his bed, tried to throw himself out of the
window. When he was calmer, I knelt down and prayed for him with his
relations; making several times an act of Faith.
“Then signing him with the cross on forehead, mouth, and breast, I began
the authorized form. During this, his fits returned; and his violence and
ravings were terrible to witness. Throughout I felt sustained in my action
by a Higher Power, and completed my task in the Name of the Adorable and
Ever-Blessed Trinity. Here he sank into a deep sleep; and this sleep
proved to be the beginning of a complete change for the better. The fits
ceased, the body was no longer tortured with writhings; and, as I heard
from him afterwards, the hideous vision or apparition vanished, and was
never seen again. A few years afterwards he died, as I believe in grace;
and, as I commended his soul to God, so I committed his body to the dust;
and have always looked upon this remarkable event as a token, to myself
most unworthy, of the Almighty’s power and Presence amongst us, as well as
of His exceeding great mercy and goodness to this poor sufferer.”
Another remarkable instance of the active and energizing powers of the
Church of God, unimpaired and uncrippled, may be gathered from the record
which follows of the sudden and effectual cure of
Françoise-Geneviève-Philippe, which took place in the church of the
Carmelites of Pontoise on the 16th of July, 1784, upon the Festival of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel. The record below is a literal translation of the
formal act and deed of the person cured:--
“I, the undersigned Françoise-Geneviève-Philippe, called in religion
‘Sister Josephine-Mary of the Incarnation,’ aged thirty years, declare
that my health being disordered at Pontoise, where I resided with the
Ursuline Dames for eleven years, I was advised to make a change of air; I
consequently withdrew to the Dames of the Congregation of
Trouvelle-les-Vernon, where I entered on the 16th of February, 1782. My
health continued bad in consequence of the frequent attacks of hæmorrhage
to which I became subject.
“On the 29th of December following I was seized with a violent headache,
beginning with a swoon, which lasted more than two hours, and with a
frightful hæmorrhage. Suitable remedies were instantly administered to me
by skilful physicians, but in vain; and after this I was attacked with
convulsions, and the entire suspension of all motion in my body.
“Different consultations were held at Paris; MM. Fumé and Petit sent me
prescriptions which produced no effect. This sickness continued until the
13th of May, 1783, when I was removed into the town of my uncle’s. All
these facts have been attested by the physicians and surgeons of Vernon,
by the testimony of M. Atadie, physician to his Serene Highness the Duke
of Penthievre, and of M. le Noble, physician, who had employed magnetism,
but without effect. These certificates, duly legalized by M. le
Lieutenant-Général of the same town, attest that my disorder was deemed so
violent and incurable to the period when I decided upon returning to
Pontoise, hoping to recover my health by the means which it might please
God to employ. I arrived there on the 5th of August, 1783; from that time
my condition was precisely the same, namely habitual convulsions. I was
deprived of the use of my limbs, particularly of my right arm, in which
the convulsions were so violent that it was found necessary to fix and tie
it with a bandage. The left was not much better, for on merely touching
it, or on a change of weather, it experienced similar convulsions. Added
to this I was attacked violently with gout, which I felt all over my body,
but especially in my head and the extremities of my fingers. I was subject
to pains in my breast and stomach, so severe as to occasion me to spit
blood and to vomit up even the most liquid of my food. Sleep, of which I
had in general but little till this period, now became, as it were, a
stranger to me. My voice was for a month or six weeks almost extinct, and
there was not a part of my body which was not in a state of suffering; the
least noise became almost insupportable.
“It is moreover to be remarked, that I never discovered, although always
valetudinary, what could be capable of occasioning such a malady. This is
a testimony I offer to truth. The persons who could not be ignorant of
what concerned their patient have made the same depositions.[46]
“Such was my condition when they were proceeding at Pontoise, by order of
the Holy See, in the process of the beatification of the servant of God,
Marie de l’Incarnation, whose name in the world was Madame Acarie,
foundress of the Carmelites in France, who, having edified the World by
the virtues which characterize great souls, and consecrated at Carmel
three of her daughters, herself embraced this holy state under the humble
quality of converse-sister in the Convent of Carmelites at Amiens, and
died at that of Pontoise in the odour of sanctity on the 18th of April,
1618, aged fifty-two years.
“The fame of this process revived my faith. I made a Novena to her, in
which the Carmelites, as well as many other pious persons, united. I not
only, during this Novena, took no medicines, but I told my physician:
‘Perhaps, sir, you will smile at me when I tell you that I am performing a
Novena to the venerable Sister Marie de l’Incarnation, and that I hope
to-morrow to be taken to her tomb!’ ‘I commend your piety,’ said he, ‘to
make a Novena to that blessed person, but I do not equally commend the
step which you propose to take; I fear that none but bad consequences will
result from it.’ I replied, as I had done to many other of my friends,
‘that I had the firmest confidence of a cure.’
“I persevered constantly in this moral and physical disposition until the
moment when I was carried in a sedan chair into the church of the
Carmelites. I was brought there at five o’clock in the morning. I heard
mass, and communicated without quitting my chair. Towards the moment of
elevation I felt severe pains throughout my whole frame, and seemed to
myself to be in such a state of weakness that I then thought if I were to
be communicated it would have been for the last time. A cold sweat spread
itself at that time over my whole body. The priest who gave me the Holy
Sacrament noticed that I was so weak that I could not hold the cloth upon
my knees. He was so much afraid from the paleness of my countenance and
the alteration he perceived in me, that in fear of some accident he put
the sacred ciborium almost close to my lips.
“Finding me in this painful state, which announced rather a speedy
dissolution than a cure, I formed acts of submission to the Will of God. I
begged Him to accept the sacrifice of my life; I also thrice made the
prayer of the blind man, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me;’ the while
interiorly, having lost my power of articulation. I remained in that state
till the end of the mass, and finding my strength recovering I called my
nurse, and begged her to go and see if the chapel in which the precious
remains of the Venerable Sister Marie de l’Incarnation were deposited was
open, having the design to be carried there. But O bounty and mercy of the
Lord! at the very moment the people were preparing I quitted the chair
myself; my nurse came hastily upon me to stop me, imagining that this
movement was a last effort of nature. I corrected her, saying that I
thanked her, but that thanks be to God! I had no need of her help, and
instantly after, on the steps of the altar, returned thanks after
communion; for I did not as yet perceive the change that was made in me. I
was not sensible of it till after having made my thanksgiving, which was
near a quarter of an hour after. I then raised myself from the ground
filled with joy and consolation, finding I had recovered the use of my
limbs; my breast and stomach at ease and devoid of pain, enjoying
tranquillity altogether wonderful. I first ascended the seven steps of the
altar; and then went to the grate of the choir and thanked the community
for the prayers that they had the goodness to offer up for me; requesting
them to add still further their thanks to mine. I then turned towards the
Blessed Sacrament, where I remained on my knees on the ground without any
support during the period of three masses, which were said in succession.
I afterwards heard high mass, and assisted at the entire Office of the
Day, without the noise of chaunting, of the instruments, nor the great
concourse of people, occasioning me the slightest inconvenience. Although
I had to answer in the course of the day to more than four thousand
persons attracted by the novelty of the circumstance to the church of the
Carmelites, on the afternoon of the same day I went on foot to visit the
Ursuline Dames.
“Done at Compiègne on the 12th of Feb. 1792.
(Signed) “Françoise-Geneviève-Philippe,
“Called in religion ‘Sr. Josephine of the Incarnation,’ Religious
Carmelite of the Monastery of the City of Compiègne, in which I had
the happiness to enter on the 20th of December, 1786, and to pronounce
my holy and inviolable engagements on the 22nd of July, 1788.”
Another point bearing very directly on the subject of this chapter here
suggests itself for some brief consideration:--
Deeds of benediction have been so universally recognized in history, that
it may be credibly maintained that the custom originated in the earliest
ages of the World’s existence, either by a direct revelation from Heaven
or by the most elementary religious instinct of the immediate descendants
of our first parents. The heads of tribes, after the Flood, blessed their
children and followers. And, when the Patriarchal dispensation drew
towards its close, the power of blessing was exercised by the leaders and
chiefs of God’s chosen people. Proof of all this is on record in the
Sacred Writings. He, therefore, who runs may read. And we may gather from
the same source that a form of blessing was attached to the priest’s
office;[47] and that such blessing was efficient. All this is of course
taken for granted under the Christian dispensation; and it is evident that
the various forms of sacerdotal benediction are true means of bestowing
the Divine blessing and grace: and this, because of the salient principle
that the Fall of man from original righteousness, having effected a loss
of union with God Almighty, salvation is the renewal of that union by and
through Jesus Christ and His Church. Now, a Blessing, in the Name of God,
is bestowed by a superior upon an inferior.[48] Thus a bishop gives his
benediction to a priest, deacon, or layman; a priest to a layman; a father
or head of a family to a son or an inferior member of that same family; a
patriarch or chieftain to his tribe, or to any member of it. The blessing
of God is a great and mighty gift of grace, and has always been intimately
conjoined with the offering of sacrifice, and so particularly and
specifically with the offering of the Christian sacrifice, as also with
and by a benediction, some of the most solemn services of Holy Church have
been brought to an end.
Of course, if there be a power to bless, there is, as has already been
pointed out, likewise a power to curse. Neither blessing nor curse may be
absolute in their effect, and all acts and deeds are done under God, or
with the permission of the Almighty. Of the results respectively of
blessings or curses we know but little. But the glimpses which History,
Revealed Religion, and Experience alike afford of those results are full
of interest, and are subjects for contemplation and study. Here, as in the
consideration of similar details, concerning the Supernatural, the Church
Universal should be our guide. Where she leads we should go: where she
directs we should follow.
As bearing on this subject, it may be suitably pointed out that Mr. Robert
Southey in his “Common-Place Book” puts on record a very remarkable story
of “citation” by a man unjustly and cruelly murdered:--
“The Philipsons of Colgarth coveted a field like Ahab, and had the
possessor hung for an offence which he had not committed. The night
before his execution the old man (for he was very old) read the 109th
Psalm as his solemn and dying commination, verses 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13,
14, 15, and 16.” The verses contain a prayer for vengeance upon “the
wicked and deceitful, who have spoken with a lying tongue,” and whose days
are to be few, and their children to be fatherless, their descendants
continually vagabonds and beggars, and their posterity to be cut off. “The
curse,” Southey adds, “was fully accomplished; the family were cut off,
and the only daughter who remained sold laces and bobbins about the
country.”
Two remarkable and, as may be well believed, supernatural events occurred
(which may be fittingly recorded here) with regard to the cruel and
shameful death of Edmund Arrowsmith, a Roman Catholic priest of the county
of Lancaster, in the year 1628. He was born at Haddock in the parish of
Winwick, five miles from Warrington and seven from Wigan. His father was
Robert Arrowsmith, a yeoman, and his mother Margaret Gerard, of the
ancient and noble family of that name. His immediate ancestors had
suffered much for their religion. Edmund, their son, having been received
into the College at Douay in 1605, was eventually ordained priest at Arras
on December 9th, 1612. A year afterwards he was sent to England to
minister to his fellow religionists. One of his flock being exasperated
against him because he refused to marry him to his first cousin and had
rebuked him for evil-living, informed against him to the vigilant
authorities; and Arrowsmith, being apprehended, was sent to Lancaster
Castle, “for not having taken the oaths, and upon vehement suspicion that
he was a priest and a jesuit.” The judge on circuit was Sir Henry
Yelverton.
“Are you a priest, sir?” asked the judge, when the accused person was
brought before him.
Arrowsmith, signing himself with the cross, replied, “My lord, I would to
God I were worthy.”
On the judge repeating the question Arrowsmith replied coolly, “I would I
were.”
When the accused, in reply to a minister on the bench, suggested a
disputation regarding religion, and claimed to defend his Faith, the judge
silenced him at once, and declared that he would not allow him to make any
defence at all.
“I am ready, my lord, bear in mind,” replied Arrowsmith, “not only to
defend it in words, but in deeds, and to seal it with my blood.”
The judge then told him, in an insulting and savage manner, that he should
die, and see his bowels burnt before his very face.
“And you too must die, my lord, and that within a year.”[49]
Two indictments were framed against him: one for being a priest and a
jesuit, and the other for disparaging Protestantism; on these he was found
guilty of high treason, and ordered to die according to the law. To the
gaoler of the prison, the sheriff brought express commands from the judge
to load him with the heaviest irons in the Castle, and to lodge him in a
small cell where he could not lie down. This occurred on the 26th of
August, 1628, and he suffered death on the 28th of the same month. He was
dragged on a hurdle from the Castle to the place of execution, having
received absolution from a fellow prisoner, Mr. Southworth, in the Castle
yard. He was bound on the hurdle, and for greater ignominy with his head
to the horse’s tail. The gallows and boiling caldron were set up about a
quarter of a mile distant from the Castle. The devotion and piety of this
holy and zealous man were as remarkable as his constancy and
fortitude,--graces which edified those who witnessed his sad end. He
offered himself up as a sacrifice thrice: once upon his knees at the foot
of the ladder, again on the ladder, which he kissed, and a third time just
before the halter was fastened round his neck; and then prayed fervently,
“O Sweet Jesus, I freely offer Thee my death, in satisfaction for my
sins.” Then he was cast off, suffered to hang until he was dead--an act
of mercy, by no means ordinary or common--cut down, disembowelled, and
quartered; his head being placed on a pole amongst the pinnacles of the
Castle. It is recorded that the judge being vexed and annoyed with the
clever and luminous answers which Arrowsmith made when under examination,
in the hearing of so many, appeared to take a special pleasure in viewing
the execution from his lodgings, through a perspective glass; that he had
the curiosity to examine the four quarters of his body, which, by his
command, being brought to his apartment, he made an unnatural and shocking
comparison between them and a haunch or two of venison with which he had
that day been presented; and that he deliberately kicked the right hand of
the body in contempt. On leaving the town he ordered the martyr’s head to
be placed on a pole six yards higher than the pinnacles of the Castle.
The judge, sitting at supper at an inn on January 23, 1629, upon return
from circuit, felt a heavy blow, as if someone had struck him on the back
of the head; upon which he fell into a violent rage with, and severely
rated, the servant who was waiting upon him; who protested that he had not
struck him, nor did he see anyone strike him. A little while afterwards,
the judge felt another blow like the first; and, as some records say, a
third just as the meal was being ended. The blows he himself evidently
thought to have come from the hand of divine justice, for he exclaimed in
fear and trepidation: “That dog Arrowsmith hath killed me.”[50] In great
terror he was carried to bed, and dying the next morning, the prophecy of
the holy priest regarding his death was exactly fulfilled.
As regards the Hand of the sufferer, it was procured and treasured up by
his relatives the Gerards: and the following remarkable occurrence is
connected with it.
In the year 1813 a young man named Joseph Lamb, then residing at Eccles,
near Trafford Hall, about four miles from Manchester, fell from a rick of
considerable height to the ground, and received a violent injury in the
back. He was so injured that he could neither stand nor walk and suffered
very considerable pain; but after many attempts had been made by
physicians to give him relief and effect a cure, his case at a later stage
was unanimously pronounced to be incurable. In religion he was a Roman
Catholic, having been converted to that ancient faith from being an
Anabaptist--a sect to which his father still belonged. Local circumstances
had led to his investigating the martyrdom of the venerable priest, Edmund
Arrowsmith, who, as already recounted, gave up his life in the cause of
God at Lancaster, on the 28th of August, 1628. Of this holy man a Hand had
been long and carefully preserved at Sir William Gerard’s, of Garswood,
near Wigan, where it was and is deservedly venerated and held in respect
by all Roman Catholics. The sufferer Lamb, finding that the skill and
power of man could do nothing for him, conceived a firm conviction that it
would please the Almighty to restore him to health by the instrumentality
of this relic, and he consequently most earnestly and systematically
prayed to God that it might be so. His parents consequently, in response
to his urgent entreaties, on October 2nd, 1814, had him conveyed in a
covered cart from his own house near Trafford Hall to Garswood, a distance
of fourteen miles.[51] In a state of considerable suffering, and quite
unable to assist himself, he was lifted out of the cart and carried into
the Roman Catholic chapel, where he was placed before the altar. Then the
“Holy Hand,” as it is termed, was brought forth; the sacred sign of the
cross was solemnly made over the affected part of the poor suffering man’s
back; when, in an instant, he felt freedom from pain and found his former
health and strength perfectly restored. He immediately rose, stood up for
some time in prayer, and then walked, without any assistance whatsoever,
to his relatives and friends who were gathered at the chief entrance of
the chapel. He returned home quite recovered and perfectly well, and so
remained, up to the 19th of September, 1816.[52] The result of this
miraculous intervention was that several of his kinsmen and acquaintances
became converts to the religion which he had elected to follow; and these,
together with many Roman Catholics who became acquainted with Almighty
God’s merciful visitation of him, joined in a solemn act of thanksgiving,
by assembling to sing the _Te Deum_ in the chapel of Garswood.[53]
Thus, then, we see the prophecy of a Christian priest, who was unjustly
and illegally condemned and cruelly murdered, exactly and most strikingly
fulfilled; and a wonderful sign bestowed from God to man of Eternal Truth,
in the supernatural cure wrought some two centuries and more afterwards
upon this Lancashire farm-labourer.
Here something may be properly put on record, regarding cases in which
visible marks and tokens of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ have been supernaturally and miraculously impressed upon God’s
saints and servants, in order to set forth before the eyes of man, as a
matter of _sight_ and not as a matter of _faith_, the truth of the
Revelation of Almighty God, through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
The first recorded instance of stigmatization is that of S. Francis of
Assisi, in the thirteenth century. From the life of this distinguished
saint, written by S. Bonaventure (chapters xii. and xv.), we gather the
following particulars of these remarkable phenomena.
It was the custom of the saint, from time to time, to retire into the
solitudes of Mount Alverna, in the Apennines, in order the more easily to
give himself up to prayer and meditation. “While fasting there for forty
days, being in prayer, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
and feeling within his soul an intense desire to be crucified with his
Lord, he beheld, descending from heaven towards him, a seraph, having six
wings as it were of fire.[54] When the celestial messenger came near to
him, there appeared between the wings the form of One crucified, with the
hands and feet stretched out upon the cross. Two wings rose above the
head, two were spread forth in flight, while the others veiled the whole
body.” Francis felt a great joy at the apparition, and yet, at the same
time, a deep sorrow at beholding Him Whom his soul loved, so cruelly
fastened to the Cross, the thought of which pierced his heart as with a
sword of grief. It was presently revealed to him that he was to imitate
the Passion of our Lord.
“The vision disappearing, his soul was filled with heavenly light, while a
marvellous sign was left imprinted on his limbs. On his hand and feet were
the marks of the nails, as he had beheld in the seraphic vision, and on
his right side was a wound, as if made by a lance’s thrust. His hands and
feet appeared transfixed with the nails, their heads being seen in the
upper part of the feet, and the points on the reverse sides. The heads of
these nails were round and black, and the points somewhat long and bent,
as if turned back; so that between them and the skin there was the space
of a finger. They could be moved with ease; for on the one side they were
embedded in the flesh, whilst on the other they were clear of it: yet it
was not possible to draw them out, as we are assured by S. Clare, who,
after the saint’s death, essayed to do so, but could not succeed. The
wound in the side was deep, and of the width of three fingers. It was red,
and the saint’s habit was often stained by the blood which flowed from
it.”
These stigmata were seen during his life by the reigning Pope Alexander
with many of his cardinals; and after his death, by more than fifty
brethren together, by S. Clare and many of her sisters, and an innumerable
crowd of seculars, who came from all parts of the country to be witnesses
of these wonders.
At the close of the seventeenth century, another case of stigmatization
occurred to Veronica Juliana, a nun; and her examination by the bishop of
her diocese, aided by several physicians, was of so strict and severe a
character, that deception on her part would have been quite impossible.
In the early part of the same century, Joanna di Jesu Maria, a Spanish
nun, was subjected to even a more rigorous examination, before a court
composed of the Commissary of the Inquisition, the Suffragan Bishop,
several of the secular and regular clergy of the district, of many learned
men, and two distinguished physicians. In this case, the subject of the
phenomena bore not only the wounds on her hands, feet, and side, from
which blood and water frequently flowed, but also around her head, as from
the crown of thorns, a deep wound, which, in the opinion of the doctors,
penetrated to the skull. They, furthermore, declared by oath that the
wounds were not natural, and could not possibly be the effect of fraud.
The most celebrated subjects of stigmata in our own days are Maria Mörl,
the Ecstatica of Caldamo, in the Tyrol, and Maria Domenica Lazzari, a
peasant girl of Capriana, whose cases were brought before the English
public by that late distinguished nobleman John, Earl of Shrewsbury, A. L.
M. P. De Lisle, Esq.,[55] the Rev. T. W. Allies, and others.
The following account of Maria Mörl is abridged from that of Görres, in
his work on the Supernatural, entitled “Christliche Mystik,” which,
perhaps, is the most complete and detailed description published. After
giving a brief sketch of her life, which tells us that she was a girl of
great piety, also that at the age of eighteen she became a confirmed
invalid, and after receiving Holy Communion she always remained in an
ecstasy for several hours, we read, that “in the autumn of 1833, her
Confessor, Father Capistran, had by chance noticed that the parts of her
hands where the wounds afterwards appeared had begun to form in hollows,
as though impressed by some external substance, the parts, at the same
time, becoming the seat of considerable pain, accompanied by frequent
cramps.” Soon afterwards, the wounds appeared on the hands, feet, and
side. On Thursdays and Fridays these places often ran with clear blood,
and were covered on other days with a scar of dried blood, without showing
any signs of inflammation. “In 1834, on the occasion of a solemn
procession, a new phase of her ecstasy developed itself, and one day
surprised her in the presence of several witnesses, when she was
transfigured with an angelic beauty, radiant and glorious as a heavenly
spirit, her arms extended to their extreme width in the form of a cross,
and her feet barely seeming to touch the bed on which she reposed. All
around could then plainly perceive the mysterious stigmata, and the matter
could no longer remain a secret.”
Of Maria Domenica Lazzari, who was born March 16th, 1815, and whose case
is no less remarkable than the above, Mr. Allies, then a clergyman of the
Church of England, wrote the following account, twenty-five years
ago:--“In August, 1833, she had an illness, not in the first instance of
an extraordinary nature; but it took the form of an intermittent fever,
confining her completely to her bed, and finally contracting the nerves of
her hands and feet so as to cripple them. On the 10th of January, 1834,
she received on her hands, feet, and left side, the marks of our Lord’s
Five Wounds.... Three weeks afterwards, her family found her in the
morning covering her face in a state of great delight,--a sort of trance.
On removing the handkerchief, letters were found on it marked in blood,
and Domenica’s brow had a complete impression of the crown of thorns, in a
line of small punctures about a quarter of an inch apart, from which the
blood was flowing freshly. They asked her who had torn her so. She
replied, ‘A very fair lady had come in the night and adorned her.’...
From the time that she first received the stigmata, in January, 1834, to
the present time (account published in 1847), the wounds have bled every
Friday, with a loss of from one to two ounces of blood, beginning early in
the morning, and on Friday only. The above information (Mr. Allies
declares) we received from Signor Yoris, a surgeon of Cavalese, the chief
village of the district in which Capriana lies.”
Two additional and quite recent examples of stigmatization, most perfectly
and satisfactorily authenticated, demand to have the facts which are known
and admitted here set forth. The first is as follows:--