From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   April 14th - Saint Lidwina of Schiedam   
      
   From 1380 to 1433   
      
   Saint Lidwina (Lydwine) lived in Schiedam (Holland). We know a lot about her   
   thanks to many books, including a book about her written by J.K. Huysmans   
   (translated by Agnes Hastings. into English) and reprinted by Tan Books and   
   Publishers of Rockford, IL., in 1979).   
      
   The original work is dated 1923 and was published in French. The preface of   
   this work reveals that Jan Gerlac, the sacristan of the Augustinian   
   Monastery of Windesem, was a relation of hers and he lived a number of years   
   near Lidwina (later in the same house as Lidwina) and thus writes from   
   personal observation and was quoted by Huysmans.   
      
   Two other gentlemen are quoted his book. One of these is Thomas à Kempis who   
   was subprior of the Augustinians of Mount Agnes near Zwolle. We know à   
   Kempis as the author of the Imitation of Christ. Lidwina lived in Holland at   
   the time of the Great Schism when the Church was split due to two   
   anti-popes.   
      
   At the age of 15 Lidwina broke a rib while ice skating and remained   
   bedridden for the rest of her life. She put her illness to a supernatural   
   purpose. She was suffering voluntarily for the welfare of the Church. She   
   fasted during this entire time when she was bedridden and was found often in   
   ecstacy. She is one of the most heroic victim-souls of all time.   
      
   (During her lifetime, there was a school of ascetics in Deventer that   
   followed the teachings of Blessed Jan van Ruysbroeck, who preached at   
   Campen, Zwolle, Amsterdam, Leiden, Zutphen, Utrecht, Gouda, Haarlem and   
   Delft. He and his pupil, Florent Radewyns, a Deventer priest, founded the   
   aforementioned Institute of Brothers and Sisters of Communal Life. This   
   order, although it never bore that name, were really oblates of Saint   
   Augustine.)   
      
   It is interesting to note that the name Lidwina (a formalization of Lidie)   
   comes from the Dutch word "lijden" which means to suffer. The aid of   
   physicians were enlisted by Lidwina's parents to seek a cure for her   
   disease. She was in intense pain, sobbed on her bed in a state of terrible   
   abandonment, was given to constant vomiting, suffered burning fevers and   
   could not hold down food of any kind. This situation lasted for three years.   
      
   Then followed a relatively blissful period but she was still confined to bed   
   and could not get up. In the following years she still suffered greatly from   
   abscesses, inflamed sores, and it was said she was near death twenty-two   
   times. At the age of 28, the coldest winter ever experienced in Holland set   
   in, when even the fish froze in the rivers, the tears she shed at night   
   froze to her face.   
      
   From the Third Order of Saint Francis in Schiedam she received a woolen   
   shirt to wear, however she was not a member of that lay order. Historically,   
   at that time William VI, a duke, was the Count of Holland. As he traveled   
   with his wife, the Countess Marguerite through Schiedam, he granted   
   Lidwina's father, who had fallen on bad times free rent on the premises they   
   occupied. In the 13th and 14th Century, Holland began to see some economic   
   development and William was proclaimed German king in 1247.   
      
   There was yet another war, the 100-Year War, but also during that time a   
   number of cities obtained municipal rights, as Hecht already mentioned but   
   also Middelburg, Dortrecht, Delft, Leiden, Haarlem, Arnhem, Nijmegen,   
   Zutphen, Deventer and Kampen obtained municipal privileges. According the   
   Encyclopediae Britannica: "The rise of the towns was accompanied by their   
   struggle for political influence in their respective territories, in which   
   they co-operated with the nobility and the clergy. This led to the growth of   
   representative assemblies which were to become essential political   
   institutions."   
      
   Returning to the story of Saint Lidwina, she continued to suffer and the   
   more she suffered, apparently, the more she was given God's Gift of   
   contemplation and bilocation. She was given to be in two places at once,   
   when Jesus asked her to be with him at Golgotha. In answer to His request,   
   Lidwina replied: "O Saviour, I am ready to accompany you to that mountain   
   and to suffer and die there with you!" (Huysmans, 1923)   
      
   "He took her with Him, and when she returned to her bed, which corporeally   
   she had never left, they saw ulcers on her lips, wounds on her arms, the   
   marks of thorns on her forehead and splinters on her limbs, which exhaled a   
   very pronounced perfume of spices."   
      
   A number of miraculous healings were reported. For example, Lidwina prayed   
   for a woman, a friend of hers, who had a frightful toothache. The woman's   
   pain ceased immediately. Also, another woman came to her to ask for her   
   intercession for her child who was screaming with pain. When the child was   
   placed on Lidwina's bed his troubles disappeared. When the child grew up, he   
   became a priest in memory of Lidwina.   
      
   Additional miracles continued after her death and she is not forgotten.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The Lord called me by the way of simplicity and humility, and this way He   
   hath shown me in truth for me and those who will believe and imitate me. And   
   therefore I would that ye name not to me any rule, neither of St. Augustine,   
   nor St. Benedict, nor of Bernard, nor any way or form of living, but that   
   which was mercifully shown and given me by the Lord.   
   --St. Francis of Assisi, The Mirror of Perfection   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And I say to thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My   
   Church.  (Matthew 16:18)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer of the Seven Last Words   
      
   O divine Jesus, incarnate Son of god, for our salvation you consented   
   to be born in a stable, to spend you whole life amid poverty, trials,   
   and misery, and to die surrounded by sufferings on the Cross. At the   
   hour of my death, please tell your Father, Father, forgive them. Tell   
   your Mother, Behold your child. Tell my soul, This day you shall be   
   with me in paradise.   
      
   My God, my God, do not forsake me in that hour. I thirst, yes, my   
   soul thirsts for you who are the fountain of living waters. My life   
   passes away like a shadow; in a short while everything will be   
   accomplished. Therefore, my adored Saviour, from this moment and for   
   all eternity, into your hands I commend my spirit. Lord Jesus,   
   receive my soul.   
      
   The Seven Last Words   
      
   "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing" (Lk   
   23:34)   
   "I assure you: this day you will be with Me in paradise" (Lk 23:43)   
   "Woman, there is your Son" (Jn 19:26)   
   "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mt 27:46   
   "I am thirsty" (Jn 19:30)   
   "Now it is finished" (Jn 19:30)   
   "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit" (Lk 23:46)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)