Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and EducationAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
France -- Church history -- 19th century; Italy -- Church history -- 19th century
Maria Domenica Lazzari, daughter of a poor miller now dead, lives in
the wild Alpine village of Capriana, in the Italian Tyrol, which we
had a walk of four hours through the mountains to reach. She was born
March 16. 1815, and up to the year 1833 lived the ordinary life of a
peasant, blameless and religious, but in no respect otherwise
remarkable. 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; the first appearance
of these was a gradual reddening of the various points beneath the
skin; this was strongly marked on a Thursday, and on the following day
the wounds were open, blood flowed, and since that time they have
never undergone any material change. Three weeks afterwards her family
found her in the morning with a handkerchief 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 (chi
l'aveva così pettinata?) she replied, "A very fair lady had come in
the night and adorned her." On the 10th of April, 1834, she took a
little water with a morsel of bread steeped in it; from that day to
this she has taken no nourishment whatever, save the Holy Sacrament,
which she receives weekly once or twice, in the smallest possible
quantity. Some years ago, when the priest had given her the Host,
sudden convulsions came on, and she was unable to swallow It; the
priest tried repeatedly to withdraw It, but in vain, the convulsions
returning as often as he attempted it, and so It remained forty days,
when It was at last removed untouched. We were assured of this by the
Prince-Bishop of Trent. From the time that she first received the
stigmata in January, 1834, to the present time, 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 quantity of blood which
now flows is less than it used to be. The above information we
received chiefly from Signor Yoris, a surgeon of Cavalese, the chief
village of the district in which Capriana lies. We carried him a
letter from Signor S. Stampa, son-in-law of Manzoni, whom we met at
Milan last Sunday, and who had just returned from a visit to Domenica,
exactly a week before our own. He appeared quite overwhelmed at what
he had seen, and gave us an exact account, which our own eyes
subsequently verified. We reached Cavalese from Neumarkt on Thursday,
having taken especial care so to time our visit that we might see
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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