The Catholic World, Vol. 14, October 1871-March 1872: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and ScienceVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 14, October 1871-March 1872: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
Dr. Imbert-Goubeyre, professor in the medical school of
Clermont-Ferrand, has also witnessed the commencement of the ecstasy
under like circumstances. His description is unnecessary.
Lastly, the ecstasy may begin while she is at her daily work. On
August 13, 1869, Mgr. d’Herbomez, the venerable Bishop of British
Columbia, went to see Louise Lateau, reaching her house about eight
o’clock in the morning. She was at work on her sewing-machine,
although her hands and feet were bleeding freely, and the blood
trickled down from her forehead, cheeks, and neck upon the machine,
which she evidently worked with the utmost pain. While the prelate was
speaking to her, the noise of the machine suddenly stopped, for she
had at once passed into the trance. A number of distinguished
ecclesiastics, among them Professor Hallez of the Seminary of Tournay,
have witnessed a similar onset of the attacks.
When once established, the course of the attack is thus described.
During most of the trance, the girl sits on the edge of her chair, as
motionless as a statue, with the body bent slightly forward; the 178
bleeding hands enveloped in cloths and resting upon her knees, the
eyes wide open and rigidly fixed as described. The expression of the
face is that of rapt attention, and she seems lost in the
contemplation of some distant object. Her expression and attitude
frequently change, the features sometimes relaxing, the eyes becoming
moist, and a smile of happiness lighting up the mouth. Sometimes the
lids droop and nearly veil the eyes, the brow contracts, and tears
roll slowly down the cheeks: at times again she grows pale, her face
wears an expression of the greatest terror, while she starts up with a
suppressed cry. The body sometimes slowly rotates, and the eyes move,
as if following some invisible procession. At other times she rises
and moves forward, standing on tiptoe with her hands stretched out,
and either clasped or hanging open like the figures of the _Orantes_
of the catacombs; while her lips move, her breathing is rapid and
panting, her features light up, and her face, which before the ecstasy
is quite plain, is transfigured with an ideal beauty. If to this be
added the sight of her stigmata: her head encircled with its bloody
chaplet, whence the red current drops along her temples and cheeks,
her small white hands stamped with a mysterious wound from which
bloody lines emerge like rays--and this strange spectacle surrounded
by people of all conditions, who are absorbed in respectful attention
and interest--some idea may be gained of what Dr. Lefebvre often
witnessed at Bois d’Haine.
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