CHAP. XXII.
Another Story of a female Saint appeased by a flagellation.
AND not only the Virgin Mary, but other female Saints, inhabitants of Paradise, have also been thought to be extremely well disposed to be appeased, when they had received offence, by flagellatory corrections. The following Story is to be found in the Book intitled, Itinerarium Cambriæ, wrote by Sylvester Geraldus, a native of the Country of Wales, who wrote about the year 1188.
‘In the Northern borders of England, and on the other side of the river Humber, in the Parish of Hooëden, lived the Rector of that Church, with his Concubine. This Concubine, one day sat rather imprudently, on the tomb of St. Osanna, sister to King Osred, which was made of wood, and raised above the ground in the shape of a seat. When she attempted to rise from the place, her posteriors stuck to the wood in such a manner, that she never could be parted from it, till, in the presence of the people who ran to see her, she had suffered her clothes to be torn from her, and had received a severe discipline on her naked body, and that, to a great effusion of blood, and with many tears and devout supplications on her part: which done, and after she had engaged to submit to farther penitence, she was divinely released[111].’
