[53] The event recorded above, Arrowsmith’s sufferings and death, and its details are taken from Dod’s “Church History,” Challoner’s “Memoirs of Missionary Priests,” vol. ii. pp. 130-146; a “Relation of the Death of E. Arrowsmith,” published A.D. 1630; a Latin MS. of his life, preserved at Douay; and special traditional information given to the Editor by the late Very Rev. Dr. Husenbeth, Provost of Northampton.
[54] This wonderful mystery is frequently represented in Christian Art, both with beauty and effect.
[55] See a rare and remarkable pamphlet, by Mr. De Lisle, with etchings by J. R. Herbert, R.A., now out of print, containing an account of his visit to the subject of this miraculous occurrence. London: Dolman, 1841.
[56] The following is the full title of the volume from which the above narrative and the extracts given are taken:—“Louise Lateau of Bois d’Haine, her Life, her Ecstasies, and her Stigmata.” A medical study, by Dr. F. Lefebvre. Translated from the French. Edited by Rev. J. Spencer Northcote, D.D., President of S. Mary’s College, Oscott. To which the following explanatory note may be added:—The name of Dr. Lefebvre is sufficient guarantee of the importance of any work coming from his pen. During twenty years that he has filled the chair of General Pathology and Therapeutics in the University of Louvain he has gained a world-wide reputation by his investigations in the wide and, to a great extent, unexplored field of medical research. Add to this moral qualities of the first order, and ardent zeal in the cause of religion, and we have a character which commands our admiration and esteem in the highest degree. The book, translated into English under the superintendence of Dr. Northcote, is a medical inquiry into the case of Louise Lateau, the Belgian stigmatizata. The medical features of the case are all that Dr. Lefebvre proposes to treat, leaving, of course, to the proper ecclesiastical authorities the theological investigation. An abridged account of this case has been published, entitled “Louise Lateau, the Ecstatica of Bois d’Haine,” by Dr. Lefebvre, translated from the French by J. S. Shepard. London: Richardson and Son. 1872.
[57] This account was written in 1874.
[58] Affidavits of the truth of the above narrative have been made by the physician and clergyman who witnessed the miraculous intervention, as also by the person more immediately concerned—Miss Collins.
[59] Among the spectators were the following: Mr. R. Tobin and family, Mr. John Sullivan and wife, Mr. C. D. O’Sullivan and wife, Mr. J. A. Donahue and wife, Mr. George Hooper and wife, Mrs. Emmet Doyle, Mr. D. J. Oliver, and many others. Dr. Polactri was standing by Miss Collins’s bedside, taking notes on the condition of the patient. He confessed the case was beyond the reach of medical science. Her head moved from side to side with the intensity of her agony, and her tongue was parched and swollen.
[60] Mr. D. J. Oliver writes from San Francisco, in a private letter, as follows: “I was awe-stricken whilst beholding the miracle. I know both the young girls, and the account is correct in every particular, except that the stigmata was on both sides of the hands and feet, and not on one side only. I spent an hour with them last evening, and saw them at communion at early mass this morning.”
[61] The account up to this point is copied from a Letter to Miss F. T. Bird, dated September 3, 1809, by Mr. Woodford, an eminent surgeon of Taunton, who attended Mary Wood upon her accident.
[62] Certain stated prayers and devotional exercises continued throughout nine days.