hich she had been so tormented during life were
instituted after her death. The friends who surrounded her neglected to
examine her body, probably for fear of coming upon some striking
phenomenon, the discovery of which might have caused much annoyance in
various ways. On Wednesday the 11th of February her body was prepared
for burial. A pious female, who would not give up to anyone the task of
rendering her this last mark of affection, described to me as follows
the condition in which she found her: "Her feet were crossed like the
feet of a crucifix. The places of the stigmas were more red than usual.
When we raised her head blood flowed from her nose and mouth. All her
limbs remained flexible and with none of the stiffness of death even
till the coffin was closed." On Friday the 13th of February she was taken
to the grave, followed by the entire population of the place. She
reposes in the cemetery, to the left of the cross, on the side nearest
the hedge. In the grave in front of hers there rests a good old peasant
of Welde, and in the grave behind a poor but virtuous female from
Dernekamp.

On the evening of the day when she was buried, a rich man went, not
to Pilate, but to the cure of the place. He asked for the body of Anne
Catherine, not to place it in a new sepulchre, but to buy it at a high
price for a Dutch doctor. The proposal was rejected as it deserved, but
it appears that the report was spread in the little town that the body
had been taken away, and it is said that the people went in great
numbers to the cemetery to ascertain whether the grave had been robbed.'

To these details we will add the following extract from an account
printed in December 1824, in the Journal of Catholic literature of
Kerz. This account was written by a person with whom we are
unacquainted, but who appears to have been well informed: 'About six or
seven weeks after the death of Anne Catherine Emmerich, a report having
got about that her body had been stolen away, the grave and coffin were
opened in secret, by order of the authorities, in the presence of seven
witnesses. They found with surprise not unmixed with joy that
corruption had not yet begun its work on the body of the pious maiden.
Her features and countenance were smiling like those of a person who is
dreaming sweetly. She looked as though she had but just been placed in
the coffin, nor did her body exhale any corpse-like smell. It is good
to keep the secret of the king,