which she often moaned, and moved her hands
like a person employed in weeding. She complained one morning that her
hands and arms smarted and itched, and on examination they were found
to be covered with blisters, like what would have been produced by the
stinging of nettles. She then begged several persons of her
acquaintance to join their prayers to hers for a certain intention. The
next day her hands were inflamed and painful, as they would have been
after hard work; and when asked the cause, she replied: 'Ah! I have so
many nettles to root up in the vineyard, because those whose duty it
was to do it only pulled off the stems, and I was obliged to draw the
roots with much difficulty out of a stony soil.' The person who had asked
her the question began to blame these careless workmen, but he felt
much confused when she replied: 'You were one of them,--those who only pull
off the stems of the nettles, and leave the roots in the earth, are
persons who pray carelessly.' It was afterwards discovered that she had
been praying for several dioceses which were shown to her under the
figure of vineyards laid waste, and in which labour was needed. The
real inflammation of her hands bore testimony to this symbolical
rooting up of the nettles; and we have, perhaps, reason to hope that
the churches shown to her under the appearances of vineyards
experienced the good effects of her prayer and spiritual labour; for
since the door is opened to those who knock, it must certainly be
opened above all to those who knock with such energy as to cause their
fingers to be wounded.

Similar reactions of the spirit upon the body are often found in the
lives of persons subject to ecstasies, and are by no means contrary to
faith. St. Paula, if we may believe St. Jerome, visited the holy places
in spirit just as if she had visited them bodily; and a like thing
happened to St. Colomba of Rieti and St. Lidwina of Schiedam. The body
of the latter bore tracks of this spiritual journey, as if she had
really travelled; she experienced all the fatigue that a painful
journey would cause: her feet were wounded and covered with marks which
looked as if they had been made by stones or thorns, and finally she
had a sprain from which she long suffered.

She was led on this journey by her guardian angel, who told her that
these corporeal wounds signified that she had been ravished in body and
spirit.

Similar hurts were also to be seen upon the body of Ann