176 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1620-38. 



ear, with assurance that the promise was fulfilled, 

 and that she was indeed his bride. Now ensued 

 phenomena which are not infrequent among Ro- 

 man Catholic female devotees, when unmarried, or 

 married unhappily, and which have their source 

 in the necessities of a woman's nature. To her 

 excited thought, her divine spouse became a living 

 presence ; and her language to him, as recorded 

 by herself, is that of the most intense passion. She 

 went to prayer, agitated and tremulous, as if to .a 

 meeting with an earthly lover. "O my Love!" she 

 exclaimed, " when shall I embrace you ] Have 

 you no pity on me in the torments that I sufi'er? 

 Alas ! alas ! my Love, my Beauty, my Life ! instead 

 of healing my pain, you take pleasiu'e in it. Come, 

 let me embrace you, and die in your sacred arms ! " 

 And again she writes : " Then, as I was spent with 

 fatigue, I was forced to say, ' My divine Love, 

 since you wish me to live, I pray you let me rest 

 a little, that I may the better serve you'; and I 

 promised him that afterward I would suffer myself 

 to consume in his chaste and divine embraces." ^ 



1 "Allant k I'oraison, je tressaillois en moi-meme, et disois : AUons 

 dans la solitude, mon cher amour, afin que je vous embrasse a mon aise, 

 et que, respirant mon ame en vous, elle ne soit plus que vous-meme par 

 union d'amour. . . . Puis, mon corps e'tant brise de fatigues, j'e'tois con- 

 trainte de dire : Mon divin amour, je vous prie de me laisser prendre un 

 pen de repos, afin que je puisse mieux vous servir, puisque vous voulez 

 que je vive. . . . Je le priois de me laisser agir; lui promettant de me 

 laisser apres cela consumer dans ses chastes et divins embrassemens. 

 . . . O amour ! quand vous embrasserai-je 1 N'avez-vous point pitie de 

 moi dans le tourment que je soufFre ? helas ! helas ! mon amour, ma 

 beaute, ma vie ! au lieu de me guerir, vous vous plaisez a mes maux. 

 Venez done que je vous embrasse, et que je meure entre vos bras 

 sacrez ! " 



The above passages, from various pages of her journal, will suflSce, 



