NOTICES OF PERU. 



309 



single loaf and a glass of water. During passion week, her sol^e 

 diet was five orange seeds a day ! 



When four years old, she was wont to pray with heavy 

 weights on her shoulders, and later in life, in imitation of St. 

 Dominique, she prayed in a garden, walking barefoot at mid- 

 night, bearing a heavy cross on her back ! 



For sixteen years, her bed was strewed with sharp stones, 

 and her head rested on a pillow of thorns. Besides, she con- 

 stantly wore chains, and a crown of tin filled with nails, stick- 

 ing inwards, concealed in her hair! She prayed twelve hours, 

 and worked ten, every day, leaving only two for repose ! To 

 keep off drowsiness during her devotions, she suspended her- 

 self by the hair, so as just to allow her toes to touch the ground! 

 In fact, it was wonderful to see the inventions to which she re- 

 sorted for self mortification and humiliation. She was charita- 

 ble to the poor, and performed the most menial offices for them 

 when sick. 



Notwithstanding her extraordinary piety, she was averse to 

 becoming a nun. At twenty, she yielded to the solicitations 

 of her parents, to enter a monastery, and when on her way, 

 she stopped at the convent of Santo Domingo, to prostrate her- 

 self for the last time before her favorite altar of our Lady of 

 the Rosary. On attempting to rise, she found that all her efforts 

 were vain, till she promised to return home, and abandon for- 

 ever the idea of taking the veil. 



At this time she was clothed with the third order of Santo 

 Domingo, and became a beata. 



One day, while kneeling before the altar of our Lady of the 

 Rosary, gazing on the image with the infant Saviour in her 

 arms, she saw both smile. The lips of the Saviour moved, and 

 said, <'Rosa de mi corazon, se tu mi Esposa.^' «'Rose of my 

 heart, be thou my spouse." Without any knowledge of this 

 miracle, a brother made her a ring, with those very words en- 

 graved upon it ! 



Holy Mary, the Empress of Heaven, often appeared to her, 

 and frequently waked her, saying, ^'Levantate hija, levantate 

 h la oraci6n, que ya es hora oportuna." — "Rise daughter, rise 

 to prayer, for now is the proper hour." 



