A MODERN "MIRACLE."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19727, 29 August 1927, Page 12

A MODERN "MIRACLE."

CASE OF STIGMATA.

GIRL'S SPIRITUAL MARTYRDOM. " BELIEVED TO BE A SAINT." One of the great miracles of the Middle Ages, it is alleged, is being re-enacted every Friday in the Bavarian village of Konnersdorf, ill an ordinary low-beamed cottage among the humblest peasant surroundings. says the Berlin correspondent of the London Observer. Intense religious brooding has produced the stigmata on the body of a young girl. Automobiles from Munich Park in a cobble-stoned market place, and rich ladies, religious enthusiasts of all standings, and doctors and students of medicine interested in nervous cases, wait patiently outside the house between the hours of eleven and twelve, when the door is closed to allow the patient to obtain a little rest. Responsible eye-witnesses state that for six days ol the week Theresa Neumann is a normal young girl of the South German type in her manners and interests, save for physical delicacy and a peculiarly spiritual expression in her finely featured face. Always intensely religious, she informed her parents a few months ago that every Friday she -would be called upon in future to accompany Christ on His Way to Calvary. There set in thereupon a weekly recurrence of the mystic suffering typical of the Fourteen Stations of the Cross. The correspondent says:—Theresa, who is believed by the local population to be a saint, begins her spiritual martyrdom about midnight on Thursday. It lasts the twelve hours through till one o'clock on the Friday. During this time she is forced i ■ lie in bed. Her convulsive movements as the hours pass are typicai of the various stages of agony she is men tally enduung. Her features are twisted in pain, she groans and sobs faintly, while various parts of her body grow more and more painful, until blood oozes through the skin lowaid mid-dav the pain grows worse, her hands cease to press nei loreiiead, and she sits up in bed with outstretched arms, raised slighth higher than her head. At this moment privileged visitors ate allowed into the room by the priest watching at the girl's bedside. From the [iuipje oruises m her sides biood gusues suddenly, visible through the white nightgown she is wearing, in spite of the cotton wool that has been applied be forehand. Only the medically-trained oi the fervently devout can bear the sight of such agonising struggles. They end with a deep gasp as the sufferer falls back on her pillow with closed eyes, once more pale as death. "For the rest o f the day Theresa i« apathetic and almost Heless, refusing food and shrinking at every touch. When Saturday comes she arises and goes to church as usual, coming back to such ordinary ligbt duties of her normal everyday life as she is still permitted to per form by those who regard her as the instrument of a divine mission."