bore more of the weight of the body. His fingers and arms extended in a manner, and his back was pressed back on the cross. Then some said to me: “ Mary, thy Son is dead.” Others said: “ He is dead, but he will rise again.” While all were thus speaking, one came up and drove his lance so stoutly into his one side, that it almost came out on the other; and when he drew out the lance, its point was all ruddy with blood. Then it seemed to me as if my heart was pierced, when I beheld the heart of my most beloved Son pierced through. Then he was taken down from the cross, and I received him into my bosom, like a leper, and all livid, for his eyes were dead and full of blood; his mouth cold as snow; his beard like cords; his face contracted. His hands were so stiffened, that they could not be raised above the navel. As he stood on the cross, so I held him in my arms, like a man contracted in every limb. Then they swathed him in clean linen, and I with my veil wiped his wounds and limbs, and I closed his eyes and mouth, which were open in death. Then they laid him in the sepulchre. Oh, how readily would I have laid myself there alive beside my Son, had it been his will! When all was over, John the good
