Her body was weighed down with infirmities, and subject to insupportable indispositions; her stomach was incapable of performing its functions, and yet the want of nourishment did not diminish her physical strength, her existence was a miracle, for medical men assured me that it was quite inexplicable to them. During the whole time that I had the privilege of being witness of her life, she took no food, and no drink that was capable of sustaining her, and this she supported, however, joyously even when undergoing sufferings and extraordinary fatigue.
We must beware of supposing that this was the natural consequence of a certain diet and graduated abstinence; it is quite evident that her strength was maintained by the ardor of her soul, for when the spirit superabounds in the body and is satiated with heavenly food, the body easily endures the torments of hunger.
Her bed was composed of a few planks without any covering: she sat on them when meditating and knelt on them when praying, and then extended herself on them for sleeping, without laying aside any portion of her clothing which was wholly composed of wool. She wore a hair-cloth, but as she cherished exterior neatness as a figure of interior purity, she exchanged this hair-cloth for a chain of iron which she drew around her person with such force that it entered her flesh: this I learned from her companions who were obliged to change it on account of the profuse perspirations, which caused her fainting fits. When her weakness increased towards the close of her life I obliged her, in virtue of holy obedience, to quit this chain, which occasioned her great pain. At first she prolonged her vigils until the hour of Matins; afterwards she overcame sleep so entirely, that she gave a
