The Dominican convent of Adelhausen, which was founded by the Consort of Egon II of Urach, Count of Freiburg (1218–36), is famous in the history of German mysticism and was the theatre of the most amazing phenomena. Christina Mechthild Tuschelin, a nun of this house who, it is said, only broke silence once during the whole of her religious life,[67] was very frequently illumined with such a glory of brightness that nobody could look upon her, and at times the community were obliged to request her to absent herself from the choir in order that they might recite their office without distraction.
Another famous Dominican, S. Vincent Ferrer, was often surrounded by light, and on more than one occasion it was thought that either he, or indeed the whole room was ablaze, and persons ran there in great alarm to extinguish the fire, Often too, his white habit was actually scorched although there was no fire in the room.
It may be worth noting that the appearance of a room or a building upon fire has been remarked under very different conditions and proceeding from a very different origin. When the notorious Dr. John Dee was Warden of Manchester College, a position he obtained in 1595 and resigned on account of falling health in 1602 or 1603, he often excited suspicion by the extraordinary, and some whispered unhallowed, nature of his studies which he often pursued in spite of his seventy years and more until the break of day. One mid-night, the whole college was aroused by the fierce glare of a mighty fire, and it was seen that the warden’s lodgings were bursting into flame in every direction. In a few moments a crowd had hastily rushed to the spot and buckets of water were brought, when the flames suddenly died away, and almost immediately Dr. Dee appeared from his house to thank them for their care and assure them that he had been able to subdue the conflagration. It is said that on the next day the building bore no mark of fire, which circumstance together with the fact that he had so mysteriously extinguished the flames went far to increase his sombre reputation in the town.
The halo is by no means merely an artistic symbolism. A bright glow was often perceived to surround the head of S. Rose of Lima, and the same was not infrequently remarked in the cases of Thomas Lombard and the lay brother Barnaby of Pistoia. This is also recorded of S. RaveUo, a Bishop of
