In the night between Thursday
and Friday, usually between midnight and one o'clock, the flow of
blood began, the vesicle first rupturing. The amount of blood
lost during the so called stigmata varied, and some observers
estimated it at about one and three-quarter pints. The blood
itself was of a reddish color, inclining to violet, about the hue
therefore, of capillary blood, coagulating in the usual way, and
the white and red corpuscles being normal in character and
relative proportion. The flow ceased on Saturdays. During the
flow of the blood the patient was in a rapt, ecstatic condition.
The facial expression was one of absorption and far-off
contemplation, changing often to melancholy, terror, to an
attitude of prayer or contrition. The patient herself stated that
at the beginning of the ecstasy she imagined herself surrounded
by a brilliant light; figures then passed before her, and the
successive scenes of the crucifixion were panoramically
progressive. She saw Christ in person--His clothing, His wounds,
His crown of thorns, His cross--as well as the Apostles, the holy
women, and the assembled Jews. During the ecstasy the circulation
of the skin and heart was regular, although at times a sudden
flash or pallor overspread the face, according with the play of
the expression.
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