St. Lidwina
Conditions
Biography
Saint Lidwina was born in 1380 in Schiedam, to a very poor family. Very early in her life, she was drawn towards the Mother of God and prayed a great deal before the miraculous image of Our Lady of Schiedam. The Mother of God revealed to this mystic the extent of suffering Christ would ask her to endure. Her suffering began in the winter of 1395. Lidwina was skating with some friends and she accidently fell over with such violence that she broke ribs in her right side. No medical skill availed to cure her and gangrene quickly set in and spread through her body. Today some posit that Saint Lidwina is one of the first known multiple sclerosis patients and attribute her disability to the effects of the disease and her fall. After her fall, Lidwina fasted continuously and acquired fame as a healer and holy woman. The town officials of Schiedam, her hometown, promulgated a document (which has survived) that attests to her complete lack of food and sleep. At first she ate a little piece of apple, then a bit of date and watered wine, then river water contaminated with salt from the tides. The authenticating document from Schiedam also attests that Lidwina shed skin, bones, parts of her intestines, which her parents kept in a vase and which gave off a sweet odor. These excited so much attention that Lidwina had her mother bury them. There were several miracles recorded by those who visited her in her bedroom. During her suffering, Saint Lidwina was given the gift of visions. In one of these visions she was shown a rosebush with the words, "When this shall be in bloom, your suffering will be at an end." Mary sustained Lidwina through her grace and intercessory power. In the spring of 1433, the saint exclaimed, "I see the rosebush in full bloom!" On Easter morning of the same year, Lidwina died in the odor of great sanctity. Our Lady was true to her word, as was Saint Lidwina in accepting the will of God in imitation of Mary's fiat. Lidwina died at the age of 53. She is known as the patron saint of ice and wheels skaters, disease and suffering.
Celebration day
14 April
Pilgrimage
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basiliek_van_de_H._Liduina_en_Onze-Lieve-Vrouw_van_de_Rozenkrans
