Volume 2

Mary of Suphan
315
afternoon. Then Jesus and the disciples went with the
Pharisees down the hill and into the city, where a great
entertainment had been. prepared for Him in one of the
public halls. But when He drew near the hall, He stopped
short, saying: "I have another kind of hunger ," and He
asked (though He already knew) where that woman lived
whom they had sent away from Him in the morning.
They pointed out the house. It was near the hall of entertainment.
Jesus left His companions standing where they
were, while He went forward and entered the house
through the courtyard.
As Jesus approached, I saw the fearful torture and
affliction of the woman inside. The devil, who had possession
of her, drove her from one corner to another. She
was like a tin10rous animal that would hide itself. As
Jesus was traversing the court and drawing near to where
she was, she fled through a corridor and into a cellar in
the side of the hill upon which her house was built. In it
was a vessel like a great cask, narrow above and wide
below. She wanted to hide herself in it, but when she
tried to do so, it burst with a loud crash. It was an immense
earthen vessel. Jesus meantime halted and cried:
"Mary of Suphan, wife of ..." (here He pronounced her
husband's name, which I have forgotten) ""I command
thee in the Name of God to come to Me!" Then the
woman, enveloped from head to foot, as if the demon
forced her still to hide in her mantle, came creeping to
Jesus' feet on all fours, like a dog awaiting the whip. But
Jesus said to her: "Stand up!" She obeyed, but drew her
veil tightly over her face and around her neck as if she
wanted to strangle herself. Then said the Lord to her:
"Uncover thy face!" and she unwound her veil, but
lowering her eyes and averting them from Jesus as if
forced to do so by an interior power. Jesus, approaching
His head to hers, said: ""Look at Me!" and she obeyed.
He breathed upon her, a black vapor went out of her on