[B.] St. IGNATIUS of LOYOLA Presentation: The ... - St. Gaspar Bertoni

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[ibi]. And not because the signs were taken away did her suffering from the stigmata and their
renewal cease, for they were renewed until her death, with great pain, many times, and every
Friday at 9:00 p.m. , in the greater solemnities, as on September 17th and October 4th, and
always in that obedience had commanded this [144].
2159: Her participation in the other pains of the passion [148]: One sign of this was the
enormous curvature of her spine and her bones from the right shoulder under the weight of the
Cross: she experienced shocks, contortions , a pulling, and frequent agony from her endurance
of all the Passion of Jesus Christ, which would sometimes last 24 hours: agony, being captured,
bound, fatigue - the experience of being led to the tribunals of Herod and Pilate with the slaps and
blows [153]. In all this, she was reduced to such an authentic agony that her confessor was called
a number of times. This was all witnessed by him and his companion, as well as by the nuns.
They noted the most profound piercing of the ropes on both of her wrists, with the experience of
both terror and compassion. [153]. She endured then the flagellation; and felt its torment [154].
Her being crowned with thorns, the carrying of the Cross, the ascent to Calvary. She endured the
sensation of being crucified with a fierce agony and cold sweat [155, ff.]. She suffered then the
pains of the Virgin Mary [156]. The experienced the crucifixion in her feet and in being raised up,
before the Bishop and her confessor [157-8].
2160: Disdain: She offered prayers so that the thorns would not impede her labors in the
Monastery, and that they be hidden [83]. She begged the Lord many times that all the sensible
signs be taken away. [cf. the heading “Suffering”]. The scars of the signs once the wounds were
closed, she hid with a bandage. [144]. Many times she asked the Lord to take these signs away
also. He said to her however, that He would only do this when she would be closer to her death
[144]. She experienced the vision in which Jesus Christ revealed to her the false accusations
leveled against Him, the criticisms, the rejection, that He had to suffer from human beings.
Once her Stigmata had been manifested in the Convent, some of the nuns began to
contradict her and speak against her, saying that this was all for show and that she had clearly
arranged for all this to happen. They made it known that in their opinion that if she made a show
of such appearances, and did not cease and desist from her hypocrisy, she would be damned.
The Bishop was informed, and he manifested a sublime disdain [224].
2161: Once the Holy Office in Rome was advised, and the order was received to make the
required proofs in order to discover whether this was indeed a case of hypocrisy and delusion, he
began by removing her from her task of Novice Mistress. She lost both active and passive voice
in community Chapters. This seemed to be in accord with the wishes of the stronger members in
the community, and their whisperings could be heard along the corridors of the nuns, who called
her a witch, and excommunicated. They threatened to burn her alive in the middle of the cloister.
They confined her to a room in the infirmary, as in a prison. They prohibited her from writing to
anyone, other than to her fellow nuns in Mercatello, and once her letters were first reviewed by
her Abbess. She was never allowed to go down into the ‘speak room’. Then, she was forbidden
even to come into the choir for the Divine Office and the Mass, other than on feast days, and
even then, she could only come to the threshold, as though she were indeed excommunicated.
She always had to be accompanied with a Lay Sister who was charged with leading her down
and then back to her prison, with the prohibition of speaking to the other nuns. This Sister was
commanded to treat Veronica with such rigor, as if she were indeed a hypocrite and a deceiver.
2162: She was even deprived for some time from Holy Communion, and she was only allowed
to go to the confessional for a time prescribed by the Abbess. She did all she could to have these
wounds healed, and almost feared for herself that all of this was a posture. She had her gloves
sealed with the episcopal seal. However, her wounds then began to fester within, and so it
became necessary to go to bathe them with rose water, as the Bishop reported to the Holy
Office. While she was in this state of total abandonment by everyone in the monastery and