Saint Lidwina of Schiedam
From 1380 to 1433
Saint Lidwina (Lydwine) lived in Schiedam (Holland).
We know a lot about her thanks to many books, including
a book about her written by J.K. Huysmans (translated by
Agnes Hastings. into English) and reprinted by Tan Books
and Publishers of Rockford, IL., in 1979).
The original work is dated 1923 and was published in French.
The preface of this work reveals that Jan Gerlac, the sacristan
of the Augustinian Monastery of Windesem, was a relation of
hers and he lived a number of years near Lidwina (later in
the same house as Lidwina) and thus writes from personal
observation and was quoted by Huysmans.
Two other gentlemen are quoted his book. One of these is Thomas
à Kempis who was subprior of the Augustinians of Mount Agnes
near Zwolle. We know à Kempis as the author of the Imitation of
Christ. Lidwina lived in Holland at the time of the Great Schism
when the Church was split due to two anti-popes.
At the age of 15 Lidwina broke a rib while ice skating and
remained bedridden for the rest of her life. She put her illness
to a supernatural purpose. She was suffering voluntarily for
the welfare of the Church. She fasted during this entire time
when she was bedridden and was found often in ecstacy. She is
one of the most heroic victim-souls of all time.
(During her lifetime, there was a school of ascetics in Deventer
that followed the teachings of Blessed Jan van Ruysbroeck, who
preached at Campen, Zwolle, Amsterdam, Leiden, Zutphen, Utrecht,
Gouda, Haarlem and Delft. He and his pupil, Florent Radewyns, a
Deventer priest, founded the aforementioned Institute of
Brothers and Sisters of Communal Life. This order, although it
never bore that name, were really oblates of Saint Augustine.)
It is interesting to note that the name Lidwina (a formalization
of Lidie) comes from the Dutch word "lijden" which means to
suffer. The aid of physicians were enlisted by Lidwina's parents
to seek a cure for her disease. She was in intense pain, sobbed
on her bed in a state of terrible abandonment, was given to
constant vomiting, suffered burning fevers and could not hold
down food of any kind. This situation lasted for three years.
Then followed a relatively blissful period but she was still
confined to bed and could not get up. In the following years
she still suffered greatly from abscesses, inflamed sores, and
it was said she was near death twenty-two times. At the age of
28, the coldest winter ever experienced in Holland set in, when
even the fish froze in the rivers, the tears she shed at night
froze to her face.
From the Third Order of Saint Francis in Schiedam she received
a woolen shirt to wear, however she was not a member of that
lay order. Historically, at that time William VI, a duke, was
the Count of Holland. As he traveled with his wife, the
Countess Marguerite through Schiedam, he granted Lidwina's
father, who had fallen on bad times free rent on the premises
they occupied. In the 13th and 14th Century, Holland began to
see some economic development and William was proclaimed
German king in 1247.
There was yet another war, the 100-Year War, but also during
that time a number of cities obtained municipal rights, as
Hecht already mentioned but also Middelburg, Dortrecht, Delft,
Leiden, Haarlem, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Zutphen, Deventer and
Kampen obtained municipal privileges. According the
Encyclopediae Britannica: "The rise of the towns was
accompanied by their struggle for political influence in
their respective territories, in which they co-operated with
the nobility and the clergy. This led to the growth of
representative assemblies which were to become essential
political institutions."
Returning to the story of Saint Lidwina, she continued to
suffer and the more she suffered, apparently, the more she
was given God's Gift of contemplation and bilocation. She
was given to be in two places at once, when Jesus asked her
to be with him at Golgotha. In answer to His request, Lidwina
replied: "O Saviour, I am ready to accompany you to that
mountain and to suffer and die there with you!"
(Huysmans, 1923)
"He took her with Him, and when she returned to her bed,
which corporeally she had never left, they saw ulcers on her
lips, wounds on her arms, the marks of thorns on her forehead
and splinters on her limbs, which exhaled a very pronounced
perfume of spices."
A number of miraculous healings were reported. For example,
Lidwina prayed for a woman, a friend of hers, who had a
frightful toothache. The woman's pain ceased immediately.
Also, another woman came to her to ask for her intercession
for her child who was screaming with pain. When the child was
placed on Lidwina's bed his troubles disappeared. When the
child grew up, he became a priest in memory of Lidwina.
Additional miracles continued after her death and
she is not forgotten.
Her feast day occurs on April 14th.
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