in length, pressed tightly upon her breast-bone, and looking red through the skin.  As she had spoken about her vision to a nun with whom she was intimate, her extraordinary state began to be a good deal talked of.  On All Souls’ day, 1812, she went out for the last time, and with much difficulty succeeded in reaching the church.  From that time till the end of the year she seemed to be dying, and received the last Sacraments.  At Christmas a smaller cross appeared on the top of that upon her chest.  It was the same shape as the larger one, so that the two together formed a double forked cross.  Blood flowed from this cross every Wednesday, so as to leave the impression of its shape on paper laid over it.  After a time this happened on Fridays instead.  In 1814 this flow of blood took place less frequently, but the cross became as red as fire every Friday.  At a later period of her life more blood flowed from this cross, especially every Good Friday; but no attention was paid to it.  On the 30th March 1821, the writer of these pages saw this cross of a deep red colour, and bleeding all over.  In its usual state it was colourless, and its position only marked by slight cracks in the skin...  Other Ecstaticas have received similar marks of the Cross; among others, Catherine of Raconis, Marina de l’ Escobar, Emilia Bichieri, S. Juliani Falconieri, etc.

She received the stigmas on the last days of the year 1812.  On the 29th December, about three o’clock in the afternoon, she was lying on her bed in her little room, extremely ill, but in a state of ecstasy and with her arms extended, meditating on the sufferings of her Lord, and beseeching him to allow her to suffer with him.  She said five Our Fathers in honour of the Five Wounds, and felt her whole heart burning with love.  She then saw a light descending towards her, and distinguished in the midst of it the resplendent form of her crucified Saviour, whose wounds shone like so many furnaces of light.  Her heart was overflowing with joy and sorrow, and, at the sight of the sacred wounds, her desire to suffer with her Lord became intensely violent.  Then triple rays, pointed like arrows, of the colour of blood, darted forth from the hands, feet, and side of the sacred apparition, and struck her hands, feet, and right side.  The triple rays from the side formed a point like the head of a lance.  The moment these rays touched her, drops of blood flowed from the wounds which they made.  Long did she remain in a state of insensibility, and when she recovered her senses she did not know who had lowered her outstretched arms.  It was with astonishment that she beheld blood flowing from the palms of her hands, and felt violent pain in her feet and side.  It happened that her landlady’s little daughter came into her room, saw her hands bleeding, and ran to tell her mother, who with great anxiety asked Anne Catherine what had happened, but was begged by her not to speak about it.  She felt, after having received the stigmas, that an entire change had taken place in her body; for the course of her blood seemed to have changed, and to flow rapidly towards the stigmas.  She herself used to say:  ‘No words can describe in what manner it flows.’