This pain did not leave her even when she was cured, and she bore it in silence until the year 1812, when the mark of a cross was imprinted exteriorly in the same place, as we shall relate further on.  Her weakness and delicate health caused her to be looked upon more as burdensome than useful to the community; and this, of course, told against her in all ways, yet she was never weary of working and serving the others, nor was she ever so happy as at this period of her life—­spent in privations and sufferings of every description.

On the 13th of November 1803, at the age of twenty-nine, she pronounced her solemn vows, and became the spouse of Jesus Christ, in the Convent of Agnetenberg, at Dulmen.  ‘When I had pronounced my vows,’ she says, ’my relations were again extremely kind to me.  My father and my eldest brother brought me two pieces of cloth.  My father, a good, but stern man, and who had been much averse to my entering the convent, had told me, when we parted, that he would willingly pay for my burial, but that he would give nothing for the convent; and he kept his word, for this piece of cloth was the winding sheet used for my spiritual burial in the convent.’

‘I was not thinking of myself,’ she says again, ’I was thinking of nothing but our Lord and my holy vows.  My companions could not understand me; nor could I explain my state to them.  God concealed from them many of the favours which he bestowed upon me, otherwise they would have had very false ideas concerning me.  Notwithstanding all my trials and sufferings, I was never more rich interiorly, and my soul was perfectly flooded with happiness.  My cell only contained one chair without a seat, and another without a back; yet in my eyes, it was magnificently furnished, and when there I often thought myself in Heaven.  Frequently during the night, impelled by love and by the mercy of God, I poured forth the feelings of my soul by conversing with him on loving and familiar language, as I had always done from my childhood, and then those who were watching me would accuse me of irreverence and disrespect towards God.  Once, I happened to say that it appeared to me that I should be guilty of greater disrespect did I receive the Body of our Lord without having conversed familiarly with him, and I was severely reprimanded.  Amid all these trials, I yet lived in peace with God and with all his creatures.  When I was working in the garden, the birds would come and rest on my head and shoulders, and we would together sing the praises of God.  I always beheld my angel-guardian at my side, and although the devil used frequently to assault and terrify me in various ways, he was never permitted to do me much harm.  My desire for the Blessed Sacrament was so irresistible, that often at night I left my cell and went to the church, if it was open; but if not, I remained at the door or by the walls, even in winter, kneeling or prostrate, with my arms extended in ecstasy.  The convent