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Louise Lateau of Bois D'haine; Her Life, Her Ecstasies, and Her Stigmata, a Medical Study
Louise Lateau of Bois D'haine Her Life Her Ecstasies and Her Stigmata a Medical Study Author:Ferdinand J. M. Lefebvre General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1873 Original Publisher: Burnes and Oates Subjects: Stigmatization Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Mill... more »ion-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: PART II. DESCRIPTION OF THE PHENOMENA. The phenomena observed in the case of Louise Lateau are of two kinds; those of the stigmata, and those of the ecstasy.1 As these terms are used in medicine as well as in theology, we can employ them without any prejudgment as to the nature of the facts. I. Of the Stigmata. The first flow of blood occurred on the 24th of April 1868; this was a Friday. On that day the young girl noticed that blood was issuing from the left side of her chest. With her habitual reserve she said nothing about this occurrence. On the following Friday the flow recurred 1 As I have said before, I use the word ' ecstasy' in its ordinary and medical sense. As a physician, I hae not to consider the various theological definitions of the ecstatic state, its degrees, and its characters. Neither is it my province to study the nature of the visions of Louise Lateau, of the light which then surrounds her, or of the effects produced in her soul by these visions and this light. That all belongs to an inquiry of a theological and moral character. The same remark applies to the observations made with relics and blessed objects, as well as to the rappel (to consciousness). Louise, insensible to the voice of persons who try to waken her from her ecstatic sleep, insensible even to the voicae of her mother and sisters, immediately comes to herself at the voice of her confessor, and, speaking generally, of those who have jurisdiction over her. The question of the conditions of this rappel, and of the objections that may be made to it, bel...« less