CHAPTER XXIII.
Mary, during the Flagellation of our Lord.
I SAW the Blessed Virgin in a continual ecstasy during the time of the scourging of her
Divine Son; she saw and suffered with inexpressible love and grief all the torments he was
enduring. She groaned feebly, and her eyes were, red with weeping. A large veil covered her
person, and she leant upon Mary of Heli, her eldest sister,12 who was old and extremely
like their mother, Anne. Mary of Cleophas, the daughter of Mary of Heli, was there also. The
friends of Jesus and Mary stood around the latter; they wore large veils, appeared overcome
with grief and anxiety, and were weeping as if in the momentary expectation of death. The dress
of Mary was blue; it was long, and partly covered by a cloak made of white wool, and her veil
was of rather a yellow white. Magdalen was totally beside herself from grief, and her hair was
floating loosely under her veil.
When Jesus fell down at the foot of the pillar, after the flagellation, I saw Claudia
Procles, the wife of Pilate, send some large pieces of linen to the Mother of God. I know not
whether she thought that Jesus would be set free, and that his Mother would then require linen
to dress his wounds, or whether this compassionate lady was aware of the use which would be
made of her present. At the termination of the scourging, Mary came to herself for a time, and
saw her Divine Son all torn and mangled, being led away by the archers after the scourging: he
wiped his eyes, which were filled with blood, that he might look at his Mother, and she
stretched out her hands towards him, and continued to look at the bloody traces of his
footsteps. I soon after saw Mary and Magdalen approach the pillar where Jesus had been
scourged; the mob were at a distance, and they were partly concealed by the other holy women,
and by a few kind-hearted persons who had joined them; they knelt down on the ground near the
pillar, and wiped up the sacred blood with the linen which Claudia Procles had sent. John was
not at that time with the holy women, who were about twenty in number. The sons of Simeon and of Obed, and Veronica, as also the two nephews of Joseph of
Arimathea—Aram and Themni—were in the Temple, and appeared to be overwhelmed with grief. It was
not more than nine o’clock A.M. when the scourging terminated.
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