Since the foregoing was written, the following account of her own confession has appeared before the public, and may very properly conclude this chapter:—
“But we have one word more yet to say on the subject of these wounds, to convince our readers of the ridiculous farce that was enacted at the convent. The medical men were not singular in denying their supernatural origin. The _saint_ herself, when she found she was in the power of justice, and out of the hands of nuns and friars, made the following most curious and decisive statement. Our readers will imagine that they are perusing a romance of the middle ages.
“‘On the 7th of February, the further declaration of Sister Patrocinio was taken, who, after having made an avowal of _being truly penitent_, and that she cast herself upon the mercy of her Majesty the Queen Protectress, declared that from the time of her taking the veil, down to the 7th July when the convents were suppressed, her confessor was friar Benito Carrera.—That she afterwards had for confessor the vicar of the convent; for although friar Joseph de la Cruz wished to be her confessor, and spoke to her once or twice to that effect, she did not consent, because from the first she knew that he was not of very strong understanding, for he had proposed to her to leave the convent, in order to go to Rome, and ask permission to found and establish a convent, with many other extravagant propositions; showing her at the same time a very rare print, which contained many allegorical devices.—That no doubt her confessor, friar Benito Carrera, knew what were the ideas of friar Joseph de la Cruz; and he had told the abbess that she ought not to permit declarant to go to confess to him; and for that reason she did not see him again.—That one of the nuns being taken ill during her (declarant’s) noviciate, Father Alcaraz, a capuchin of the padro, came to attend her; and then she saw him, and had a conversation with him upon different matters.—That a few days afterwards, she was called into the visitor’s parlour, and found that said father Alcaraz was there alone; that he addressed her in a solemn tone, as if he was preaching, and said that St Paul was very urgent on the subject of penance; { 200} and then he took out a little purse which he carried in his hood, and told her that it contained _a small relic that would produce a wound if applied to any part of the body_; that this wound ought to be kept open, so as to occasion suffering and mortification, that so, by offering to God our pain by way of penance, we might obtain pardon for sins already committed or future.—That after this he gave her a most solemn injunction, commanding her to apply the relic to the palms and the back of her hands, to the soles of her feet, to the left side, and _all round her head in the manner of a crown_; and charged her most strictly upon her obedience, and upon peril of the most terrible punishments in the next world, _not to disclose to anybody how the wounds had been caused_; and if she was asked, she must say that _she had found them upon her supernaturally_.—That being terrified by the threats of eternal punishment and the divine anger, she obeyed his command, and never disclosed the matter either to the abbess or to her confessor, or to any other person whatever.—That it was believed by the community in all good faith, that it was a miracle; that she never attempted to apply ordinary medicines for the healing of the wounds, which, though they closed apparently, broke out again, always being attended with pain, until she _left the convent and had them cured_.”