entirely in these sweet spices.

Then John conducted the Blessed Virgin and the other holy women once
more to the side of the body. Mary knelt down by the head of Jesus, and
placed beneath it a piece of very fine linen which had been given her
by Pilate's wife, and which she had worn round her neck under her cloak;
next, assisted by the holy women, she placed from the shoulders to the
cheeks bundles of herbs, spices, and sweet-scented powder, and then
strongly bound this piece of linen round the head and shoulders.
Magdalen poured besides a small bottle of balm into the wound of the
side, and the holy women placed some more herbs into those of the hands
and feet. Then the men put sweet spices around all the remainder of the
body, crossed the sacred stiffened arms on the chest, and bound the
large white sheet round the body as high as the chest, in the same
manner as if they had been swaddling a child. Then, having fastened the
end of a large band beneath the armpits, they rolled it round the head
and the whole body. Finally, they placed our Divine Lord on the large
sheet, six yards in length, which Joseph of Arimathea had bought, and
wrapped him in it. He was lying diagonally upon it, and one corner of
the sheet was raised from the feet to the chest, the other drawn over
the head and shoulders, while the remaining two ends were doubled round
the body.

The Blessed Virgin, the holy women, the men--all were kneeling round
the body of Jesus to take their farewell of it, when a most touching
miracle took place before them. The sacred body of Jesus, with all its
wounds, appeared imprinted upon the cloth which covered it, as though
he had been pleased to reward their care and their love, and leave them
a portrait of himself through all the veils with which he was
enwrapped. With tears they embraced the adorable body, and then
reverently kissed the wonderful impression which it had left. Their
astonishment increased when, on lifting up the sheet, they saw that all
the bands which surrounded the body had remained white as before, and
that the upper cloth alone had been marked in this wonderful manner. It
was not a mark made by the bleeding wounds, since the whole body was
wrapped up and covered with sweet spices, but it was a supernatural
portrait, bearing testimony to the divine creative power ever abiding
in the body of Jesus. I have seen many things relative to the
subsequent history of this piece of linen, but I could no