a sensation of the sharpest anguish
transfixed me like a sword, so that I believed I must have died from it.'
She had had an illness which reduced her almost to the brink of the
grave.

16 Sister Emmerich said that the shape of these pincers reminded
her of the scissors with which Samson's hair was cut off. In her visions
of the third year of the public life of Jesus she had seen our Lord
keep the Sabbathday at Misael--a town belonging to the Levites, of the
tribe of Aser--and as a portion of the Book of Judges was read in the
synagogue, Sister Emmerich beheld upon that occasion the life of Samson.

17 Sister Emmerich was accustomed, when speaking of persons of
historical importance, to explain how they divided their hair. 'Eve,' she
said, 'divided her hair in two parts, but Mary into three.' And she
appeared to attach importance to these words. No opportunity presented
itself for her to give any explanation upon the subject, which probably
would have shown what was done with the hair in sacrifices, funerals,
consecrations, or vows, etc. She once said of Samson: 'His fair hair,
which was long and thick, was gathered up on his head in seven tresses,
like a helmet, and the ends of these tresses were fastened upon his
forehead and temples. His hair was not in itself the source of his
strength, but only as the witness to the vow which he had made to let
it grow in God's honour. The powers which depended upon these seven
tresses were the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. He must have already
broken his vows and lost many graces, when he allowed this sign of
being a Nazarene to be cut off. I did not see Dalila cut off all his
hair, and I think one lock remained on his forehead. He retained the
grace to do penance and of that repentance by which he recovered
strength sufficient to destroy his enemies. The life of Samson is
figurative and prophetic.'

18 This refers to a custom of the Diocese of Munster. During Lent
there was hung up in the churches a curtain, embroidered in open work,
representing the Five Wounds, the instruments of the Passion, etc.

19 Apparently Sister Emmerich here spoke of the ancient cases in
which her poor countrymen keep their clothes. The lower part of these
cases is smaller than the upper, and this gives them some likeness to a
tomb. She had one of these cases, which she called her chest. She often
described the stone by this comparison, but her descriptions have not,
nevertheless, g