# Revelations of St. Bridget/Chapter 17. The Passion

CHAPTER XVII.
THE PASSION.
When the Passion of my Son drew nigh, his eyes were filled with tears, and his body with sweat, through fear of the Passion, and he was soon torn from my sight; nor did I see him more, till he was brought out to be scourged. Then he was dragged to the ground, and dashed forward so cruelly, that as his head struck, his teeth were dashed together, and he was so violently beaten on the neck and cheek, that the sound of the blows reached my ears. Then at the lictor’s order he stripped himself of his clothes; voluntarily clasping the pillar, he was bound tightly, and his whole body lacerated with scourges tipped with sharp points turned back, not pulling out, but ploughing up. At the first blow, as if smitten in heart, I lost all sense; and coming to, after a time, I beheld his body torn for he ​was all naked when he was scourged. Then one of his enemies said to the attending lictors: “ Do you wish to put this man to death untried ?” and saying this, he cut his bonds. And now my Son, loosed from the pillar, first turned to his clothes, but time was not given him to dress. Yet as he was hurried along, he put his arms in the sleeves. But his footprints, where he stood at the pillar, were full of blood, so that I could easily discern every step he took, by the bloody mark of the blood. Then with his tunic he wiped away the blood that streamed from his face.
When finally condemned, he was led out, bearing his cross; but on the way, another was put in his place to bear it. On reaching the place of the crucifixion, lo! the hammer and four sharp nails were ready, and at an order he laid off his clothes, binding around his loins a small linen cloth, which he to his consolation received.
Now the cross was planted, and its arms raised, so that the junction of the cross was between the shoulders, the cross affording no support to the head, and the inscription-board was fixed to the two arms rising above the head. At an order given, he turned his back to the cross, and being asked, first stretched ​forth his right hand, then the other hand, not reaching the other arm of the cross, was stretched. And in like manner the feet were drawn to the holes prepared for them and crossed. Parting again below the knee, they were fastened to the wood of the cross by two nails, as the hands were.
At the first blow of the hammer, I fell into an ecstasy of grief, and on recovering, I beheld my Son nailed to the cross, and I heard men saying to each other: “What did he commit, theft, rapine, or falsehood ?” Others answering, that he was a liar. And then a crown of thorns was pressed tight on his head, descending to the middle of his forehead, many streams of blood flowing down his face from the points that entered, filling his hair, and eyes, and beard, so that he seemed to me nothing but blood; nor could he see me standing by the cross, except when he expelled the blood by compressing his eyelids.
After commending me to his disciples, raising his head, and lifting up his streaming eyes to heaven, he uttered a voice from the depth of his breast, saying: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?” — words that I never could forget till I came to heaven, and which he uttered more through compassion ​for me, than affected by his own suffering. Then the color of death came on wherever he could be seen for the blood; his cheeks clung to his jaws, his attenuated ribs could be numbered; his belly, exhausted of all its humors, collapsed on his back, and his nostrils were pinched up, as his heart was almost broken. Then his whole body quivered, and his beard sank on his breast. Then I fell lifeless to the ground. His mouth being open, as he had expired, his tongue, teeth, and the blood in his mouth could be seen by those looking on; and his half-closed eyes were turned up; and his body, now dead, hung heavily, the knees inclining to one side, the feet to the other, on the nails as on hinges. Meanwhile, some men standing by, said, as it were, exultingly: “ Mary, thy Son is dead.” Others of more sense said: u O lady, now the penalty of thy Son is paid to eternal glory.” A short time after, his side being opened and the lance drawn out, the blood appeared on the spearhead, as it were, of a ruddy color, showing that the heart was pierced. This wound penetrated my heart, and it is wonderful that it did not burst. Others departed, but I could not.
But now I was consoled that I could touch his body taken down from the cross, and ​receive him to my bosom, examine his wounds, and wipe away the blood. Then my fingers closed his mouth, and I also composed his eyes; but I could not bend his stiffening arms so as to cross on his breast, but over his belly. Nor could his knees be extended, but they were bent as they had stiffened on the cross. — Lib. iv., c. 70.