THE NUN OF VITERBO.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 10 July 1913, Page 7

THE NUN OF VITERBO.

Viterbo fsays the Ttaly correspondent of- tli. 1 Lancet) is in mourning for the death of Sister Maria Benedetto, in the world Penelope Frey. Borii in Rome in 1836, she entered .the convent of the Duclicsse at Viterbo in 1856. In 1861, at the age of 25, she became the victim of paralysifj, which spared her nothing but her intelligence, her speech, and the use of hH\ri<rht hand. The cause was spinal caries, which occasioned such damage, to the vertebrae that- it was necessary to. support the head by a the ends of which were fixed by nails to the wall behind her b;d. ■* In this position die has remained for fifty-two years until her death on May 10th of this year. At first she' was n,ot expected to live for .more than a few -'months; but as years, passed by the common people began to believe that she could not die. Her .resignation, cheerfulness, and pietygained fresh lustre from the tales told Yf her supernatural- predictions, "so-that 5 , for' the' last 'te.il -years'ythe t;e-•dc-siastical authorities have relaxed the strict.rule, of the '.'clausula" and permitted to -the devout, the sick, and the afflicted free access to the saint. Two years ago she celebrated kind of ju'bille of her martyrdom, when the Pope .sent her an autograph letter carried by Cardinal Cassetta. Cardinals, archbishops, prelates, and ppople of all cla-sses met in her cell. Qireen Mivrglbrita visited h-i- often, and sent skilled nurses from Rome to attend her.