VarietiesThe miracles of Bois-d’HainesTherapeutic Progress, a journal of medicine,
in its issue of March 1
st, 1869, reports on a bizarre
phenomenon, which has become an object of public curiosity in the village of
Bois-d'Haine, Belgium. It is about an 18-year-old girl who, every Friday, from 1.5 to 4.5 am, falls into a state of cataleptic ecstasy; in that state, she lies down, arms extended, one foot on top of the other, in the position of Jesus on the cross.
The insensitivity and rigidity of the limbs have been noted by several doctors. During the crisis, five wounds open in the precise places where those of Christ were, letting true blood emerge. After the crisis the blood stops flowing, the wounds close and heal in 24 hours. During the attacks, says Dr. Beaucourt, author of the article, the Reverend P. Séraphin present at the sessions, thanks to the ascendancy he has on the patient, has the power to wake her up from her ecstasy. He adds: "
Every man who is not an atheist must, in order to be logical, admit that he who has established the admirable laws, both physical and physiological, that govern nature, may also, at his discretion, suspend or momentarily change one or more of these laws."
It is, as we see, a miracle in the rules, and a repetition of the miracles of the
stigmatized. Since miracles, according to the Church, are not the responsibility of Spiritism, we believe it is superfluous to go further in the search for the causes of the phenomenon; and even more so after another newspaper has since said that the bishop of the diocese had banned all exhibitions.
