St. Lidwina of Schiedam

St. Lidwina of Schiedam was born on 18 March 1380 at Schiedam in Holland, of humble parents. As a girl of about fifteen she fell while skating on the ice and broke a rib, and from this injury there developed a series of grievous and worsening illnesses that left her an invalid, largely bedridden and in constant pain, for the remaining thirty-eight years of her life.

At first rebellious against her affliction, she came, under wise spiritual guidance, to accept and even embrace her sufferings, uniting them to the Passion of Christ and offering them in expiation for the sins of others, so that her sickroom became a place of prayer and grace. She was granted deep mystical experiences and visions, was said to subsist for long periods on the Eucharist alone, and bore her decades of agony with a patience and serenity that drew many to her for counsel and consolation. She died at Schiedam on 14 April 1433, and her cult was later confirmed by the Church. She is venerated as a patroness of the chronically ill and of ice skaters, her memory kept on 14 April.