Chapter 16

After this Christ shewed a part of His Passion near His dying.

After this, Christ showed part of his suffering near the time of his death.

I saw His sweet face as it were dry and bloodless with pale dying. And later, more pale, dead, languoring; and then turned more dead unto blue; and then more brown-blue, as the flesh turned more deeply dead. For His Passion shewed to me most specially in His blessed face (and chiefly in His lips): there I saw these four colours, though it were afore fresh, ruddy, and pleasing, to my sight. This was a pitiful change to see, this deep dying. And also the [inward] moisture clotted and dried, to my sight, and the sweet body was brown and black, all turned out of fair, life-like colour of itself, unto dry dying.

I saw his sweet face, as if it were dry and bloodless, pale in death. Later it grew paler, lifeless and fading. Then it turned blue, and then brownish blue, as the flesh became more deeply dead. For his suffering was shown to me most clearly in his blessed face, especially his lips. There I saw these four colors, though his face had looked fresh, rosy, and pleasing to me before. It was pitiful to see this change, this deepening death. I also saw the [inner] moisture clot and dry. His sweet body turned brown and black, losing all its own fair, lifelike color as it dried in death.

For that same time that our Lord and blessed Saviour died upon the Rood, it was a dry, hard wind, and wondrous cold, as to my sight, and what time [all] the precious blood was bled out of the sweet body that might pass therefrom, yet there dwelled a moisture in the sweet flesh of Christ, as it was shewed.

At the time our Lord and blessed Savior died on the cross, there was a dry, harsh wind. It seemed to me to be terribly cold. By then, all the precious blood that could flow from his sweet body had flowed out. Yet, as I was shown, some moisture remained in Christ's sweet flesh.

Bloodlessness and pain dried within; and blowing of wind and cold coming from without met together in the sweet body of Christ. And these four,—twain without, and twain within—dried the flesh of Christ by process of time. And though this pain was bitter and sharp, it was full long lasting, as to my sight, and painfully dried up all the lively spirits of Christ's flesh. Thus I saw the sweet flesh dry in seeming by part after part, with marvellous pains. And as long as any spirit had life in Christ's flesh, so long suffered He pain.

Loss of blood and pain from within met the wind and cold from outside in Christ's sweet body. These four things, two outside and two inside, gradually dried Christ's flesh. Though this pain was bitter and sharp, it seemed to me to last a very long time. It painfully dried up all the life in Christ's flesh. So I saw his sweet flesh seem to dry up, part by part, with terrible pains. As long as any life remained in Christ's flesh, he suffered pain.

This long pining seemed to me as if He had been seven nights dead, dying, at the point of outpassing away, suffering the last pain. And when I said it seemed to me as if He had been seven night dead, it meaneth that the sweet body was so discoloured, so dry, so shrunken, so deathly, and so piteous, as if He had been seven night dead, continually dying. And methought the drying of Christ's flesh was the most pain, and the last, of His Passion.

This long suffering seemed to me as if he had been dead for seven nights, yet still dying. He was on the point of passing away, suffering his final pain. When I said he seemed to have been dead for seven nights, I meant that his sweet body was so discolored, so dry, so shrunken, so deathlike, and so pitiful. It was as if he had been dead for seven nights, yet continually dying. And it seemed to me that the drying of Christ's flesh was the greatest and last pain of his Passion.