Saint Lidwina

Lidwina (Lydwine, Lydwid, Lidwid, Liduina of Schiedam) (April 18, 1380 – April 14, 1433) was a Dutch mystic who is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church. She is the patroness saint of the town of Schiedam, of chronic pain, and of ice skating. Lidwina is also thought to be one of the first documented cases of multiple sclerosis. At the age of fifteen, she suffered a serious injury while ice skating and became progressively disabled. Hendrik Mande wrote for her consolation a pious tract in Dutch. She fasted frequently and acquired a reputation as a healer and holy woman. Upon her death in 1433, her grave became a place of pilgrimage. Lidwina was born in Schiedam, Holland, one of nine children. Her father was a laborer. At age 15, she was ice skating when she fell and broke a rib. She never recovered and became progressively disabled for the rest of her life. Her biographers state that she became paralyzed except for her left hand and that great pieces of her body fell off, and that blood poured from her mouth, ears, and nose. Today, some posit that Saint Lidwina is one of the first known multiple sclerosis patients and attribute her disability to the effects of the disease and her fall. After her fall, Lidwina fasted continuously and acquired fame as a healer and holy woman. The town officials of Schiedam, her hometown, promulgated a document (which has survived) that attests to her complete lack of food and sleep. At first she ate a little piece of apple, then a bit of date and watered wine, then river water contaminated with salt from the tides. The authenticating document from Schiedam also attests that Lidwina shed skin, bones, parts of her intestines, which her parents kept in a vase and which gave off a sweet odor. These excited so much attention that Lidwina had her mother bury them.