Thread by @DouayRheims1

11th JUNE: ST ALEYDIS OF SCHAERBEEK

~thread~
1. St Aleydis (Alice) was born around 1200 in Schaerbeek in Belgium. She was a frail and friendly child, and from her seventh year she lived in the Cistercian Monastery (Maria Kammeren) just outside Brussels.
#StAleydis #June11

2. As an adult she took vows there, and she was a much-liked member of the religious community.

Not long after, she got leprosy, and was henceforth housed in a separate building on the outskirts of the monastery area. Leprosy had come to Europe at the time of the

3. Crusades and was greatly feared. She suffered in silence and faced her physical and mental pain courageously; carrying her cross with great patience, bearing her sufferings in union with our Lord Jesus' Passion for the holy souls in purgatory. Her only consolation was

4.the receipt of Holy Communion, which she was given only in the form of bread for fear of contagion. The suffering shaped her into a mystic, and she was strengthened by ecstasies and visions where she saw the souls of the purgatory being set free through her sacrifice.

5. Many miracles are obtained through her intercession.

At the feast of St. Barnabas (June 11), 1249, she suddenly became very ill. She received the last sacraments, but she predicted she would live for another year.
#medievaltwitter #medieval #StBarnabas #CatholicTwitter

6. During this period she suffered greatly and lost sight of both eyes. She also suffered a series of small strokes and became paralysed. She died as she had predicted on June 11, 1250.

The story of her life is preserved, written down by one at the same time,

7. who was probably Cistercian monk and scribe for the community. St Aleydis is invoked by the visually impaired and the disabled. (Based on Fr Butler's "Lives of the Saints")
#VisuallyImpaired #disabled #disabilities #disabilitytwitter