St. Lidwina
Feast 04-14 · Canonized 1890
Patron of
About
Lidwina was born in Schiedam, Holland, in 1380. At the age of fifteen she fell while ice skating and broke a rib, an injury from which she never recovered. Her condition worsened over the years, and she spent the rest of her life bedridden, suffering from sores, paralysis, and constant pain.
At first she was bitter, but through the guidance of her confessor she came to accept her suffering as a share in the passion of Christ. She became known for her patience, her prayer, and her counsel to the many visitors who came to her bedside, and she was granted mystical graces and visions.
Lidwina died in 1433 after thirty-eight years of illness. She is considered one of the first documented cases of multiple sclerosis, and she is invoked by the chronically ill and those in chronic pain.
Prayer
St. Lidwina, who lay thirty-eight years in pain after a fall on the ice and turned bitterness into union with Christ's passion, pray for the chronically ill, that their long suffering may bear the fruit of patience. Amen.