CHAPTER XXIV.
Interruption of the Visions of the Passion by the Appearance of St.
Joseph under the form of a Child.
During the whole time of the visions which we have just narrated (that is to say, from the 18th of February until the 8th of March), Sister Emmerich continued to suffer all the mental and bodily tortures which were once endured by our Lord.

Being totally immersed in these meditations, and, as it were, dead to exterior objects, she wept and groaned like a person in the hands of an executioner, trembled, shuddered, and writhed on her couch, while her face resembled that of a man about to expire under torture, and a bloody sweat often trickled over her chest and shoulders.

She generally perspired so profusely that her bed and clothes were saturated.

Her sufferings from thirst were likewise fearful, and she might truly be compared to a person perishing in a desert from the want of water.

Generally speaking, her mouth was so parched in the morning, and her tongue so contracted and dried up, that she could not speak, but was obliged by signs and inarticulate sounds to beg for relief.