To me they are of equal authority with those of Saint Mechtildis, who was born in the early part of the thirteenth century.
"In point of fact, the source whence they both alike derived them is the same.

And what is time, or past or present, when we speak of God?
"These women were the sieves through which His grace was poured, and what need I care whether the instruments were of yesterday or to-day?
The word of the Lord is supreme over the ages; His inspiration blows when and where it lists.

Is not that true ?" "I quite agree." "And all this time," said the housekeeper, "you do not think of making use in your building of the iris, which my good Jeanne de Matel regards as an emblem of peace." "Oh, we will find a place for it, Madame Bavoil, never fear.

And there is yet another plant which we must not omit; the trefoil, for sculptors have strewn it broadcast in their stony gardens, and the trefoil, like the fruit of the almond tree, which shows the elongated nimbus, is an emblem of the Holy Trinity.
"Suppose we recapitulate: "At the end of the nave, in the shell of the apse, in front of a semicircle of tall bracken turned brown by autumn, we see a flaming assumption of climbing roses hedging a bed of red and white anemones, edged with the sober green of mignonette.

And to give variety by adding symbols of humility--the knotweed, the violet, and the hyssop--we may form a posy of which the meaning will represent the perfect virtues of Our Mother.
"Now," said he, pointing with his stick to the plan of the nave he had traced, "here is the altar, overgrown with red-leaved vines, purple or pearly grapes, sheaves of golden corn.