mereym a/e 3

Andrew and Matthias were busy preparing the place of burial. 

Which was the little grotto that Mary and John had arranged, at the end of the Way of the Cross, to represent the Holy Sepulchre of Christ. 

It was not so large as Jesus' tomb, being scarcely [nauwelijks] as high as a man, and was surrounded by a little garden hedged [omsloten] in by stakes [palen]. A pathway ran obliquely [schuin] down into it, and the stone couch [bank], which was like a narrow altar, was hollowed [uitgehold] on top to the shape of a body enveloped in its winding-sheet, the head being a trifle [klein beetje] higher than the foot. 

The station of Mount Calvary [Crucifixion] was on a hill near by. No cross was erected on it, but there was one cut out on the stone. Andrew was especially active in preparing the grotto, and setting up a door firmly in front of the tomb proper.

The blessed body was prepared by the women for burial. 

Among them I remember having seen a daughter of Veronica and John Mark's mother. 

They brought spices and pots of fresh herbs, in order to embalm it according to the Jewish custom. 

They closed the house, and worked by the light of lamps. They opened up the apartment back of [achter] the fireplace and removed the screens that inclosed the little alcove used by the Blessed Virgin as a sleeping-place, in order to have more room for their work of embalming. The wicker [rieten] screens of the alcove were not again replaced, for immediately after the obsequies [uitvaart] they along with those of the clothes-press, were put out of sight by the maidservant. 

Only the altar was allowed to remain standing before the Crucifix in Mary's sleeping-apartment. The whole house had now become like a little chapel, in which the Apostles prayed and celebrated the most holy and unbloody Sacrifice.

While the women were preparing the holy body for burial, the Apostles prayed, choir and choir, sometimes in the front apartment, sometimes outside the house. The women went about their task most devoutly and reverently, just as had been done when preparing the most Sacred Body of Jesus for burial. 

The body of the Blessed Virgin was lifted in the linen of the deathbed and laid in a long basket [mand], which had a lid [deksel] and which was filled with covers [dekens], so that when lying on them, it rose above the edge. 

The body was of a dry, indescribable whiteness as if shining with light, and of so little weight that, like a mere husk [schil], it could be raised quite easily on the hands. The face was fresh and blooming. The women cut off some locks of hair to keep as relics. They laid bunches of herbs around the neck and throat, under the arms, and in the arm-pits [oksels].

[bron]