meryem a/e 4

Before the holy body was shrouded [gehuld] in its white garments and enveloped in the winding-sheets [wikkel-lakens], Peter celebrated the Unbloody Sacrifice on the altar of the oratory and gave Holy Communion to the other Apostles. 

After that Peter and John approached the body in their mantles of ceremony. John carried a vessel of oil, with which Peter anointed, in the form of a cross and with accompanying prayers, the fore-head, hands, and feet of the holy body, which was afterward entirely enveloped in linens by the women. 

They placed on the head a wreath [krans] of flowers, white, red, and sky-blue, as a symbol of Mary's virginity, and over the face a transparent veil, through which it could be seen encircled by the wreath. 

The feet also, which were bound up in aromatic herbs, could be traced through the linens that enveloped them. The arms and hands were bound crosswise on the breast. 

Thus prepared, the holy body was laid in a coffin of snow-white wood with a tightly fitting [nauwsluitend], arched cover [gewelfd omhulsel], which was fastened down at the head, the foot, and in the middle, with gray straps [banden]. 

The coffin was then laid on a litter [draagstoel]. Every thing was done with the utmost solemnity, and all were penetrated with deep emotion. The sorrow of the mourners was more human and more openly expressed than at Jesus' burial, at which holy awe and reverence predominated.

When it was time to bear the coffin to the grotto, one half-hour distant, Peter and John raised it from the litter, and carried it in their hands to the door of the house, outside of which it was again laid on the litter which Peter and John then raised upon their shoulders. 

Six of the Apostles thus carried it in turn. The coffin hung between the bearers as in a cradle, for the poles of the litter were run through leathern straps, or matting. Some of the Apostles walked before the coffin praying, and after it came the women. Lamps, or lanterns on poles, were carried.

Before reaching the grotto, the litter was set down. Four of the Apostles bore the coffin in, and placed it in the hollow of the tomb. All went, one by one, into the grotto where they knelt in prayer before the holy body, honoring it and taking leave of it. 

Then the tomb was shut in by a wicker [rieten] screen that extended from the front edge of the tomb to the top of the vaulted wall above. Before the entrance of the grotto, they made a trench [greppel] which they planted so thickly with blooming flowers and bushes covered with berries that one could gain access to it only from the side, and that only by making his way through the under-wood.

[bron]