and her relics were removed to the chapel dedicated to her in the rest-home West-Frankeland on the Sint Liduinastraat in town. Only after the demolition of the chapel in 1987 were all devotional objects removed to the Singelkerk, i.e. the Basilica of Lidwina. She is the patron saint of ice skaters and the chronically ill, as well as of the town of Schiedam. Her feast day is 14 April. Schiedam celebrates Saint Liduina on the Sunday before Ascension Day. Lidwina's name is attached to numerous institutions in Schiedam. Since 2002, the Foundation Intorno Ensemble produces a bi-annual musical theatrical performance about the town saint in one of the Schiedam churches. Outside Schiedam, there is a modern (1960s) church in the Dutch town of Best carrying her name (Lidwina Parochie Best). Iconography Lidwina is represented receiving a branch of roses and a flowering rod from an angel. Lidwina and multiple sclerosis Historical texts reveal that she was affected by a debilitating disease, sharing many characteristics with multiple sclerosis, such as the age of onset, duration, and course of disease. Lidwina's disease began soon after her fall. From that time onward, she developed walking difficulties, headaches and violent pains in her teeth. By the age of 19, both her legs were paralyzed and her vision was disturbed. Over the next 34 years, Lidwina's condition slowly deteriorated, although with apparent periods of remission, until her death at the age of 52. Together these factors suggest that a posthumous diagnosis of multiple sclerosis may be plausible, therefore dating the disease back to the 14th century. However, Thomas John Murray disagrees, "[e]nthusiastic, exaggerated reports and myth building by those who revered her saintliness make interpretation of her condition difficult for the historian." See also Saint Lidwina, patron saint archive References Further reading Saint Lydwine of Schiedam'', by J.K. Huysmans (translated from the French by Agnes Hastings), 1923, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London. Reprinted 1979, TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, Illinois, (Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur) External links Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (Patron Saint Index) 1380 births 1433 deaths People from Schiedam Roman Catholic mystics Burials in South Holland 14th-century Christian saints 15th-century Christian saints Dutch Roman Catholic saints Christian female saints of the Middle Ages Medieval Dutch women 15th-century women of the Holy Roman Empire Medieval Dutch saints People from the county of Holland