saw her in that unusual state. Abbess with stigmata Three months after the resettlement, on the second Friday of Lent, Benedetta received the stigmata. By her own words, these appeared between two and three at night when she was in bed. She saw a crucifix and bright rays from wounds of Christ to her head, hands, feet and side of the chest. These rays caused tremendous pain, but then Benedetta felt such contentment in her heart that she had never experienced before. Bartolomea Crivelli was near, and she was the first to see the signs on Benedetta's body. Also, she saw that Benedetta arranged herself in the form of the Cross and became as red as a glowing ember and heard that Benedetta said, "My Lord, there are others who are better than me, I don't deserve this since I am a sinner." Then Benedetta asked Bartolomea to lift her by the arm because she could not do it by herself. And Bartolomea saw red marks like small rosettes on Benedetta's hands, feet, and side, and also a deep red band around her head, but it was bloodless. The stigmata were the first material evidence of supernatural phenomena that happened with Benedetta. Her heavenly grace had been quickly recognized, and sometime between February and May 1619, the nuns' community elected her to be their abbess. During the Lenten season of that year, Ricordati was regularly visiting the convent to hear Benedetta give sermons to the other nuns while they purified themselves with their whips as part of their penance. As she talked to them, she was always in a trance and spoke, not as herself, but as an angel who persuaded the nuns to lead a better life. This angel usually ended the sermons by praising Benedetta, chosen above all others to receive the signs of God's grace. Had Benedetta not been in an altered state of consciousness, Paolo Ricordati would not have allowed her to give sermons because "it is shameful for a woman" to speak in a Christian church, even for an abbess. But if a woman had been favoured with the gift of prophecy of other divine gifts, she could be an exception. Heart Exchange and Splenditello Angel On March 21, 1619, Paolo Ricordati summoned Benedetta and told her: "Today is the day of St. Benedict, your saint's day, go in ecstasy at your pleasure, I give