Behind a smile

At 14, Alexandrina, who grew up in the Portuguese village of Balasar, jumped from a window to escape the violence of three men. The four-meter fall would have serious repercussions on her body for the rest of her life: bedridden and paralyzed for more than thirty years, unable to ingest almost anything, she lived on the Eucharist alone for the final thirteen years. Every Friday, she relived Christ’s Passion 182 times, suffering the pains of the stigmata, the crowning with thorns, and the scourging. Father Gabriele Amorth recounts the extraordinary life and mission of this great Portuguese mystic and Salesian Cooperator.