Examination of evidence and report to the Most Reverend James Whitfield ... upon the miraculous restoration of Mrs. Ann Mattingly, of the city of Washington, D.C. ... together with the documents / By the Right Reverend John England.

  • John England
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Examination of evidence and report to the Most Reverend James Whitfield ... upon the miraculous restoration of Mrs. Ann Mattingly, of the city of Washington, D.C. ... together with the documents / By the Right Reverend John England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    KEY. ANTHONY KOHLMANN. City and County of Washington, District of Columbia. } Set. On this twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord 1824, personally appears before me the subscriber, a Justice of the Peace for the County afore¬ said, the Rev. Anthony Kohlmann, of Prince George’s County, in the State of Maryland, who being sworn on the Holy Evangels of Almighty God, deposeth and saith, that, whilst residing at Georgetown College, between five and six years ago, he became acquainted with Mrs. Ann Mattingly, who then was ill— that soon after he was called to visit her, the Rev. Mr. Matthews being absent, and, as everybody thought her at the point of death, he administered to her the Holy Viaticum and Extreme Unction ; that, ever since that time, he has been intimate in the family of her brother, Capt. Thomas Carbery; and during his residence in the City of Washington, (from October, 1820, to July, 1823,) on. his frequent visits, he often found Mrs. Mattingly vomiting a great deal of blood, with a mixture of matter resembling pieces of flesh, which threatened to suffocate her. That, once in particular, she described to him the tumor on her side, as so painful, that the softest linen pressing on it, caused her the most acute pains, and such sufferings, as if sharp knives were constantly thrust into her body; and that, during the last six months, on his occasional, though pretty frequent visits from the country, he has seen her subject to fits of coughing, as if her whole frame would break into pieces, which it sickened him to witness. In short, that he can say he has seen her in a state of excru¬ ciating pain, with little or no abatement, for nearly six years. The deponent further saith, that he was most earnest in inviting Mrs. Mat¬ tingly to have recourse to the prayers of Prince Alexander de Hohenlohe, as he was full of hope that her’s was a case reserved by the Almighty for the manifestation of his extraordinary favors to his Church; that after it had been agreed upon that she should do so, and unite in prayers with the Prince, on the 10th of the present month of March, being informed by the Rev. W. Dubuisson of the day when the previous nine days devotion should begin, he joined in it; that, on the 9th of this month, he paid a visit to Mrs. Mattingly, late in the evening, and found her as low as he had ever seen her—that to him she had all the appearances of a dying person—that her voice was so Weak that he had to apply his ear to her lips to distinguish her words, and she told him she could scarcely see or hear. That, notwithstanding, full of confidence he told her ; “all this is for the better,” and was greatly edified by the evidences which she gave of her faith and resignation. That, on the next morning, (the 10th,) he said mass in the Chapel of Georgetown College, at half after three o’clock, in union of intention with all the persons who performed the devotion_ prayed with more than usual confidence, and cannot pretend to describe his feelings, when, in about an hour or two afterwards, he learnt that Mrs. Mat¬ tingly had been suddenly cured at fifteen minutes after four—and, about nine o’clock on the same morning, with his own eyes, beheld her restored to that health of which it was universally thought she was bereft forever. Finally, this deponent wishes it particularly to be recorded, as his invariable opinion, that from the state of excruciating pain in which he saw Mrs. Mat¬ tingly, for nearly six years, her sudden recovery fell hardly short of a resur¬ rection from the dead, nothing indeed but Divine Omnipotence being capable of reorganizing into a perfect state of health, and in an instant, such a frame as hers was, the wreck of sickness and corruption. ANTHONY KOHLMANN. Sworn and subscribed before WILLIAM THORNTON, [seal.]