midnight
I saw with these eyes and handled his ring , and his gospel written with his own hand , and all my travels seemed light ; for who am I that I should see such things ? Dear Margaret , his sacred body was first brought from Alexandria , by merchants in 810 , and then not prized as now ; for between 829 , when this church was builded , and 1094 , the very place where it lay was forgotten . Then holy priests fasted and prayed many days seeking for light , and lo ! the Evangelist 's body brake at midnight through the marble and stood before them . They fell to the earth ; but in the morning found the crevice the sacred body had burst through , and peering through it saw him lie . Then they took and laid him in his chest beneath the altar , and carefully put back the stone with its miraculous crevice , which crevice I saw , and shall gape for a monument while the world lasts . After that they showed me the Virgin 's chair , it is of stone ; also her picture , painted by St. Luke , very dark , and the features now scarce visible .