Imelda, on her fifth birthday, requested to receive the Eucharist, which, however was given to only persons over 14. At 9, she went to live with the nuns. Two years later, she was praying in church, when the sacristan noticed a light above her head. He fetched the priest, who seeing it, immediately gave her the Eucharist. She continued kneeling & praying. After sometime, a nun came to fetch her & found her smiling but immobile. On touching her, she collapsed, dead at 11.
In the Veerashiva tradition of Karnataka, there is legend of Koluru Kodagusu, a young girl. Her parents did ritual worship of Shiva (in the form of a linga). Once they deputed Kodagusu to take the ritual offering. She took it & assumed Shiva would consume it. When He didn't, she broke down & cried piteously. Shiva, moved, came down in human form & consumed it. When she reported it, her parents did not believe her & accused her of having eaten it herself. Disconsolate, she ran back to the temple, followed by her parents. They saw her body enter the linga. Frantic, they clutched her hair but too late. Legend has it that even now a few strands of hair are sticking to the linga.
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