Blessed A.K. Emmerick: The Birth of the Virgin Mary. by irapuato on Sept. 8, 2013More
Blessed A.K. Emmerick: The Birth of the Virgin Mary.
by irapuato on Sept. 8, 2013
by irapuato on Sept. 8, 2013
6. THE EFFECT OF PRAYING ON THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF MARY.
I saw much of St. Bridget, and was given much knowledge of what had been revealed to this saint about Mary’s conception and birth. I remember that the Blessed Virgin said to her that if women with child celebrated the vigil of her Nativity by fasting and by the pious recitation of nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine-months’ sojourn in …More
6. THE EFFECT OF PRAYING ON THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF MARY.
I saw much of St. Bridget, and was given much knowledge of what had been revealed to this saint about Mary’s conception and birth. I remember that the Blessed Virgin said to her that if women with child celebrated the vigil of her Nativity by fasting and by the pious recitation of nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine-months’ sojourn in her Mother’s womb; and if they renewed this devotion frequently during their pregnancy and the day before they expected their confinement, at the same time receiving with devotion the Holy Sacrament, she would bring their prayer before God and beg for a happy delivery even in difficult and dangerous conditions.
I myself had today a vision of the Blessed Virgin who came to me and told me, among other things, that whoever recited with love and devotion on the afternoon of this day nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine months’ sojourn in her mother’s womb and of her birth, continuing this devotion for nine days, would give the angels nine flowers each day for a bouquet which they would receive in heaven and present to the Blessed Trinity, to obtain favor for the suppliant.
www.ccel.org/ccel/emmerich/lifemary.vi.html
I saw much of St. Bridget, and was given much knowledge of what had been revealed to this saint about Mary’s conception and birth. I remember that the Blessed Virgin said to her that if women with child celebrated the vigil of her Nativity by fasting and by the pious recitation of nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine-months’ sojourn in her Mother’s womb; and if they renewed this devotion frequently during their pregnancy and the day before they expected their confinement, at the same time receiving with devotion the Holy Sacrament, she would bring their prayer before God and beg for a happy delivery even in difficult and dangerous conditions.
I myself had today a vision of the Blessed Virgin who came to me and told me, among other things, that whoever recited with love and devotion on the afternoon of this day nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine months’ sojourn in her mother’s womb and of her birth, continuing this devotion for nine days, would give the angels nine flowers each day for a bouquet which they would receive in heaven and present to the Blessed Trinity, to obtain favor for the suppliant.
www.ccel.org/ccel/emmerich/lifemary.vi.html
www.ccel.org/ccel/emmerich/lifemary.vi.html
5. CAUSE OF THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF MARY.
[On the evening of September 7 th, the vigil of the Feast of Mary’s Nativity, Catherine Emmerich was unwontedly— as she said, supernaturally—gay, although she felt ill at the same time. She was in an unusually lively and confidential mood. She spoke of extraordinary joy in all nature because of Mary’s …More
www.ccel.org/ccel/emmerich/lifemary.vi.html
5. CAUSE OF THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF MARY.
[On the evening of September 7 th, the vigil of the Feast of Mary’s Nativity, Catherine Emmerich was unwontedly— as she said, supernaturally—gay, although she felt ill at the same time. She was in an unusually lively and confidential mood. She spoke of extraordinary joy in all nature because of Mary’s approaching birth, and said that she felt as if a great joy was awaiting her next day, if only this did not turn to sorrow. 5555 In a vision of the Blessed Virgin she had received the promise that on the next day, Sept. 8th (which was also her own birthday), she would be granted the favor of sitting up in bed for several weeks, leaving the bed and walking about the room several times, which she had been unable to do for some ten years. The fulfillment of this promise was attended by all the spiritual and bodily sufferings which had been announced to her at the time, as will be recounted in its proper place. (CB) ] There is such jubilation in nature: I hear birds singing, I see lambs and kids frolicking, and where Anna’s house once stood the doves are flying about in great flocks as if drunk with joy. Of the house and its surroundings nothing now remains; it is now a wilderness. I saw some pilgrims, holding long staffs and their garments girt about them, with cloths wrapped round their heads like caps. They are going through this part of the country on their way to Mount Carmel. A few hermits from Mount Carmel live here, and the pilgrims asked them in amazement what was the meaning of this joy in nature? They were told that it was ever thus in that country on the eve of Mary’s birth, and that it was probably there that Anna’s house had stood. A pilgrim who had passed that way before had, they said, told them that this was first noticed a long time ago by a devout man, and that this had led to the celebration of the feast of Mary’s Nativity.
I now saw this institution of the feast myself. 5656 The main feature of the story, the holy man who heard music in the air and, on asking what it was, received a revelation about Mary’s birthday, which then led to its general observance, is found in the Legenda Aurea of B. James of Voragine, O.P. (c. 1255) for Sept. 8th. The oldest documentary evidence for the feast is from the sixth century, and its general acceptance not until the eighth or ninth (Cath. Encyc., art. ‘Nativity’ (Holweck), p. 712d). (SB) Two hundred and fifty years after the death of the Blessed Virgin I saw a very devout man journeying through the Holy Land in order to seek out and venerate all the places connected with the life of Jesus upon earth. I saw that this holy man was given guidance from above, and often remained for several days in prayer and contemplation at different places, enjoying many visions and full of interior delight. He had for many years felt, in the night of the 7 th to the 8 th of September, a great joyfulness in nature and heard a lovely singing in the air; and at last, in answer to his earnest prayer, he was told by an angel in a dream that this was the birthnight of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He received this revelation on his journey to Mount Sinai or Horeb. It was told him at the same time that in a cave of the Prophet Elijah on that mountain was a walled-up chapel in honor of the Mother of the Messiah, and that he was to inform the hermits living there of both these things. Thereupon I saw him arriving at Mount Sinai. The place where the monastery now stands was already at that time inhabited by isolated hermits, and just as precipitous on the side facing the valley as it is now, when people have to be hoisted up by means of a pulley. I saw now that upon his announcement the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin was first celebrated here by the hermits on September 8 th about A.D. 250, and that its celebration spread later to the Universal Church. I saw, too, how he and the hermits looked for the cave of Elijah and the chapel in honor of the Blessed Virgin. These were, however, very difficult to find among the many caves of the Essenes and of other hermits. I saw many deserted gardens here and there near these caves, with magnificent fruit trees in them. After praying, the devout man was inspired to take a Jew with them when they visited these caves, and was told that they might recognize as the cave of Elijah the one that he was unable to enter. I saw thereupon how they sent an aged Jew into the caves, and how he felt himself thrust out of the narrow entrance of one of them, however much he tried to force his way in. In this way they recognized it as the cave of Elijah. They found in it a second cave, walled-up, which they opened; and this was the place where Elijah had prayed in veneration of the future mother of the Savior. The big, beautifully patterned stones which made the wall were used later for building the church. They also found in the cave many holy bones of patriarchs and prophets, as well as many woven screens and objects of earlier worship. All these were preserved in the church. I saw much of Mount Horeb on this occasion, but have forgotten it again. I still remember that the place where Moses saw the burning bush is called in the language of the place ‘The Shadow of God’, and that one may walk on it only with bare feet. I also saw a mountain there entirely of red sand, on which, however, very fine fruit trees grew.
6. THE EFFECT OF PRAYING ON THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF MARY.
I saw much of St. Bridget, and was given much knowledge of what had been revealed to this saint about Mary’s conception and birth. I remember that the Blessed Virgin said to her that if women with child celebrated the vigil of her Nativity by fasting and by the pious recitation of nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine-months’ sojourn in her Mother’s womb; and if they renewed this devotion frequently during their pregnancy and the day before they expected their confinement, at the same time receiving with devotion the Holy Sacrament, she would bring their prayer before God and beg for a happy delivery even in difficult and dangerous conditions.
I myself had today a vision of the Blessed Virgin who came to me and told me, among other things, that whoever recited with love and devotion on the afternoon of this day nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine months’ sojourn in her mother’s womb and of her birth, continuing this devotion for nine days, would give the angels nine flowers each day for a bouquet which they would receive in heaven and present to the Blessed Trinity, to obtain favor for the suppliant. Later I felt myself transported to a height between heaven and earth. The earth lay below, dark and troubled; above in heaven I saw the Blessed Virgin before the Throne of God, between the choirs of angels and the ordered hosts of the saints. I saw, built for her out of devotions and prayers on earth, two portals, or thrones of honor, which grew at last into palaces like churches, and even into whole cities. It was strange to see how these buildings were made entirely of herbs, flowers, and garlands all intertwined, their different species expressing the different kinds and different merits of the prayers of individual human beings and of whole communities. I saw all being taken by angels or saints from the hands of the suppliants and being carried up to heaven.
7. THE PURIFICATION OF ST. ANNE.
Some weeks after Mary’s birth I saw Joachim and Anna journeying to the Temple with the child to make sacrifice. They presented the child here in the Temple in devotion and gratitude to God, who had taken from them their long unfruitfulness, just as later the Blessed Virgin according to the Law offered and ransomed the Child Jesus in the Temple. 5757 See Lev. 12. The day after their arrival they made sacrifice, and already then made a vow to dedicate their child completely to the Temple in a few years time. Then they traveled back to Nazareth with the child.
32 The matter of the tunnel is one that has long puzzled students. Josephus (Ant., XV, xi, 5) certainly mentions an eastern gate where the ‘pure’ could enter, and (ib., 7) a tunnel that led from the eastern gate into the central enclosure, adding that this was built specially for the king (Herod). Then the Mishnah, Middoth, I, 9, mentions a tunnel leading under the Temple to a bath-house within the enclosure, where ceremonial cleansing could be performed. Whether these refer to the same tunnel is uncertain. See further, n. 45, p. 34 . (SB)
33 See the Little Chapter in the Vespers of the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Ecclus. 24.14. ‘From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and to the world to come I shall not cease to be’ (‘Ab initio et ante saecula creata sum et usque ad futura saecula non desinam ’). Compare also the passage of Holy Writ which has long been applied by the Church to Mary: ‘I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures. I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth. . . . My throne is in a pillar of cloud’ (‘Ego ex ore Altissimi prodivi primogenita ante omnem creaturam, ego feci in coelis, ut orietur lumen indeficiens. Thronus meus in columna nubis ’ ) ( Ecclus. 24.5 ). (CB)
34 In the course of her many visions, some historical and some symbolical, from the Old and New Testaments, Catherine Emmerich referred to this blessing in many different connections, some of which we will here enumerate in their chronological order. This was the same blessing by means of which Eve was brought forth from the right side of Adam. I saw this blessing withdrawn by God’s merciful providence from Adam when he was about to acquiesce in sin; but it was restored to Abraham by the angel after the institution of circumcision, with the promise of Isaac’s birth. Abraham handed it on, with solemn sacramental ceremony, to his first-born Isaac, from whom it descended to Jacob. It was taken away from Jacob by the angel that strove with him and handed on to Joseph in Egypt. Finally it was taken by Moses, together with the bones of Joseph, in the night before the flight out of Egypt, and became the Israelites’ sacred treasure in the Ark of the Covenant.
We had just prepared these disclosures for the press, but with considerable doubt and hesitation, when we learnt that the book Zohar (ascribed to Simon Bar Jochai in the second century of our era) reproduces almost word for word these and other statements of Catherine Emmerich about this mystery of the Jewish Covenant. Anyone able to read late Chaldean can convince himself of this by referring to the following passages: Zohar Par. Tol’doth, pp. 340 and 345 (edit. Sulzbach), Bereshith, p. 135, Terumah, pp. 251, etc. (CB)
It would seem that CB was slightly misled in regard to the Zohar, and it is unlikely that he was in a position to examine it himself, since qualified Hebraists and Aramaic scholars admit its great difficulty. The Zohar does not appear to contain any notably close parallels with statements of AC, either about the ‘mystery of the Ark’ (p. 16 ), or the ‘holy thing’ within it (pp. 23 - 24 ), or about the blessing handed down through the Patriarchs to Moses (p. 23 and CB’s note above).
The references given by CB above are to the Hebrew (and Aramaic) text published at Sulzbach in 1684, and refer to columns in the commentaries on Genesis and Exodus. We are adding here the standard modern references (to folios of the Mantua edition of 1588), which are also inserted in the English translation by Sperling and Simon (London, 1931-1934).
Bereshith (Genesis), col. 135 in Sulzbach (= f. 48b-49a, standard), contains no relevant reference; but f. 55b (Sulzbach, col. 171), commenting on ‘This is the book’ ( Gen. 5.1), takes that phrase literally and refers it to the story of the book containing sacred wisdom, which was given by God through an angel to Adam, and then handed down through the patriarchs and finally to Abraham.
Toledoth (Genesis), col. 340 in Sulzbach (= f. 146a, b, standard), recounts the many occasions on which Jacob received a blessing. The next reference, to col. 345 (=f. 148a, standard), belongs in fact to the next section Wayyese, and discusses the mystical meaning of the stones picked up by Jacob in Gen. 28.11.
Terumah ( Exodus), col. 251 in Sulzbach (=f. 153b, 154a, standard), though commenting on the construction of the ark ( Exod. 25), has no reference to the ‘mystery’ or the ‘holy thing’. A little earlier, however, f. 145b (Sulzbach, col. 238) has a passing reference to the heavenly mystery of the Holy of Holies.
It seems therefore legitimate to say that the Zohar, interesting though it is in itself, throws very little light on the matter in hand. (SB)
35 In Catherine Emmerich’s visions of the public ministry of Our Lord, which she daily recounted in chronological order for three years, she saw Our Lord, after the raising of Lazarus (which happened on Oct. 7th of His third year of teaching), withdraw Himself beyond the Jordan in order to escape the persecutions of the Pharisees. From here He dismissed the apostles and disciples to their homes, and Himself went on with three young men named Eliud, Silas, and Erimenzear. (These were descended from the companions of the Three Kings who, when the latter went away, had remained behind in the Holy Land and intermarried with the families of the shepherds of Bethlehem.) With these Our Lord journeyed to the place where the Three Kings were then settled, returning afterwards to the Promised Land by way of Egypt. On the first day of the January which preceded His death, He re-entered Judea, and on the evening of Monday, Jan. 8th, He again met the Apostles at Jacob’s well, thereafter teaching and healing in Sychar, Ephron, round Jericho, in Capharnaum, and in Nazareth. Towards February He came again to Bethany and the surrounding country, teaching and healing in Bethabara, Ephraim, and round Jericho. From the middle of February till His Passion on March 30th. He was in Bethany and Jerusalem by turns. The Evangelists are silent about the whole period between the raising of Lazarus and Palm Sunday, except for St. John, who says (11.53, 54): ‘From that day therefore they devised to put him to death, wherefore Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews, but he went into a country near the desert, to a city that is called Ephraim. And there he abode with his disciples.’ Catherine Emmerich mentions the presence of Our Lord in Ephraim near Jericho on Jan. 14th, 15th, and 16th, and again between Feb. 6th and 12th, without giving the exact date. We must, however, return to what gave rise to this note. From Dec. 1st to the 15th of the third year of His ministry, Catherine Emmerich saw and daily described the sojourn of Our Lord and His three companions in a town of tents inhabited by the three Holy Kings of Arabia, where they had established themselves shortly after their return from Bethlehem. Two of these chieftains were still alive. She describes in most remarkable detail their way of life and their religious practices and the festivities with which they received Jesus. Amongst many other things she recounted from Dec. 4th to 6th how these star-worshippers brought Our Lord into their temple (which she described as a square flattened pyramid surrounded with terraced wooden steps), from the top of which they observed the stars and inside which they performed their religious ceremonies. They showed Him in it the image of the Child Jesus in the crib, which they had made and placed therein immediately after their return from Bethlehem; this was made in the exact shape of the one they had seen in the star before they set out on their journey to Bethlehem. Catherine Emmerich describes it in the following words : ‘The whole representation was in gold and surrounded by a star-shaped sheet of gold. The golden child lay on a red blanket in a crib like the one at Bethlehem; his little hands were crossed on his breast and he was wrapped in swaddling-bands from breast to feet. They had even included the hay of the crib, it could be seen behind the child’s head like a little white wreath; I cannot remember what it was made of. They showed Jesus this image; they had no other in their temple.’ This is her description of the image of the crib to which she refers above in the text. (CB)
36 This is the general tradition about the origins of the Carmelite Order. It is briefly recounted in the Breviary Lessons for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16th), where mention is also made of the tradition that the cloud seen by Elijah (3 Kings 18.42-45) is a symbol of Our Lady. (SB)
37 In the Office for the Immaculate Conception and in other liturgical books there occurs the following verse: ‘As a cloud I covered all the earth’ ( Ecclus. 24.6), which is in complete harmony with this prophetic vision of the Mother of God. (CB)
38 Epiphanius, in his work on the life of the Prophet, says of Jeremiah: ‘This prophet gave the Egyptian priests a sign and told them that all their idols would fall in pieces, when a virgin mother should set foot in Egypt with her Divine Child. And so it befell. Therefore do they to this day adore a Virgin Mother and a Child lying in the crib. When King Ptolemy questioned them as to the reason therefore, they answered, “This is a secret which we received from our ancestors to whom it was announced by a holy prophet, and we await its fulfillment”’ ( Epiphan., Vol. II, p. 240). The above-mentioned son of the prophet sent to Egypt by Elijah cannot, however, be taken to be Jeremiah, for the latter lived some three centuries later. (CB)
This is presumably the Greek Father, St. Epiphanius of Salamis, d. 403, but an examination of various editions, old and new, has so far failed to identify the passage. The quotation may be linked with Jeremiah’ prophecy (43.13) of the shattering of the idols of Egypt after his warning to the Jews who had assassinated Gedaliah and were preparing to flee to Egypt ( Jer. 41-43). (SB)
39 Since the description of this unfamiliar figure was not clear, an archeologist used an antique image of Isis, which appeared appropriate, to design Figure 4 without in the least needing to change the description. (CB)
40 This interpretation, alluded to but not definitely established by earlier commentators, is shown by Biblical philology to be perfectly correct. (CB)
The names Azarias and Ananias both occur in Neh. 3.23, where Ananias is in Hebrew Ananyah, which may mean ‘the cloud of the Lord’, but the much commoner name is Hananyah, ‘the Lord is merciful’. Azaryah means ‘the help of the Lord’. (SB)
41 Many ancient and modern commentators of the Greek text have suggested the following version of the passage in St. Luke (3.23 ): ‘He was supposed to be the son of Joseph, but was in truth descended from Heli’, instead of ‘being as it was supposed the son of Joseph, who was of Heli’. The absence of any mention of Mary (whose line of descent is, however, given by St. Luke) is explained by the basic principle of the Jewish genealogists: ‘The father’s race is called a race, the mother’s race is not called a race’ (Talmud Baba Bathra, f. 110). The father of Mary was, according to this rule, the first of Our Lord’s forebears according to the flesh who could be named in His line of descent. Christ, who had no earthly father, may be as truly called, according to the flesh, the son of Heli as Laban ( Gen. 29.5) could be called the son of Nachor, and Zechariah ( Ezra 5.1) could be called the son of Iddo, for these were both great-grandchildren. (CB)
The emphasis on Our Lord’s Davidic descent ( Luke 1.32, 69) shows that Our Lady must also have been of the Davidic line (see Fr. R. Ginns, OP., in Cath. Comm., 1953, 748b). The interpretation proposed by CB requires a fresh punctuation of Luke 3.23 (literal translation from the Greek): ‘Jesus … being the son (as it was supposed of Joseph) of Heli.’ This rendering, though according to Fr. Ginns ( ib., 750g) ‘rejected by the majority of scholars’, is a tenable reading of the Greek. It involves the interpretation of ‘son’ as ‘grandson’ through the mother, as CB explains; and the identification of Heli with Joachim (cf. supra, n. 29, p. 22 ). The more usual reconciliation of the genealogies in Luke and Matthew is by the supposition of a second marriage of Joseph’s mother. (SB)
42 Catherine Emmerich no doubt meant by this the connection between the line of David through Nathan and that through Solomon (see p. 32 ). In the third generation upwards from Joachim, St. Joseph’s grandmother (who had married as her first husband Matthan, of the line of Solomon, and had by him two sons, one of whom was Jacob, the father of St. Joseph) took as her second husband Levi, of the line of Nathan, and had by him Matthat, the father of Heli or Joachim. Thus Joachim and Joseph were related to each other. It is remarkable that Raymundus Martini, in his Pugio fidei (p. 745, ed. Carp), also states that St. Joseph’s grandmother after the death of Matthan married a second husband, from whom Joachim was descended. (CB)
43 Related on December 8th, 1819.
44 Catherine Emmerich had visions of all the feasts of the Church being celebrated by the Church Triumphant, even when they were no longer celebrated on earth by the Church Militant. She saw these feasts being celebrated in a shining transparent church, the shape of which she generally described as octagonal. She saw a mysterious gathering of all the saints who were particularly associated with the feast in question, sharing in the celebrations. She usually saw this church floating in the air; but it is noteworthy that in all the feasts having so to speak a blood-relationship with Jesus Christ or with the mysteries of His life, she saw this church not floating in the air but appearing as the crown of a pillar or of a stern thrusting itself up like a flower or fruit growing out of the earth. What, however, surprised the writer in particular was that on all feasts of saints who had received the stigmata (for instance, St. Francis of Assisi or St. Catherine of Siena), she saw the church not floating in the air but on the stem growing out of the earth. She never made any reflection on this point, probably from humility, though it might well have been edifying had she done so. (CB)
45 Catherine Emmerich’s remarks are here in agreement with the accounts of the most ancient Jewish literature. Thus, for instance, Mishnah, tract. Tamid, c. 5, and Sotah, c. I. (CB)
Mishnah, Tamid, V, 7, states that the ceremonially unclean were to wait at the eastern gate, but the tractate Sotah, I, 5, dealing with adultery, directs that the woman be taken to the ‘eastern or Nicanor’s gate’, where also lepers and mothers awaiting ‘purification’ were to go. The ‘Golden Gate’ was probably an eastern gate. An eastern gate is also mentioned in Middoth, I, 9, in connection with ceremonial cleansing (see supra, n. 32, p. 24 ). John 8.2 mentions that Our Lord was teaching in the Temple when He spoke with the woman taken in adultery. (SB)
46 Mountain of the Prophet’ is the name given by Catherine Emmerich to a place high above all the mountains of the world to which she was taken for the first time on Dec. 10th, 1819, in her ecstatic state of dream-journeying, and again several times later. There she saw the books of prophetic revelation of all ages and all peoples preserved in a tent and examined and superintended by someone who reminded her partly of St. John the Evangelist and partly of Elijah—particularly of the latter, since she perceived the chariot which had transported that prophet from the earth standing here on the heights near the tent and overgrown with green plants. This person then told her that he compared with a great book lying before him all the books of prophetic knowledge that had ever been given (often in a very confused state) or would in future be given to mankind; and that much of these he crossed out or destroyed in the fire burning at his side. Mankind, he said, was not yet capable of receiving these gifts, another must first come, and so forth. She saw all this on a green island in a lake of clear water. On the island were many towers of different shapes, surrounded by gardens. She had the impression that these towers were treasuries and reservoirs of the wisdom of different peoples, and that under the island, which was full of murmuring streams, lay the source of rivers held to be sacred (the Ganges amongst them) whose waters issued forth at the foot of the mountain range. The direction in which she was led to this mountain of the Prophet was always (taking into account the starting-point of her journey) towards the highest part of Central Asia. She described places, natural scenery, human beings, animals, and plants of the region which she traversed before being carried up through a lonely and desolate space, as if through clouds, to the place mentioned above. Her detailed description of this place, with all that she experienced there, will be set down in its proper place with an account of her whole visionary journey. On her return journey she was carried down through the region of clouds once more, and then again traversed lands rich in luxuriant vegetation and full of animals and birds, until she reached the Ganges and saw the religious ceremonies of the Indians beside this river.
The geographical situation of this place and Catherine Emmerich’s statement that she had seen everything up there overgrown with living green, reminded someone who read her account twenty years later of traditions about a place of this kind (sometimes with a similar inhabitant) in the religions of several Asiatic peoples. The Prophet Elijah is known to the Musulmans (under the name of Chiser, i.e. the Green One) as a wonderful half-angelic being, who dwells in the north on a mountain known as Kaf, celebrated in many religious and poetical writings, and there watches over secrets at the source of the river of life. The Indians called their holy mountain Meru, while to the Chinese it was Kuen-lun, both connected with representations of a state of paradise and both situated on the heights of Central Asia, where Catherine Emmerich saw the Mountain of the Prophet. The ancient Persians also believed in such a place and called it Elbors or Albordsch. According to Isa. 14.13 (‘I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north ’), the Babylonians would seem to have held a similar belief. That they, like the Persians and Moslems, placed this mountain in the north is explained by their geographical position as regards the mountains of Central Asia. (CB)
47 When the writer copied down the very detailed account of her dealings with this Judith and her description of the place, he only knew (from the direction taken by her journey) that she was in Abyssinia; several years after her death he found in the journeys of Bruce and Salt an account of a Jewish settlement on the high mountains of Samen in Abyssinia. The ruler of this settlement was always called Gideon and, if it was a woman, Judith—the name which Catherine Emmerich herself mentioned. (CB)
James Bruce, Travels and Adventures in Abyssinia. He was one of the first Europeans to go there, and his journey was in 1769. Henry Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia. An account of a journey made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government in 1809-1810. (SB)
48 In this connection it seems remarkable that among the writers of the first centuries of the Christian era who reproduce the accusations made by the heathens against the Christians, Minutius Felix mentions this reproach among others that when the Christians initiated anyone into their religion, they laid before him a child completely covered with flour, so as to hide the murder which they were about to make him commit. He was then obliged to stab the child over and over again with a knife. They greedily sucked up the streaming blood, cut the child into small pieces and devoured them all. This crime, committed in common, was a mutual pledge of silence and secrecy in regard to other shameful excesses with which they ended their assemblies.
Should the origin of this accusation perhaps be sought in the above-mentioned sacrifice of children by the star-worshippers, who were among the first followers of Christianity? In any case, it may well be supposed that ideas of this kind (which, as we see in the case of the Magi, arise from superstition and from misinterpretation of messages of salvation) may be the hidden cause lying at the root of the murder of Christian children by Jews. If this be so, these dark and cruel deeds must be added to the many motives for which we have to pity the unfortunate people of Israel rather than to despise them; for it conceals a distorted longing for the Savior. This constantly recurring phenomenon has so far as we know never been thoroughly investigated and elucidated in a completely unprejudiced spirit. Of late years it has generally been treated (like all historical riddles whose source is obscure) in a complacent and condescending manner as being nothing but a fanatical accusation. (CB)
Minutius Felix, Octavius , IX, 5, and cf. XXX, 1 . (SB)
49 Just as the sacrifice on Calvary was accomplished by the cruelty of ungodly priests and by the bloodthirsty hands of brutal executioners, so is the sacrifice of the Mass, even when unworthily celebrated, a true sacrifice; but the guilty and unworthy priest who celebrates it plays the part not only of the Jewish priests who condemned Our Lord but also of the soldiers who crucified Him. (CB)
50 On July 5th, 1835, the writer discovered from Cardinal Baronius’ notes on the Martyrologium Romanum of December 8th that in the Sforza Library there is a Codex (No. 65) containing a speech by the Emperor Leo, who ascended the throne in 886, about this feast in Constantinople. It appears from this speech that the celebration of the feast was much anterior to this date. According to Canisius (De beatissima virgine Maria, lib. I, c. 7) and Galatinus (De arcanis catholicae veritatis, lib. 7, c. 5), the feast is included in the Martyrology of St. John Damascene (d. A.D. 749). St. Sabbas, Abbot, mentioned by Catherine Emmerich, is known for his devotion to Our Lady. He died c. A.D. 500. (CB)
The year of the death of St. Sabbas is given in Ramsgate’s Book of Saints (1947) as A.D. 532. (SB)
51 It is remarkable that Catherine Emmerich does not give the name (if Anselm) to the abbot who had the vision, since Petrus de Natal in Catal. Sanct., lib.1 , c. 42, does so, as the writer discovered in July 1835. Her account seems to be supported by Baronius in his notes to the Roman Martyrology for Dec. 4th, where he states that the announcement was made, not to Anselm, but at an earlier date in 1070 in exactly similar circumstances to Elsinus or Elpinus, a Benedictine abbot. This is said to be stated also in J. Carthagena in his homilies De Arcanis Deiparae, tom. 1, lib. 1, hom. 19, on the authority of a letter from St. Anselm to the bishops of England. It was this holy Bishop of Canterbury who first introduced the feast into England. (CB)
Petrus de Natalibus’ Catalogus Sanctorum was published in Venice in 1506. As the subsequent work of Baronius (1586, 1589) shows, AC is right in not attributing the event to Anselm. The source of the Helsin legend, a letter ascribed to Anselm, is now, however, considered to be spurious, though this need not impugn the truth of the legend itself. The Anselm mentioned by AC (with no title) is wrongly identified by CB with the Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1109). It was his nephew, also called Anselm, who introduced the feast into England when he became Abbot of Bury, St. Edmund’s in 1121, having doubtless become acquainted with the feast as observed at the Greek abbey of St. Sabbas in Rome, where he was abbot 1109-1121. Cf. Cath. Encyc., art. ‘Immaculate’ (Holweck), pp. 677b-678a. (SB)
52 It was introduced in 1245 by the Chapter of the Cathedral of Lyons, to which Bernard wrote to oppose it. (CB)
The date should read 1140-1145. The reference is to St. Bernard’s letter, ‘To the Canons of the Church of Lyons’, traditionally numbered 174, and numbered chronologically 215 (between 1140 and 1145) by Fr. Bruno Scott-James in his recent (1953) translation. (SB)
53 The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated, according to Lev. 23.34-36, for the seven days 15th to 21st Tisri, with an eighth day of festival on the 22nd. The Hebrew lunar months do not correspond exactly to our months, and Tisri falls in Sept./Oct. CB quite correctly distinguishes the Dedication Feast of Solomon’s Temple in the month Tisri, celebrated in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles (3 Kings 8.2-66; 2 Chronicles 7.10), from the Dedication Feast on the 25th Kislev, which commemorated the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C. ( I Macc.4.52). This feast was also called Hanukkah and the ‘Feast of Lights’ by Josephus (Ant. XII, vii, 7), and Encaenia or ‘Dedication’ in the Gospel ( John 10.22). (SB)
54 On Dec. 7th of the third year of Our Lord’s ministry she saw a temple of the Chaldeans about which she related the following: ‘On a neighboring hill they had a terraced pyramid with galleries, from which they zealously watched the stars. They prophesied from the manner in which animals moved and they interpreted dreams. They sacrificed animals, but had a horror of the blood and always let it run away into the earth. In their religious observances they had holy fire and holy water, holy juice from a plant and little holy loaves of bread. Their temple, oval in shape, was full of images very delicately wrought in metal. They had a strong presentiment about the Mother of God. The principal object in the Temple was a three-cornered pillar ending in a point. On one side of this was an image with many arms and with animals’ feet. It held in its hands, among other things, a globe, a diadem, a bunch of herbs, and a big ribbed apple held by its stalk. Its face was like a sun with rays, it was many-breasted, and represented the productive and preservative powers of nature. Its name sounded like Miter or Mitras. On the other side of the pillar was the figure of an animal with a horn. It was a unicorn, and its name sounded like Asphas or Aspax. It was thrusting with its horn against another evil beast which was on the third side. This had a head like an owl; it had a curved beak, four legs with claws, two wings, and a tail ending like a scorpion’s. I have forgotten its name; indeed, I find it very difficult to remember such outlandish names and often mix them up. I can only say that they sounded something like this or that. Over the two fighting beasts there was an image standing on the corner of the pillar which was intended to represent the mother of all the gods. Its name sounded like the Lady Aloa or Aloas. They also called her “corn granary ”. A cluster of high ears of corn grew out of its body: its head was pressed down on to its shoulders and bent forward, for on the nape of its neck it bore a vessel containing wine or about to do so. They had a saying: “The Corn shall become bread, the grape shall become wine, for the refreshment of all mankind.” Over this image was a sort of crown, and there were two letters on the pillar which looked to me like O and W [perhaps Alpha and Omega]. What, however, surprised me most in this temple was a little round garden, covered over with gold network and standing on a bronze altar. Above it was the picture of a virgin. In the middle of this garden was a fountain with several sealed basins one above the other, in front of which was a green vine with a beautiful red cluster of grapes which hung down into a dark-colored wine-press. Its form reminded me vividly of the Holy Cross, but it was a wine-press. Above in a hollow trunk was fixed a wide funnel with a bag hanging from its spout. Two movable arms, fixed to each side of the hollow trunk, were used as levers to press the grapes that were in the bag so that the juice ran out of the trunk through openings made in it lower down. The little round garden, which was about five to six feet in diameter, was full of delicate green shrubs, flowers, fruits and little trees which were all, like the vine, very lifelike and had the same significance as it.’ (See Canticle of Canticles 4.12.) (CB)
55 In a vision of the Blessed Virgin she had received the promise that on the next day, Sept. 8th (which was also her own birthday), she would be granted the favor of sitting up in bed for several weeks, leaving the bed and walking about the room several times, which she had been unable to do for some ten years. The fulfillment of this promise was attended by all the spiritual and bodily sufferings which had been announced to her at the time, as will be recounted in its proper place. (CB)
56 The main feature of the story, the holy man who heard music in the air and, on asking what it was, received a revelation about Mary’s birthday, which then led to its general observance, is found in the Legenda Aurea of B. James of Voragine, O.P. (c. 1255) for Sept. 8th. The oldest documentary evidence for the feast is from the sixth century, and its general acceptance not until the eighth or ninth (Cath. Encyc., art. ‘Nativity’ (Holweck), p. 712d). (SB)
57 See Lev. 12.
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II. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
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5. CAUSE OF THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF MARY.
[On the evening of September 7 th, the vigil of the Feast of Mary’s Nativity, Catherine Emmerich was unwontedly— as she said, supernaturally—gay, although she felt ill at the same time. She was in an unusually lively and confidential mood. She spoke of extraordinary joy in all nature because of Mary’s approaching birth, and said that she felt as if a great joy was awaiting her next day, if only this did not turn to sorrow. 5555 In a vision of the Blessed Virgin she had received the promise that on the next day, Sept. 8th (which was also her own birthday), she would be granted the favor of sitting up in bed for several weeks, leaving the bed and walking about the room several times, which she had been unable to do for some ten years. The fulfillment of this promise was attended by all the spiritual and bodily sufferings which had been announced to her at the time, as will be recounted in its proper place. (CB) ] There is such jubilation in nature: I hear birds singing, I see lambs and kids frolicking, and where Anna’s house once stood the doves are flying about in great flocks as if drunk with joy. Of the house and its surroundings nothing now remains; it is now a wilderness. I saw some pilgrims, holding long staffs and their garments girt about them, with cloths wrapped round their heads like caps. They are going through this part of the country on their way to Mount Carmel. A few hermits from Mount Carmel live here, and the pilgrims asked them in amazement what was the meaning of this joy in nature? They were told that it was ever thus in that country on the eve of Mary’s birth, and that it was probably there that Anna’s house had stood. A pilgrim who had passed that way before had, they said, told them that this was first noticed a long time ago by a devout man, and that this had led to the celebration of the feast of Mary’s Nativity.
I now saw this institution of the feast myself. 5656 The main feature of the story, the holy man who heard music in the air and, on asking what it was, received a revelation about Mary’s birthday, which then led to its general observance, is found in the Legenda Aurea of B. James of Voragine, O.P. (c. 1255) for Sept. 8th. The oldest documentary evidence for the feast is from the sixth century, and its general acceptance not until the eighth or ninth (Cath. Encyc., art. ‘Nativity’ (Holweck), p. 712d). (SB) Two hundred and fifty years after the death of the Blessed Virgin I saw a very devout man journeying through the Holy Land in order to seek out and venerate all the places connected with the life of Jesus upon earth. I saw that this holy man was given guidance from above, and often remained for several days in prayer and contemplation at different places, enjoying many visions and full of interior delight. He had for many years felt, in the night of the 7 th to the 8 th of September, a great joyfulness in nature and heard a lovely singing in the air; and at last, in answer to his earnest prayer, he was told by an angel in a dream that this was the birthnight of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He received this revelation on his journey to Mount Sinai or Horeb. It was told him at the same time that in a cave of the Prophet Elijah on that mountain was a walled-up chapel in honor of the Mother of the Messiah, and that he was to inform the hermits living there of both these things. Thereupon I saw him arriving at Mount Sinai. The place where the monastery now stands was already at that time inhabited by isolated hermits, and just as precipitous on the side facing the valley as it is now, when people have to be hoisted up by means of a pulley. I saw now that upon his announcement the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin was first celebrated here by the hermits on September 8 th about A.D. 250, and that its celebration spread later to the Universal Church. I saw, too, how he and the hermits looked for the cave of Elijah and the chapel in honor of the Blessed Virgin. These were, however, very difficult to find among the many caves of the Essenes and of other hermits. I saw many deserted gardens here and there near these caves, with magnificent fruit trees in them. After praying, the devout man was inspired to take a Jew with them when they visited these caves, and was told that they might recognize as the cave of Elijah the one that he was unable to enter. I saw thereupon how they sent an aged Jew into the caves, and how he felt himself thrust out of the narrow entrance of one of them, however much he tried to force his way in. In this way they recognized it as the cave of Elijah. They found in it a second cave, walled-up, which they opened; and this was the place where Elijah had prayed in veneration of the future mother of the Savior. The big, beautifully patterned stones which made the wall were used later for building the church. They also found in the cave many holy bones of patriarchs and prophets, as well as many woven screens and objects of earlier worship. All these were preserved in the church. I saw much of Mount Horeb on this occasion, but have forgotten it again. I still remember that the place where Moses saw the burning bush is called in the language of the place ‘The Shadow of God’, and that one may walk on it only with bare feet. I also saw a mountain there entirely of red sand, on which, however, very fine fruit trees grew.
6. THE EFFECT OF PRAYING ON THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF MARY.
I saw much of St. Bridget, and was given much knowledge of what had been revealed to this saint about Mary’s conception and birth. I remember that the Blessed Virgin said to her that if women with child celebrated the vigil of her Nativity by fasting and by the pious recitation of nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine-months’ sojourn in her Mother’s womb; and if they renewed this devotion frequently during their pregnancy and the day before they expected their confinement, at the same time receiving with devotion the Holy Sacrament, she would bring their prayer before God and beg for a happy delivery even in difficult and dangerous conditions.
I myself had today a vision of the Blessed Virgin who came to me and told me, among other things, that whoever recited with love and devotion on the afternoon of this day nine Ave Marias in honor of her nine months’ sojourn in her mother’s womb and of her birth, continuing this devotion for nine days, would give the angels nine flowers each day for a bouquet which they would receive in heaven and present to the Blessed Trinity, to obtain favor for the suppliant. Later I felt myself transported to a height between heaven and earth. The earth lay below, dark and troubled; above in heaven I saw the Blessed Virgin before the Throne of God, between the choirs of angels and the ordered hosts of the saints. I saw, built for her out of devotions and prayers on earth, two portals, or thrones of honor, which grew at last into palaces like churches, and even into whole cities. It was strange to see how these buildings were made entirely of herbs, flowers, and garlands all intertwined, their different species expressing the different kinds and different merits of the prayers of individual human beings and of whole communities. I saw all being taken by angels or saints from the hands of the suppliants and being carried up to heaven.
7. THE PURIFICATION OF ST. ANNE.
Some weeks after Mary’s birth I saw Joachim and Anna journeying to the Temple with the child to make sacrifice. They presented the child here in the Temple in devotion and gratitude to God, who had taken from them their long unfruitfulness, just as later the Blessed Virgin according to the Law offered and ransomed the Child Jesus in the Temple. 5757 See Lev. 12. The day after their arrival they made sacrifice, and already then made a vow to dedicate their child completely to the Temple in a few years time. Then they traveled back to Nazareth with the child.
32 The matter of the tunnel is one that has long puzzled students. Josephus (Ant., XV, xi, 5) certainly mentions an eastern gate where the ‘pure’ could enter, and (ib., 7) a tunnel that led from the eastern gate into the central enclosure, adding that this was built specially for the king (Herod). Then the Mishnah, Middoth, I, 9, mentions a tunnel leading under the Temple to a bath-house within the enclosure, where ceremonial cleansing could be performed. Whether these refer to the same tunnel is uncertain. See further, n. 45, p. 34 . (SB)
33 See the Little Chapter in the Vespers of the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Ecclus. 24.14. ‘From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and to the world to come I shall not cease to be’ (‘Ab initio et ante saecula creata sum et usque ad futura saecula non desinam ’). Compare also the passage of Holy Writ which has long been applied by the Church to Mary: ‘I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures. I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth. . . . My throne is in a pillar of cloud’ (‘Ego ex ore Altissimi prodivi primogenita ante omnem creaturam, ego feci in coelis, ut orietur lumen indeficiens. Thronus meus in columna nubis ’ ) ( Ecclus. 24.5 ). (CB)
34 In the course of her many visions, some historical and some symbolical, from the Old and New Testaments, Catherine Emmerich referred to this blessing in many different connections, some of which we will here enumerate in their chronological order. This was the same blessing by means of which Eve was brought forth from the right side of Adam. I saw this blessing withdrawn by God’s merciful providence from Adam when he was about to acquiesce in sin; but it was restored to Abraham by the angel after the institution of circumcision, with the promise of Isaac’s birth. Abraham handed it on, with solemn sacramental ceremony, to his first-born Isaac, from whom it descended to Jacob. It was taken away from Jacob by the angel that strove with him and handed on to Joseph in Egypt. Finally it was taken by Moses, together with the bones of Joseph, in the night before the flight out of Egypt, and became the Israelites’ sacred treasure in the Ark of the Covenant.
We had just prepared these disclosures for the press, but with considerable doubt and hesitation, when we learnt that the book Zohar (ascribed to Simon Bar Jochai in the second century of our era) reproduces almost word for word these and other statements of Catherine Emmerich about this mystery of the Jewish Covenant. Anyone able to read late Chaldean can convince himself of this by referring to the following passages: Zohar Par. Tol’doth, pp. 340 and 345 (edit. Sulzbach), Bereshith, p. 135, Terumah, pp. 251, etc. (CB)
It would seem that CB was slightly misled in regard to the Zohar, and it is unlikely that he was in a position to examine it himself, since qualified Hebraists and Aramaic scholars admit its great difficulty. The Zohar does not appear to contain any notably close parallels with statements of AC, either about the ‘mystery of the Ark’ (p. 16 ), or the ‘holy thing’ within it (pp. 23 - 24 ), or about the blessing handed down through the Patriarchs to Moses (p. 23 and CB’s note above).
The references given by CB above are to the Hebrew (and Aramaic) text published at Sulzbach in 1684, and refer to columns in the commentaries on Genesis and Exodus. We are adding here the standard modern references (to folios of the Mantua edition of 1588), which are also inserted in the English translation by Sperling and Simon (London, 1931-1934).
Bereshith (Genesis), col. 135 in Sulzbach (= f. 48b-49a, standard), contains no relevant reference; but f. 55b (Sulzbach, col. 171), commenting on ‘This is the book’ ( Gen. 5.1), takes that phrase literally and refers it to the story of the book containing sacred wisdom, which was given by God through an angel to Adam, and then handed down through the patriarchs and finally to Abraham.
Toledoth (Genesis), col. 340 in Sulzbach (= f. 146a, b, standard), recounts the many occasions on which Jacob received a blessing. The next reference, to col. 345 (=f. 148a, standard), belongs in fact to the next section Wayyese, and discusses the mystical meaning of the stones picked up by Jacob in Gen. 28.11.
Terumah ( Exodus), col. 251 in Sulzbach (=f. 153b, 154a, standard), though commenting on the construction of the ark ( Exod. 25), has no reference to the ‘mystery’ or the ‘holy thing’. A little earlier, however, f. 145b (Sulzbach, col. 238) has a passing reference to the heavenly mystery of the Holy of Holies.
It seems therefore legitimate to say that the Zohar, interesting though it is in itself, throws very little light on the matter in hand. (SB)
35 In Catherine Emmerich’s visions of the public ministry of Our Lord, which she daily recounted in chronological order for three years, she saw Our Lord, after the raising of Lazarus (which happened on Oct. 7th of His third year of teaching), withdraw Himself beyond the Jordan in order to escape the persecutions of the Pharisees. From here He dismissed the apostles and disciples to their homes, and Himself went on with three young men named Eliud, Silas, and Erimenzear. (These were descended from the companions of the Three Kings who, when the latter went away, had remained behind in the Holy Land and intermarried with the families of the shepherds of Bethlehem.) With these Our Lord journeyed to the place where the Three Kings were then settled, returning afterwards to the Promised Land by way of Egypt. On the first day of the January which preceded His death, He re-entered Judea, and on the evening of Monday, Jan. 8th, He again met the Apostles at Jacob’s well, thereafter teaching and healing in Sychar, Ephron, round Jericho, in Capharnaum, and in Nazareth. Towards February He came again to Bethany and the surrounding country, teaching and healing in Bethabara, Ephraim, and round Jericho. From the middle of February till His Passion on March 30th. He was in Bethany and Jerusalem by turns. The Evangelists are silent about the whole period between the raising of Lazarus and Palm Sunday, except for St. John, who says (11.53, 54): ‘From that day therefore they devised to put him to death, wherefore Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews, but he went into a country near the desert, to a city that is called Ephraim. And there he abode with his disciples.’ Catherine Emmerich mentions the presence of Our Lord in Ephraim near Jericho on Jan. 14th, 15th, and 16th, and again between Feb. 6th and 12th, without giving the exact date. We must, however, return to what gave rise to this note. From Dec. 1st to the 15th of the third year of His ministry, Catherine Emmerich saw and daily described the sojourn of Our Lord and His three companions in a town of tents inhabited by the three Holy Kings of Arabia, where they had established themselves shortly after their return from Bethlehem. Two of these chieftains were still alive. She describes in most remarkable detail their way of life and their religious practices and the festivities with which they received Jesus. Amongst many other things she recounted from Dec. 4th to 6th how these star-worshippers brought Our Lord into their temple (which she described as a square flattened pyramid surrounded with terraced wooden steps), from the top of which they observed the stars and inside which they performed their religious ceremonies. They showed Him in it the image of the Child Jesus in the crib, which they had made and placed therein immediately after their return from Bethlehem; this was made in the exact shape of the one they had seen in the star before they set out on their journey to Bethlehem. Catherine Emmerich describes it in the following words : ‘The whole representation was in gold and surrounded by a star-shaped sheet of gold. The golden child lay on a red blanket in a crib like the one at Bethlehem; his little hands were crossed on his breast and he was wrapped in swaddling-bands from breast to feet. They had even included the hay of the crib, it could be seen behind the child’s head like a little white wreath; I cannot remember what it was made of. They showed Jesus this image; they had no other in their temple.’ This is her description of the image of the crib to which she refers above in the text. (CB)
36 This is the general tradition about the origins of the Carmelite Order. It is briefly recounted in the Breviary Lessons for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16th), where mention is also made of the tradition that the cloud seen by Elijah (3 Kings 18.42-45) is a symbol of Our Lady. (SB)
37 In the Office for the Immaculate Conception and in other liturgical books there occurs the following verse: ‘As a cloud I covered all the earth’ ( Ecclus. 24.6), which is in complete harmony with this prophetic vision of the Mother of God. (CB)
38 Epiphanius, in his work on the life of the Prophet, says of Jeremiah: ‘This prophet gave the Egyptian priests a sign and told them that all their idols would fall in pieces, when a virgin mother should set foot in Egypt with her Divine Child. And so it befell. Therefore do they to this day adore a Virgin Mother and a Child lying in the crib. When King Ptolemy questioned them as to the reason therefore, they answered, “This is a secret which we received from our ancestors to whom it was announced by a holy prophet, and we await its fulfillment”’ ( Epiphan., Vol. II, p. 240). The above-mentioned son of the prophet sent to Egypt by Elijah cannot, however, be taken to be Jeremiah, for the latter lived some three centuries later. (CB)
This is presumably the Greek Father, St. Epiphanius of Salamis, d. 403, but an examination of various editions, old and new, has so far failed to identify the passage. The quotation may be linked with Jeremiah’ prophecy (43.13) of the shattering of the idols of Egypt after his warning to the Jews who had assassinated Gedaliah and were preparing to flee to Egypt ( Jer. 41-43). (SB)
39 Since the description of this unfamiliar figure was not clear, an archeologist used an antique image of Isis, which appeared appropriate, to design Figure 4 without in the least needing to change the description. (CB)
40 This interpretation, alluded to but not definitely established by earlier commentators, is shown by Biblical philology to be perfectly correct. (CB)
The names Azarias and Ananias both occur in Neh. 3.23, where Ananias is in Hebrew Ananyah, which may mean ‘the cloud of the Lord’, but the much commoner name is Hananyah, ‘the Lord is merciful’. Azaryah means ‘the help of the Lord’. (SB)
41 Many ancient and modern commentators of the Greek text have suggested the following version of the passage in St. Luke (3.23 ): ‘He was supposed to be the son of Joseph, but was in truth descended from Heli’, instead of ‘being as it was supposed the son of Joseph, who was of Heli’. The absence of any mention of Mary (whose line of descent is, however, given by St. Luke) is explained by the basic principle of the Jewish genealogists: ‘The father’s race is called a race, the mother’s race is not called a race’ (Talmud Baba Bathra, f. 110). The father of Mary was, according to this rule, the first of Our Lord’s forebears according to the flesh who could be named in His line of descent. Christ, who had no earthly father, may be as truly called, according to the flesh, the son of Heli as Laban ( Gen. 29.5) could be called the son of Nachor, and Zechariah ( Ezra 5.1) could be called the son of Iddo, for these were both great-grandchildren. (CB)
The emphasis on Our Lord’s Davidic descent ( Luke 1.32, 69) shows that Our Lady must also have been of the Davidic line (see Fr. R. Ginns, OP., in Cath. Comm., 1953, 748b). The interpretation proposed by CB requires a fresh punctuation of Luke 3.23 (literal translation from the Greek): ‘Jesus … being the son (as it was supposed of Joseph) of Heli.’ This rendering, though according to Fr. Ginns ( ib., 750g) ‘rejected by the majority of scholars’, is a tenable reading of the Greek. It involves the interpretation of ‘son’ as ‘grandson’ through the mother, as CB explains; and the identification of Heli with Joachim (cf. supra, n. 29, p. 22 ). The more usual reconciliation of the genealogies in Luke and Matthew is by the supposition of a second marriage of Joseph’s mother. (SB)
42 Catherine Emmerich no doubt meant by this the connection between the line of David through Nathan and that through Solomon (see p. 32 ). In the third generation upwards from Joachim, St. Joseph’s grandmother (who had married as her first husband Matthan, of the line of Solomon, and had by him two sons, one of whom was Jacob, the father of St. Joseph) took as her second husband Levi, of the line of Nathan, and had by him Matthat, the father of Heli or Joachim. Thus Joachim and Joseph were related to each other. It is remarkable that Raymundus Martini, in his Pugio fidei (p. 745, ed. Carp), also states that St. Joseph’s grandmother after the death of Matthan married a second husband, from whom Joachim was descended. (CB)
43 Related on December 8th, 1819.
44 Catherine Emmerich had visions of all the feasts of the Church being celebrated by the Church Triumphant, even when they were no longer celebrated on earth by the Church Militant. She saw these feasts being celebrated in a shining transparent church, the shape of which she generally described as octagonal. She saw a mysterious gathering of all the saints who were particularly associated with the feast in question, sharing in the celebrations. She usually saw this church floating in the air; but it is noteworthy that in all the feasts having so to speak a blood-relationship with Jesus Christ or with the mysteries of His life, she saw this church not floating in the air but appearing as the crown of a pillar or of a stern thrusting itself up like a flower or fruit growing out of the earth. What, however, surprised the writer in particular was that on all feasts of saints who had received the stigmata (for instance, St. Francis of Assisi or St. Catherine of Siena), she saw the church not floating in the air but on the stem growing out of the earth. She never made any reflection on this point, probably from humility, though it might well have been edifying had she done so. (CB)
45 Catherine Emmerich’s remarks are here in agreement with the accounts of the most ancient Jewish literature. Thus, for instance, Mishnah, tract. Tamid, c. 5, and Sotah, c. I. (CB)
Mishnah, Tamid, V, 7, states that the ceremonially unclean were to wait at the eastern gate, but the tractate Sotah, I, 5, dealing with adultery, directs that the woman be taken to the ‘eastern or Nicanor’s gate’, where also lepers and mothers awaiting ‘purification’ were to go. The ‘Golden Gate’ was probably an eastern gate. An eastern gate is also mentioned in Middoth, I, 9, in connection with ceremonial cleansing (see supra, n. 32, p. 24 ). John 8.2 mentions that Our Lord was teaching in the Temple when He spoke with the woman taken in adultery. (SB)
46 Mountain of the Prophet’ is the name given by Catherine Emmerich to a place high above all the mountains of the world to which she was taken for the first time on Dec. 10th, 1819, in her ecstatic state of dream-journeying, and again several times later. There she saw the books of prophetic revelation of all ages and all peoples preserved in a tent and examined and superintended by someone who reminded her partly of St. John the Evangelist and partly of Elijah—particularly of the latter, since she perceived the chariot which had transported that prophet from the earth standing here on the heights near the tent and overgrown with green plants. This person then told her that he compared with a great book lying before him all the books of prophetic knowledge that had ever been given (often in a very confused state) or would in future be given to mankind; and that much of these he crossed out or destroyed in the fire burning at his side. Mankind, he said, was not yet capable of receiving these gifts, another must first come, and so forth. She saw all this on a green island in a lake of clear water. On the island were many towers of different shapes, surrounded by gardens. She had the impression that these towers were treasuries and reservoirs of the wisdom of different peoples, and that under the island, which was full of murmuring streams, lay the source of rivers held to be sacred (the Ganges amongst them) whose waters issued forth at the foot of the mountain range. The direction in which she was led to this mountain of the Prophet was always (taking into account the starting-point of her journey) towards the highest part of Central Asia. She described places, natural scenery, human beings, animals, and plants of the region which she traversed before being carried up through a lonely and desolate space, as if through clouds, to the place mentioned above. Her detailed description of this place, with all that she experienced there, will be set down in its proper place with an account of her whole visionary journey. On her return journey she was carried down through the region of clouds once more, and then again traversed lands rich in luxuriant vegetation and full of animals and birds, until she reached the Ganges and saw the religious ceremonies of the Indians beside this river.
The geographical situation of this place and Catherine Emmerich’s statement that she had seen everything up there overgrown with living green, reminded someone who read her account twenty years later of traditions about a place of this kind (sometimes with a similar inhabitant) in the religions of several Asiatic peoples. The Prophet Elijah is known to the Musulmans (under the name of Chiser, i.e. the Green One) as a wonderful half-angelic being, who dwells in the north on a mountain known as Kaf, celebrated in many religious and poetical writings, and there watches over secrets at the source of the river of life. The Indians called their holy mountain Meru, while to the Chinese it was Kuen-lun, both connected with representations of a state of paradise and both situated on the heights of Central Asia, where Catherine Emmerich saw the Mountain of the Prophet. The ancient Persians also believed in such a place and called it Elbors or Albordsch. According to Isa. 14.13 (‘I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north ’), the Babylonians would seem to have held a similar belief. That they, like the Persians and Moslems, placed this mountain in the north is explained by their geographical position as regards the mountains of Central Asia. (CB)
47 When the writer copied down the very detailed account of her dealings with this Judith and her description of the place, he only knew (from the direction taken by her journey) that she was in Abyssinia; several years after her death he found in the journeys of Bruce and Salt an account of a Jewish settlement on the high mountains of Samen in Abyssinia. The ruler of this settlement was always called Gideon and, if it was a woman, Judith—the name which Catherine Emmerich herself mentioned. (CB)
James Bruce, Travels and Adventures in Abyssinia. He was one of the first Europeans to go there, and his journey was in 1769. Henry Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia. An account of a journey made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government in 1809-1810. (SB)
48 In this connection it seems remarkable that among the writers of the first centuries of the Christian era who reproduce the accusations made by the heathens against the Christians, Minutius Felix mentions this reproach among others that when the Christians initiated anyone into their religion, they laid before him a child completely covered with flour, so as to hide the murder which they were about to make him commit. He was then obliged to stab the child over and over again with a knife. They greedily sucked up the streaming blood, cut the child into small pieces and devoured them all. This crime, committed in common, was a mutual pledge of silence and secrecy in regard to other shameful excesses with which they ended their assemblies.
Should the origin of this accusation perhaps be sought in the above-mentioned sacrifice of children by the star-worshippers, who were among the first followers of Christianity? In any case, it may well be supposed that ideas of this kind (which, as we see in the case of the Magi, arise from superstition and from misinterpretation of messages of salvation) may be the hidden cause lying at the root of the murder of Christian children by Jews. If this be so, these dark and cruel deeds must be added to the many motives for which we have to pity the unfortunate people of Israel rather than to despise them; for it conceals a distorted longing for the Savior. This constantly recurring phenomenon has so far as we know never been thoroughly investigated and elucidated in a completely unprejudiced spirit. Of late years it has generally been treated (like all historical riddles whose source is obscure) in a complacent and condescending manner as being nothing but a fanatical accusation. (CB)
Minutius Felix, Octavius , IX, 5, and cf. XXX, 1 . (SB)
49 Just as the sacrifice on Calvary was accomplished by the cruelty of ungodly priests and by the bloodthirsty hands of brutal executioners, so is the sacrifice of the Mass, even when unworthily celebrated, a true sacrifice; but the guilty and unworthy priest who celebrates it plays the part not only of the Jewish priests who condemned Our Lord but also of the soldiers who crucified Him. (CB)
50 On July 5th, 1835, the writer discovered from Cardinal Baronius’ notes on the Martyrologium Romanum of December 8th that in the Sforza Library there is a Codex (No. 65) containing a speech by the Emperor Leo, who ascended the throne in 886, about this feast in Constantinople. It appears from this speech that the celebration of the feast was much anterior to this date. According to Canisius (De beatissima virgine Maria, lib. I, c. 7) and Galatinus (De arcanis catholicae veritatis, lib. 7, c. 5), the feast is included in the Martyrology of St. John Damascene (d. A.D. 749). St. Sabbas, Abbot, mentioned by Catherine Emmerich, is known for his devotion to Our Lady. He died c. A.D. 500. (CB)
The year of the death of St. Sabbas is given in Ramsgate’s Book of Saints (1947) as A.D. 532. (SB)
51 It is remarkable that Catherine Emmerich does not give the name (if Anselm) to the abbot who had the vision, since Petrus de Natal in Catal. Sanct., lib.1 , c. 42, does so, as the writer discovered in July 1835. Her account seems to be supported by Baronius in his notes to the Roman Martyrology for Dec. 4th, where he states that the announcement was made, not to Anselm, but at an earlier date in 1070 in exactly similar circumstances to Elsinus or Elpinus, a Benedictine abbot. This is said to be stated also in J. Carthagena in his homilies De Arcanis Deiparae, tom. 1, lib. 1, hom. 19, on the authority of a letter from St. Anselm to the bishops of England. It was this holy Bishop of Canterbury who first introduced the feast into England. (CB)
Petrus de Natalibus’ Catalogus Sanctorum was published in Venice in 1506. As the subsequent work of Baronius (1586, 1589) shows, AC is right in not attributing the event to Anselm. The source of the Helsin legend, a letter ascribed to Anselm, is now, however, considered to be spurious, though this need not impugn the truth of the legend itself. The Anselm mentioned by AC (with no title) is wrongly identified by CB with the Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1109). It was his nephew, also called Anselm, who introduced the feast into England when he became Abbot of Bury, St. Edmund’s in 1121, having doubtless become acquainted with the feast as observed at the Greek abbey of St. Sabbas in Rome, where he was abbot 1109-1121. Cf. Cath. Encyc., art. ‘Immaculate’ (Holweck), pp. 677b-678a. (SB)
52 It was introduced in 1245 by the Chapter of the Cathedral of Lyons, to which Bernard wrote to oppose it. (CB)
The date should read 1140-1145. The reference is to St. Bernard’s letter, ‘To the Canons of the Church of Lyons’, traditionally numbered 174, and numbered chronologically 215 (between 1140 and 1145) by Fr. Bruno Scott-James in his recent (1953) translation. (SB)
53 The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated, according to Lev. 23.34-36, for the seven days 15th to 21st Tisri, with an eighth day of festival on the 22nd. The Hebrew lunar months do not correspond exactly to our months, and Tisri falls in Sept./Oct. CB quite correctly distinguishes the Dedication Feast of Solomon’s Temple in the month Tisri, celebrated in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles (3 Kings 8.2-66; 2 Chronicles 7.10), from the Dedication Feast on the 25th Kislev, which commemorated the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C. ( I Macc.4.52). This feast was also called Hanukkah and the ‘Feast of Lights’ by Josephus (Ant. XII, vii, 7), and Encaenia or ‘Dedication’ in the Gospel ( John 10.22). (SB)
54 On Dec. 7th of the third year of Our Lord’s ministry she saw a temple of the Chaldeans about which she related the following: ‘On a neighboring hill they had a terraced pyramid with galleries, from which they zealously watched the stars. They prophesied from the manner in which animals moved and they interpreted dreams. They sacrificed animals, but had a horror of the blood and always let it run away into the earth. In their religious observances they had holy fire and holy water, holy juice from a plant and little holy loaves of bread. Their temple, oval in shape, was full of images very delicately wrought in metal. They had a strong presentiment about the Mother of God. The principal object in the Temple was a three-cornered pillar ending in a point. On one side of this was an image with many arms and with animals’ feet. It held in its hands, among other things, a globe, a diadem, a bunch of herbs, and a big ribbed apple held by its stalk. Its face was like a sun with rays, it was many-breasted, and represented the productive and preservative powers of nature. Its name sounded like Miter or Mitras. On the other side of the pillar was the figure of an animal with a horn. It was a unicorn, and its name sounded like Asphas or Aspax. It was thrusting with its horn against another evil beast which was on the third side. This had a head like an owl; it had a curved beak, four legs with claws, two wings, and a tail ending like a scorpion’s. I have forgotten its name; indeed, I find it very difficult to remember such outlandish names and often mix them up. I can only say that they sounded something like this or that. Over the two fighting beasts there was an image standing on the corner of the pillar which was intended to represent the mother of all the gods. Its name sounded like the Lady Aloa or Aloas. They also called her “corn granary ”. A cluster of high ears of corn grew out of its body: its head was pressed down on to its shoulders and bent forward, for on the nape of its neck it bore a vessel containing wine or about to do so. They had a saying: “The Corn shall become bread, the grape shall become wine, for the refreshment of all mankind.” Over this image was a sort of crown, and there were two letters on the pillar which looked to me like O and W [perhaps Alpha and Omega]. What, however, surprised me most in this temple was a little round garden, covered over with gold network and standing on a bronze altar. Above it was the picture of a virgin. In the middle of this garden was a fountain with several sealed basins one above the other, in front of which was a green vine with a beautiful red cluster of grapes which hung down into a dark-colored wine-press. Its form reminded me vividly of the Holy Cross, but it was a wine-press. Above in a hollow trunk was fixed a wide funnel with a bag hanging from its spout. Two movable arms, fixed to each side of the hollow trunk, were used as levers to press the grapes that were in the bag so that the juice ran out of the trunk through openings made in it lower down. The little round garden, which was about five to six feet in diameter, was full of delicate green shrubs, flowers, fruits and little trees which were all, like the vine, very lifelike and had the same significance as it.’ (See Canticle of Canticles 4.12.) (CB)
55 In a vision of the Blessed Virgin she had received the promise that on the next day, Sept. 8th (which was also her own birthday), she would be granted the favor of sitting up in bed for several weeks, leaving the bed and walking about the room several times, which she had been unable to do for some ten years. The fulfillment of this promise was attended by all the spiritual and bodily sufferings which had been announced to her at the time, as will be recounted in its proper place. (CB)
56 The main feature of the story, the holy man who heard music in the air and, on asking what it was, received a revelation about Mary’s birthday, which then led to its general observance, is found in the Legenda Aurea of B. James of Voragine, O.P. (c. 1255) for Sept. 8th. The oldest documentary evidence for the feast is from the sixth century, and its general acceptance not until the eighth or ninth (Cath. Encyc., art. ‘Nativity’ (Holweck), p. 712d). (SB)
57 See Lev. 12.
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