Blessed Anna Katharina Emmerick: Visions of The Life Of Jesus Christ And Biblical Revelations.

EVE OF MARY'S BIRTH
What gladness throughout all nature! Birds are singing,
lambs and kids are gamboling, and swarms of doves are
tluttering with joy around the spot upon which once stood
Anne's abode. I see only a wilderness there at the present
day ... But I had a vision of pilgrims in the far-off times
who, girded and with long staves in their hands, wended
their way through the country to Mount Carmel. On their
head they wore a covering wound around like a turban.
They. too, participated in the joy of nature. And when in
their astonishment they asked the hermits that dwelt in the
neighborhood the cause of this remarkable exultation,
they received for answer that such manifestations of gladness
were customary. They were always observed upon the
eve of the anniversary of Mary's birth around that spot
where once stood Anne's house. The hermits told them of
a holy man of the early times who had been the first to
notice these wonders in nature. His account gave rise to
the celebration of the feast of Mary's Nativity which soon
became general throughout the Church. And now 1. too,
beheld how this came to pass.
1 saw a pious pilgrim, two hundred and fifty years after
Mary's death, traversing the Holy Land, visiting and
venerating all places connected with the actions of Jesus
Eve or Mary's Birth 147
while on earth. He was supernaturally guided. Sometimes
he tarried several days together in certain places in which
he tasted extraordinary consolation. There he prayed and
meditated, and there also he received revelations from on
high. For several years he had, from the seventh to the
eighth of September, noticed a great jubilation in nature
and heard angelic voices singing in the air. He prayed earnestly
to know the meaning of all this, and it was made
known to him in a vision that that was the birthnight of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was on his way to Mount
Sinai when he had this vision. In it he was informed also
of the existence of a chapel huilt in Mary's honor in a
cave of the Prophet Elias. He was tuld to reveal this, as
well as the circumstance of Mary's hirthnight, to the hermits
on Mount Sinai.
I saw him again when he arrived at the mount. Where
the convent now stands there dweit, even at that early
period, hermits scattered here and there. It was then as inaccessible
from the valley as it IS now. To reach the top of
the mountain from that side, hoistwg machines were used.
I saw that in consequence of the pilgrim's communication,
the eighth of September was here first celehrated in the
year 250, and that later it was introduced into other parts
of the ehurch.
I saw hermits accomp,lOving the pilgrim to the cave of
Elias to visit the chapel that had been built therein to
Mary's honor. But it was not easy to find. for the mountain
was covered with gardens that still produced magnificent
fruits. though long allowed to run wild, and there
were numerous caves of hermits and Essenians. The
pilgrim who had had the vision told them to send a Jew
into the different caves, and that the one out of which he
should be thrust would be the cave of Elias. He had been
thus instructed in vision. I then saw them sending an old
Jew into the caves; but, as often as he tried to enter a certain
one that had a narrow entrance built up before it, he
148 Life of Jesus Christ
was repulsed. By this miracle the cave of Elias was recognized.
On entering it they found another cave, the
entrance to which had been closed by masonry; this was
the chapel in which the Prophet Elias had in prayer
honored the future Mother of the Saviour. Many holy
relics were still preserved in it, bones of the Prophets and
Patriarchs. screens and vessels that had once been used in
ceremonies of the Old Law. These latter were appropriated
to the use of the Church.
The spot upon which the thornbush had stood was
called in the language of that country: The Shadow of God.
It was entered only barefoot. The Elias chapel was walled
up with beautiful large stones through which ran flowerlike
veinings. They were afterward employed for the erection
of the church. In the vicinity is a mountain entirely of
red sand on which, nevertheless, there is very beautiful
fruit.
I learned from St. Bridget that if pregnant women fast
on the eve of Mary's birth and say fervently nine Hail
Marys' to honor the nine months she passed in Anne's
womb; if they frequently repeat these prayers during their
pregnancy, and especially on the eve of their delivery,
receiving then the holy Sacraments devoutly, she will offer
their prayer to God herself and bring them through even
very critical circumstances to a happy delivery.
I saw the Blessed Virgin on the eve of her nativity. She
said to me: "Whoever says this evening," (Sept. 7th) "nine
times the Hail Mary lovingly and devoutly to honor the
nine months spent in my mother's womb as also my birth,
and continues the same devotion for nine consecutive
days, daily gives to the angels nine flowers for a bouquet.
This bouquet they bear to Heaven and offer to the Most
Holy Trinity to obtain some favor for the one that prays."
I was transported to a high place between Heaven and
earth. I saw the earth below me gray and somber, and
above me Heaven where, among the choirs of angels....
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