The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

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III. THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN IN THE TEMPLE
Section III

ARRIVAL IN JERUSALEM

[In the evening of November 6th, 1821, Catherine Emmerich said:] Today at midday I saw the arrival in Jerusalem of the child Mary with those accompanying her. Jerusalem is a strange city; one must not picture it with crowded streets like, for instance, Paris. In Jerusalem are many valleys, steep ways winding behind city walls. No doors or windows are to be seen, for the houses, which stand on high ground, face away from the walls. New quarters have been added one by one, each enclosing a fresh ridge of hill, but leaving the old town-walls standing between them. These valleys are often spanned by solid stone bridges. The living-rooms of the houses usually face on to inner courts; on the street side only the door is to be seen, or perhaps a terrace high up on the top of the wall. The houses are very much shut up; unless the inhabitants have business in the markets or are visiting the Temple, they spend most of their time in the inner rooms and courtyards. In general the streets of Jerusalem are rather quiet, except near the markets and palaces, where crowds of travellers and soldiers and people going in and out of the houses fill the streets with life and movement. Rome is much more pleasantly situated; its streets are not so steep and narrow and are much more lively. When all the people of Jerusalem are assembled in the Temple, many of the districts of the city seem quite dead. (It was because of the seclusion of the inhabitants within their houses and of the number of deserted valley-paths that Jesus was so often able to go about the city with His disciples undisturbed.)

Water is scarce in Jerusalem, and one often sees great structures of arches with channels to carry it in different directions, also towers to the top of which it is driven or pumped. In the Temple, where a great deal of water is needed for washing and cleansing the vessels, it is used very carefully. It is brought up from below by means of large pumping works.

There are a great many dealers in the city: they usually group themselves with others of the same trade, and set up lightly-made huts in open places and markets surrounded by porticoes. There are, for instance, not far from the Sheep Gate many dealers in every kind of metal-work, gold, and precious stones. They have light round huts, brown, as if smeared with pitch or resin. Although light, these huts are quite strong; they are used as dwellings, and awnings are stretched from one to another under which the wares are set out.

The gentler slope of the hill on which the Temple lies is terraced with several streets of houses, built one above the other behind thick walls. These are inhabited partly by priests and partly by inferior temple-servants charged with menial duties, such as cleaning out the trenches into which is cast all the refuse from animals slaughtered in the Temple. On one side [she means the northern one]71 the Temple hill falls very steeply into a black gully. Little gardens belonging to the priests make a green strip round the top of the hill. Work on the Temple never ceased: even in Christ’s lifetime building was going on in different parts of it. There was a quantity of ore in the Temple hill, which was dug out in the course of building and made use of. There are many vaults and smelting-furnaces under the Temple. I never found a good place in the Temple to pray in: it is all so extraordinarily solid, heavy and high, and the little courts are themselves so narrow and dark and so encumbered with seats and other things, that when there are great multitudes, the narrow spaces and the crowds between the thick high walls and pillars have a really terrifying effect. The perpetual slaughtering and all the blood filled me, too, with horror, though all is performed with incredible order and cleanliness. It is a long time, I think, since I saw so clearly as I do today all the buildings, inside and out; but there is so much to describe that I shall never be able to do so properly.

The travellers, with the child Mary, approached Jerusalem from the north, but did not  enter it on that side; as soon as they reached the outlying gardens and palaces, they skirted the town, turning east through part of the valley of Josaphat, leaving the Mount of Olives and the road to Bethany on their left, and entered the city by the Sheep Gate, which leads to the cattle-market. By this gate is a pool, in which the sheep destined for sacrifice are washed for the first time to remove the heavy dirt. But this is not the Pool of Bethesda.72 The little company soon turned again to the right between walls as though going to another quarter of the town. On their way they passed through a long valley, on one side of which rose the
towering walls of one of the upper parts of the city.

They went towards the western side of Jerusalem, to the neighbourhood of the fish-market, where the ancestral house of Zacharias of Hebron stood. In it was a very old man, I think he was a brother of Zacharias’ father. Zacharias always stayed here when he performed his service at the Temple. He was in the city now; his time of service had just come to an end, but he had remained a few days longer in Jerusalem on purpose to be present at Mary’s reception in the Temple. He was not in his house when the company arrived. There were yet other relations in the house, from the neighbourhood of Bethlehem and Hebron, with their children, amongst them two little nieces of Elisabeth, who was not there herself. These all went out with many young girls, carrying little garlands and branches, to meet the travellers, who were still a quarter of an hour away on the valley path. They gave them a joyful welcome, and led them to Zacharias’ house, where great rejoicings took place. They were given some refreshment, and then preparations were made to conduct the whole company to a ceremonial inn in the neighbourhood of the Temple. Joachim’s beasts for sacrifice had already been brought from near the cattle-market to stables near this special inn. Zacharias now came to lead the company from his house to the inn.

The child Mary was dressed in the second set of ceremonial garments with the sky-blue dress. A procession was formed, headed by Zacharias with Joachim and Anna. Mary followed, surrounded by four girls dressed in white, and behind them came the other children and relations. They went along several streets, passing the palace of Herod and the house where, later, Pilate lived. Their way led them towards the north-eastern corner of the Temple hill; behind them was the fortress Antonia, a big high building on the north-western side of the Temple. They had to climb a high wall by a flight of many steps. They wanted to take the child Mary by the hand, but to everyone’s surprise she ran up swiftly and joyfully by herself.

The house they were going to was a ceremonial inn not far from the cattle-market. There were four of these inns round the Temple, and this one had been hired for them by Zacharias. It was a large building, with a big courtyard surrounded by a kind of cloister with sleeping-places and long, low tables. There was also a large room with a hearth for cooking. The place to which Joachim’s sacrificial beasts had been taken was nearby. On each side of it were the dwellings of the Temple servants who had charge of the animals for sacrifice. When the company entered the inn, their feet were washed, as is the custom with new arrivals; the men’s feet were washed by men, the women’s by women. Then they went into a room where a big many-branched lamp hung from the middle of the ceiling over a large metal basin with handles, full of water, in which they washed their hands and faces. Joachim’s pack-donkey was unloaded and led by the manservant to the stable. Joachim, who had given notice of his intention to sacrifice, followed the Temple servants to the nearby stables, where they inspected his beasts.

Joachim and Anna then made their way with the child Mary to a priest’s house higher up the hill. Here, too, the child ran up the steps with surprising energy as though upheld and urged by a spiritual force. The two priests in this house, one very old and one younger, gave them a friendly welcome; both had been present at Mary’s examination in Nazareth and were expecting her. After they had spoken of the journey and of the approaching presentation ceremony, they summoned one of the Temple women, an aged widow who was to have charge of the child. (She lived near the Temple with other women who, like her, were occupied in various feminine employments and in the training of young girls. Their dwelling was farther away from the Temple than the rooms in which were the oratories of the women and of the maidens dedicated to the Temple. These rooms were built directly on to it, and from them one could look down unseen into the holy place below.)

The woman who now came in was so muffled up that only a little of her face could be seen. The child Mary was introduced to her as her future foster-child by the priests and by her parents. She was grave but friendly, and the child was serious, humble, and respectful. They told her of Mary’s disposition and character, and discussed various matters connected with the ceremony of her presentation. This elderly woman accompanied them to the inn and was given a package of the child’s belongings, which she took back with her to arrange in Mary’s new home. Those who had accompanied the party from Zacharias’ house returned there, and only the relations who had come with the Holy Family remained in the inn hired by Zacharias. The women of the party settled themselves there and made preparations for a banquet on the following day.

[On November 7th Catherine Emmerich said:] I spent the whole of today watching the preparations for Joachim’s sacrifice and for Mary’s reception in the Temple. Early in the morning Joachim and some other men drove the sacrificial animals to the Temple, where they underwent another inspection by the priests; some of them were rejected, and these were at once driven to the cattle-market in the city. Those which were accepted were driven into the slaughtering-place, where I saw many things happening, but can no longer say in what order. I remember that Joachim laid his hand on the head of each animal before it was sacrificed. He had to catch the blood in a vessel, and had also to receive certain portions of the animal. There were all kinds of pillars, tables, and vessels there, where everything was cut up, distributed, and arranged in order. The bloody froth was taken away, while the fat, spleen, and liver were set apart. Everything was sprinkled with salt. The intestines of the lambs were cleansed and, after being filled with something, were put back into the body to make it seem whole again. The legs of all the animals were tied together crosswise. Some of the meat was taken into another court and given to the Temple virgins, who had to do something with it—perhaps to prepare it for their own or for the priests’ food. All was done with incredible orderliness. The priests and Levites moved about always two by two, and the most difficult and complicated tasks were accomplished as if by clockwork. The pieces of meat were not actually offered up till the following day; in the meantime they lay in salt.

There were great rejoicings in the inn today, and a banquet; there must have been a hundred people there, counting the children. There were present at least twenty-four girls of varying ages; among them I saw Seraphia, who after Jesus’ death was known as Veronica. She was tall, and might have been ten or twelve years old. They were making wreaths and garlands for Mary and her companions, and decorating seven candles or torches. The candlesticks, which were without pedestals, were shaped like sceptres; I cannot remember what fed the flame at the top, whether it was oil or wax or something else.

During the festivities there were several priests and Levites going in and out of the inn, and these also took part in the banquet. When they expressed astonishment at the greatness of Joachim’s sacrifice, he explained that he wished to show his gratitude to the best of his power; he could not forget how, by God’s mercy, his shame in the Temple at the rejection of his sacrifice had been followed by the granting of his petitions. Today, too, I saw the child Mary going for a walk near the inn with the other little girls. Much else I have forgotten.


70. Mary was 3 years and 3 months old in early November. Therefore, Mary was born in early August, not in September. AC saw visions of Mary’s birth on September 8, because that is the day of the celebration of Mary’s birth in the liturgical calendar. (RC)

71. It is the eastern side of the Temple hill that falls steeply into the Valley of Kedron. (SB)

72. John 5.2, usually rendered, ‘There is at Jerusalem a pond Probatica (=sheep), which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida (or Bethesda or Bezatha)’, seems to identify the sheep-pool and Bethsaida, which AC states are distinct. But the most probable rendering of the Greek is ‘There is at Jerusalem by the Probatica (i.e. sheep gate) a swimming-pool called in Hebrew Bezatha’, and excavations have revealed traces of a swimming-pool ‘with five porches’ (John, ib.) (cf. Cath. Comm., 791c). This is evidently not the same as the sheep-dipping pool mentioned by AC. (SB)

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III. THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN IN THE TEMPLE

Section IV. MARY’S ENTRY INTO THE TEMPLE AND PRESENTATION

[On November 8th, 1821, Catherine Emmerich related:]73 Today Joachim went first to the Temple with Zacharias and the other men. Afterwards Mary was taken there by her mother Anna in a festal procession. First came Anna and her elder daughter Mary Heli, with the latter’s little daughter Mary Cleophas; then the holy child Mary followed in her sky-blue dress and robe, with wreaths round her arms and neck; in her hand she held a candle or torch entwined with flowers. Decorated candles like this were also carried by three maidens who walked on each side of her, wearing white dresses embroidered with gold. They, too, wore pale-blue robes; they were wreathed round with garlands of flowers, and wore little wreaths round their necks and arms as well. Next came the other maidens and little girls, all in festal dress but each different. They all wore little robes. The other women came at the end of the procession. They could not go direct from the inn to the Temple, but had to make a detour through several streets. The beautiful procession gave pleasure to all who saw it, and at several houses honour was paid to it as it passed. There was something indescribably moving in the holiness apparent in the child. As the procession approached the Temple, I saw many of the Temple servants struggling with great efforts to open an immensely large and heavy door, shining like gold and ornamented with a multitude of sculptured heads, bunches of grapes, and sheaves of corn. This was the Golden Gate. The procession passed under this gate, to which fifteen steps led up, but whether in a single flight I cannot remember. Mary would not take the hands held out to her; to the admiration of all she ran eagerly and joyfully up the steps without stumbling. She was received in the gateway by Zacharias, Joachim, and several priests, and led under the gate (which was a long archway) to the right into some large halls or high rooms, in one of which a meal was being prepared. Here the procession dispersed. Several of the women and children went to the women’s praying-place in the Temple, while Joachim and Zacharias proceeded to the sacrifice. In one of the halls the priest again examined the child Mary by putting questions to her. They were astonished at the wisdom of her answers, and left her to be dressed by Anna in the third and most magnificent violet-blue ceremonial garment, with the robe, veil, and crown which I have already described at the ceremony in Anna’s house.

In the meantime Joachim had gone with the priests to the sacrifice. He was given fire from the appointed place, and then stood between two priests at the altar. I am at present too ill and upset to describe all the circumstances of the sacrifice, but will tell what is still present to my mind. The altar could be approached from three sides only. The meat prepared for the sacrifice was not put all together, but was divided into separate portions placed round the altar. Flat shelves could be drawn out of the three sides of the altar, and on these the offerings were laid to be pushed to the centre of it; for the altar was too large for the officiating priest to be able to reach the centre with his arm. At the four corners of the altar there stood little hollow columns of metal, crowned with chimneys or something similar-wide funnels made of thin copper, ending in pipes curving outwards like horns, which carried away the smoke above the heads of the officiating priests. When Joachim’s sacrifice started to burn, Anna went, with the child Mary in her ceremonial dress and with her companions, into the outer court of the women, which is the place in the Temple set apart for women. This court was separated from the court of the altar of sacrifice by a wall surmounted by a grille; there was, however; a door in the centre of this dividing wall. The women’s court slants upwards from the wall, so that a view of the altar of sacrifice cannot be had by all, but only by those standing at the back. When, however, the door in the dividing wall was opened, a number of the women were able to see the altar through it. Mary and the other little girls stood in front of Anna, and the other women of the family remained near the door. In a separate place there were a number of Temple boys dressed in white and playing flutes and harps. After the sacrifice, there was set up in the doorway leading from the court of sacrifice to the women’s court a portable decorated altar74 or sacrificial table, with several steps leading up to it.

Zacharias and Joachim came out of the court of sacrifice and went up to this altar with a priest, in front of whom stood another priest and two Levites with scrolls and writing materials. Anna led the child Mary up to them; the maidens who had accompanied Mary stood a little behind. Mary knelt on the steps, and Joachim and Anna laid their hands on her head. The priest cut off a few of her hairs and burnt them in a brazier. Her parents also said a few words, offering up their child; these were written down by two Levites. Meanwhile the maidens sang the 44th Psalm (Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum) and the priests the 49th Psalm (Deus, deorum Dominus, locutus est) accompanied by the boys with their instruments.75
I then saw Mary being led by the hand by two priests up many steps to a raised place in the wall dividing the outer court of the Holy Place from the other court. They placed the child in a sort of niche in the middle of this wall, so that she could see into the Temple, where there were many men standing in ranks; they seemed to me to be also dedicated to the Temple. Two priests stood beside her, and still others on the steps below, singing and reading aloud from their scrolls. On the other side of the dividing wall there was an old high priest standing at an altar of incense, so high up that one could see half of his figure. I saw him offering incense and the smoke from it enveloping the child Mary.

During these ceremonies I saw a symbolic vision round the Blessed Virgin which eventually filled and dimmed the whole Temple. I saw a glory of light under Mary’s heart, and understood that this glory encompassed the Promise, the most holy blessing of God. I saw this glory appear as if surrounded by the Ark of Noah, so that the Blessed Virgin’s head projected above it. Then I saw the shape of the Ark about the glory change into the shape of the Ark of the Covenant, which in its turn changed into the shape of the Temple. Then I saw these shapes disappear, and out of the glory there rose before Our Lady’s breast a shape like the Chalice of the Last Supper, and above this, before her mouth, a bread marked with a cross. On each side of her there streamed out manifold rays of light at the ends of which appeared in pictures many mysteries and symbols of the Blessed Virgin, as for example all the titles in the Litany of Our Lady. Behind her shoulders two branches of olive and cypress or cedar and cypress stretched crosswise above a slender palm-tree, which I saw appear just behind her with a little leafy shrub. In the spaces between this arrangement of green branches I saw all the instruments of Our Lord’s Passion. The Holy Ghost hovered over the picture in human rather than dove-like form, winged with rays of light: and above I saw the heavens open and disclose, floating in the air above Our Lady, the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of God, with all its palaces and gardens and the mansions of future saints. All were filled with angels, and the whole glory, which now surrounded the Blessed Virgin, was filled with angels’ faces.

How can this be expressed? Its variations, its unfoldings, and its transformations were so innumerable that I have forgotten a very great deal. The whole significance of the Blessed Virgin in the Covenant of the Old and New Testaments and to all eternity was set forth therein. I can compare this vision with the smaller one which I had a short time ago of the holy Rosary in all its glory. (Seemingly clever people who speak slightingly of the Rosary are much less sensible than poor unimportant folk who pray with it in all simplicity, for these adorn it with the beauty of obedience and humble devotion, trusting in the Church’s recommendation of it to the faithful.)

With this vision before me, all the splendour and magnificence of the Temple and the beautifully decorated wall behind the Blessed Virgin seemed quite dim and dingy, even the Temple itself seemed to be no longer there, so full was everything of Mary and her glory. As the whole significance of the Blessed Virgin unfolded itself before my eyes in these visions I saw her no longer as the child Mary, but as the Blessed Virgin, hovering tall above me. I saw the priests and the smoke of the offering and everything through the picture; it was as if the priests behind her were uttering prophecies and admonishing the people to thank God and to pray that this child should be magnified. All those who were present in the Temple were hushed and filled with solemn awe, though they did not see the picture that I saw. It disappeared again little by little just as I had seen it come. At last I saw nothing but the glory under Mary’s heart, with the Blessing of the Promise shining within it. Then this disappeared, too, and I saw the holy dedicated child in her ceremonial dress standing alone once more between the priests. The priests took the wreaths from off the child’s arms and the torch from her hand and gave them to her companions. They placed a brown veil or hood on her head, and led her down the steps through a door into another hall, where she was met by six other (but older) Temple virgins who strewed flowers before her. Behind her stood her teachers: Noemi, the sister of Lazarus’ mother, the Prophetess Anna, and still a third woman; the priests gave the child Mary over to them and withdrew. Her parents and near relations now approached; the singing was over, and Mary said farewell.

Joachim’s emotion was particularly deep; he lifted Mary up, pressed her to his heart, and said to her with tears, ‘Remember my soul before God!’ Thereupon Mary with her teachers and several maidens went into the women’s dwelling on the north side of the Temple itself. They lived in rooms built in the thickness of the Temple walls. Passages and winding stairs led up to little praying cells near the Holy Place and Holy of Holies. Mary’s parents and relations went back to the hall by the Golden Gate where they had first waited, and partook of a meal there with the priests. The women ate in a separate hall. I have forgotten much of what I saw and heard, amongst other things the exact reason why the ceremony was so rich and solemn; but I do recollect that it was so as a result of a revelation of the Divine Will.

(Mary’s parents were really well off; it was only as mortification and for almsgiving that they lived so poorly. I forget for how long Anna ate nothing but cold food; but their servants were well fed and provided for.) I saw many people praying in the Temple, and many had followed the procession to its gates. Some of those present must have had some idea of the destiny of Our Lady, for I remember Anna speaking with enthusiastic joy to various women and saying to them, ‘Now the Ark of the Covenant, the Vessel of the Promise, is entering the Temple’. Mary’s parents and other relations reached Bethoron the same day on their journey home.

I now saw a festival among the Temple virgins. Mary had to ask the teachers and each of the young girls whether they would suffer her to be among them. This was the custom. Then they had a meal, and afterwards they danced amongst themselves. They stood opposite each other in pairs, and danced in various figures and crossings. There was no hopping, it was like a minuet. Sometimes there was a swaying, circular motion of the body, like the movements of the Jews when they pray. Some of the young girls accompanied the dancing with flutes, triangles, and bells. There was another instrument which sounded particularly strange and delightful. It was played by plucking the strings stretched on the steeply sloping sides of a sort of little box. In the middle of the box were bellows which when pressed up and down sent the air through several pipes, some straight and some crooked, and so made an accompaniment to the strings. The instrument was held on the player’s knees.

In the evening I saw the teacher Noemi lead the Blessed Virgin to her little room, which looked into the Temple. It was not quite square, and the walls were inlaid with triangular shapes in different colours. There was a stool in it and a little table, and in the corners were stands with shelves for putting things on. Before this room was a sleeping-place and a room for dresses, as well as Noemi’s room. Mary spoke to her again about rising often to pray in the night, but Noemi did not yet allow this.

The Temple women wore long, full, white robes with girdles and very wide sleeves, which they rolled up when working. They were veiled. I never remember seeing that Herod entirely rebuilt the Temple: I only saw various alterations being made in it during his reign. Now, when Mary came to the Temple, eleven years before Christ’s birth, nothing was being built in the Temple itself, but (as always) in the outer portions of it: here the work never stopped.76 [On November 21st Catherine Emmerich said:] Today I had a view of Mary’s dwelling in the Temple. On the northern side of the Temple hall, towards the Holy Place, there were several rooms high up which were connected with the women’s dwellings.

Mary’s room was one of the outermost of these towards the Holy of Holies. From the passage one passed through a curtain into a sort of antechamber, which was divided off from the room itself by a partition, semi-circular or forming an angle. In the corners to the right and left were shelves for keeping clothes and other things. Opposite the door in this partition steps led to an opening high up in the wall which looked down into the Temple. This opening had a carpet hanging before it and was curtained with gauze. Against the wall in the left-hand side of the room there was a rolled-up carpet, which, when spread out, made the bed on which Mary slept. A bracket-lamp was fixed in a niche in the wall, and today I saw the child standing on a stool and praying by its light from a parchment roll with red knobs. It was a very touching sight. The child was wearing a little blue-and-white striped dress woven with yellow flowers. There was a low round table in the room. I saw Anna come in and place on the table a dish with fruits of the size of beans and a little jug. Mary was skilful beyond her years: I saw her already working at little white cloths for the service of the Temple.

[Catherine Emmerich generally communicated the above visions about the time of the feast of the Presentation of Our Lady. Besides these, however, she related at different times the following accounts of Mary’s eleven-year sojourn in the Temple:] I saw the Blessed Virgin in the Temple, ever progressing in learning, prayer, and work. Sometimes I saw her in the women’s dwelling with the other young girls, sometimes alone in her little room. She worked, wove, and knitted narrow strips of stuff on long rods for the service of the Temple. She washed the cloths and cleansed the pots and pans. I often saw her in prayer and meditation. I never saw her chastising or mortifying her body, she did not need it. Like all very holy people she ate only to live, and took no other food except that which she had vowed to eat. Besides the prescribed Temple-prayers, Mary’s devotions consisted of an unceasing longing for redemption, a perpetual state of inner prayer, quietly and secretly performed. In the stillness of the night she rose from her bed and prayed to God. I often saw her weeping at her prayers and surrounded by radiance. As she grew up, I always saw that she wore a dress of a glistening blue colour. She was veiled while at prayer, and also wore a veil when she spoke with priests or went down to a room by the Temple to be given work or to hand over what she had done. There were rooms like this on three sides of the Temple; they always looked to me like sacristies. All sorts of things were kept there which it was the duty of the Temple maidens to look after, repair, and replace.

I saw the Blessed Virgin living in the Temple in a perpetual ecstasy of prayer. Her soul did not seem to be on the earth, and she often received consolation and comfort from heaven. She had an endless longing for the fulfilment of the Promise, and in her humility hardly ventured on the wish to be the lowliest maidservant of the Mother of the Redeemer. Mary’s teacher and nurse in the Temple was called Noemi, she was a sister of Lazarus’ mother and was fifty years old. She and the other Temple women belonged to the Essenes. Mary learnt from her how to knit and helped her when she washed the blood of the sacrifices from the vessels and instruments, or when she cut up and prepared certain parts of the flesh for the Temple women and priests; for this formed part of their food. Later on Mary took a still more active part in these duties. When Zacharias did his service in the Temple he used to visit her, and Simeon was also acquainted with her.

The Blessed Virgin’s significance cannot have been quite unknown to the priests. Her whole being, the abundance of grace in her, and her wisdom were so remarkable from her childhood in the Temple onwards that they could not be entirely concealed in spite of her great humility. I saw aged holy priests filling great scrolls with writing about her, and I have been shown these scrolls, lying with other writings, though I cannot remember at what period.



73. AC generally received visions of events either on the day of celebration in the liturgical calendar or on the actual day of the event. Since the liturgical calendar celebrates Mary’s Presentation on Nov. 21, the actual date of the event was probably Nov. 8. (RC)

74. This altar-table was set up in this doorway because women were not permitted to go farther. When the meeting of Joachim and Anna took place, Joachim had gone through this door into the subterranean passage, while Anna had come from the opposite direction. (CB)

75. Under the current numbering of the Psalms, these would be Psalms 45 and 50.

76. The phrase “Temple itself” refers to the Sanctuary portion of the Temple, where only the Jewish priests were permitted to enter. AC states that the Virgin Mary entered the Temple “eleven years before Christ’s Birth,” but this cannot be correct. The Virgin Mary entered the Temple when she was 3 years and 3 months old, and was dismissed from the Temple when she was over 14 years of age, a total of about 11 years. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ occurred in February, after the betrothal of Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, and the Birth of Christ occurred in November, nine months later. Therefore, Christ was born just over 12 years after the Virgin Mary entered the Temple, not 11 years. (RC)

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IV. THE EARLY LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH

[We here break off Catherine Emmerich’s somewhat disconnected description of the Blessed Virgin’s sojourn in the Temple to give the following accounts of St. Joseph’s youth.]

Among many things which I saw today of the youth of St. Joseph I remember what follows. Joseph, whose father was called Jacob, was the third of six brothers. His parents lived in a large house outside Bethlehem, once the ancestral home of David, whose father Isai or Jesse had owned it. By Joseph’s time there was, however, little remaining of the old building except the main walls. The situation was very airy, and water was abundant there.

I know my way about there better than in our own little village of Flamske. In front of the house was an outer court (as in the houses of ancient Rome), surrounded by a covered colonnade like a cloister. I saw sculptures in this colonnade like the heads of old men. On one side of the court was a fountain under a stone canopy. The water issued from animals’ heads in stone. There were no windows to be seen in the lower storey of the dwelling-house itself, but high up there were circular openings. I saw one door. A broad gallery ran round the upper part of the house, with little towers at each of its four corners, like short, thick pillars, ending in big balls or domes on which little flags were fastened.

Stairs led up through these little towers from below, and from openings in the domes one had a view all round without being seen oneself. There were little towers like this on David’s palace in Jerusalem, and it was from the dome of one of these that he saw Bethsabee at her bath. This gallery ran round a low upper storey with a flat roof on which was another building with another little tower. Joseph and his brothers lived in the upper storey, and their teacher, an aged Jew, lived in the topmost building. They all slept in a circle in one room, in the middle of the storey which was surrounded by the gallery. Their sleeping-places were carpets, rolled up against the wall in the daytime and separated by removable screens. I have often seen them playing up there in their rooms. They had toys in the shape of animals, like little pugs. [Catherine Emmerich uses this word indiscriminately for any creatures she does not know.] I also saw how their teacher gave them all kinds of strange lessons which I did not rightly understand. I saw him making all kinds of figures on the ground with sticks, and the boys had to walk on these figures; then I saw the boys walking on other figures and pushing the sticks apart, placing them differently and rearranging them and making various measurements at the same time. I saw their parents, too; they did not trouble much about their children and had little to do with them. They seemed to me to be neither good nor bad.
Joseph, whom I saw in this vision at about the age of eight, was very different in character from his brothers. He was very gifted and was a very good scholar, but he was simple, quiet, devout, and not at all ambitious. His brothers knocked him about and played all kinds of tricks on him. The boys had separate little gardens, at the entrance of which stood figures like babies in swaddling-clothes on pillars, but sheltered a little (in niches perhaps?). I have often seen figures like these, and there were some on the curtain which hung by the praying-place of St. Anne and also of the Blessed Virgin, but on Mary’s curtain this figure held something in its arms that reminded me of a chalice with something wriggling out of it.

Here in St. Joseph’s house the figures were like babies in swaddling clothes with round faces surrounded by rays. In still earlier times I noticed many figures of this kind, particularly in Jerusalem. They appeared, too, in the Temple decorations. I saw them in Egypt as well, where they sometimes had little caps on their heads. Amongst the figures which Rachel carried off from her father Laban there were some like these, but smaller, as well as other different ones. I have also seen these figures lying in little boxes or baskets in Jewish houses. I think perhaps that they represented the child Moses floating on the Nile, and that the swaddling-bands perhaps symbolized the tightly binding character of the Law. I often used to think that this little figure was for them what the Christ Child is for us.

I saw herbs, bushes, and little trees in the boys’ gardens; and I saw how Joseph’s brothers often went in secret to his garden and trampled or uprooted something in it. They made him very unhappy. I often saw him under the colonnade in the outer court kneeling down with his face to the wall, praying with outstretched arms, and I saw his brothers creep up and kick him. I once saw him kneeling like this, when one of them hit him on the back, and as he did not seem to notice it, he repeated his attack with such violence that poor Joseph fell forward on to the hard stone floor. From this I realized that he was not in a waking condition, but had been in an ecstasy of prayer. When he came to himself, he did not lose his temper or take revenge, but found a hidden corner where he continued his prayer.

I saw some small dwellings built against the outer walls of the house, inhabited by a few middle-aged women. They went about veiled, as I often saw women doing who lived near schools in the country. They seemed to form part of the household, for I often saw them going in and out of the house on various errands. They carried water in, washed and swept, closed the gratings in front of the windows, rolled up the beds against the walls and placed wickerwork screens in front of them. I saw Joseph’s brothers sometimes talking to these maidservants or helping them with their work and joking with them, too. Joseph did not do this; he was serious and solitary. It seemed to me that there were also daughters in the house. The lower living-rooms were arranged rather like those in Anna’s house, but everything was more spacious. Joseph’s parents were not very well satisfied with him; they wanted him to use his talents in some worldly profession, but he had no inclination for that.

He was too simple and unpretentious for them; his only inclination was towards prayer and quiet work at some handicraft. When he was about twelve years old, I often saw him go to the other side of Bethlehem to escape from his brothers’ perpetual teasing. Not far from the future cave of the Nativity there was a little community of pious women belonging to the Essenes, who dwelt in a series of rock-chambers in a hollowed-out part of the hill on which Bethlehem stood. They tended little gardens near their dwellings and taught the children of other Essenes. Little Joseph went to visit these women, and I often used to see him escaping from his brothers’ teasing to go to them and join in their prayers, which they read by the light of a lamp in their cave from a scroll hanging on the wall. I also saw him visiting the caves of which one was afterwards the birthplace of Our Lord. He prayed there quite alone, or made all kinds of little things out of wood; for there was an old carpenter who had his workshop near these Essenes with whom Joseph spent much of his time. He helped him with his work and so little by little learnt his craft. The art of measuring which he had practised at home under his master’s tuition was here of great use to him. His brothers’ hostility at last made it impossible for him to remain any longer in his parents’ house; I saw that a friend from Bethlehem (which was separated from his home by a little stream) gave him clothes in which to disguise himself. In these he left the house at night in order to earn his living in another place by his carpentry. He might have been eighteen to twenty years old at that time. To begin with, I saw him working with a carpenter at Libonah.77 This was the place where he first really learnt his craft. 

His master had his dwelling against some ancient walls which ran from the town along a narrow ledge of hill, like a road leading up to some ruined castle. Several poor people lived in the walls. I saw Joseph making long stakes in a place between high walls with openings above to let in light. These stakes were frames for wicker-screens. His master was a poor man, and made mostly only such common things as these rough wicker-screens. Joseph was very devout, good, and simple-minded, everybody loved him. I saw him helping his master very humbly in all sorts of ways—picking up shavings, collecting wood, and carrying it back on his shoulders. In later days he passed by here with the Blessed Virgin on one of their journeys, and I think he visited his former workshop with her.

His parents thought at first that he had been carried off by robbers; but I saw that he was discovered at last by his brothers and severely taken to task, for they were ashamed of his low way of life. He was, however, too humble to give it up; though he left that place and worked afterwards at Thanath,78 near Megiddo, by a small river called Kishon which runs into the sea. (This place is not far from Apheke,79 the home of the Apostle  Thomas.) Joseph lived here with a well-to-do master, and the carpenter’s work which they did was of a higher quality. Later still I saw him working in Tiberias for a master-carpenter. He might have been as much as thirty-three years old at that time. His parents in Bethlehem had been dead for some time. Two of his brothers still lived in Bethlehem, the others were dispersed. The parental home had passed into other hands, and the whole family had come down in the world very rapidly. Joseph was very devout and prayed fervently for the coming of the Messias. He was just engaged in building beside his dwelling a more retired room for prayer, when an angel appeared to him and told him not to do this, for, as once the patriarch Joseph at about this time had, by God’s will, been made overseer of all the corn of Egypt, so he, the second Joseph, should now be entrusted with the care of the granary of salvation.80 Joseph in his humility did not understand this, and gave himself up to continual prayer, till he received the call to betake himself to Jerusalem to become by divine decree the spouse of the Blessed Virgin. I never saw that he was married before; he was very retiring and avoided women.

[Later in Catherine Emmerich’s visions we shall come across various other allusions to the family history of Joseph and in particular of his brothers. These allusions are, however, too scattered and interwoven in the great mass of her communications for the writer to collect them all together in this place with certainty and clarity. Since, however, an opportunity occurs here unsought, we will mention an elder brother of Joseph’s who lived in Galilee.

[When we were looking up in our diaries the passage where Catherine Emmerich explained on August 24th, 1821, the relationship between Joseph and Joachim (see p. 21), we found a detailed account given by her on the same day (being the feast of St. Bartholomew) of a story from the life of that apostle. This vision had presented itself very vividly to her in connection with a relic of the saint. In the course of it she stated that the father of Bartholomew of Gessur had for some long time frequented the healing waters near Bethulia and had afterwards settled permanently in the region, chiefly on account of his friendship with an elder brother of Joseph. She added:]

He went to a valley near Dabbeseth which was the home of Zadok, a devout man and an elder brother of Joseph. The devout father of Bartholomew had become much attached to him during his sojourn at Bethulia. Zadok had two sons and two daughters, and these children were on friendly terms with the Holy Family. When the twelve-year-old Jesus remained behind in the Temple and his parents missed him, this was one of the families in which they sought for Him. I saw the sons amongst Jesus’ playmates when He was a boy.


77. It appears from various communications of Catherine Emmerich’s about the ministry of Our Lord that the town in which St. Joseph first worked was not the Libnah, which is in the tribe of Judah, some hours to the west of Bethlehem, but Libonah on the south side of Mount Garizim. According to the Book of Judges 21.19, it is to be found north of Silo. (CB)

78. Thanath or Thaanath (see Josue 16.6) lies, according to Eusebius, ten miles to the east of Nablus in the direction of the Jordan, whereas the place here mentioned by Catherine Emmerich must, by her account, lie north-west of Nablus. She must therefore no doubt have meant Thaanach instead of Thaanath, and have been misunderstood by the writer, who at the time had no knowledge whatever of the geography of Palestine and no means of supplying it. Such misunderstanding was all the more likely to occur because Catherine Emmerich when ill or in a state of ecstasy often pronounced the names somewhat unclearly in her lowGerman Munster dialect and sometimes mixed them up. A further convincing proof that she here meant Thaanach may be found in the daily account which she gave in 1823 of the third year of Our Lord’s ministry. She saw in her visions that Jesus taught on the 25th and 26th of the month Sivan in Thaanach, a town of the Levites near Megiddo, and that He visited there the former carpenter’s shop of his foster-father Joseph. (CB)

79. Aphek is about twenty-five miles north of Thaanach. (SB)

80. The same idea is found in St. Bernard’s Homilia 2 super Missus est, recited in the Breviary on St. Joseph’s feast. (SB)

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V. A SON IS PROMISED TO ZACHARIAS

I saw Zacharias talking with Elisabeth of his grief; it was near the time for his turn of service in the Temple, and it was always with sorrow that he went, for he was looked on with contempt there because of his unfruitfulness. Zacharias had to perform his service in the Temple twice a year.81

They lived not in Hebron itself, but in Jutta, about an hour’s distance from it. There were many remains of walls between Jutta82 and Hebron, as if these two places had once been connected with each other. On the other sides of Hebron were also many scattered buildings and groups of houses, the remains, it seemed, of the former city of Hebron, which must once have been as large as Jerusalem. Priests of lower rank lived at Hebron, while those of higher rank lived at Jutta. Zacharias was a kind of superior of the latter. He and Elisabeth were held in great honour there for their virtue and their unbroken descent from Aaron.

I then saw how Zacharias and several other priests of the neighbourhood met together on a small farm which he owned near Jutta. There was a garden with various arbours and a little house. Zacharias prayed here with his companions and taught them. It was a kind of preparation for the forthcoming service at the Temple. I also heard him speak of his heaviness of heart, and how he had a presentiment that something was about to befall him.

I then saw him go with these people to Jerusalem; he had to wait four days more before it was his turn to sacrifice. In the meantime he prayed in the Temple. When it was his turn to kindle the incense-offering, I saw him go into the Holy Place, where the golden altar of incense stood in front of the entrance to the Holy of Holies. The ceiling above it had been opened so that one could see the sky. One could not see the sacrificing priest from outside, but one could see the smoke rising up. When Zacharias had entered, another priest said something to him and then went away.83

Now that Zacharias was alone, I saw him go through a curtain into a place where it was dark. He brought something out from there which he placed on the altar, and kindled fire to make smoke. Then I saw a radiance descending upon him from the right side of the altar, and within it a shining figure approaching him, and I saw how he sank down towards the right-hand side of the altar in alarm and at the same time rigid in ecstasy. The angel lifted him up and spoke with him for a long time, and Joachim answered him. I saw the heavens opening above Zacharias, and two angels descending and ascending as if on a ladder. His girdle was loosened and his robe was open, and it appeared to me as if one of the angels took something from him and as if the other put into his side as it were a little shining substance. That was what happened also when Joachim received the blessing of the angel for the conception of the Blessed Virgin. It was usual for the priests to leave the Holy Place as soon as they had kindled the incense-offering, so when Zacharias was so long in coming out, those praying outside became anxious. He had become dumb, and I saw him writing on a tablet before coming out. When he emerged from the Temple and came into the outer court, a crowd gathered round him and asked why he had stayed so long. But he could not speak; he waved his hands and pointed to his mouth and to the tablet, which he at once sent to Elisabeth at Jutta, to tell her of the merciful promise of God and of his own dumbness. After a short time he returned there himself; Elisabeth had also been given a revelation, but I can no longer remember what it was.

[This rather incomplete account is all that Catherine Emmerich, who was ill at the time, related on this subject; see St. Luke 1.5-25.]


81. During this time period, there were 24 courses (or groups) of priests who took turns at service in the Temple of Jerusalem. For the regular rotation, each group was on duty for one week, from Sabbath to Sabbath, twice a year (Ant. 7.365). Thus, each Sabbath saw two courses of priests on duty at the same time. This was necessary because of the larger number of worshipers who would come to the Temple on the Sabbath. For much the same reason, all 24 priestly courses were on duty at the Temple of Jerusalem during the three great feasts of the Jewish faith: feast of Passover, feast of Weeks, feast of Tabernacles (Mishna, m Sukka 5.7). Thus, each priestly course actually served five times a year at the Temple, two in the regular rotation, and three for the three great feasts. Every able-bodied Jewish man was required to worship God at the Temple for those three feasts (Deut 16:16). (RC)

82. Jutta, the modern Yattah, lies about five miles south of Hebron. See also n. 2, p. 146. (SB)


83. Probably he had said to him, as was the custom, ‘Kindle the incense-offering’. See Mishnah, tract. Tamid, 6, § 3, edit. Surenh, p. 305. (CB)

The tractate Tamid, IV-VII, describes the whole course of the daily sacrifice. This passage is in tome V, p.305, in the edition of Surenhusius. (SB)

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VI. MARRIAGE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN TO JOSEPH
Section I

The Blessed Virgin lived with other virgins in the Temple under the care of pious matrons. The maidens employed themselves with embroidery and other forms of decoration of carpets and vestments, and also with the cleaning of these vestments and of the vessels used in the Temple. They had little cells, from which they could see into the Temple, and here they prayed and meditated. When these maidens were grown up, they were given in marriage. Their parents in dedicating them to the Temple had offered them entirely to God, and the devout and more spiritual Israelites had for a long time had a secret presentiment that the marriage of one of these virgins would one day contribute to the coming of the
promised Messias.84

When the Blessed Virgin had reached the age of fourteen and was to be dismissed from the Temple with seven other maidens to be married, I saw that her mother Anna had come to visit her there. Joachim was no longer alive and Anna had by God’s command married again. When Our Lady was told that she must now leave the Temple and be married, I saw her explaining to the priests in great distress of heart that it was her desire never to leave the Temple, that she had betrothed herself to God alone and did not wish to be married. She was, however, told that it must be so.85

Hereupon I saw the Blessed Virgin supplicating God with great fervour in her praying cell. I also remember that I saw Mary, who was parched with thirst as she prayed, going  down with a little jug to draw water from a fountain or cistern, and that she there heard a voice (unaccompanied by any visible appearance) and received a revelation which comforted her and gave her strength to consent to her marriage. This was not the Annunciation, for I saw that happen later in Nazareth. I must, however, once have thought that I saw the appearance of an angel here too, for in my youth I often confused this vision with the Annunciation and thought that I saw the latter happening in the Temple.86

I saw, too, that a very aged priest, who could no longer walk (it was doubtless the high priest), was carried on a chair by others before the Holy of Holies, and that while the incense-offering was being kindled, he read prayers from a parchment scroll lying on a stand in front of him. I saw that he was in a spiritual ecstasy and saw a vision, and that the forefinger of his hand was laid upon the passage of Isaias in the scroll: ‘And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse; and a flower shall rise up out of his root.’ [Isaiah 11:1]

When the old priest came to himself again, he read this passage and apprehended something from it. Then I saw that messengers were sent throughout the land and all unmarried men of the line of David summoned to the Temple. When these were assembled in large numbers at the Temple in festal garments, the Blessed Virgin was presented to them. Among them I saw a very devout youth from the region of Bethlehem; he had always prayed with great fervour for the fulfilment of the Promise, and I discerned in his heart an ardent longing to become Mary’s husband. She, however, withdrew again into her cell in tears, unable to bear the thought that she should not remain a virgin.

I now saw that the high priest, in accordance with the inner instruction he had received, handed a branch to each of the men present, and commanded each to inscribe his branch with his name and to hold it in his hands during the prayer and sacrifice.87 After they had done this, their branches were collected and laid upon an altar before the Holy of Holies, and they were told that the one among them whose branch blossomed was destined by the Lord to be married to the maiden Mary of Nazareth. While the branches lay before the Holy of Holies the sacrifice and prayer were continued, and meanwhile I saw that youth, whose name will perhaps come back to me,88 in a hall of the Temple crying passionately to God with outstretched arms. I saw him burst into tears when after the appointed interval their branches were given back to them with the announcement that none had blossomed, and therefore none of them was the bridegroom destined by God for this maiden. The men were now sent home, but that youth betook himself to Mount Carmel, to the sons of the prophets who had lived there as hermits ever since the time of Elias. From then on he spent his time in continual prayer for the  fulfilment of the Promise.

I then saw the priests in the Temple making a fresh search in the ancestral tables to see whether there was any descendant of David’s who had been overlooked. As they found that of six brothers registered at Bethlehem one was missing and unknown, they made search for his dwelling-place, and found Joseph not far from Samaria in a place beside a little stream, where he lived alone by the water and worked for another master. On the command of the high priest, Joseph now came, dressed in his best, to the Temple at Jerusalem. He, too, had to hold a branch in his hand during the prayer and sacrifice, and as he was about to lay this on the altar before the Holy of Holies, a white flower like a lily blossomed out of the top of it, and I saw over him an appearance of light like the Holy Ghost.89 Joseph was now recognized as appointed by God to be the bridegroom of the Blessed Virgin, and was presented to her by the priests in the presence of her mother. Mary, submissive to the Will of God, accepted him meekly as her bridegroom, for she knew that all things were possible with God, who had accepted her vow to belong to Him alone, body and soul.


84. Although in general late Jewish writers contest the statement that women or virgins were engaged in the service of the Temple, we find confirmation that this was so partly on the authority of the Church (whichc elebrates the Feast of Our Lady’s Presentation on Nov. 21st) and partly in the Bible and in ancient writings. Already in the time of Moses (see Exod. 38.8), and again in the last days of the Judges (1 Kings 2.22), we find women or virgins employed in the service of the Temple; and in the description in Ps. 67 of the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant to Mount Sion, there is an allusion in v. 26 to ‘young damsels playing on timbrels’. The statement that virgins were dedicated to the Temple and brought up there is confirmed by Evodius, a pupil of the Apostles and successor of St. Peter at Antioch (it is true that this is in a letter first appearing in Nicephor, II, c. 3), who expressly refers to Our Blessed Lady in this connection. Gregory of Nyssa and John Damascene, amongst others, also mention this, while Rabbi Asarja states in his work Imre Binah, c. 60, that virgins devoted to God’s service lived in community in the Temple. We are thus able to quote a Jewish authority for the existence of these Temple maidens. (CB)

Nicephor is the fourteenth-century Byzantine historian Nicephorus Callistus, who wrote Ecclesiasticae Historiae, libri XVIII. Rabbi Azariah ben Moses de Rossi (1513/4-1578) was an Italian Jew. The treatise Imre Bina (‘words of understanding’) forms a part of his chief work, Meor Enayim (‘light of the eyes’), published at Mantua in 1574. Both are therefore very late authorities. (SB)

85. In the Old Testament the state of virginity was, at least in general, not considered as meritorious. Among the countless forms of vows, which according to the Mishnah were usual amongst the Jews of old, we find no trace of any vow of chastity. As long as the coming of the Redeemer was in expectation only, a marriage rich in children was the height of blessedness and godliness on earth. See Ps. 126.3: ‘The inheritance of the Lord are children; the reward, the fruit of the womb’: and, for one of God’s early blessings, see Deut. 7.4: ‘Blessed shalt thou be among all people. No one shall be barren among you of either sex.’ This explains why the priests did not yield to Mary’s wish, even though instances of persons vowed to chastity, especially among the Essenes, were by no means unknown. (CB)

86. It is remarkable that the apocryphal ‘Protevangelium of James’, which the Church has pronounced not to be genuine, states among other things that Mary journeyed from the Temple to Nazareth accompanied by several maidens. These had been given by the Temple various threads to spin, of which the scarlet and purple ones had fallen to Mary’s lot. Taking a jug, she went out to draw water, and lo, a voice said to her, ‘Hail, Mary’, etc. Mary looked to right and left, to discover whence this voice came, and went into the house in alarm. She put down the jug, took the purple thread and laid it on her chair to work, and lo, the angel of the Lord stood before her face and said, ‘Fear not, Mary’, etc. Thus here, too, there is an allusion to a voice while Our Lady was fetching water, but all happens in Nazareth and is connected with the Annunciation. This event is similarly described in the apocryphal ‘History of Joachim and Anna and of the birth of Mary the blessed Mother of God ever virgin and of the Childhood of the Redeemer,’ printed by Thilo from a Latin MS. in the Paris library; except that in this case an interval of three days elapses between the voice at the fountain and the appearance of the angel in salutation. (CB)

CB’s note needs clarification. AC distinguishes two angelic visits, the first here at the well, at Jerusalem, with no apparition and no recorded voice (not in the Gospel), and the second, later at Nazareth, after the wedding, the Annunciation proper (Luke 1.26-38). Among the Apocryphal Gospels Nat. Mar. 9 simply follows St. Luke (one visit at Nazareth), while Ps-Matt. 9 gives the two visits, at the well and the Annunciation, at one day’s interval, but with no exact indication of place, and Protev. II (as given here by CB) combines the episode at the well and the Annunciation, and places it all at Nazareth. J. C. Thilo published a collection of apocryphal texts at Leipzig in 1832. (SB)

87. The priests were probably not anticipating a miracle, but rather relying on the Providence of God. It was often the custom among the Jews to make certain decisions by the casting of lots or by some other method which relied on God’s Providence. Thus, these branches were perhaps from fruit trees with closed blossoms on them. The blossoms could be reasonably expected to open soon, by Providence, not by a miracle. The first to open would be, after the manner of casting lots, God’s choice to be betrothed to Mary, Virgin of the Temple. What happened next, when a branch was given to Joseph, was an unexpected miracle. Joseph was given a dry branch, which could not possibly bloom because the branch was dead. This was perhaps a cruel joke on
the part of some of the priests. Joseph was much older than Mary and might have been considered by some to be, himself, like a dry branch. Yet, by a miracle of God, the branch gave forth a beautiful blossom, more like one proper to a flower plant than to a fruit tree branch. (See Revelations to St. Bridget, chapter 3: “a dry rod blooming.”) Fruit trees blossom in Israel during the winter months. The method of using fruit tree branches with blossoms on them to choose a spouse for Mary, indicates that the choice of Joseph took place in winter. AC places Joseph and Mary’s wedding in late January (see The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations, vol. 1, p. 187. (RC)

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VI. MARRIAGE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN TO JOSEPH
Section II. THE WEDDING

[In the course of her continuous visions of Our Lord’s daily ministry, Catherine Emmerich (on September 24th, 1821) saw Jesus teaching in the synagogue at Gophna, four days before His baptism. He was dwelling with the family of a head of the synagogue related to Joachim. On this occasion she heard two widows, his daughters, exchanging remembrances of the wedding of Our Lord’s Mother and foster-father, at which they had been present in their youth with other relations. Of this she told what follows.]

While the two widows were recalling the wedding of Mary and Joseph as they talked together, I saw a picture of this wedding and in particular of the beautiful wedding garments of the Blessed Virgin, of which these good women could not say enough. I will tell you what I can still remember.

The wedding of Mary and Joseph, which lasted for seven or eight days, was celebrated on Mount Sion in Jerusalem in a house which was often hired out for festivities of this kind.90 Besides Mary’s teachers and schoolfellows from the Temple school many relations of Anna and Joachim were present, amongst others a family from Gophna with two daughters. The wedding was very ceremonious and elaborate. Many lambs were slaughtered and sacrificed.

The Blessed Virgin’s wedding garments were so remarkably beautiful and splendid that the women who were present used to enjoy speaking about them even in their old age. In my vision I heard their conversation and saw the following: I saw Mary in her wedding-dress very distinctly. She wore a white woollen undergarment without sleeves: her arms were wrapped round with strips of the same stuff, for at that time these took the place of closed sleeves. Next she put on a collar reaching from above the breast to her throat. It was encrusted with pearls and white embroidery, and was shaped like the under-collar worn by Archos the Essene, the pattern of which I cut out not long ago. Over this she wore an ample robe, open in front. It fell to her feet and was as full as a mantle and had wide sleeves. This robe had a blue ground covered with an embroidered or woven pattern of red, white, and yellow roses interspersed with green leaves, like rich and ancient chasubles. The lower hem ended in fringes and tassels, while the upper edge joined the white neck-covering. After this robe had been arranged to fall in long straight folds, a kind of scapulary was put on over it, such as some religious wear, for instance the Carmelites.

This was made of white silk with gold flowers: it was half a yard wide, and was set with pearls and shining jewels at the breast. It hung in a single width down to the edge of the dress, of which it covered the opening in front. The lower edge was ornamented with fringes and beads. A similar width hung down the back, while shorter and narrower strips of the silk hung over the shoulders and arms; these four pieces, spread out round the neck, made the shape of a cross. The front and back pieces of this scapulary were held together under the arms by gold laces or little chains; the fullness of the robe was thus gathered together in front and the jewelled breast-piece pressed against it; the flowered material of the robe was a little puffed out in the openings between the laces. The full sleeves, over which the shoulderpieces of the scapulary projected, were lightly held together by bracelets above and below the elbow. These bracelets, which were about two fingers in breadth and engraved with letters, had twisted edges. They caused the full sleeves to puff out at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The sleeves ended in a white frill of silk or wool, I think. Over all this she wore a sky-blue mantle, shaped like a big cloak, which in its turn was covered by a sort of mourning cloak with sleeves made after a traditional fashion. These cloaks were worn by Jewish women at certain religious or domestic ceremonies. Mary’s cloak was fastened at the breast, under her neck, with a brooch, above which, round her neck, was a white frill of what looked like feathers or floss silk. This cloak fell back over the shoulders, came forward again at the sides, and ended at the back in a pointed train. Its edge was embroidered with gold flowers.

The adornment of her hair was indescribably beautiful. It was parted in the middle of her head and divided into a number of little plaits. These, interwoven with white silk and pearls, formed a great net falling over her shoulders and ending in a point half-way down her back. The ends of the plaits were curled inwards, and this whole net of hair was edged with a decorated border of fringes and pearls, whose weight held it down and kept it in place. Her hair was encircled by a wreath of white unspun silk or wool, three strips of the same material meeting in a tuft on the top of her head and holding it in place. On this wreath rested a crown of about a hand’s-breadth, decorated with jewels and surmounted by three bands of metal crowned by a knob. This crown was ornamented in front with three pearls, one above the other, and with one pearl on each side.

In her left hand she carried a little silken wreath of red and white roses, and in her right hand, like a sceptre, a beautiful gilded torch in the shape of a candlestick without a foot. Its stern (thicker in the middle than at the ends) was decorated with knobs above and below where it was held. It was surmounted by a flat cup in which a white flame was burning.

The shoes had soles two fingers thick heightened at toe and heel. These soles were made entirely of green material, so that the foot seemed to rest on grass. Two white-and-gold straps held them fast over the instep of the bare foot, and the toes were covered by a little flap which was attached to the sole and was always worn by well-dressed women.

It was the Temple maidens who plaited Mary’s beautiful hair arrangement; I saw it being done, several of them were busy with it and it went quicker than one would think. Anna had brought the beautiful clothes which Mary in her humility was unwilling to wear. After the wedding the network of hair was thrown up over her head; the crown was removed, and a milk-white veil put on her which hung down to her elbows. The crown was then put on again over this veil.

The Blessed Virgin had very abundant hair, reddish-gold in colour. Her high, delicately traced eyebrows were black; she had a very high forehead, large downcast eyes with long black lashes, a rather long straight nose, delicately shaped, a noble and lovely mouth, and a pointed chin. She was of middle height, and moved about in her rich dress very gently and with great modesty and seriousness. At her wedding she afterwards put on another dress of striped stuff, less grand, a piece of which I possess among my relics. She wore this striped dress also at Cana and on other holy occasions. She wore her wedding-dress again in the Temple several times.

Very rich people used to change their dresses three or four times at weddings. Mary in her grand garments looked like the great ladies of much later times; for instance, the Empress Helena, or even Cunegunde, although the manner in which Jewish women muffled themselves up on ordinary occasions was very different and was more after the fashion of Roman women. (In connection with these clothes I observed that very many weavers lived near the Cenacle on Mount Sion, who made many kinds of beautiful materials.)

Joseph wore a long full coat of pale blue, fastened down the front from breast to hem with laces and bosses or buttons. His wide sleeves were also fastened at the sides with laces;86 they were much turned up and seemed to have pockets inside. Round his neck he wore a kind of brown collar or rather a broad stole, and two white strips hung over his breast, like the bands worn by our priests, only much longer.

I saw the whole course of the marriage of Joseph and Mary and the wedding banquet and all the festivities, but I saw so many other things at the same time, and am so ill and so disturbed in many ways, that I do not venture to say more about it for fear of confusing my account.



90. It was ever the practice of the Jews to celebrate certain festivities for 7 or 8 days. Passover is 7 days, plus one day for the preparation day of the Passover (Lev 23:4-8). The feast of Tabernacles is 8 days (Lev 23:33-36). The wedding of Tobias was seven days long: “. . . and Tobias’ marriage was celebrated for seven days with great festivity.” (Tobit 11:19). Part of the reason that such festivities went on for so long is that people would
often travel significant distances for many days to arrive at the celebration. They would not want to leave for the long journey home after only a day or two. (RC)

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VI. MARRIAGE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN TO JOSEPH

Section III. OUR LADY’S WEDDING-RING

[On July 29th, 1821, Catherine Emmerich had a vision of the separate grave-clothes of Our Lord Jesus and of images of Our Lord which had been miraculously imprinted on cloths. Her visions led her through various places in which these holy relics were sometimes preserved with great honour and sometimes forgotten by men and venerated only by the angels and by devout souls. In the course of these visions she thought that she saw the Blessed Virgin’s wedding-ring preserved in one of these places, and spoke of it as follows:]

I saw the Blessed Virgin’s wedding-ring; it is neither of silver nor of gold, nor of any other metal; it is dark in colour and iridescent; it is not a thin narrow ring, but rather thick and at least a finger broad. I saw it smooth and yet as if covered with little regular triangles in which were letters. On the inside was a flat surface. The ring is engraved with something. I saw it kept behind many locks in a beautiful church. Devout people about to be married take their wedding-rings to touch it.

[On August 3rd, 1821, she said:] In the last few days I have seen much of the story of Mary’s wedding-ring, but as the result of disturbances and pain I can no longer give a connected account of it. Today I saw a festival in a church in Italy where the wedding-ring is to be found. It seemed to me to be hung up in a kind of monstrance which stood above the Tabernacle. There was a large altar there, magnificently decorated, one saw deep into it through much silverwork. I saw many rings being held against the monstrance. During the festival I saw Mary and Joseph appearing in their wedding garments on each side of the ring, as if Joseph were placing the ring on the Blessed Virgin’s finger. At the same time I saw the ring shining and as if in movement.91

To the right and left of this altar I saw two other altars, which were probably not in the same church, but were only shown to me in my vision as being together. In the altar to the right was an Ecce Homo picture of Our Lord, which a devout Roman senator, a friend of St. Peter’s, had received in a miraculous manner. In the altar to the left was one of the grave-clothes of Our Lord.

When the wedding festivities were over, Anna went back to Nazareth with her relations, and Mary also went there, accompanied by several of her playmates who had been discharged from the Temple at the same time as her. They left the city in a festal procession. I do not know how far the maidens accompanied her. They once more spent the first night in the Levites’ school at Bethoron. Mary made the return journey on foot. Joseph went to Bethlehem after the wedding in order to settle some family affairs there. He did not come to Nazareth until later.


91. When the writer copied down these words of Catherine Emmerich on Aug. 4th, 1821, he could not think of any reason why she should have seen this picture on Aug. 3rd. He was therefore greatly surprised at reading, several years after Catherine Emmerich’s death, in a Latin document about the Blessed Virgin’s wedding-ring (which is preserved in Perugia), that it is shown to the public on Aug. 3rd (III nonas Augusti). Of this probably
neither of us knew anything. (CB)

Our Lady’s wedding-ring is preserved at the Cathedral of Perugia in a chapel which also has a fine tabernacle (mentioned by AC) by Cesarino del Roscetto, of 1519. Cf. Baedeker. (SB)

Perugia is located in Umbria, Italy. The Cattedrale di San Loranzo, also called the Duomo (the Dome), houses the wedding ring of the Virgin Mary. It is said that 15 people keep 15 separate keys to open the box containing the ring. It is only shown on one day of the year and on that day the town is overrun with visitors. The ring had been kept in the Italian town of Chiusi, until the middle ages. (RC)

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VI. MARRIAGE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN TO JOSEPH

Section III. FROM MARY’S RETURN HOME TO THE ANNUNCIATION

[Catherine Emmerich always had these visions of the story of the Holy Family on the days appointed by the Church for their celebration; nevertheless, the date on which she saw some of these events sometimes differed from the ecclesiastical feast-days. For instance, she saw the real historical date of the birth of Christ a whole month earlier, on November 25th, which according to her visions coincided with the tenth day of the month Kislev in that year. Fifteen days later she saw Joseph keeping for several days the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple, or the Feast of Lights (which began on the 25th day of the month Kislev) by burning lights in the cave of the Crib. From this it follows that she saw the Feast of the Annunciation also a month earlier, i.e. on February 25th. It was in the year 1821 that Catherine Emmerich first gave an account of this event. She was seriously ill at that time, and her statement was therefore somewhat fragmentary to begin with.

[She had stated earlier that Joseph did not go to Nazareth immediately after the wedding, but had journeyed to Bethlehem to arrange certain family affairs. Anna and her second husband and the Blessed Virgin with some of her playmates went back to Galilee to Anna’s home, which was about an hour’s distance from Nazareth. Anna arranged for the Holy Family the little house in Nazareth, which also belonged to her, the Blessed Virgin still living with her in the meantime during Joseph’s absence. Before communicating her vision of the Annunciation, Catherine Emmerich recounted two fragments of earlier visions, whose significance we can only conjecture. Some time after the marriage of the Blessed Virgin to Joseph she recounted, still in a very weak state after a serious illness:]

I had sight of a festival in Anna’s house. I noticed her second husband, some six guests besides the ordinary household, and some children collected with Joseph and Mary round a table on which stood goblets. The Blessed Virgin was wearing a coloured cloak, woven with red, blue, and white flowers like ancient chasubles. She had a transparent veil and over it a black one. This festival seemed to he a continuation of the wedding festival.

[She related no more about this, and one may suppose that it was the meal taken when the Blessed Virgin left her mother after Joseph’s arrival and moved into the house in Nazareth with him. Next day she related:] Last night in my vision I was looking for the Blessed Virgin, and my guide brought me into the house of her mother Anna, which I recognized in all its details. I no longer found Joseph and Mary there. I saw Anna preparing to go to the nearby Nazareth, where the Holy Family now lived. She had a bundle under her arm to take to Mary. She went over a plain and through a thicket to Nazareth, which lies in front of a hill. I went there, too. Joseph’s house was not far from the gate; it was not so large as Anna’s house. A quadrangular fountain to which several steps led down was nearby, and there was a small square court before the house. I saw Anna visiting the Blessed Virgin and giving her what she had brought. I saw, too, that Mary shed many tears and accompanied her mother, when she returned home, for part of the way. I noticed St. Joseph in the front part of the house in a separate room.

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VII. THE ANNUNCIATION

[On March 25th, 1821, Sister Emmerich said:] Last night I saw the Annunciation as a Feast of the Church, and was once more definitely informed that at this moment the Blessed Virgin had already been with child for four weeks. This was expressly told me because I had already seen the Annunciation on the 25th of February, but had rejected the vision and had not related it. Today I again saw the exterior circumstances of the whole event.

Soon after the Blessed Virgin’s marriage I saw her in Joseph’s house in Nazareth, where I was taken by my guide. Joseph had gone away with two donkeys, I think to fetch either his tools or something that he had inherited. He seemed to me to be on his way home. Anna’s second husband and some other men had been at the house in the morning, but had gone away again. Besides the Blessed Virgin and two girls of her own age (I think they were playfellows from the Temple), I saw in the house Anna and her widowed cousin, who worked for her as serving-maid and later went with her to Bethlehem after Christ’s birth.

The whole house had been newly fitted out by Anna. I saw these four women going busily about the house and then walking at leisure together in the courtyard. Towards evening I saw them come back into the house and stand praying at a little round table. Then, after eating some vegetables set before them, they separated. Anna went to and fro in the house for some time still, busying herself with household matters. The two girls went to their separate room, and Mary, too, went into her bedchamber.

The Blessed Virgin’s bedchamber was in the back part of the house, near the hearth, which was here placed, not in the centre as in Anna’s house, but rather on one side. The entrance to the bedchamber was beside the kitchen. Three steps, not level but sloping, led up to it, for the floor of this part of the house rested on a raised ledge of rock. The wall of the room facing the door was rounded, and in this rounded part (which was shut off by a high wicker screen) was the Blessed Virgin’s bed, rolled up. The walls of the room were covered up to a certain height with wickerwork, rather more roughly woven than the light movable screens. Different-coloured woods had been used to make a little chequered pattern on them. The ceiling was formed by intersecting beams, the spaces between being filled with wickerwork decorated with star-patterns.

I was brought into this room by the shining youth who always accompanies me, and I will relate what I saw as well as such a poor miserable creature is able. The Blessed Virgin came in and went behind the screen before her bed, where she put on a long white woollen praying-robe with a broad girdle, and covered her head with a yellowish white veil. Meanwhile the maid came in with a little lamp, lit a many-branched lamp hanging from the ceiling, and went away again. The Blessed Virgin then took a little low table which was leaning folded up against the wall and placed it in the middle of the room. As it leant against the wall it was just a movable table-leaf hanging straight down in front of two supports. Mary lifted up this leaf and pulled forward half of one of the supports (which was divided), so that the little table now stood on three legs. The table-leaf supported by this third leg was rounded. This little table was covered with a blue-and-red cloth, finished with a hanging fringe along the straight edge of the table. In the middle of the cloth there was a design, embroidered or quilted; I cannot remember whether it was a letter or an ornament. On the round side of the table was a white cloth rolled up, and a scroll of writing also lay on the table.

Our Lady put up this little table in the middle of the room, between her sleeping-place and the door, rather to the left, in a place where the floor was covered by a carpet. Then she put in front of it a little round cushion and knelt down with both hands resting on the table. The door of the room was facing her on the right, and she had her back to her sleepingplace. Mary let the veil fall over her face and crossed her hands (but not her fingers) before her breast. I saw her fervently praying thus for a long time, with her face raised to heaven. She was imploring God for redemption, for the promised King, and beseeching Him that her prayer might have some share in sending Him. She knelt long in an ecstasy of prayer; then she bowed her head on to her breast.

But now at her right hand there poured down such a mass of light in a slanting line from the ceiling of the room that I felt myself pressed back by it against the wall near the door. I saw in this light a shining white youth, with flowing yellow hair, floating down before her. It was the Angel Gabriel. He gently moved his arms away from his body as he spoke to her. I saw the words issuing from his mouth like shining letters; I read them and I heard them.

Mary turned her veiled head slightly towards the right, but she was shy and did not look up. But the angel went on speaking, and as if at his command Mary turned her face a little towards him, raised her veil slightly, and answered. The angel again spoke and Mary lifted her veil, looked at him and answered with the holy words: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.’

The Blessed Virgin was wrapped in ecstasy. The room was filled with light;92 I no longer saw the glimmer of the burning lamp, I no longer saw the ceiling of the room. Heaven seemed to open, a path of light made me look up above the angel, and at the source of this stream of light I saw a figure of the Holy Trinity in the form of a triangular radiance streaming in upon itself. In this I recognized—what can only be adored and never expressed—Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and yet only God Almighty.

As soon as the Blessed Virgin had spoken the words, ‘Be it done unto me according to thy word’, I saw the Holy Ghost in the appearance of a winged figure, but riot in the form of a dove as usually represented. The head was like the face of a man, and light was spread like wings beside the figure, from whose breast and hands I saw three streams of light pouring down towards the right side of the Blessed Virgin and meeting as they reached her. This light streaming in upon her right side caused the Blessed Virgin to become completely transfused with radiance and as though transparent; all that was opaque seemed to vanish like darkness before this light. In this moment she was so penetrated with light that nothing dark or concealing remained in her; her whole form was shining and transfused with light.

After this penetrating radiance I saw the angel disappear, with the path of light out of which he had come. It was as if the stream of light had been drawn back into heaven, and I saw how there fell from it on to Our Lady, as it was drawn back, a shower of white rose-buds each with its little green leaf.

While I was seeing all this in Mary’s chamber, I had a strange personal sensation. I was in a state of constant fear, as if I was being pursued, and I suddenly saw a hideous serpent crawling through the house and up the steps to the door by which I was standing. The horrible creature had made its way as far as the third step when the light poured down on the Blessed Virgin. The serpent was three or four feet long, had a broad flat head and under its breast were two short skinny paws, clawed like bat’s wings, on which it pushed itself forward. It was spotted with all kinds of hideous colours, and reminded me of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, only fearfully deformed. When the angel disappeared from Our Lady’s room, he trod on this monster’s head as it lay before the door, and it screamed in so ghastly a way that I shuddered. Then I saw three spirits appear who drove the monster out in front of the house with blows and kicks.

After the angel had disappeared, I saw the Blessed Virgin wrapped in the deepest ecstasy. I saw that she recognized the Incarnation of the promised Redeemer within herself in the form of a tiny human figure of light, perfectly formed in all its parts down to its tiny fingers. Here in Nazareth it is otherwise than in Jerusalem, where the women must remain in the outer court and may not enter the Temple, where only the priests may go into the Holy Place. Here in Nazareth, here in this church, a virgin is herself the Temple, and the Most Holy is within her, and the high priest is within her, and she alone is with Him. Oh, how lovely and wonderful that is, and yet so simple and natural! The words of David in the 45th Psalm were fulfilled: ‘The Most High hath sanctified His own tabernacle; God is in the midst thereof, it shall not be moved.’

It was at midnight that I saw this mystery happen. After a little while Anna with the other women came into Mary’s room. They had been wakened by a strange commotion in nature. A cloud of light had appeared above the house. When they saw the Blessed Virgin kneeling under the lamp in an ecstasy of prayer, they respectfully withdrew. After some time I saw the Blessed Virgin rise from her knees and go to her little altar against the wall. She unrolled the picture hanging on the wall which represented a veiled human form—the same picture that I had seen in Anna’s house when she was making ready for Our Lady’s journey to the Temple. She lit the lamp on the wall and stood praying before it. Scrolls lay before her on a high desk. Towards morning I saw her go to bed.

My guide now led me away; but when I came into the little court before the house, I was seized with terror, for that fearful snake was lurking there in hiding. It crept towards me and tried to shelter in the folds of my dress. I was in dreadful fear; but my guide snatched me hurriedly away, and those three spirits reappeared and smote the monster. I still seem to hear with a shudder its appalling shrieks.

That night, as I contemplated the Mystery of the Incarnation, I was taught many things. Anna was given the grace of interior knowledge. The Blessed Virgin knew that she had conceived the Messias, the Son of the Most High. All that was within her was open to the eyes of her spirit. But she did not then know that the Throne of David His father, which was to be given Him by the Lord God, was a supernatural one; nor did she then know that the House of Jacob, over which He was, as Gabriel declared, to rule for all eternity, was the Church, the congregation of regenerated mankind. She thought that the Redeemer would be a holy king, who would purify His people and give them victory over Hell. She did not then know that this King, in order to redeem mankind, must suffer a bitter death.

It was made known to me why the Redeemer deigned to remain nine months in His Mother’s womb and to be born as a little child, and why it was not His will to appear as perfect and beautiful as the newly-created Adam; but I can no longer explain this clearly. I can, however, remember this much—that it was His will to re-consecrate man’s conception and birth which had been so sadly degraded by the Fall. The reason why Mary became His Mother and why He did not come sooner was that she alone, and no creature before her or after her, was the pure Vessel of Grace, promised by God to mankind as the Mother of the Incarnate Word, by the merits of whose Passion mankind was to be redeemed from its guilt.

The Blessed Virgin was the one and only pure blossom of the human race, flowering in the fullness of time. All the children of God from the beginning of time who have striven after salvation contributed to her coming. She was the only pure gold of the whole earth. She alone was the pure immaculate flesh and blood of the whole human race, prepared and purified and ordained and consecrated through all the generations of her ancestors, guided, guarded, and fortified by the Law until she came forth as the fullness of Grace. She was preordained in eternity and passed through time as the Mother of the Eternal. [See Proverbs 8.22-35.]

At the Incarnation of Christ the Blessed Virgin was a little over fourteen years old. Christ reached the age of thirty-three years and three times six weeks. I say three times six, because that figure was in that moment shown to me three times one after the other.93

92. The tradition about the light at the Annunciation is preserved in the liturgy (Mar. 25th, Resp. ii): ‘Et expavescit
Virgo de lumine.’ (SB)

93. AC said: “I learnt for certain that Mary was three years and three months old” (p. 66) at the time of her entrance into the service of the Temple in early November. Thus, Mary was born in early August (see note 70). Mary’s age at the time of Christ’s Incarnation, counting from her birth in early August, was about 14 years and six months. Since life begins at conception, Mary’s true age is counted from her Immaculate Conception. Mary’s age at the time of Christ’s Incarnation, counting from her conception in early November, was about 15 years and three months.

AC saw this vision of 33 years and six weeks at a time when she was receiving other visions pertaining to the Incarnation of Christ. Therefore, the 33 years and six weeks is to be counted from the Incarnation on February 25. The vision was shown three times for emphasis. AC mistakenly interpreted the vision to mean that the six weeks should be multiplied times three, because she was counting the length of Christ’s life from His Birth, instead of from His Incarnation. She knew that Christ was crucified at the start of Passover, in the springtime, but adding six weeks to Nov. 25 does not bring us to spring, unless it is multiplied by three. Her error was in counting Christ’s age from birth, rather than conception.

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VIII. THE VISITATION94

Some days after the Annunciation St. Joseph returned to Nazareth and made further arrangements for working at his craft in the house; he had never lived in Nazareth before and had not spent more than a few days there. Joseph knew nothing of the Incarnation; Mary was the Mother of the Lord, but also the handmaid of the Lord, and she kept His secret in all humility. When the Blessed Virgin felt that the Word was made Flesh in her, she was conscious of a great desire to pay an immediate visit to her cousin Elisabeth at Jutta near Hebron, whom the angel had told her was now six months with child.95 As the time was now drawing near when Joseph wished to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover, Our Lady decided to accompany him in order to help Elisabeth in her pregnancy. Joseph therefore started with the Blessed Virgin on the journey to Jutta.

[Catherine Emmerich described the following single scenes from the journey of Joseph and Mary to Elisabeth; but it must be understood that owing to her illness and to various interruptions very many gaps occur in her account. She gave no description of their departure, but only a few pictures from successive days of their journey, which we here transcribe.]

They travelled in a southerly direction and had a donkey with them, on which Mary rode from time to time. Some baggage was packed on to it, amongst which was a striped sack of Joseph’s (it seemed to me to be knitted) in which was a long brownish garment of Mary’s with a sort of hood. This garment was fastened in front with ribbons. Mary put it on when she went into the Temple or into a synagogue. On the journey she wore a brown woollen undergarment, and over this a grey dress with a girdle. Her head-covering was yellowish in colour. They made the long journey rather quickly. I saw them, after they had crossed the plain of Esdraelon in a southerly direction, entering the house of a friend of Joseph’s father in the town of Dothan, on a hill. He was a well-to-do man and came from Bethlehem. His father was called brother by Joseph’s father, though he was not really his brother, but he came of David’s line through a man who was, I think, also a king and was called Ela, Eldoa, or Eldad, I cannot remember clearly which it was.96 There was much trading in this place.

Once I saw them spending the night in a shed; and one evening, when they were still twelve hours distant from Zacharias’ dwelling, I saw them in a wood, going into a hut of wattle-work, on which green leaves and beautiful white flowers were growing. This hut was meant for travellers: beside the loads in that country are many open arbours like this, and even solid buildings. Travellers can spend the night in them, or shelter from the heat and prepare the food which they have brought with them. Some of these shelters are looked after by a family living near at hand who are ready to supply any needs in return for a small payment.

[Here there seems to be a gap in the account. Probably the Blessed Virgin was present with Joseph at the Passover in Jerusalem, and did not go to Elisabeth until after that; for while Joseph’s journey to the Feast is mentioned above, we are told later that Zacharias reached home, after attending the Passover, the day before the Visitation.]

They did not go direct from Jerusalem to Jutta, but made a detour to the east in order to avoid the crowds. They passed near a little town two hours distant from Emmaus, and took roads which Jesus often travelled in the years of His ministry. They still had two hills to pass. Between these two hills I once saw them sitting and resting. They were eating bread and mixing in their drinking water drops of balsam which they had collected on their way. It was very hilly here. They passed over-hanging rocks with great caves in which were all kinds of strange stones. The valleys were very fertile. Then their path led them through wood, moorland, meadows, and fields. Towards the end of their journey I particularly noticed a plant with little delicate green leaves and with flower-clusters of nine little palered, closed bells or vessels. There was something in these with which I had to do but what it was I cannot remember.97

[The following visions were communicated by Catherine Emmerich partly at the time of the Feast of the Visitation in July 1820 and partly at a time when she had heard the words of Eliud, an aged Essene from Nazareth. Eliud accompanied Jesus on His journey to His Baptism by John in September of the first year of His ministry, and told Him many things about the history of His parents and of His earliest childhood, for Eliud was intimate with the Holy Family.]

Zacharias’ house was on the top of a hill by itself. Other houses stood in groups round about. Not far off a biggish stream flowed down from the mountain. It seemed to me to be the moment when Zacharias was returning home from the Passover at Jerusalem. I saw Elisabeth, moved by great longing, going out of her house for a considerable distance on the way to Jerusalem; and I saw how alarmed Zacharias was, as he made his way home, to meet Elisabeth on the road so far from home in her condition. She told him that she was so agitated in her heart because she could not help thinking all the time that her cousin Mary of Nazareth was coming to her. Zacharias tried to remove this impression from her mind and explained to her, by signs and by writing on a tablet, how unlikely it was that a newly married woman should undertake so long a journey just then. They went back to the house together. Elisabeth was, however, unable to abandon her expectation, for she had learnt in a dream that one of her family had become the mother of the promised Messias. She had at once thought of Mary, had longed to see her, and had in spirit perceived her in the distance on her way to her. She had made ready a little room to the right of the entrance and had placed seats in it. On the following day she sat there for a long time waiting and gazing out of the house, watching for the coming visitor. Then she got up and went a long way on the road to meet her.

Elisabeth was a tall aged woman with a small, delicate face. Her head was wrapped in a veil. She only knew the Blessed Virgin by hearsay. Mary saw her from far off and recognized her at once. She ran to meet her, while Joseph discreetly remained behind. Mary was already among the neighbours’ houses, whose inhabitants, moved by her marvellous beauty and struck by a supernatural dignity in her whole being, withdrew shyly as she and Elisabeth met. They greeted each other warmly with outstretched hands, and at that moment I saw a shining brightness in the Blessed Virgin and as it were a ray of light passing from her to Elisabeth, filling the latter with wonderful joy. They did not stay near the people in the houses, but went, holding each other by the arm, through the outer court towards the house. At the door Elisabeth once more made Mary welcome, and they then went in.

Joseph, who came into the court leading the donkey, handed it over to a manservant and went to Zacharias in an open hall at the side of the house. He greeted the venerable old priest with great humility. Zacharias embraced him warmly and spoke with him by writing on his tablet, for he was dumb since the angel had appeared to him in the Temple. Mary and Elisabeth, after passing through the house-door, came into a hall which, it seemed to me, was also the kitchen. Here they took each other by both arms, Mary greeted Elisabeth very warmly and each pressed her cheek against the other’s. Again I saw a radiance stream from Mary into Elisabeth, whereby the latter was transfused with light. Her heart was filled with holy joy. She stepped back, her hand raised, and exclaimed full of humility, joy and exaltation: ‘Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.’ As she said the last words she led Mary into the little room which she had prepared, so that she might sit down and rest after her journey. It was only a few paces away. Mary let go Elisabeth’s arm, which she had clasped, crossed her hands over her breast and uttered the Magnificat with exaltation.

(When the aged Essene Eliud conversed with Jesus, as mentioned above, about this event, I heard him expounding the whole of Mary’s song of praise in a wonderful manner. I feel myself, however, incapable of repeating this explanation.)

I saw that Elisabeth followed in prayer the whole of the Magnificat in a similar state of exaltation; afterwards they sat down on quite low seats with a table before them, also low, on which stood a little goblet. Oh, I was so blissfully happy, I prayed with them the whole time, and then I sat down near at hand: oh, I was so happy! [Catherine Emmerich recounted this in the morning as if it had happened on the previous day. In the afternoon she said in her sleep:] Joseph and Zacharias are now together and are talking about the nearness of the Messias according to the fulfilment of the prophecies. Zacharias is a tall handsome old man, dressed as a priest; he answers always with signs or by writing on a tablet. They are sitting in an open hall at the side of the house, looking on to the garden.

Mary and Elisabeth are sitting in the garden on a carpet under a big spreading tree; behind it is a fountain from which water streams if one pulls at a tap. I see grass and flowers round them, and trees with little yellow plums. They are both eating little fruits and little loaves from Joseph’s knapsack; what touching simplicity and frugality! There are two maidservants and two menservants in the house; I see them moving about here and there. They are preparing a table with food under a tree. Zacharias and Joseph come and eat a little. Joseph wanted to go back to Nazareth at once; but I think he is going to stay a week. He knows nothing of Our Lady being with child. Mary and Elisabeth were silent about it; in the depths of their being, there was a secret understanding between them. Several times in the day, and especially before meals when they were all together, the two holy women said a kind of litany. Joseph prayed with them, and I saw then a cross appear in the midst between the two women (although as yet there was no cross); it was indeed as though two crosses visited each other.

[On July 3rd she related as follows:] Yesterday evening they ate all together. They sat under a tree in the garden by the light of a lamp till nearly midnight. Then I saw Joseph and Zacharias alone in a place of prayer. I saw Mary and Elisabeth in their little room. They stood opposite each other, as if wrapt in ecstasy, and said the Magnificat in prayer together. Besides the clothes already described the Blessed Virgin wore a transparent black veil as well, which she lowered when speaking with men. Today Zacharias took St. Joseph to another garden at some distance from the house. Zacharias is very orderly and precise in all he does. This garden is rich in beautiful trees and abundant fruit and is very well kept. A shady alley leads through the middle of it. At the end of the garden there is a little hidden summer-house with a door at the side. In the top of this little house are window openings closed by sliding shutters. In it is a wicker couch cushioned with moss or other delicate plants. I also saw two white statues in it, of the size of children. I do not quite know how they came to be there or what they signified, but they seemed very like Zacharias and Elisabeth, only very much younger.

This afternoon I saw Mary and Elisabeth working together in the house. The Blessed Virgin took part in all the household work. She made preparations for the child that was expected. I saw them both working together, they were knitting a big coverlet for Elisabeth’s lying-in. Jewish women used coverlets like these when in child-bed; an inner lining was fastened to the middle of it so that the mother could be wrapped up together in it with her child. It was as if she were in a little boat or in a big shoe, wrapped up herself like a child in swaddling-clothes. She was supported on pillows and could sit upright or lie down as she liked. The edges of the coverlet were sewn with flowers and texts. Mary and Elisabeth prepared also many different things as presents for the poor when the child was born. (I see Anna often sending her maidservant to look after everything in the house at Nazareth during the absence of the Holy Family. I saw her there once herself.)

[On July 4th she said:] Zacharias has gone with Joseph for a walk in the fields. His house stands by itself on a hill, it is the best house in the neighbourhood. Others lie scattered around. Mary is rather tired, she is alone with Elisabeth in the house.

[O July 5th she said:] I saw Zacharias and Joseph spending last night in the garden which is distant from the house, either sleeping in the summer-house, or praying out of doors in the garden. At dawn they returned to the house. I saw Elisabeth and the Blessed Virgin in the house. Every morning and evening they joined together in prayer and recited the Magnificat, which Mary had received from the Holy Ghost at Elisabeth’s greeting of her.

With the Angel’s salutation the Blessed Virgin was consecrated as the Church. With the words ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word’, the Word entered into her, saluted by the Church, by His maidservant. God was now in His Temple, Mary was now the Temple and the Ark of the New Covenant. Elisabeth’s greeting and the movement of John beneath his mother’s heart was the first act of worship of the community in the presence of this Holy Thing. When the Blessed Virgin uttered the Magnificat, the Church of the New Covenant, of the new Espousals, celebrated for the first time the fulfilment of the divine promises of the Old Covenant, of the old Espousals, and poured forth thanks with a Te Deum laudamus. Ah, who can express the wonder of seeing the devotion of the Church towards the Saviour even before His Birth!

Tonight, as I watched the two holy women at their prayers, I had many visions and explanations of the Magnificat and of the coming of the Blessed Sacrament in the present condition of the Blessed Virgin. The illness from which I am now suffering and many disturbances have made me quite forget all that I saw. From the passage in the Magnificat ‘He hath shewed might in His arm’ onwards there appeared to me all kinds of pictures from the Old Testament symbolic of the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amongst them was a picture of Abraham sacrificing Isaac and of Isaias announcing something to a wicked king who scorned it. I have forgotten this. I saw many things from Abraham to Isaias and from Isaias to the Blessed Virgin, and in everything I always saw the coming of the Blessed Sacrament to the Church of Jesus Christ, who was Himself still resting under His Mother’s heart.98

[After Catherine Emmerich had said this, she recited the Litany of the Holy Ghost and the hymn Veni Sancte Spiritus and fell asleep smiling. After a while she said with great fervour:] I must do nothing more at all today and must allow nobody in, then I shall see again all that I have forgotten. If I can only have complete quiet, I shall be able to perceive and relate the holy mystery of the Ark of the Covenant and the holy Sacrament of the Old Covenant. I have seen that time of quiet, it is a beautiful time. I saw the writer beside me, and I am then to learn very many things. [As she spoke these words, her face glowed in her sleep like a child’s: she drew from under the bed-covering her hands marked with the
wounds of the stigmata and said:] It is very warm where Mary is in the Promised Land. They are now all going into the garden of the house, first Zacharias and Joseph and then Elisabeth and Mary. An awning like a tent is stretched under a tree. On one side stand low seats with backs to them.

[She then continued:] I am to rest and see again all that I have forgotten: that sweet prayer to the Holy Ghost has helped me, so sweet and gentle it is. [At five o’clock in the evening she accused herself, saying:] I weakly gave way and did not keep the command to allow nobody in. A woman of my acquaintance came and talked for a long time of hateful incidents which angered me. Then I fell asleep. God kept His word better than me, for He showed me again all that I had forgotten; but as a punishment most of it has again escaped me. [She then said what follows. Although some of it is repetition, we reproduce it, because we cannot express what she said otherwise than she herself did. She said:] I saw as usual the two holy women with child standing opposite one another in prayer and reciting the Magnificat. In the middle of the prayer I was shown Abraham sacrificing Isaac. Here followed a series of pictures symbolizing the coming of the Blessed Sacrament. I do not think I have ever perceived so clearly the holy mysteries of the Old Covenant.

[Next day she said:] As was promised to me, I perceived once more all that I had forgotten. I was full of joy at being able now to relate so many wonderful things about the Patriarchs and the Ark of the Covenant, but there must have been a lack of humility in my joy, for God ordained that I should no longer be able to set in order and communicate the innumerable things that I perceived.

[The cause of this new disturbance was a particular incident which renewed in her the sufferings of Our Lord’s Passion, a phenomenon constantly recurring in her life. This rendered her even more incapable of consecutive narration. However, after her visions of the repeated recital of the Magnificat by the two holy women, she communicated at intervals much that she had learnt of the mysterious blessing in the Old Testament and of the Ark of the Covenant, though in a fragmentary and disconnected manner. We have tried therefore to compile them in chronological order; but, that we may not interrupt the life of the Blessed Virgin unduly, we shall add them in an appendix or keep them for some other appropriate place.]

In the evening of yesterday, Friday, July 6th, I saw Elisabeth and the Blessed Virgin going to Zacharias’ distant garden. They were carrying fruit and little loaves of bread in a small basket and were going to spend the night there. When Joseph and Zacharias came there later, I saw the Blessed Virgin go towards them. Zacharias had his little writing-tablet with him, but it had grown too dark for writing, and I saw that Mary, by the interior bidding of the Holy Ghost, told him that he would speak that night. Then I saw that Zacharias put away his writing-tablet, and that he was able to speak with Joseph and pray with him throughout that night. I saw this, and when I shook my head in great surprise99 and would not accept it, my guardian angel or spiritual guide, who is always with me, said to me, pointing in another direction, ‘You do not believe this, then turn your eyes hither!’ But where he pointed I saw quite another picture from a much later time.

I saw the holy hermit St. Goar100 in a place where corn was being reaped. Messengers from a bishop who was ill-disposed towards him were talking with him with evil intent. As he started off with them to go to that bishop, I saw him looking round for a hook on which to hang his cloak. He saw a ray of the sun shining through an opening in the wall, and in his simple faith he hung his cloak on it, and I saw that the cloak remained hanging firmly fixed in the air. I was amazed at this miracle of simple faith, and was no longer surprised at Zacharias being given the power of speech by the Blessed Virgin in whom God Himself dwelt. My guide then spoke to me about what we call miracles, and I remember distinctly that he said: A living child-like confidence in God in all simplicity makes everything real, makes everything substantial. What he said gave me a complete interior understanding about all miracles, but I cannot express it perfectly.

I saw the four holy people spend the night in the garden. They sat down and ate, or they walked two by two up and down, talking and praying, and took it in turns to rest in the little summer-house. I understood that when the Sabbath was over Joseph was to return to Nazareth, and that Zacharias was to accompany him for part of the way. It was moonlight and a clear starry sky. Round these holy people was indescribable peace and beauty. Again, as the two holy women prayed, I saw a part of the mystery of the Magnificat, but am again to see all in the octave of the Feast before Saturday or Sunday and shall then perhaps be able to tell something of it. I am now only permitted to say: The Magnificat is a hymn of thanks for the fulfilment of the blessing given in the sacrament of the Old Covenant.

During Mary’s prayer I saw a continuous succession of all her ancestors. In the course of time there followed each other three times fourteen marriages, in each of which the son succeeded directly to the father: and from each of these marriages I saw a ray of light projected towards Mary as she stood there in prayer. The whole vision grew before my eyes like a family tree made by branches of light becoming ever nobler and nobler, until at last, in a more clearly defined place in this tree of light, I saw shine forth more brightly the holy and immaculate flesh and blood of Mary, from which God was to become Man. I prayed to her in yearning and hope, as full of joy as a child who sees the Christmas tree towering above him. It was all a picture of the coming of Jesus Christ in the Flesh and of His most holy Sacrament. It was as though I saw the wheat ripening for the Bread of Life for which I hunger. It is not to be expressed, I can find no words to say how that Flesh was formed, in which the Word became Flesh. How can it be expressed by a poor mortal who is still in that flesh of which the Son of God and of Mary said the flesh profiteth nothing, it is the spirit that quickeneth? He, who said that only those who ate His flesh and drank His blood should have everlasting life and be raised up by Him in the last day. Only His flesh and blood were meat and drink indeed; only those who ate and drank thereof abode in Him and He in them.

I saw, in an inexpressible way, from the beginning, from generation to generation, the approach of the Incarnation, and with it the approach of the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. Then came a series of patriarchs, followed by the institution of the priesthood to offer up the living God among men as sacrifice and food until His Second Coming—an institution conferred by the Incarnate God, the new and redeeming Adam, upon His apostles and transmitted by them by the laying-on of hands in an unbroken succession of generation after generation of priests. In all this I clearly perceived how the chanting of Our Lord’s genealogy before the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of Corpus Christi contains a great mystery. I also perceived that just as amongst the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh there were some who were not holy, and indeed were sinners, without however ceasing to be the rungs in Jacob’s ladder on which God descended to mankind; so even unworthy bishops still have the power to consecrate the Blessed Sacrament and to impart priestly ordination with all the powers accompanying it. When one sees this one clearly understands why in old German spiritual books the Old Testament is called the Old Covenant or the Old Espousals, and the New Testament the New Covenant or the New Espousals. The highest flowering of the Old Espousals was the Virgin of Virgins, the Bride of the Holy Ghost, the most chaste Mother of the Redeemer, the spiritual vessel of honour, the singular vessel of devotion, in whom the Word became Flesh. With this mystery begins the New Espousals, the New Covenant. In the priesthood and in all those who follow the Lamb it bears the mark of virginity; in it marriage is a great sacrament, that of Christ and His Bride, the Church (Eph. 5.32).

In order to state as clearly as I can how the approach of the Incarnation, and with it the approach of the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, was explained to me, I can only repeat how everything was set before my eyes in a great series of pictures; although it is impossible, owing to my present condition and to many interruptions from without, to bring what I saw into a detailed and comprehensible whole. I can only say in general: First I saw the Blessing of the Promise which God gave to the First Man in Paradise, and from that Blessing I saw a ray of light proceed to the Blessed Virgin as she stood there opposite St. Elisabeth, reciting the Magnificat in prayer. Then I saw Abraham, who had received this Blessing from God, and I again saw a ray of light proceeding from him to the Blessed Virgin. Then came the other Patriarchs who were the holders and bearers of that holy treasure, and from each of them a ray of light fell upon Mary. Then I saw the passage of this Blessing down the ages until it reached Joachim. He was endowed with the highest Blessing from the inmost sanctuary of the Temple so that he might become the father of the most holy Virgin Mary conceived without original sin. In her the Word became Flesh by the operation of the Holy Ghost and dwelt amongst us hidden for nine months in her, as the Ark of the Covenant of the New Testament, until in the fullness of time we saw His glory, born of the Virgin Mary, a glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

[On July 7th she said:] Last night I saw the Blessed Virgin in Elisabeth’s house asleep in her little room, lying on her side with her head resting on her arm. She was wrapped from head to foot in a long white covering. Beneath her heart I saw a glory of light streaming out; it was pear-shaped and in the centre of it was an indescribably bright little flame of light. In Elisabeth I saw a glory shining which was larger and rounder but not so bright, and the light within it was less bright.

[On July 8th (a Saturday) she said:] When the Sabbath began yesterday, Friday evening, I saw a lamp being lit and the Sabbath being celebrated in a room in Zacharias’ house which I had not seen before. Zacharias, Joseph, and some six other men, probably from the neighbourhood, were praying under the lamp. They were standing round a chest with scrolls lying on it. They were wearing cloths hanging down over their heads; they did not make as many contortions as the Jews of today, though they occasionally bowed their heads and raised their arms. Mary, Elisabeth, and a few other women stood apart behind a grating in an alcove from which they could see into the praying-place. All their heads were covered with praying-mantles. After the Sabbath meal I saw the Blessed Virgin in her little room with Elisabeth, standing and reciting the Magnificat in prayer. Her hands were crossed on her breast and her black veil lowered over her face; they stood opposite each other against the wall, praying as though in choir. I recited the Magnificat in prayer with them, and again, during the second part of it, which refers to the promises of God, I had many glimpses, near and distant, of single ancestors of Mary, from whom threads of light proceeded towards her, as she stood before me praying. These threads or rays of light came, I saw, always out of the mouth of her male ancestors, whereas those from the female ones came from under their hearts and ended in the glory within Mary.

Abraham must (at the time when his blessing was brought to bear on the future of the Blessed Virgin) have lived near the place where Our Lady was now reciting the Magnificat, for I saw the ray of light from him streaming upon her from quite near, whereas I saw the rays from persons much nearer to her in time coming from a much greater distance. After they had finished the Magnificat, which I always saw them reciting morning and evening since the Visitation, Elisabeth withdrew and I saw the Blessed Virgin going to bed.

She took off her girdle and her upper garment, leaving only her long brown under-garment. She took a roll of stuff lying at the head of her low couch which I should otherwise have taken to be a bolster, but now saw was a rolled-up length of woollen material almost a yard wide. She held one end of it tight under one arm-pit, and then wrapped it round and round her body from head to foot and then upwards so that she was quite enveloped in it and could only make short steps. Her arms were free below the elbows and the face and throat were open. She wrapped herself up in this way standing beside her couch, which was slightly raised at the head, and then lay down straight on it, stretched out on her side, her cheek resting on her hand. I did not see men sleeping wrapped up in this way.

[On Sunday, July 9th, she said:] Yesterday, Saturday, I saw Zacharias during the whole of the Sabbath in the same dress that he put on at the beginning of it. He had a long white robe with not very full sleeves. He was girt about several times with a broad girdle inscribed with letters and with straps hanging from it. At the back of his robe was fastened a hood which fell in folds from his head down his back, like a veil gathered together at the back. When he had something to do in the course of the day on Saturday or had to go anywhere, he threw his robe over one shoulder and tucked it under his girdle below the other arm. Each leg was wrapped round with broad bands separately like trousers, and these wrappings were held
fast by the straps with which his sandals were attached to his bare feet. Today he also showed Joseph his priest’s mantle, which was very beautiful. It was an ample, heavy mantle, of shining material shot with purple and white, and was fastened at the breast with three jewelled clasps. It had no sleeves.

I did not see them eating again until Sunday evening when the Sabbath was over. They ate together under the tree in the garden by the house. They ate green leaves which they dipped into sauce and they sucked little green bundies also dipped in sauce. There were also on the table little bowls of some small fruit, and other bowls from which they ate something with transparent brown flat spoons. I think it was honey, which they ate with flat horn spoons. I also saw little loaves being brought to them to eat.

After this Joseph, accompanied by Zacharias, started on his journey home. It was a still moonlight night full of stars. They prayed beforehand all separately. Joseph again had his little bundle with him, in which were small loaves and a little jug, and his staff with a crook at the top. Zacharias had a long staff with a knob. They both wore their travelling mantles over their heads. Before they went, they embraced Mary and Elisabeth alternately by clasping them to their breasts. I did not see them kiss each other then. They went off gaily and quietly, and the two women accompanied them for a short while, after which they wandered off alone through the indescribably lovely night. Mary and Elisabeth then went back into the house, into Mary’s room. A lamp was burning there on an arm projecting from the wall. This was always so when she prayed and when she went to bed. The two women again stood opposite to each other, veiled, and recited the Magnificat in prayer. On this occasion the promised vision, which I had forgotten, was repeated: but I have seen so much tonight that I can say but little of it. I only saw the handing down of the Blessing until it came to Joseph in Egypt.

[On July 11th she said:] Last night I had a vision of Mary and Elisabeth of which I only remember that they prayed the whole night long. I cannot recollect the cause. In the daytime I saw Mary doing all kinds of work, for instance, weaving coverlets. I saw Joseph and Zacharias still on their journey: they spent the night in a shed. They had made long detours and had, I believe, paid many visits. I think they spent three days on their journey. Except this I have forgotten almost everything.

[On July 13th she said:] I saw Joseph once more in his house yesterday, Wednesday the 12th. He seems to have gone straight home without passing through Jerusalem. Anna’s maidservant is looking after everything for him and keeps going to and fro between his house and Anna’s. Otherwise Joseph was alone. I saw Zacharias coming home again. As always, I saw Mary and Elisabeth reciting the Magnificat in prayer and working together. Towards evening they walked in the garden, where there was a fountain, which is unusual here; they always had a little jug of juice with them. Towards evening, when it grew cool, they generally went for a walk in the country round, for Zacharias’ house was isolated and surrounded by meadows. They usually went to bed at nine o’clock, but always got up before sunrise.

[This is all that Catherine Emmerich communicated of her visions of the Blessed Virgin’s visit to Elisabeth. It should be noticed that she described this event on the occasion of the Feast of the Visitation at the beginning of July, but that the actual visit probably took place in March, since she saw the message of the Incarnation being given to the Blessed Virgin already on February 25th, and closely followed by Our Lady’s journey to Elisabeth. That journey was, according to Catherine Emmerich, undertaken when Joseph went to attend the Passover, which began on the 14th of the month Nisan, corresponding to our month of March.101

[On June 9th, 1821, Catherine Emmerich discovered near her a relic of Christ’s disciple Parmenas, and amongst other visions having reference to this saint she communicated the following, which belongs to this portion of her narrative.]

After Our Lady’s return from Jutta to Nazareth I saw her spending several days in the house of the parents of Parmenas, Our Lord’s future disciple, who was not yet born.102 I think I saw this at the same time of year as it actually happened. I had that impression during my vision. In that case the birth of John the Baptist would have happened at the end of May or the beginning of June.103 Mary stayed for three months with Elisabeth, until after the birth of John, but was not present on the occasion of his circumcision. [Owing to interruptions, Catherine Emmerich did not relate anything further about John’s birth or circumcision, and we therefore refer the reader to the words of the Gospel (St. Luke 1.57-80).]

The Blessed Virgin returned home to Nazareth after John’s birth and before his circumcision. Joseph came to meet her half-way. [Catherine Emmerich was so ill and agitated that she did not tell who accompanied the Blessed Virgin till then, nor did she mention the place where she met Joseph. Perhaps this was Dothan, where they stayed on their journey to Elisabeth with the friend of Joseph’s father. She was no doubt accompanied thither by relations of Zacharias or by friends from Nazareth who were undertaking the same journey. What follows may be taken as confirming this supposition.]

When Joseph travelled back with the Blessed Virgin during the second half of her journey from Jutta to Nazareth, he noticed from her figure that she was with child, and was sore beset by trouble and doubt, for he knew nothing of the Angel’s annunciation to Our Lady. Immediately after his marriage, Joseph had gone to Bethlehem to arrange about some inheritance; in the meantime Mary had gone to Nazareth with her parents and some of her play-fellows. The angelic salutation happened before Joseph returned to Nazareth. Mary in shy humility had kept God’s secret to herself. Joseph, though greatly disquieted by what he had perceived, said nothing, but struggled in silence with his doubts.104 The Blessed Virgin, who had foreseen this trouble, became thoughtful and serious, which only increased St. Joseph’s uneasiness. When they came to Nazareth, I saw that the Blessed Virgin did not at once go into Joseph’s house with him, but spent a few days with relations. These were the parents of a son, Parmenas (not yet born), who became a disciple of Jesus and was one of the seven deacons in the first community of Christians in Jerusalem. These people were related to the Holy Family, for the mother was a sister of the third husband of Mary Cleophas, the father of Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem. They had a house and a garden of spices in Nazareth. They were also related to the Holy Family through Elisabeth. I saw that the Blessed Virgin stayed for several days with these people before she came to Joseph’s house. Joseph’s uneasiness increased, however, to such an extent that, now that Mary was preparing to return to him in his house, he made up his mind to leave her and to disappear in secret. While he was harbouring this thought, an Angel appeared to him in a dream and reassured him.



95. Actually, Elizabeth was in her sixth month, meaning that she had completed five months, but had not yet completed six months, since the conception of John the Baptist (cf. Lk 1:36). (RC)

96. Catherine Emmerich saw Jesus at Dothan in this house on Nov. 2nd (the 12th day of the month Marchesvan) of the thirty-first year of His Life. He was healing the dropsy of Issachar, the fifty-year-old husband of the daughter of this family, whose name was Salome. On that occasion Issachar spoke of the visit of Joseph and Mary here mentioned. The descendant of David whose name is given uncertainly by Catherine Emmerich as Eldoa or Eldad, and whom she describes as being the link between Joseph’s and Salome’s families, might perhaps have been Elioda or Eliada, a son of David’s, mentioned in II Kings 5.16, and in I Paralipomenon 3.8.

Although it may seem natural that Catherine Emmerich should confuse various name-sounds, such confusion should not necessarily always be assumed. Hebrew proper names have a very definite signification; but since the same signification can be conveyed in speaking by several different expressions, one person may often beardifferent names. Thus we find a son of David’s sometimes called Elishua (‘God helpeth’) and sometimes Elishama (‘God heareth’); and Eldea or Eldaa may mean ‘God cometh’ just as much as Eliada. The uncertain mention of this descendant of David’s as being also a king need not surprise us, for there can be no doubt that David’s sons or descendants administered the government in the vassal states. (CB)

The Vulgate forms of the name of David’s son are Elisua in II Kings (Sam.) 5.15, and Elisama in I Par. 3.6. In Hebrew, Elishua (‘God saveth’) and Elishama (‘God heareth’). The name of the son Elioda or Eliada is in both places Elyada, which with its by-forms means ‘God knoweth’. (SB)

97. A learned friend tells me that this flower is probably the cypress-cluster (Lawsonia spinosa inermis, Linn.) mentioned in the Canticle of Canticles, 1.13: ‘A cluster of cypress my love is to me in the vineyards of Engaddi.’ Mariti, in his journey through Syria and Palestine, mentions this shrub and its flowers in the region here traversed by the Blessed Virgin. He describes the leaves as smaller and more delicate than those of the
myrtle; the flowers are, he says, rose-red and the flower-cluster shaped like a bunch of grapes. This agrees with the general description given by Catherine Emmerich. (CB)

98. The message of Isaias which she has forgotten is beyond doubt his prophecy to King Achaz: Is. 7.3-25. (CB)

99. AC expresses surprise at Zacharias’ release from dumbness, but this was presumably temporary and by miraculous intervention—the lesson of the story of St. Goar—since at the birth of John the Baptist he was still dumb (Luke 1.62-64). AC has nothing about the birth of the child. (SB)

100. His feast is on July 6th (the day when Catherine Emmerich made this communication), a fact unknown at the time to the writer. When he learnt it later by a casual glance at the calendar, he received a fresh confirmation of the organic connection of all her visions with the festivals of the Church. (CB)

St. Goar, the hermit of Oberwesel on the Rhine, died c. 575 (Ramsgate, Book of Saints, 1947). (SB)

101. To be precise, in the first century A.D., Nisan 14 generally fell after the spring Equinox (which in the first century A.D. occurred on March 22 or 23). Nisan 14 could occur in late March or in early to mid April. The month of Nisan most often overlaps the months of March and April. (RC)

102. Parmenas was one of the seven deacons (Acts 6.5). Cf. following page. (SB)

103. The Incarnation occurred early on February 25, during Elizabeth’s sixth month (i.e. after the completion of five months, but before the completion of six months). The Visitation occurred after the Passover that same year. Passover begins within a month or so after the spring Equinox (which in the first century A.D. occurred on March 22 or 23). This places the beginning of Mary’s visit with Elizabeth sometime in April. Mary’s visit lasted approximately three months, more or less (Lk 1:56). Even if February 25 were the very beginning of Elizabeth’s sixth month, John’s birth would still occur about late June. If February 25 were more towards the end of Elizabeth’s sixth month, then John’s birth would occur in July. AC’s date of late May or early June, which she herself presents as something uncertain, is most likely incorrect. (RC)

104. AC’s account of St. Joseph’s worry in silence accords with Matt. 1.19-20, in strong contrast with the unseemly doubts fancied in the Apocryphal Gospels, especially in Protev. 13. (SB)