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

The Life of
the Blessed Virgin Mary

Anne Catherine
Emmerich

First published by Burns and Oates, Limited; London, England 1954.

ISBN: 978-0-89555-048-4

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com
2011

PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION

ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH was born on September 8th, 1774, at Flamske, near Koesfeld, Westphalia, West Germany, and became on November 13th, 1803, a nun of the Augustinian Order at the Convent of Agnetenberg at Dlmen (also in Westphalia). She died on February 9th, 1824. Although of simple education, she had perfect consciousness of her earliest days and could understand the liturgical Latin from her first time at Mass. During most of her later years she would vomit even the simplest food or drink, subsisting for long periods almost entirely on water and the Holy Eucharist. She was told in mystic vision that her gift of seeing past, present, and future was greater than that possessed by anyone else in history. From the year 1812 until her death she bore the stigmata of Our Lord, including a cross over her heart and wounds from the crown of thorns. An invalid confined to bed during her later years, her funeral was attended, nevertheless, by a greater concourse of mourners than any other remembered by the oldest inhabitants of Dlmen.

An explanatory note must be made about four basic works on the life and visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich: 1) The Life of Christ and Biblical Revelations of Anna Catharina Emmerick, Apostolate of Christian Action, Fresno, California, as recorded in the journals of Clemens Brentano and edited after his death in 1842 by Very Rev. Carl E. Schmger, C.SS.R. This is a four-volume, 2,088-page book giving a day-by-day account of Our Lords public life and the lives of His ancestors. 2) The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Christian Book Club of America, Hawthorne, California, a 320-page account of Our Lords Passion and death, as recorded, compiled, and published by Clemens Brentano in 1835, but also containing Brentanos introductory fifty-five page biography of Sister Emmerich. 3) The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, Illinois, being an account of the ancestry and life of the Blessed Mother up to the public ministry of Our Lord, as well as from His death until her own. When he died in 1842, Brentano was well into this work, but it was carried along by his brother and finished by his brothers wife. 4) The Life of Anna Catharina Emmerick, by Very Rev. Carl E. Schmger C.SS.R., Maria Regina Guild, Los Angeles, California. This is a two-volume, 1,297-page life of Sister Emmerich herself, including also many visions of the past, (her) present, and future, of saints lives, and of many sacred subjects.

Much confusion exists about these books, but they are distinct in content and do not overlap, save that Sister Emmerichs life is briefly summarized in The Dolorous Passion and that The Life of Christ and Dolorous Passion both cover the passion of Our Lord. In the latter, however, the treatment is in greater detail and poignancy and well deserves the readers attention!

The merit of the present volume is its expose of material otherwise unobtainable on Our Ladys ancestry, birth, childhood, education and betrothal, as well as on the Nativity, the early life of the Holy Family, and the final years of the Blessed Mother.

The reader will note two versions of Sister Emmerichs name. This is only the difference between the German and the English spelling.

Long before her death, says Schmger, Sister Emmerich had uttered the following words: What the Pilgrim [Clemens Brentano] gleans, he will bear away, far, far away, for there is no disposition to make use of it here; but it will bring forth fruit in other lands, whence its effects will return and be felt even here. May the republishing of this book contribute its share to fulfilling that beautiful prophecy.

TRANSLATORS NOTE

I HAVE omitted some of Clemens Brentanos notes altogether and have translated only extracts of some of the others; but have included everything that seemed likely to interest the English reader.

EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION

MOST readers of The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the visions of the devout Anne Catherine Emmerich are no doubt aware that this book contains only a part of those visions. Clemens Brentano spent several years in Dlmen in the endeavour to reproduce with scrupulous care the visionarys utterances, which were sometimes fragmentary and sometimes formed a connected narrative. This was the origin of his diary, which was begun in January 1820 and contained a great variety of visions regarding the lives of the saints, the feasts of the Church and other events. Later, however, in the years 1821 and 1822, these visions became more and more concentrated on the life of Christ and of the holy persons about Him. The records of these visions, which still exist in their original form, were made by the late Clemens Brentano with almost documentary precision. He extracted from them everything relating to the life of Christ, and was thus able to present to the reader the public life of Our Lord day by day according to Catherine Emmerichs visions. The last portion of these records has been printed under the title of The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord.

Besides this large collection of accounts of the life of Christ, Clemens Brentano completed another smaller one relating to the life of the Blessed Virgin. After arranging the relevant extracts and choosing wood-cuts to illustrate them, he started printing them in 1841, and had finished a considerable part when a lingering illness put a stop to his work and finally caused his death on July 28th, 1842. After this sad event his papers, including those relating to Catherine Emmerich, came into the hands of his brother Christian Brentano in Aschaffenburg. The latter died on October 27th, 1851, without having carried out his intention of continuing to print the Life of Our Lady; but fortunately his widow was able, with the help of some learned friends, to complete the work.

In regard to its contents, we feel bound to repeat the declaration with which Clemens Brentano prefaced the first edition of the Dolorous Passion.

Though the accounts of these visions, among many similar fruits of the contemplative love of Jesus, may appear in some degree remarkable, they solemnly reject the slightest claim to bear the character of historical truth. All that they wish to do is to associate themselves with the countless representations of the Passion by artists and pious writers, and to be regarded merely as a pious nuns Lenten meditations imperfectly comprehended and narrated and also very clumsily set down. She herself never attached to her visions anything more than a human and defective value, and therefore yielded to an inner admonition to communicate them only in obedience to the repeated commands of her spiritual directors and after a hard struggle with herself.

The same applies in essentials to the Life of Mary here presented, though with one difference. When the Dolorous Passion appeared, Catherine Emmerichs visions were known only to a few, though very distinguished men. In the meantime the voices of many thousands of readers have swelled the originally very modest applause. However the historical or theological character of the work may be judged, it is acknowledged to be a treasury of holy scenes and pictures which contribute to the edification and inspiration of the faithful. In this respect the