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

XIII. THE JOURNEY OF THE THREE HOLY KINGS TO BETHLEHEM [113]

[1821. Catherine Emmerich had already, in the course of 1819 and 1820, communicated a series of visions of the three holy kings' journey to Bethlehem. But, as at that time she was following the dates of the feasts of the Church in her contemplations, the period of thirteen days from Christmas to the Epiphany was too short for their long journey, and she communicated only some descriptions of single halting-places. As, however, in 1821 she dated the day of Christ's birth a month earlier, that is to say on November 25 ^th, and saw the departure of the kings for Judea on that day, there remained a space of about a month's time for the journey. She said, in defining its length, I always saw the kings approaching Bethlehem when I was putting out the Crib in the convent,'--that is to say, about December 25 ^th. Thus, it is more likely that Herod would no longer find the Child in Bethlehem after the departure of the kings, since the departure of the holy family could then have already occurred.]

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