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

FOOTNOTES

[1] The Pilgrim' is Clemens Brentano, who wrote down the visions at Catherine Emmerich's dictation. These were communicated by her to him on the morning of June 27th, 1819. (Tr.)[2] It is commonly stated that such separation was required of priests on duty, and this can he deduced from Lev. 15.18 (ceremonial uncleanness contracted) and Lev. 22.3 (ceremonial cleanness required). (SB)[3] Mass of the Fourth Sunday in Advent.[4] Mass of the Fourth Sunday in Advent.[5] Communicated in July and August 1821. (Tr.)[6] This was taken down in August 1821 by the writer from Catherine Emmerich's words. In July 1840, when preparing the book for printing, he asked a language expert for an explanation of the word Azkara, and was told that Azkarah meant commemoration and is the name of the portion of the unbloody sacrifice, which was burnt on the altar by the priest to the glory of God and to remind Him of His merciful promises. The unbloody sacrifices generally consisted of the finest wheaten flour mixed with oil and sprinkled with incense. The priest burnt as the Azkarah all the incense and also a handful of flour and oil (baked or unbaked). In the case of the shewbread the incense alone was the Azkarah ( Lev. 24.7). The Vulgate translates the word Azkarah alternatively as memoriale', in memoriam', or in monumentum'. (CB) Lev. 24.7, literally: "And you shall place upon the shewbread pure incense, and it shall be for the bread as a memorial (azkarah), a burnt offering to the Lord." The other references to the word azkarah are in Lev. 2.2, 9, 16; 5.12; 6.8; Num. 5.26 in connection with the burning of a meal offering (minhah). The connection with the Essenes remains obscure. (SB)[7] Hasid (pl. Hasidim), originally meaning merciful' (of God), came to mean devout' of men, and was later in Maccabean times used to designate a specific group of devout and observant Jews who joined the Maccabean party in their fight for freedom ( I Macc.2.42). These Hasideans (Gk. Asidaioi), as they were then called, are generally believed to be the forerunners of the Pharisees (cf. Lagrange, Le Judaisme avant Jesus-Christ, 1931, pp. 56, 272), and probably of the Essenes (Bonsirven, Le Judaisme Palestinien, 1935, I, pp. 43, 64), both sects being mentioned by Josephus in Maccabean times ( Ant., XIII, v, 9) . (SB)[8] They were called Essenoi by Josephus, Esseni by Pliny, and Essaioi by Philo (and six times by Josephus). The origin of the name is uncertain (cf. Lagrange, op. cit. , p. 320). Their way of life, as described by AC, is for the most part fully attested by the contemporary historian Josephus ( BJ , II, viii. 2-13), as well as by Philo (Quod omnis probus liber sit , 75-88). Pliny's remarks ( Hist. Nat. , V, 17) attribute to the Essenes an antiquity of thousands of years'. There is no other evidence of an antiquity beyond Maccabean times. (Most texts in Lagrange, op. cit. , pp. 307-17.) Passing references by Josephus are in Ant., XIII, v, 9 and XVIII, i, 5. (SB)[9] The spiritual head on Mount Horeb, Archos, it not mentioned in any of the documents. (SB)[10] It is well known that the Essenes refused to sacrifice animals, but the ritual of releasing them (as described by AC) is one of the few matters that is not documented. In Lev. 14.53 the Law prescribed the freeing of a bird after purification from leprosy, and in 16.22 the ritual of the scapegoat, which was to carry away all their iniquities into at uninhabited land.' (SB)[11] The little daughter of Catherine Emmerich's brother, who came from the farm of Flamske near Coesfeld to visit her at D?lmen in the winter of 1820, was seized with violent convulsions occurring every evening at the same time and beginning with distressing choking. These convulsions often lasted until midnight, and Catherine Emmerich, knowing as she did the cause and significance of this and indeed of most other illnesses, was greatly affected by her niece's sufferings. She prayed many times to be told of a cure for them, and at last was able to describe a certain little flower known to her which she had seen St. Luke pick and use to cure epilepsy. As a result of her minute description of the little flower and of the places where it grew, her physician, Dr. Wesener (the district doctor of D?lmen), found it; she recognized the plant which he brought her as the one she had seen, which she called star-flower ', and he identified it as Cerastium arvense linnaei or Holosteum caryophylleum veterum (Field Mouse-ear Chickweed). It is remarkable that the old herbal Tabernamontani also refers to the use of this plant for epilepsy. On the afternoon of May 22nd, 1821, Catherine Emmerich said in her sleep: Rue [which she had used before] and star-flower sprinkled with holy water should be pressed, and the juice given to the child, surely that could do no harm? I have already been told three times to squeeze it myself and give it to her.' The writer, in the hope that she might communicate something more definite about this cure, had, unknown to her, wrapped up at home some blossoms of this plant in paper like a relic and pinned the little packet to her dress in the evening. She woke up and said at once: That is not a relic, it is the star-flower.' She kept the little flower pinned to her dress during the night, and on the morning of May 23rd, 1821, she said: I had no idea why I was lying last night in a field amongst nothing but star-flowers. I saw, too, all kinds of ways in which these flowers were used, and it was said to me, "If men knew the healing power of this plant, it would not grow so plentifully around you." I saw pictures of it being used in very distant ages. I saw St. Luke wandering about picking these flowers. I saw, too, in a place like the one where Christ fed the 5,000, many sick folk lying on these flowers in the open air, protected by a light shelter above them. These plants were spread out like litter for them to lie on; and arranged with the flowers in the center under their bodies, and the stalks and leaves pointing outwards. They were suffering from gout, convulsions, and swellings, and had under them round cushions filled with the flowers. I saw their swollen feet being wrapped round with these flowers, and I saw the sick people eating the flowers and drinking water which had been poured on them. The flowers were larger than those here. It was a picture of a long time ago; the people and the doctors wore long white woolen robes with girdles. I saw that the plants were always blessed before use. I saw also a plant of the same family but more succulent and with rounder, juicier, smoother leaves and pale blue blossoms of the same shape, which is very efficacious in children's convulsions. It grows in better soil and is not so common. I think it is called eyebright. I found it once near Dernekamp. It is stronger than the other.' She then gave the child three flowers to begin with; the second time she was to have five. She said: I see the child's nature, but cannot rightly describe it; inside she is like a torn garment, which needs a new piece of stuff for each tear.' (CB)[12] These were Catherine Emmerich's words on August 16th, 1821. The names are here written down as the writer heard them pronounced by her lips, and also her explanation noble mother'. When the writer read this passage to a language expert in 1840, the latter said that it was indeed true that Em romo means a noble mother. (CB) Em ramah could mean noble mother', though the adjective ram , usually meaning materially high' or else proud', has no obvious parallel in a proper name, except perhaps in Amram (the father of Moses), which may mean noble uncle'. (SB)[13] She unquestionably meant that these herbs were the same as those mentioned by Eusebius in his ecclesiastical history, Book VII, Chapter 18, which he says grew round the statue of Jesus Christ put up by the woman of Caesarea Philippi, who was cured of the issue of blood. The plants acquired the power of healing all kinds of sicknesses as soon as they had grown high enough to touch the hem of the statue's garment. Eusebius says that this plant is of an unknown species. Catherine Emmerich had spoken before of the statue and of these plants. (CB)[14] In July 1840, some twenty years after this communication, as this book was being prepared for the press, the writer learnt from a language expert that the cabalistic book Zohar contains several references to this matter. (CB) The Zohar is a rabbinic book, claiming descent from Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai (second century), in the form of a commentary on the Pentateuch, interpreting it throughout, in an enigmatic and esoteric style, according to a mystical sense. The Zohar first became known through the 13 ^th-century Rabbi Moses de Leon, who has often been accused of fabricating the whole thing. Present-day opinion, however, suspends judgment, while emphasizing that the Zohar shows evidence of being a compilation of texts and fragments whose composition probably extended over many centuries, and which is likely to enshrine teaching of the greatest antiquity. The Zohar is one of the principal sources of spiritual interpretation among the Jews, and its main theme may be said to be the significance of every detail in sacred history, and the symbolic reflection in this world of the eternal realities of heaven. With regard to its connection with the statements of AC, see further n. 34, p. 26 . (SB)[15] Catherine Emmerich pronounced these and all other name-sounds with her Low-German accent and often hesitatingly. Her pronunciation, she said, only resembled the real names, and it is impossible to be sure how correctly or incorrectly they have been written down. It is all the more astonishing to find elsewhere long afterwards similar names for the same persons. The following is an instance. Several years after Catherine Emmerich's death the writer found in the Encomium trium Mariarum Bertaudi, Petragorici, Paris, 1529, and in particular in the treatise De cognatione divi Joannis Baptistae cum filiabus et nepotibus beatae Annae, lib. III, f. lii, etc., attached to it, that St. Cyril, the third General of the Carmelite Order, who died in 1224, mentions in a work concerning the ancestors of St. Anne similar visions of branches, buds, and flowers seen by the prophet of whom counsel was sought. He further states that Stolanus was also called Agarim or Garizi, names which reproduce sounds recognizable in the above-mentioned Garescha or Sarziri. On the other hand, in this account it is a Carmelite on Mount Carmel instead of an Essene on Mount Horeb of whom counsel is sought. Seventeen years after the death of Catherine Emmerich the writer was reading, on the feast of Corpus Christi, 1840, the life of Our Lady's holy mother in the Actis Sanctorum, Tom. VI, Julii, where Joannes Eckius in his homily on St. Anne says that Stolanus is called by tradition Stolan, and that the Roman Breviary of 1536 and several Breviaries printed before the reign of Pius V mention a daughter Gaziri, while others call her Garzim. A philological friend who was kind enough to read my proofs, observed: It is surprising that the names Gaziri, Garzi (the final m has been added), Garsha or Garescha (all three forms are correct, though formed from different verbs) all agree in meaning "outcast", and that Agari(m) in Arabic also conveys the idea of flight and banishment. Stolanus in Greek contains the idea of wandering. Sarssir means starling and thus also signifies a wandering bird.' (CB) The Hebrew root g-r-sh and the corresponding Arabic root g-sh-r convey the idea of banishment. The Hebrew ger (and its Arabic equivalent) means a stranger'. The Greek stolos means a journey' (cf . apostolos ). Zurzur is the Arabic for a starling', being derived apparently from the bird's noise. (SB)[16] It is certainly true that the writers who follow tradition generally give Emerentia as the mother of St. Anne; but they give the wife of Stolanus as Emerentia, whereas Catherine Emmerich calls her Emorun. According to tradition, Emerentia, the wife of Stolanus, bore Ismeria, the mother of Elizabeth, and Anna, the mother of the Blessed Virgin. Yet according to Catherine Emmerich's account, Anna is the granddaughter, not the daughter, of Stolanus. If this is a mistake of hers, the reason for it may be that the humble visionary has confused her own visions with the account which she had heard from her childhood of the traditional descent of St. Anne. The name Emerentia is perhaps nothing more than the Latinized form of the name (heard by her) of Emorun. But being either ignorant or forgetful of this, and having always heard of the names Emerentia and Ismeria as being traditionally in close association with Stolanus as the nearest relations of Anna before her marriage, she may have described them as daughters of Stolanus. At the same time it was very noticeable that she never confused any of the countless names which came to her ears except in extreme illness and distress. We are, however, inclined to suppose that there must be some error here, for tradition in general mentions St. Elizabeth as being a niece of St. Anne's, whereas according to Catherine Emmerich's account Elizabeth is the niece of Anna's mother, which would seem to make Elizabeth almost older than Anna, who is called a late-born child. Since the writer cannot explain the error which may possibly have crept in, he begs the kind reader to accept it with patience and thus make amends for the writer's lack of that Christian virtue in his difficult and often interrupted task of compiling an account of these visions. (CB)

[59] There is a place called Madin about twelve miles north-east of Nazareth on the high ground above the Lake of Galilee. Cf. Jos. 11.1. (SB)

[60] Pilate, not Herod, proposed to make an aqueduct with Temple funds, and thereby caused a riot of 10,000 Jews, according to Josephus (Ant., XVIII, iii. 2). (SB)

[61] For the burning bush ( Ex. 3.2) as a type of Our Lady, cf. the second antiphon at Lauds on Jan. 1st. (SB)

[62] One may well be alarmed by the power of the world over fallen mankind when one considers how earthly things brought forgetfulness upon this favored soul who was not at all attached to them. Every year about this time she saw this picture of Mary's departure for the Temple, and each time the appearance of the two prophets as boys was in some way interwoven with it. She sees them appear as boys and not at their real age, because they were not personally present at the proceeding but accompany her only as emblems. Painters, when making historical pictures, are in the habit of representing not in their real form, but as youths, genii, or angels, those persons who are intended to illustrate some truth or other. Thus we may see that this manner of representation is not a result of their poetical imagination, but lies in the nature of all visionary appearances. (CB)

[63] From the situation of this town and from the mention of its having some heathen inhabitants, and of Jesus having traveled in this direction in His thirtieth year on His way to His Baptism, we may conclude that it was Endor. For in her daily visions of the ministry of Our Lord, Catherine Emmerich saw Him celebrating the Sabbath in a small place near Endor in the middle of September of the first year of His ministry on His way to His Baptism. Also in this rather deserted hill-town she saw Him teaching the Canaanites settled here since the defeat of Sisera, in whose army their ancestors had served. (CB) Endor lies north-cast of the Plain of Esdrelon, where the battle was fought in which Sisera was defeated ( Judges 4). (SB)

[64] Upper Bethoron is on the hill and Lower Bethoron at the foot of the hill. Jos. 10.11 mentions the battle in the descent of Beth-Horon'; and a big battle took place here as recorded in I Macc. 3.16-24. (SB)

[65] She remembered that the name sounded like Marion (possibly Marom', i.e. the height'). It is known that a road ran from Jerusalem past Bethoron to Nicopolis and Lydda. Catherine Emmerich gave all kinds of other details about the hills and valleys on the journey up to this point, but as she sees more distinctly than she can describe, it is impossible to reproduce these details, particularly as the topographical position from which she sees them cannot be determined. (CB)

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

[67] 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 poo1 mentioned by AC. (SB)

[68] 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)

[69] 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 Libna which is in the tribe of Judah some hours to the west of Bethlehem, but Lebona on the south side of Mount Garizim. According to the Book of Judges 21.19, it is to be found north of Shiloh. (CB)[70] Thanath or Thaanath (see Joshua 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 Thanach instead of Thanath, 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 low-German M?nster dialect and sometimes mixed them up. A further convincing proof that she here meant Thanach 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 Siva in Thanach, a town of the Levites near Megiddo, and that He visited there the former carpenter's shop of his foster-father Joseph. (CB)[71] Apheca is about twenty-five miles north of Thanach. (SB)[72] The same idea is found in St. Bernard's Homilia 2 super Missus est, recited in the Breviary on St. Joseph's feast. (SB)[73] Juttah, the modern Yattah, lies about five miles south of Hebron. See also n. 82, p. 70 . (SB)[74] 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)[75] 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 (which celebrates 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 Sam 2.22), we find women or virgins employed in the service of the Temple; and in the description in Ps. 68 of the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant to Mount Sion, there is an allusion in verses 25-26 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. 6o, 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 Azarias 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) 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. 7.14: Blessed shall you 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)[76] 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 clarifying. 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 5.26-38). 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)[77] He is by tradition called Agabus, and in Raphael's representation of the Betrothal of Our Lady (generally called Sposalizio') he is pictured as a youth breaking his staff over his knee. (CB)[78] The miracle of Joseph's rod (with the dove issuing from the rod) appears in Protev. 9, Ps-Matt. 8, and (with the dove alighting on the rod) in Nat. Mar. 8. The name Agabus for the unsuccessful suitor is not found elsewhere. (SB)[79] When the writer copied down these words of Catherine Emmerich--on Aug. 4 ^th, 1821, he could not think of any reason why she should have seen this picture on Aug. 3 ^rd. 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. 3 ^rd (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)[80] The tradition about the light at the Annunciation is preserved in the liturgy (Mar. 25th, Resp. ii): Et expavescit Virgo de lumine.' (SB)[81] The Visitation: Luke 1.39-56. St. Joseph's worries: Matt. 1.18-25.[82] Juttah near Hebron; Luke 1.39 says: Into the hill country . . . into a city of Judah.' It has been suggested that Judah' was written by mistake for Juttah'. (SB)[83] Catherine Emmerich saw Jesus at Dothan in this house on Nov. 2nd (the 12th day of the month Marcheswan) 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 2 Kings 5.16, and in 1 Chronicles 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 bear different names. Thus we find a son of David's sometimes called Elishua (God helps') and sometimes Elishama (God hears'); and Eldea or Eldaa may mean God comes' 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 2 Kings. ( Sam.) 5.15, and Elisama in 1 Chr. 3.6. In Hebrew, Elishua (God saves') and Elishama (God hears'). The name of the son Elioda or Eliada is in both places Elyada, which with its by-forms means God knows', (SB)[84] 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)[85] The message of Isaiah which she has forgotten is beyond doubt his prophecy to King Ahaz: Is. 7.3-25. (CB)[86] AC expresses surprise at Zechariah's 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 2.62-64). AC has nothing about the birth of the child. (SB)[87] 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)[88] Parmenas was one of the seven deacons ( Acts 6.5). Cf. following page. (SB)[89] 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)[90] This chapter represents the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the enrolment: Luke 2.5-6. (SB)[91] AC several times explains that Joseph only lived a short time at Nazareth in the house provided by Anna, and did not at first intend to remain there. This intention throws light on Matt. 2.23, from which it would appear that he deliberately chose Nazareth as a dwelling-place on his return from Egypt, the alternative being the plan (explained by AC) of settling at Bethlehem, his birthplace. This plan he deliberately rejected, since Bethlehem was in Judea and he was afraid to go there' ( Matt. 2.22) because of Archelaus. (SB)[92] The Field of Chimki is identified by AC (infra, p. 79 ) with Ginim; see next note. (SB)[93] The Field of Ginim, six hours from Nazareth, is presumably Engannim or Ginaea, the modern Jenin, eighteen miles south of Nazareth, near the corner of the Plain of Esdrelon. Engannim is mentioned in Jos. 15.34 and 19.19 and is probably to be identified with Beth-haggan (Douay the garden house') of IV Kings 9.27. Cf. Cath. Comm., 275i. (SB)[94] This would refer to the foothills to the west of Mount Gilboa. (SB)[95] Gabara is in Galilee, north of Nazareth. (SB)[96] Catherine Emmerich was so exceedingly ill from Nov. 19th to 21st that when she recounted these events on Nov. 22nd she could not give the exact situation of this tree, but could only say that it was somewhere near the path of the Holy Family. It is in any case not the cursed fig tree mentioned in the Gospels. (CB) The barren fig tree of Matt. 21.19 and Mark 11.13 stood between Bethany and Jerusalem. (SB)[97] The question of the successive registrations in the Roman Province of Syria is very intricate, together with the identification of the one in the year of Christ's birth; but there is evidence for censuses in Egypt and Gaul earlier in the reign of Augustus (cf. Cath. Comm., 749a). AC's reference (infra, p. 83 ) to the sharing of the revenue of the taxation remains entirely obscure. (SB)[98] Maraha, Abraham's nurse, is not known in any available document. (SB)[99] Matt. 2 .1 ; Birth, Adoration of the Shepherds, Circumcision: Luke 2.7-21. (SB)[100] AC's delicate description of the painless, miraculous birth of Christ finds parallels (especially in the cave being filled with light) in Protev. 19 and Ps-Matt. 13, though both these apocryphal sources introduce a midwife, whose services are not required. (SB)[101] Herod's two sons, placed in the Temple, are mentioned by AC (infra, p. 102 ) as natural sons. History is, however, silent in their regard. (SB)[102] The tradition about strange portents in Rome at the birth of Christ is very ancient. Its first appearance in a document seems to be in the Universal History of Orosius (A.D. 418), the friend of St. Augustine. We find here the fountain of oil, the idol speaking, the vision of Augustus, and so forth. The story was elaborated by the time of the fourteenth-century Byzantine historian Nicephorus Callistus. The matter is fully studied in Graf, Roma nella memoria e nelle immaginazioni del medio evo, Turin, 1882, Vol. 1, pp. 308-331, where the texts are reproduced. The Church of Our Lady in question is Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, on the Capitol Hill, where Augustus is said to have put up a new altar (infra, p. 94 ). The mention (infra, p. 94 ) of the consul Lentulus need not be associated with the fictitious letter of Lentulus (a supposed Roman official in Judea) about the appearance of Christ. But there was a consul Lucius Lentulus after the death of Julius Caesar (44 B.C.), mentioned by Josephus (Ant., XIV, x, 13). Lentulus the friend of Peter in Rome is unknown, and is not likely to be Lentulus Getulicus who was involved in a plot against Caligula in A.D. 41 and was executed, since Peter probably did not come to Rome until A.D. 42. The priest Moses was one of the first martyrs under Decius, and died in 251 (Ramsgate Book of Saints). (SB)[103] Elijah makes his appearance in 3 Kings 17.1 in the reign of King Ahab, 874-853 B.C. (SB)[104] Here her story was interrupted by so strange and sudden an occurrence that we feel bound to communicate it, so characteristic is it of her condition. It was about six o'clock in the evening of Nov. 27th, 1821, when she spoke these last words in her sleep. It must be remembered that for many years her feet had been paralyzed; she could not walk, and could with difficulty raise herself to a sitting position, so that she was, as always, lying stretched out on her couch. The door stood open between her room and the room adjoining it in which her confessor was at that moment sitting by the lamp reading his Breviary. She had just said these words with such truth of expression that it was impossible to doubt that she was seeing it all actually happening before her eyes. Hardly, however, had she stammered out the word Tanada' than the enfeebled and paralyzed sleeper suddenly sprang up from her couch with lightning speed, hurried into the adjoining room, and rushed to the window, striking out with hands and feet as if she were attacking and warding off something. Then, turning to her confessor, she said, That was a great big brute, but I gave him a kick and sent him off'. After these words she sank down as if fainting, and lay very quietly and calmly on the floor of the room before the window. The priest at his Breviary was, like the writer, staggered by this highly surprising incident, but without wasting words he said to her, Sister Emmerich, under obedience, go back to your bed'; whereupon she at once got up, returned to her room, and lay down again on her bed. When the writer asked her, What was that strange incident?' she told him the following. She was wide awake and in full consciousness, and though she was tired, she was in the cheerful state of mind of someone who has won a victory. Yes, it was indeed odd. I was so far, far away in the land of the three kings. I was standing on the high mountain ridge between the two seas, looking down into their tent-cities (just as one looks out of the window here into the poultry-yard), when I suddenly felt myself called home by my guardian angel. I turned round and saw here in D?lmen, passing in front of our little house, a poor old woman whom I knew. She had come out of a little grocer's shop. She was in a very bad and evil-tempered mood, and was grumbling and cursing to herself in a quite abominable way. Then I saw that her guardian angel abandoned her and that a great black devil-shape laid itself across her path in the dark, to make her stumble over him and break her neck and so die in her sins. When I saw that, I let the three kings be ( liess ich drei K?nige drei K?nige sein' ), prayed earnestly to God to help the poor woman, and was back here in my room. Then I saw that the devil was beating against the window in dreadful fury and was trying to break into the room; I saw that he had a whole bundle of nooses and knotted strings in his claws. He was trying, out of revenge, to start a great complication and annoyance here with all these; so I rushed at him and gave him a kick which made him stagger back. That will have given him something to remember! And then I lay down before the window across his path, to prevent him from coming in.' It is indeed strange that while she is looking down from the Caucasus and seeing and recounting things that happened five hundred years before Christ's birth as though they were before her eyes, she should at the same moment see the danger surrounding a poor little old woman close to her house at home and should hurry energetically to help her. It was an amazing spectacle to see her rushing in like a living skeleton and fighting with such violence, whereas in her waking state, she can, since Sept. 8th, hardly move forward a few steps on her crutches without fainting. (CB)[105] The date of Christ's birth is usually fixed by modern scholars in 8 B.C. (e.g. Fr. T. Corbishley, S.J., in Cath. Comm., 676a), or at latest 6-4 B.C. (ib., 749a), but the argument is from contemporary history (such as the death of Herod in 4 B.C.), and not, as AC suggests, from the computation of the Annus Mundi. Yet it is interesting that AC's date 7 B.C. is so near the conclusions of present-day studies. (SB)[106] The chronological data are fairly exact by modern conclusions. The forty-fifth year of Augustus is reckoned (as was the custom among the older historians, e.g. Muratori in 1744-1749) from his assumption of power as a triumvir in 44 B.C., and corresponds therefore to A.D. I (though AC had just said that Christ was born in 7 B.C.). Herod reigned 40-4 B.C. (thirty-six years--AC says forty), and AC gives his thirty-fourth year for the birth of Christ, i.e. 6 B.C. There is therefore some confusion in the correlation of the data. For Herod's madness, cf. Josephus Ant., XVII, vi, 5 to viii, 1. (SB)[107] Josephus tells us (Ant., XV, xi, I) that Herod began the rebuilding of the Temple in his eighteenth year, i.e. 20-19 B.C., and that work continued for one and a half years (ib., 6). The Gospel ( John 2.20), referring to the beginning of Our Lord's ministry, A.D. 29, mentions forty-six years of the Temple, which would give the date 17 B.C., perhaps, for its completion. Perhaps AC's "seventeen years before the birth of Christ" can be understood as 17 B.C., but there is a slight confusion here. (SB)[108] The twelve Hebrew lunar months (of alternatively twenty-nine and thirty days) gave a year of 354 days, so that every few years an error accumulated which was corrected by the insertion after the twelfth month, Adar, of a thirteenth or intercalary month, called Second Adar. The need for this intercalation was, at the time of Christ, still determined empirically, in such a way that the celebration of the Pasch at the full moon or fourteenth day of the first month, Nisan, should always occur after the spring equinox (Mar. 21st). The intercalary month was of the same length as the other months, running from new moon to new moon. (Cf. Sch?rer, The Jewish People in the Time of Christ, I, ii, 369 sqq.) AC herself admitted the likelihood of confusion on her part about this technical matter. (SB)[109] Kislev was the ninth month, corresponding approximately to our Nov./Dec., and according to AC (infra, p. 119 ) Christ was born on the 12th Kislev, which that year was Nov. 25th. (SB)[110] The calendar was adjusted in 1582, when by order of Pope Gregory XIII ten days were omitted, so that the day following Oct. 4th in that year was Oct. 15th, and thus the spring equinox was restored to Mar. 21st. The ten days' error was the accumulation since the previous adjustment at Nicaea in A.D. 325 (cf. Breviary, De Anno et ejus partibus). (SB)[111] The ritual of lighting the Sabbath lamp on Friday evening is described in the Mishnah, Shabbath, II, 5-7; III, 6. The Mosaic prohibition of making fire on the Sabbath is in Exod. 35.3. (SB)[112] The conduct of the rite is accurately described (cf. Jewish Encyc., art. Circumcision', pp. 95 sqq.), though it seems that the mohel was usually a surgeon rather than a priest. (SB)[113] Communicated in 1821. Matt. 2.1-12.[114] The names of the three kings as given by AC, Mensor, Seir, and Theokeno, find no documentary parallel, nor is there anywhere any information about their homelands or their subsequent history (infra, p. 114 ). The apocryphal Protev. 21 adds nothing to St. Matthew's account. For latter names, see n. 120, p. 111 . (SB)[115] Hagar and Ishmael: Gen. 21.14-21. (SB)[116] No such visit of Our Lord to the abode of the three kings in Arabia is recorded in the Gospels. (SB)[117] She saw the procession of the kings passing through this town on the feast of St. Saturninus (Nov. 27th) of whom she possesses a relic; that is why she mentioned his connection with this place. The writer read later in the legend of this saint in Fleurs des Vies Saintes that Saturninus preached the Gospel in Asia as far as Media. (CB)[118] There is no available evidence about the martyr Eleazar. (SB)[119] According to the Ramsgate Book of Saints (1947), the names Melchior, Kaspar, and Balthasar were attributed to the Magi in the eighth century. The names themselves are not known before this, although Balthasar appears as a by-form of Belshazzar ( Dan. 5.1), which is a pagan Babylonian name Bel-shar-usur (Bel protect the king'), and Melchior, if a Hebrew name Malki-or, could mean My king is light'. The meanings given by AC are most obscure. The Legenda Aurea (Jan. 6th) gives their names as Appellius, Amerius, and Damascus in Greek; Galgalat, Malgalat, and Sarathin in Hebrew; and Melchior, Kaspar, and Balthasar in Latin; and adds that their bodies were found by Helena and taken to Constantinople, whence later to Milan, and finally to Cologne. (SB)[120] In 1839, eighteen years after this word Acajaja was pronounced by Catherine Emmerich, the writer found in Funke's dictionary: "Achajacula, a castle on an island in the Euphrates in Mesopotamia (Ammian, 24, 2)" (CB) The reference is to the history by Ammianus Marcellinus covering the twenty-six years from Constantius to Valens, entitled Res Gestae, in thirty-one books of which eighteen are extant. The twenty-fourth book deals with the campaigns of the Emperor Julian (A.D. 363), and in XXIV, ii, 2, the place Achaiachala, an island fortress in the river Euphrates, is mentioned. (SB)[121] The name Partherme is otherwise unknown. It occurs again (of the same land), infra, p. 173 . (SB)[122] It would seem that Mensor, the Chaldean, was from Mesopotamia, Theokeno from Media (Persia), and Seir from the mountain country between Mesopotamia and Persia. But the geographical information is not precise enough to determine anything. (SB)[123] Perhaps Geshur in Syria', Absalom's retreat in 2 Kings ( Sam.) 15.8. Fahsel notes Geshur, a Roman garrison town on the road from Damascus to Galilee, just south of Mount Hermon. (SB)[124] The Bible tells us nothing whatever about the historical setting of the Book of Job, except that Job lived in the land of Hus (or Uz)'--a place otherwise unknown. But see further in n. 173, p. 154 . (SB)[125] That Balaam should come from a northern land is no surprise in view of Num. 22.5 in the Hebrew text, where we read that the king of Moab "sent messengers to Balaam, son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river of his people's land", and this Pethor is usually identified with Pitru of the Assyrian inscriptions, a city on the Euphrates (cf. Cath. Comm., 206d). (The Vulgate reads soothsayer' for Pethor, and Ammon' for his people'.) Balaam's remote and pagan origin makes him a character of particular interest in the history of Israel. (SB)[126] Maccabean Dedication Feast; cf. supra , n. 53, p. 37 . (SB)[127] Medeba is about eighteen miles north of the brook Arnon, which flows into the Dead Sea, and Bethlehem lies due west from here across the Dead Sea, so that travelers would have to turn north to go round it. (SB)[128] Medeba was the scene of David's battle with the Ammonites ( 1 Chr. 19.7), and also (but after Solomon's time) one of the cities captured during the revolt of Mesha, King of Moab (IV Kings 3.4 sqq., Isa. 15.2). as recorded on the Moabite Stone. (SB)[129] Since the Arnon flows east to west, we should understand northern side' here. (SB)[130] St. Jerome mentions a Methane near Arnon, which gave its name to the Mathanites. See 1 Chr. 11.43. (CB) Nothing else is recorded in the Bible about the Mathanites. Fahsel marks a village Madian on the north bank of the Arnon.(SB)[131] According to AC (infra, p. 120 ) this took place about 1500 B.C., when Medes (?) from Job's country' (the Caucasus according to AC) invaded Egypt. Is this to be identified with the Hittite invasions in the Amarna period (14th cent. B.C.)? (SB)[132] Bethabara (thus named by AC) (= place of crossing') by the lord an is mentioned in some codices of John 1.28 (where John was baptizing'), while other codices have Bethania (= place of the ship')--probably two names for the same place. (SB)[133] That the second visit of the Magi to Herod was in private is recorded in Matt. 2.7. (SB)[134] This is probably the same story as that recorded by Josephus (BJ., I, xxxiii, 2-4): Herod had put up a golden eagle over the main gate of the Temple. Some young Jews climbed up at noonday and smashed it with axes. About forty men were arrested. (SB)[135] Cf. Matt. 2.9: The star came and stood over where the child was.'[136] Sometimes A.C. mistook this Mara in the narration with Anna's younger sister (Maraha) or niece, called Enue. As you read farther, the terms "brothers" and "sisters" are more frequently used.[137] Nathanael under the fig tree: John 1.45-51; the Marriage of Cana: John 1.45-51. Of the subsequent events there is no documentary record, unless Carpus in Crete is to be identified with St. Paul's friend at Troas ( II Tim. 4.13). For the city of Acajacuh, see n. 121, p. 114 . (SB)[138] Catherine Emmerich was in the highest degree sensitive to the hidden qualities of all material objects consecrated by the Church, and in particular to relics of the saints. In the presence of their bones, or of stuff which they had worn, she was able to give their names and often the smallest details of their stories. She identified numbers of relics rescued from destroyed churches, private houses, and even old curiosity shops, sometimes first telling where they were to be found. She was given many of these, including two large reliquaries full of relics from early times, which were presented to her by one of her spiritual directors. (CB)[139] Bethoron is about twenty miles north-west of Jerusalem. Cf. n. 64, p. 48 . (SB)[140] Silvanus: is this St. Paul's friend, called Silas in Acts (55.22, etc.) and Silvanus by St. Paul ( 1 Thess. 1.1; 2 Cor. 1.19 ) and by St. Peter ( 1 Peter 5.12 )? (SB)[141] Arrested'--AC was a nun at the Augustinian Convent at D?lmen, when in 1812 Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, closed the convent and dispersed the nuns, who were compelled to live as seculars and find refuge in private houses. (SB)[142] Luke 2.22-39. (SB)[143] The laws about Purification' and offerings after childbirth are in Lev. 12.4-8, and the sanctification' of the first-born is directed in Exod. 13.2 and Num. 3.13. (SB)[144] In 1823, when recounting Jesus' stay in Hebron during the third year of His ministry, some ten days after the death of the Baptist, Catherine Emmerich said that she saw Our Lord teaching, on Friday the 29th day of the month of Thebet (i.e. Jan. 17th), from the Sabbath reading taken from Exodus, Chapter 10 to Chapter 13.17. He taught about the Egyptian plague of darkness and about the redemption of the first-born. In connection with the latter she recounted once more the whole ceremony of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, including the following, omitted from the description given in the text:The Blessed Virgin did not present Our Lord in the Temple until the forty-third day after His birth. Because of the feast, she waited for three days with the good people of the inn outside the Bethlehem gate of Jerusalem. Besides the customary offering of doves, she presented to the Temple five triangular pieces of gold from the kings' gifts, as well as several pieces of beautiful stuff for embroidery. Before leaving Bethlehem, Joseph sold to his cousin the young she-ass which he had given him in pledge on Nov. 30th. I have always thought that the she-ass, on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, was a descendant of hers.' (CB)[145] In a vision of the life of St. Benedict which Catherine Emmerich had on Feb. 10th, 1820, she saw amongst other things that as a boy he was shown by his teacher how to use colored stones to make all kinds of ornaments and arabesques in the sand of the garden in the manner of the old pavements. Later she saw him, when a hermit, decorating the roof of his cell or cave with a reproduction in rough mosaic of a vision of the Last Judgment. Still later she saw St. Benedict's followers imitating and extending this form of decoration. After contemplating in its smallest details the whole history and development of his Order from its foundation, she said: Because in the Benedictines the inner spirit became less active and alive than its outer shell, I saw their churches and monasteries becoming too much ornamented and decorated. I thought to myself, that comes from the picture Benedict made in his cell; it has shot up like a weed, and when once this superstructure collapses, it will strike many of them at the same time.' (CB)[146] Matt. 2.13-18. (SB)[147] Since Matthew alone gives the account of the Magi and of the Flight into Egypt, and Luke alone that of the Presentation, it is not easy to decide the exact order of events. According to AC the Magi came to Bethlehem before the Presentation, and the angel's warning came to Joseph at Nazareth some time after it. If Jesus was by then nine months old. In this case the words of Matt. 2.13, "And after they [the Magi] were departed, behold an angel . . .", refer to the passage of over seven months and a removal to Nazareth. This interval between the visit of the Magi and the Flight into Egypt certainly offers an explanation of a chronological problem. (SB)[148] According to this account Joseph evidently intended to give up the house at Nazareth, and presumably to carry out his plan of moving to Bethlehem (cf. AC, p. 78 , and n. 128, p. 119 ). All this helps to explain why we get the impression from Matt. 2.22-23 that Joseph really wanted to settle in Judea but came to Nazareth almost faute de mieux. (SB)[149] Clearly the despised Samaritans, cf., e.g., John 4.9, 20 (where their worship on Mount Garizim is mentioned). (SB)[150] Fifteen years after Catherine Emmerich's death, when the writer was putting together her account of the Flight into Egypt, he wondered why the Holy Family should have remained in Nazara a whole day. It was only then that he discovered that the Sabbath began on the evening of March 2nd, 1821, so that the Holy Family must have kept it in secret here, though Catherine Emmerich made no mention of this. (CB)[151] The identification of Nazara, Legio, and Massaloth is uncertain, but they are probably in the hill country south of the Vale of Esdrelon, and are so placed by Fahsel. (SB)[152] The Biblical references to all these places are given supra, p. 80 . (SB)[153] The story of Elizabeth's concealing the boy John the Baptist is found in Protev. 22, but with a typical addition in the fanciful detail of the mountain splitting to receive them into hiding. (SB)[154] David kept his father's sheep near Bethlehem: 1 Kings ( Sam.) 17.15. Bethlehem is about twelve miles from Mambre. (SB)[155] In her general description of the Flight into Egypt she forgot to mention this refuge of the Holy Family. The description given above is taken from her daily account of Our Lord's ministry, at the time when, after His baptism, He visited with some of His disciples all the places near Bethlehem where His Mother had been with Him. She saw Jesus, after His baptism by John, which she described on Friday, Sept. 28th, 1821, staying in this cave with His disciples from Oct. 8th to Oct. 9th, and she heard Him speak of the graces given in this place and of the hardships and difficulties of the Flight into Egypt. He blessed this cave and told them that one day a church would be built over it. On Oct. 18th she said: This refuge of the Holy Family was later called Mary's place of sojourn, and was visited by pilgrims who were, however, ignorant of its real history. Later only poor people lived there.' She gave a precise description of the place, and some time afterwards the writer found to his great astonishment an account by the Minorite friar Antonio Gonzalez of his journey to Jerusalem (Antwerp, 1679, Part I, p. 556), in which he stated that he had been in a village of Mary's', a short mile on the left of the road from Hebron to Bethlehem, where she had taken refuge on the Flight. It was, he said, on a hill, and a church with three vaults and three doors was still standing there, with a picture on its wall of Mary and her Child on the donkey, led by Joseph. Below the hill on which stood the village and church was a beautiful spring of water, known as Mary's fountain. All of this agrees with the place described by Catherine Emmerich. Arvieux says in the second volume of his Memoirs (Leipzig, 1783): Between Hebron and Bethlehem we came through the village of the Blessed Virgin, who is said to have rested here during her Flight.' (CB)[156] None of the many details of the life of the young John the Baptist in the desert are found in any available document. (SB)[157] Catherine Emmerich heard Our Lord Himself relate this touching incident in her visions of Our Lord's ministry. It was on January 14 ^th (Tuesday, the 26 ^th day of the month Thebet) of the third year of His ministry, in the house of John's parents at Juttah, in the presence of the Blessed Virgin, Peter, John and three trusty disciples of the Baptist. A carpet had been spread out before them, which had been worked by Mary and Elizabeth after the Visitation: it had been embroidered with many significant texts. Our Lord was speaking with comforting words of the Baptist's murder, which had taken place on the 20 ^th of the month Thebet (Jan. 8 ^th) at Herod's birthday feast at Machaerus. He spoke much about John on this occasion and said that He had only seen him twice in the flesh; that time on the Flight to Egypt and the second time at His baptism. (CB)[158] The first mention by Catherine Emmerich of this inn was in her account of Christ's ministry. On Oct. 8th after His baptism Our Lord came here alone from the Valley of the Shepherds. He converted Reuben and healed several sick people while His disciples waited for Him in the cave of refuge near Ephraim. He taught at the places where the Holy Family had rested and taken food, and explained to the inhabitants that the grace given to them now was the fruit of the hospitality shown by them to the Holy Family. On His journey between here and the cave near Ephraim He passed by Hebron. A place called Anim or Anem, nine miles south of Hebron in the district of Daroma, is mentioned by Jerome and also by Eusebius. (CB) Anim is mentioned among the hill cities of Judah in Jos. 15.50, together with Juttah (Douay Jota) in 55 and Hebron in 54. (SB)[159] The apocryphal Ps-Matt. 18-19 includes details of wild beasts in the desert on the way to Egypt, but the account is very fanciful and tells how they wagged their tails in reverence, and so forth, and how the Child Jesus spoke to the creatures and comforted His mother. (SB)[160] The encounter with robbers occurs in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, 23, where the robbers Titus and Dymachus are the future thieves at the Crucifixion. According to AC it was at the robbers' hut that a boy was cured of leprosy by being washed in Our Lord's bath-water, and this boy (nameless) became the Good Thief at the Crucifixion (infra, p. 146 ). The same Arabic source has the episode of the bath-water on three occasions (17, 31, 32). In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, 10, the Good Thief is called Dismas (his traditional name), and the Bad Thief Gestas (or Gistas). (SB)[161] We quote the whole of this incident, as well as many others of the Flight into Egypt, from the accounts given by Catherine Emmerich of the conversations with Jesus of Eliud, an aged Essene, who accompanied Our Lord on His journey from Nazareth to be baptized by John. Eliud said that Anna the prophetess had told him that she had heard of this incident from the Blessed Virgin. (CB)[162] The palm-tree that bowed appears (on the Flight) in Ps-Matt. 20, but there the little Jesus is figured as addressing the tree and also commanding it to straighten itself afterwards. (SB)[163] Joseph married Asenath: Gen. 41.50. (SB)[164] The idol falling when the Holy Family reached Egypt is mentioned in Ps-Matt. 23 (all the idols) and in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, 10, Cf. supra, p. 29 and n. (SB)[165] The presence of a Jewish temple built on the ruins of Leontopolis, on the outskirts of Heliopolis, is well known from Josephus (Ant., XIII, iii, 1-4), who explains that it was built by Onias (IV) after his flight from Palestine, c. 170 B.C., like indeed to that at Jerusalem, but smaller and poorer '. Cf. also BJ, VII, x, 3. (SB)[166] This was recounted while Catherine Emmerich was seriously ill; she mentioned several journeys and other matters connected with Herod's family, but very obscurely. The statement that Herod had been in Rome in the meantime was the only clear one. Some fifteen years after this communication, the writer reread the history of Herod the Great given by the Jewish historian Josephus, but found no mention of any journey of Herod's to Rome at this time. (CB)[167] It has already been observed (n. 148, p. 141 ) that Matt. 2.13, according to AC, involves the passing of over seven months. Here we are told that Jesus was nearly eighteen months old, so that Matt. 2.16, Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded . . . sending killed . . .', shows the passage of a further nine months to the murder of the Innocents. The Gospel has no details beyond the fact of the massacre. (SB)[168] Perhaps this refers to the Roman numeral DCC =700 (AC always saw Roman numerals). She mentions (supra, p. 149 ) that the massacres took place in seven different places, and the Gospel ( Matt. 2.16) indicates a whole district: Bethlehem and all the borders thereof.' (SB)[169] Troja and Babylon near Memphis, and Matarea near Heliopolis or On, are all readily identifiable in the region of the modern Cairo. At Matarea it is said that the Tree of Our Lady' is still shown. The tree is also mentioned in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, 24. (SB)[170] The murder of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, is recounted in Protev. 23, with subsequent portents added. (SB)[171] The earlier Zechariah killed near the altar is in 2 Chr. 24.20-21. There is a well-known difficulty in Matt. 23.35, where this Zechariah is called son of Barachiah', when 2 Chr. gives his father's name as Joiada. It is generally agreed that the verse in Matt. includes a scribal error, arising from the fact that the much better-known Prophet Zechariah's father was called Barechiah ( Zech. 1.1), and that the two names were thus linked in the scribe's memory. This supposition is borne out by the omission of a father's name in Matt. in Codex Sinaiticus. The parallel in Luke 11.51 has no father's name. Yet all texts of Matt. before the discovery of Sinaiticus in 1859 include the name, and it is hardly surprising that AC should do so too. (SB)[172] The Book of Job gives no clue to the ancestry, offspring. or homeland of Job, and (as AC remarks, infra, p. 155 ) it is difficult to recognize the true history of Job from it. Job is only mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament as a just man, together with Noe and Daniel ( Ezekiel 14.14, 16, 20). Rabbinic lore has, however, many accounts of the circumstances of Job's family; some texts place Job as a contemporary of Abraham, while others place him earlier or later. There are several accounts of his visit to Egypt. The list of such Rabbinic texts is too great to insert here, but a general account of them will be found in the Jewish Encyclopedia, art. Job, p. 193b. (SB)[173] It is remarkable that she said on another occasion that the Black Sea had been before the Flood a high mountain on which evil angels held sway. This seems to show that the mountain range behind which Job's first dwelling-place was situated must have been the Caucasus. (CB)[174] The Hyksos or Shepherd Kings' were foreign rulers in Egypt, c . 1730-1580 B.C., who were finally driven out by a native dynasty. (SB)[175] The phrase while he was yet speaking' occurs in Job 1.16, 17, 18. The text certainly suggests a quick succession of calamities, but if AC's statement of intervals of nine, seven, and twelve years between the calamities is correct, it is easier to suppose the story to have been telescoped for the purpose of the drama as we know it, than to interpret the text (as AC suggests) as meaning while it was still the talk of the people'. (SB)[176] In 1835 the writer heard that the founder of the Armenian race was so named. (CB)[177] Flavius Josephus (lib. I, Antiquitat. Jud., c. 8) and others state that Abraham instructed the Egyptians in arithmetic and astrology. (CB) Abraham in Egypt: Gen. 12.13. That Lot was with him is shown by 13.1. He pretended that his wife was his sister a second time (20.2) after which the explanation referred to is given (20.12). That Abraham taught the Egyptians is an old Jewish tradition, preserved in Josephus, Ant., I, viii, 2, and there are many Rabbinic stories about his sojourn in Egypt, especially in the Midrash (e.g. Genesis Rabba, XLI and XLIV). (SB)[178] Catherine Emmerich says elsewhere of Hagar: She was of Sarah's family, and when Sarah herself was barren, she gave Abraham Hagar for his wife and said she would build from her and have descendants through her. She looked upon herself as one with all the women of her tribe, as if it were a female tree with many blossoms. Hagar was a vessel, or flower of her tribe, and she hoped for a fruit of her tribe from her. At that time the whole tribe was as one tree and each of its blossoms formed part of it. (CB) Gen. 16.1 simply states that Hagar was an Egyptian. (SB)[179] Gen. 12.20 (literally from the Hebrew): "And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and sent him away, and his wife, and all that belonged to him." (SB)[180] Matt. 2.19-23.[181] Joseph's obedience to the angel in the choice of Nazareth: Matt. 2.22. (SB)[182] The chronology here is not quite plain. The years given here probably include parts of years, since on p. 166 AC states clearly that Mary lived fourteen years and two months after the Ascension, or, as on p. 169 , thirteen years and two months. If the Ascension took place in A.D. 30, the date of the Assumption would be A.D. 43 or 44, which will fit with the subsequent martyrdom of James the Great under Herod (42-44). See n. 193, p. 167 . If she was then sixty-four years old (as AC says here), she was born in 20 B.C. But here there are difficulties about other statements: from AC's remarks on p. 98 we can deduce that she was eighteen at the birth of Christ, though from p. 57 we gather she was fourteen when she left the Temple and was married. The matter is also confused by the historical problems of the date of the birth of Christ and the date of the Crucifixion and Ascension, and cannot be decided with any certainty. (SB)[183] None of the apocryphal legends of the Assumption suggest that Our Lady lived at Ephesus: most suggest Jerusalem, and the Greek legend ( John , 4) gives Bethlehem. (SB)[184] The road from Jerusalem', one would suppose, would be the main road eastwards through Colossae, etc., but the suggestion that Mary's house was nearer the sea' than Ephesus (p. 160 ) indicates a road southward along the coast. The issue is obscured by AC's supposition that Ephesus must be several hours distant from the coast' (ib.). There seems to be some geographical confusion here, although the precise geographical history of Ephesus is rendered difficult through the silting-up of its harbor. (SB)[185] These visits to Jerusalem may be the source of the legends that suppose her death to have taken place there. Several, the Latin (3), the Greek (3), and Pseudo-Joseph of Arimathea (4), refer to her visit to the sepulcher. The Council cannot be that of Acts 15, which took place some years later. (SB)[186] Her tomb at Gethsemani is mentioned in the Greek legend (48). The others indicate the Vale of Josaphat, usually identified with the Kedron Valley between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. Gethsemani is on one side of the valley. (SB)[187] St. John Damascene, a monk at Jerusalem, died c. A.D. 754, and is a Doctor of the Church. His sermon ( 2 de Dormitione Deiparae) relates her burial at Jerusalem. It is recited in the Breviary on the Octave-Day or during the Octave, and is in fact the simplest collection of popular legends about the Assumption. (SB)[188] AC's matter-of-fact account of the arrival of the Apostles (and cf. p. 167 on their tiredness) contrasts strikingly with that of the legends. In most of these the Apostles are transported by clouds to Mary's deathbed, and in the Syriac legend some are already dead and come to life for the occasion. (SB)[189] St. Susanna was a Roman maiden, martyred in AD. 295. (SB)[190] Prince Alexander Leopold Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfu?rst was born in 1794. Ordained priest in 1815, he became a canon of Bamberg in 1821. About this time he began to perform some remarkable miraculous cures. The most outstanding was that performed on June 21st, 1821, when Princess Mathilda von Schwarzenberg was released from her paralysis of the previous eight years. The date at the heading of this section of AC's statement shows that she was speaking less than two months after this event, which therefore had a great topical interest. The holy man became a titular bishop in 1844 and died in 1849. (SB)[191] The mission-fields of the various Apostles as mentioned by AC on these pages generally correspond to the traditional legends as preserved in the Lives of the Saints, the Breviary, the Acta Bollandiana, and local cult. Timon was one of the seven deacons ( Acts 6.15), and is so called by AC (infra, p. 169 ). The identity of Eremenzear is unknown, but AC 169 states (p. 168 ) that he joined James and Timon later and had been a disciple of Our Lord. (SB)[192] The martyrdom of James the Great is the only death of an Apostle narrated in the New Testament ( Acts 12.1), and the persecutor is named: Herod, i.e. Herod Agrippa I. This Herod reigned AD. 42-44. AC suggests that James went directly to his martyrdom after the Assumption, in which case the Assumption must have taken place in AD. 44 at the latest. (SB)[193] The late arrival of Thomas is included in the tradition preserved by St. John Damascene, but among the early legends only in that entitled of Joseph of Arimathea' (17). It might easily be supposed to be invented in view of John 20.24, but it might equally easily be supposed to be truly in character. (SB)[194] Simeon Justus and Barnabas or Barsabas. There may be a confusion here (unless other persons are intended): Joseph Barsabas Justus was the candidate proposed with Matthias in Acts 1.23; Joseph Barnabas, later the companion of St. Paul, first appears in Acts 4.36. (SB)[195] All the ancient legends describe the pure soul of Mary leaving her body. The dogmatic decree of Nov. 1st, 1950, however, makes no pronouncement about the death of Our Lady. It is worth here quoting the actual definition: "Immaculatam Deiparam semper Virginem Mariam, expleto terrestris vitae cursu, fuisse corpore et anima ad caelestem gloriam assumptam." -- " That Mary, the Immaculate and ever Virgin Mother of God, at the end of the course of her life on earth, was taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven." (SB)[196] She recognized this disciple by a relic of him which was in her possession but had no name on it. She said of him on July 25th and 26th, 1821 Jonathan or Jonadab received the name of Elieser in baptism. He was of the tribe of Benjamin and came from the region of Samaria. He was with Peter and then with Paul, but was too slow for him he was also with John, and came with Thomas from far away at Our Lady's death. He was, like Thomas' simple Tartar servant, very childish in character, but became a priest. I saw him still here in Ephesus three years after Mary's death. Later I saw him left lying here, stoned and half dead, and then taken into the city, where he died. Afterwards his bones were brought to Rome, but his identity remained unknown. (CB) This Jonathan or Jonadab is not identifiable in any available document. [197] Partherme was indicated before (p. 114 ) as the land of Seir, though the land of Theokeno, Media, was stated (ibid.) to be the remotest. (SB) [198] Thomas' late arrival was the immediate occasion of Our Lady's tomb being opened and found empty. This is also a feature of the general legend preserved by St. John Damascene and recited in the Breviary. (SB) [199] Mary Mark's house at Jerusalem, a meeting-place for disciples, was the natural place for Peter to go to after his escape from prison ( Acts 12.12). It is evident that this event was after the Assumption, because Peter's arrest was part of the same persecution which caused the martyrdom of James the Great ( Acts 12.1) which, according to AC, happened after his return to Jerusalem from Ephesus (supra, p. 167 ). (SB)

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