Bienheureuse
Anne-Catherine Emmerick (ou Emmerich)
Née en 1774 dans une
famille de paysans rhénans, elle devient domestique à 13 ans avant d’entrer en
1802 chez les Augustines de Dülmen. Après la sécularisation du couvent, elle se
met au service d’un prêtre français émigré. Souvent malade, elle vit de fortes
expériences mystiques et demeure une des plus grandes visionnaires de tous les
temps. Ses visions retranscrites par le poète Clemens Brentano portent
principalement sur la vie du Christ et de la Vierge Marie. Elle meurt le 9
février 1824 à Dülmen en ayant par ses révélations mais surtout par toute sa
vie et dans son propre corps crié la passion douloureuse de Notre Seigneur
Jésus Christ. Le caractère tellement extraordinaire de ses écrits et de sa vie ainsi
que la difficulté à démêler son œuvre de celle de son interprète ont retardé sa
béatification jusqu’en 2004.
Bienheureuse Anna
Katharina Emmerick
Mystique (+ 1824)
béatifiée le 3 octobre
2004
"La Bienheureuse
Anna Katharina Emmerick, a crié 'la passion douloureuse de Notre Seigneur Jésus
Christ' et elle l'a vécue dans son corps."
Anna Katharina Emmerick
(1774-1824), biographie
sur le site du Vatican
"La vie d'Anna
Katharina fut caractérisée par une profonde union avec le Christ; les stigmates
qu'elle portait en furent la preuve. Elle éprouva également une profonde
dévotion à l'égard de Marie. A travers la foi et l'amour elle
servit l'œuvre de la rédemption."
De nombreux ouvrages nous
parlent d'elle...
- La douloureuse
Passion de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ d’après les méditations
d’Anne-Catherine Emmerich, 1872.
- Vie de
Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ d’après les visions de la Sœur Anne-Catherine
Emmerich recueillies par Clément Brentano, 1884.
- K. E. Schmoeger, Vie
d’Anne-Catherine Emmerich, 1923.
- Visions
d’Anne-Catherine Emmerich sur la vie de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ et de la
Très Sainte Vierge coordonnées en un seul tome selon l’ordre des faits,
par le R.P. Fr. Joseph-Alvare Duley, traduites du texte allemand par M. Charles
d’Ébeling, 1939. Nouvelle édition 1995.
- La douloureuse
Passion de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ d’après les méditations d’Anne-Catherine
Emmerich, traduction par M. l’abbé de Cazalès, 1945.
- Anne-Catherine
Emmerich, Les mystères de l’ancienne alliance, texte intégral recueilli
par Cl. Brentano, traduit et présenté par Jean-Joachim Bouflet, 1977.
- M. T. Loutrel, Anne-Catherine
Emmerick racontée par elle-même et par ses contemporains, 1992.
Bibliothèque
diocésaine de Reims: Anne-Catherine Emmerich (k)
"J'ai toujours
considéré le service au prochain comme la plus haute vertu. Dans ma jeunesse,
j'ai prié Dieu afin qu'il veuille bien me donner la force de servir mon
prochain et d'être utile. A présent je sais qu'il a exaucé ma prière"
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/10180/Bienheureuse-Anna-Katharina-Emmerick.html
_--_2014_--_3188.jpg)
Sculpture “Anne Catherine Emmerich” (Uta Kruger Naumann, 2011) at the Holy
Cross Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Skulptur „Anna Katharina Emmerick“ (Stigmatisierte Hand, Uta Krüger-Naumann, 2011) an der Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland. Photographie : Dietmar Rabich (1962–)
Bienheureuse Anne-Catherine
EMMERICK
Nom: EMMERICK
Prénom: Anne-Catherine
(Anna Katharina)
Nom de religion:
Anne-Catherine (Anna Katharina)
Pays: Allemagne
Naissance:
08.09.1774 à Flamschen (près de Coesfeld en Westphalie)
Mort: 09.02.1824
à Dülmen
Etat: Religieuse
Note: Favorisée durant
toute sa vie de visions sur l’Ancien et le Nouveau Testament. Stigmatisée.
Religieuse chez les Augustines de Dülmen de 1802 à 1811, date de la suppression
du couvent. Clemens Brentano transcrit ses visions.
Béatification:
03.10.2004 à Rome par Jean Paul II (Son ultime béatification)
Canonisation:
à par
Fête: 9 février
Réf. dans l’Osservatore
Romano: 2004 n.40 p.1-3.8.10 - n.41 p.4
Réf. dans la Documentation
Catholique: 2004 n.20 p.955-956
Notice brève
Anne-Catherine Emmerick
naît en 1774 dans une famille nombreuse de petits paysans en Westphalie
(Allemagne). Toute jeune enfant, elle a déjà des visions sur des épisodes de
l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament. Elle travaille dur à la ferme, puis exerce le
métier de couturière à la maison. Depuis longtemps, elle ressent l’appel à la
vie religieuse, mais elle rencontre des difficultés pendant bien des années
(opposition de ses parents pourtant très pieux, pauvreté, etc.). En 1802, elle
entre enfin chez les Augustines de Dülmen. Elle reçoit les stigmates de la
Couronne d’épines, mais elle les tient cachés. En 1811, le couvent est fermé
lorsque Jérôme Bonaparte, frère de Napoléon, est nommé roi de Westphalie et les
religieuses sont jetées à la rue. Dès lors, vivant en pleine ville, à Dülmen,
elle ne peut plus tenir cachés les phénomènes mystiques dont elle est l’objet,
d’autant plus qu’en 1812, elle reçoit les autres stigmates de la Passion et, la
même année, elle cesse de se nourrir, ne vivant plus que de l’Eucharistie.
Alors commence pour elle la notoriété et aussi les critiques. Le grand auteur
romantique allemand, Clemens Brentano, converti de fraîche date, s’installe à
son chevet, à partir de 1818 jusqu’à la mort de la voyante, et consacre
désormais tout son talent à transcrire ses visions.
Anne-Catherine Emmerick,
malgré ses souffrances qui la clouent au lit, a le souci d’exercer la charité
envers son prochain par ses travaux de couture, ses charismes et ses nombreux
contacts. Elle unit ses souffrances à celles de Jésus son Époux et meurt en
1824.
Notice développée
Anne-Catherine Emmerick
vécut en cette fin du 18e siècle dans la Westphalie, qui connut un
renouveau de l’Église allemande, l’un des plus saisissants de l’histoire
chrétienne (même s’il est méconnu dans les pays francophones). L’époque était
très troublée par les contrecoups de la Révolution française et les guerres de
Napoléon. La Westphalie (capitale Münster) était une principauté ecclésiastique
(c'est-à-dire ayant à sa tête un prince-évêque, en l’occurrence le frère de
Marie-Antoinette femme de Louis XVI) qui n’allait pas tarder à être laïcisée
par les Prussiens puis par les Français. Mais Münster était peut-être la ville
d’Allemagne où le catholicisme gardait le plus d’autorité tant intellectuelle
que morale. Quant à la bienheureuse, elle avait 19 ans au commencement de la
Révolution française.
Anna-Katharina
(Anne-Catherine) Emmerick voit le jour le 8 septembre 1774 au hameau de
Flamschen près de Coesfeld au sein d’une famille de neuf frères et sœurs. Le
père est un petit métayer. Très jeune, elle jouit de la présence de son ange
gardien. Elle a des visions de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament. Un jour, elle
les raconte à son père qui manifeste son étonnement, son émotion, mais il garde
le silence. Elle est élevée très sévèrement par sa mère pieuse et austère. Dès
sa plus tendre enfance, elle doit aider aux travaux domestiques et agricoles.
Elle fréquente peu de temps l’école. Un jour, elle raconte naïvement l’une de
ses visions aux autres enfants, croyant que tout le monde avait les mêmes
connaissances ; c’était au sujet de la Résurrection. Après s’être moqué
d’elle, les enfants vont le rapporter au ‘magister’ qui lui défend sévèrement
de se livrer à de pareilles imaginations. Elle aime la nature, le travail et la
lecture, sa seule récréation. Gracieuse, elle prend soin de sa tenue
vestimentaire, non pour elle-même mais par amour pour Dieu.
Elle ressent un appel à
la vie religieuse, mais elle rencontre mille difficultés. Son père est réticent
et sa mère voudrait la marier. D’autre part un couvent de clarisses de Münster
ne veut pas l’accepter sans dot. Par contre, le couvent des Augustines
d’Agnetenberg près de Dülmen l’accepterait, à condition qu’elle sache jouer de
l’orgue. Pour pouvoir prendre des leçons, elle fait un apprentissage de
couturière et travaille à la maison. Elle peut alors se rendre chez un
organiste, Monsieur Söntgen qui vit à Coesfeld avec sa fille Clara ; mais
vite, elle réalise qu’ils sont dans la misère. Dans sa charité, elle passe tout
son temps à les servir au lieu d’apprendre l’orgue. De plus, elle dépense
toutes ses économies pour les nourrir, et quand elles sont épuisées, il ne lui
reste plus qu’à avoir faim avec eux. Ce sont des années très dures. En cachette
de son père, sa mère lui apporte de la nourriture, mais quand elle lui reproche
sa charité excessive, Anne-Catherine, pourtant très malheureuse, répond que si
Dieu la veut au couvent, il trouvera moyen de l’y mettre. De fait, Clara, au
contact d’Anne-Catherine, ressent aussi la vocation religieuse. Elle n’a aucune
difficulté à trouver un couvent, puisqu’elle sait jouer de l’orgue. Mais M.
Söntgen exige qu’Anne-Catherine soit acceptée aussi. Et c’est ainsi qu’en 1802,
elles entrent au couvent des Augustines d’Agnetenberg.
Bien qu’elle soit
incomprise à cause de ses dons extraordinaires, Anne-Catherine peut prononcer
ses vœux l’année suivante. Elle participe à la vie monastique avec ferveur,
toujours prête à accomplir les travaux les plus durs que personne ne veut faire.
Elle tombe fréquemment malade et doit supporter de grandes souffrances. Malgré
cela elle considère ces années de vie religieuse comme les plus belles de sa
vie. Mais en 1811 le couvent est fermé par le roi de Westphalie, Jérôme
Bonaparte, qui imite son frère Napoléon en supprimant les ordres religieux.
Anne-Catherine devient
alors domestique d’un prêtre français qui a fui la Révolution (la Westphalie
est très accueillante aux réfugiés). Mais elle tombe à nouveau malade et ne
quittera plus son lit. L’une de ses sœurs tient le ménage à sa place.
Précédemment, elle avait déjà reçu les stigmates de la Couronne d’épines, mais,
dans son couvent, elle avait pu les tenir cachés. En 1812, elle reçoit les
autres stigmates de la Passion et ne peut plus désormais les dissimuler. Elle
ne se nourrit pratiquement plus que de l’eucharistie. Le docteur Franz Wesener,
un agnostique, impressionné par ces phénomènes, se convertit. Il devient son
confident et ami. Les rapports qu’il a laissés sont très précieux et hors de tout
soupçon d’exagération. Il n’en va pas tout à fait de même avec Clemens
Brentano, le dernier des grands écrivains romantiques allemands. Il entend
parler d’elle par l’abbé Sailer, futur évêque de Ratisbonne, lequel est à
l’origine d’un autre foyer de renouveau catholique en Allemagne du sud
(Bavière), mouvement né à peu près à la même époque que celui de Münster.
Brentano, récemment converti, va la voir, s’établit à Dülmen et lui rend visite
chaque jour pendant six années (1818–1824), jusqu’à la mort de la bienheureuse
et lui consacre désormais toute son activité littéraire. Comme elle, il est
traîné dans la boue, mais sa notoriété littéraire empêchera l’œuvre
d’Anne-Catherine de sombrer dans l’oubli : “La Douloureuse Passion de
Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ” est publiée en 1833. Elle fera grand bruit. (C’est
de ce livre que Mel Gibson s’est inspiré en 2004 pour réaliser son film :
“La Passion du Christ”). “La Vie de la Sainte Vierge” est inachevée quand il
meurt en 1842. Ses manuscrits seront publiés intégralement en 1860. Le problème
est de savoir quelle est la part du transcripteur dans ces récits.
Quant à Anne-Catherine,
elle doit subir de pénibles examens pour qu’on puisse juger de sa personne
(Jeûne-t-elle vraiment ? etc. ) et de ses visions. Enquête ecclésiastique
en 1813, puis, en 1819, beaucoup plus éprouvante encore, enquête du ministère
prussien de l’Intérieur. En revanche, de nombreuses personnalités, qui
participent au renouveau de la vie de l’Église au XIXe siècle, cherchent à
la rencontrer. Ce qui frappe en elle, c’est d’abord son amour de la croix et de
Jésus son ‘fiancé’. Selon les paroles de Jean-Paul II : « Elle a crié
“la passion douloureuse de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ” et elle l’a vécue dans
son corps. » Ce qui domine ensuite, c’est l’amour qu’elle éprouvait pour
le prochain. Elle cherchait toujours à aider les autres, même si elle ne
pouvait pas se lever de son lit, elle cousait des vêtements pour les enfants
pauvres, elle accueillait généreusement beaucoup de personnes…
Quand la mort approche,
elle décide d’unir sa souffrance à celle de Jésus en l’offrant pour la
rédemption des hommes. Elle dit : « Seigneur c’est par toi que je
vis, c’est pour toi que je meurs. » Elle dit aussi : « J’ai
toujours considéré le service du prochain comme la plus haute vertu. Dans ma
jeunesse, j’ai prié Dieu afin qu’il veuille bien me donner la force de servir
mon prochain et d’être utile. A présent je sais qu’il a exaucé ma
prière. » Elle meurt le 9 février 1824.
En lisant Anne-Catherine
Emmerich, on y voit décrit la vie de Jésus avec un luxe de détails
impressionnant qui contrastent évidemment avec la brièveté des Évangiles. Ce
livre eut un succès immédiat et fut non moins abondamment critiqué. Certes,
béatifier une mystique n’équivaut pas à reconnaître officiellement ses visions,
mais si les livres contenaient quelque chose de contraire à la foi, la cause
n’aurait pas passé. Avec le Nouveau Testament se clôt la Révélation. Les
visions et révélations particulières ne peuvent qu’expliciter ce qui y est déjà
contenu en germe. La Révélation engage notre foi, tandis qu’on reste libre
vis-à-vis des révélations particulières. Notons que “la maison de la Vierge” à
Éphèse a été découverte grâce aux descriptions d’Anne-Catherine, alors qu’elle
n’avait jamais quitté sa Westphalie natale.
Voici à titre d’exemple
quatre extraits des Visions :
De la “Vie cachée de
Notre Seigneur”. Chapitre XII Naissance du Christ.
Je vis la lumière qui
entourait Marie devenir de plus en plus éclatante ; la lueur des lampes
allumées par Joseph s’était éclipsée. Vers minuit, la très sainte Vierge entra
en extase, et je la vis élevée au-dessus de terre ; elle avait alors les
mains croisées sur la poitrine, et sa large robe flottait autour d’elle en plis
onduleux. La splendeur qui l’environnait augmentait sans cesse. La voûte, les
parois et le sol de la grotte, comme vivifiés par la lumière divine, semblaient
éprouver une émotion joyeuse. Mais bientôt la voûte disparut à mes yeux ;
un torrent de lumière, qui allait toujours croissant, se répandit de Marie
jusqu’au plus haut des cieux. Au milieu d’un mouvement merveilleux de gloires
célestes, je vis descendre des chœurs angéliques, qui en s’approchant, se
montrèrent sous une forme de plus en plus distincte. La sainte Vierge élevée en
l’air dans son extase, abaissait ses regards sur son Dieu, adorant Celui dont
elle devenait la mère, et qui, sous l’aspect d’un frêle enfant nouveau-né,
était couché sur la terre devant elle.
De la “Vie publique de
Notre-Seigneur”. Troisième année. Chapitre XXXV Bonté de Jésus envers les
enfants.
Jésus, accompagné de
quelques apôtres, se rendit à Bethabara. (…) Beaucoup de femmes arrivaient avec
leurs enfants ; il y en avait de différents âges, et jusqu’à des
nourrissons que les mères portaient dans leurs bras. (…) Les disciples qui
marchaient en avant voulurent les repousser, parce que le Sauveur était
fatigué, ayant déjà béni beaucoup de monde. Mais il défendit qu’on les
renvoyât. Alors on rangea cette multitude d’enfants de tout âge, les jeunes
garçons séparés des petites filles, d’ailleurs beaucoup plus nombreuses. (…) Le
Seigneur leur parlait, leur imposait les mains et les bénissait. A plusieurs
reprises, il posait une main sur la tête, et l’autre sur la poitrine ; il
en serra quelques-uns contre son cœur ; il désigna certains comme des
modèles, et tous il les instruisait, les exhortait, les encourageait, les
bénissait tour à tour.
De la “Douloureuse
Passion”. Chapitre XXXI Les larrons.
Ils étaient accusés
d’avoir assassiné une femme juive et ses enfants qui se rendaient de Jérusalem
à Joppé. On les avait arrêtés dans un château de Pilate, où ils s’étaient fait
passer pour de riches marchands ; on les avait tenus longtemps en prison
avant de pouvoir les convaincre de leurs crimes. Le larron de gauche était le
plus âgé : c’était un scélérat consommé, maître et corrupteur de l’autre.
Ils appartenaient l’un et l’autre à cette bande de brigands chez lesquels la
Sainte Famille avait passé la nuit lors de la fuite en Égypte. Dismas (le bon
larron) était l’enfant lépreux qui fut guéri lorsque sa mère, sur l’invitation
de Marie, le lava dans l’eau où avait été baigné l’enfant Jésus. L’accueil
charitable qu’avait fait sa mère à la Sainte Famille fut récompensé par cette
purification symbolique, qui reçut son accomplissement lorsque le sang de Jésus
en croix purifia son âme. Dismas s’était perdu : il ne connaissait pas
Jésus ; cependant ce n’était pas un mauvais cœur, et la patience du Seigneur
(crucifié) le toucha.
De la “Vie glorieuse de
Jésus sur la terre depuis la Résurrection jusqu’à l’Ascension”. Chapitre
III Résurrection du Seigneur.
Je vis l’âme de Jésus,
comme une gloire resplendissante, entre deux anges en habit de guerre, et au
milieu d’un grand nombre de figures lumineuses, pénétrer à travers le rocher du
sépulcre, puis descendre auprès du corps sacré et se confondre avec lui. Je vis
alors les membres se remuer sous leur voile, et le corps du Seigneur, uni à son
âme et pénétré de sa divinité, s’échapper par un côté du linceul correspondant
au côté entrouvert. A cette vue, je songeai à Ève sortant du côté d’Adam. La
grotte était toute remplie d’une lumière céleste.
SOURCE : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/hagiographie/fiches/f0700.htm
_--_2014_--_3187.jpg)
Skulptur „Anna
Katharina Emmerick“ (Stigmatisierte Hand, Uta Krüger-Naumann, 2011) am
Hospiz „Anna Katharina“, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen,
Deutschland
Sculpture “Anne Catherine Emmerich” (Uta Kruger Naumann, 2011) at
hospice “Anna Katharina”, Dülmen, North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
ANNA KATHARINA EMMERICK
(1774-1824)
Anna Katharina Emmerick
naquit le 8 septembre 1774, dans la communauté d'agriculteurs de Flamschen près
de Coesfeld (Allemagne). Elle grandit au sein d'une famille de neuf frères et
soeurs. Dès sa plus tendre enfance elle dut aider aux travaux domestiques et
agricoles. Elle ne fréquenta que quelques temps l'école, mais elle possédait
une bonne instruction dans le domaine religieux. Très rapidement ses parents
s'aperçurent de sa vocation à la prière et à la vie religieuse.
Elle travailla trois ans
dans une grande ferme des environs, puis apprit la couture et retourna vivre
chez ses parents. Elle demanda ensuite à être admise dans divers monastères,
mais elle fut refusée car elle ne possédait pas de don particulier. Toutefois,
les Clarisses de Münster l'acceptèrent à la condition qu'elle apprenne à jouer
de l'orgue. Ses parents l'autorisèrent alors à aller vivre dans la famille de
l'organiste Söntgen de Coesfeld pour faire son apprentissage; mais elle n'eut
jamais la possibilité d'apprendre l'orgue, car la pauvreté de la famille la
poussa à travailler afin de les aider à vivre.
En 1802, elle réussit
finalement à entrer au monastère d'Agnetenberg, près de Dülmen, avec son amie
Klara Söntgen. Elle prononça ses voeux l'année suivante, participant à la vie
monastique avec ferveur, toujours prête à accomplir les travaux les plus durs
que personne ne voulait faire. Mais, de 1802 à 1811, elle tomba fréquemment
malade et dut supporter de grandes douleurs. En 1811, le monastère
d'Agnetenberg fut fermé, elle devint alors domestique chez l'Abbé Lambert, un
prêtre qui avait fui la Révolution française et qui vivait à Dülmen. Mais elle
tomba à nouveau malade et ne quitta plus son lit. Elle fit alors venir sa plus
jeune soeur qui, sous sa direction, s'occupait de la maison.
C'est au cours de cette
période qu'elle reçut les stigmates. Ce fait ne pouvait pas rester caché; le
Docteur Franz Wesener l'examina et en resta profondément impressionné, devenant
son ami fidèle au cours des années qui suivirent.
Une caractéristique de sa
personnalité était l'amour qu'elle éprouvait pour son prochain. Elle cherchait
toujours à aider les autres, même sans pouvoir se lever de son lit, où elle
cousait des vêtements pour les enfants pauvres. De nombreuses personnalités,
qui participaient au mouvement de renouveau de l'Eglise au début du XIX siècle,
cherchèrent à la rencontrer. La rencontre avec Clemens Brentano fut
particulièrement significative. A partir de 1818, il lui rendit visite chaque
jour pendant cinq ans, dessinant ses visions qu'il publia ensuite. Au cours de
l'été 1823, la santé d'Anna Katherina déclina et, la mort approchant, elle
décida d'unir sa souffrance à celle de Jésus, en l'offrant pour la rédemption
des hommes. Elle mourut le 9 février 1824.
La vie d'Anna Katharina
fut caractérisée par une profonde union avec le Christ; les stigmates qu'elle
portait en furent la preuve. Elle éprouva également une profonde dévotion à
l'égard de Marie. A travers la foi et l'amour elle servit l'oeuvre
de la rédemption, disant à ce propos: "J'ai toujours considéré le
service au prochain comme la plus haute vertu. Dans ma jeunesse, j'ai prié Dieu
afin qu'il veuille bien me donner la force de servir mon prochain et d'être
utile. A présent je sais qu'il a exaucé ma prière"
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20041003_emmerick_fr.html
CHAPELLE PAPALE POUR LA
BÉATIFICATION DE CINQ SERVITEURS DE DIEU
HOMÉLIE DU PAPE JEAN-PAUL
II
Dimanche 3 octobre
2004
1. "Verbum
Domini manet in aeternum - La Parole du Seigneur demeure pour l'éternité".
L'exclamation du Chant à l'Evangile nous ramène aux fondements mêmes de la foi.
Face au temps qui passe et aux bouleversements permanents de l'histoire, la
révélation que Dieu nous a offerte dans le Christ demeure immuable et ouvre sur
notre chemin terrestre un horizon d'éternité.
C'est l'expérience
particulière qu'ont vécue les cinq nouveaux bienheureux: Pierre
Vigne, Joseph-Marie
Cassant, Anna
Katharina Emmerick, Maria
Ludovica De Angelis, Charles
d'Autriche. Ils se sont laissés guider par la Parole de Dieu comme par un
phare lumineux et sûr, qui n'a jamais cessé d'illuminer leur chemin.
2. Contemplant le
Christ présent dans l'Eucharistie et la Passion salvifique, le Père Pierre
Vigne fut conduit à être un véritable disciple et un missionnaire fidèle à
l'Eglise. Que son exemple donne aux fidèles le désir de puiser dans l'amour de
l'Eucharistie et dans l'adoration du Saint-Sacrement l'audace pour la mission!
Demandons-lui de toucher le coeur de jeunes, pour qu'ils acceptent, s'ils sont
appelés par Dieu, de se consacrer totalement à Lui dans le sacerdoce ou la vie
religieuse. Que l'Église en France trouve dans le Père Vigne un modèle, pour que
se lèvent de nouveaux semeurs de l'Évangile.
3. Le
Frère Joseph-Marie a toujours mis sa confiance en Dieu, dans la
contemplation du mystère de la Passion et dans l'union avec le Christ présent
dans l'Eucharistie. Il s'imprégnait ainsi de l'amour de Dieu, s'abandonnant à
Lui, "le seul bonheur de la terre", et se détachant des biens du
monde dans le silence de la Trappe. Au milieu des épreuves, les yeux fixés sur
le Christ, il offrait ses souffrances pour le Seigneur et pour l'Eglise. Puissent
nos contemporains, notamment les contemplatifs et les malades, découvrir à son
exemple le mystère de la prière, qui élève le monde à Dieu et qui donne la
force dans les épreuves!
4. "Car ce
n'est pas un esprit de crainte que Dieu nous a donné, mais un Esprit de force, d'amour
et de maîtrise de soi" (2 Tm 1, 7). Ces paroles de saint
Paul nous invitent à collaborer en vue de l'édification du Royaume de Dieu,
dans la perspective de la foi. Elles s'appliquent bien à la vie de la
Bienheureuse Ludovica De Angelis, dont l'existence fut entièrement
consacrée à la gloire de Dieu et au service de ses semblables.
De sa figure se détachent
son coeur de mère, ses qualités de guide et le courage qui est le propre des
saints. Elle éprouva à l'égard des enfants malades un amour concret et
généreux, en faisant face à des sacrifices pour les réconforter; pour ses
collaborateurs à l'Hôpital de La Plata, elle fut un modèle de joie et de
responsabilité, en créant une atmosphère familiale; pour ses consoeurs, elle
fut un authentique exemple en tant que Fille de Notre-Dame de la Miséricorde.
En toute chose, elle fut soutenue par la prière, en faisant de sa vie un
dialogue permanent avec le Seigneur.
5. La Bienheureuse Anna
Katharina Emmerick, a crié "la passion douloureuse de Notre Seigneur Jésus
Christ" et elle l'a vécue dans son corps. C'est l'oeuvre de la Providence
divine si cette fille de pauvres paysans, qui avec ténacité rechercha la
proximité avec Dieu, est devenue la célèbre "Mystique du Land de
Münster". Sa pauvreté matérielle contraste avec une riche vie intérieure.
Outre sa patience pour supporter la faiblesse physique, nous sommes également
impressionnés par la force de caractère de la nouvelle bienheureuse et sa
fermeté dans la foi.
Elle tirait cette force
de la Très Sainte Eucharistie. Son exemple a ouvert le coeur de pauvres et de
riches, de personnes simples ou éduquées à la consécration pleine d'amour pour
Jésus Christ. Aujourd'hui encore, elle transmet à tous le message
salvifique: A travers les blessures du Christ, nous sommes
sauvés (cf. 1 P 2, 24).
6. Le devoir décisif
du chrétien consiste à chercher en toute chose la volonté de Dieu, à la
reconnaître et à la suivre. L'homme d'Etat et le chrétien Charles
d'Autriche se fixa quotidiennement ce défi. Il était un ami de la paix.
A ses yeux, la guerre apparaissait comme "une chose horrible". Arrivé
au pouvoir dans la tourmente de la Première Guerre mondiale, il tenta de
promouvoir l'initiative de paix de mon prédécesseur Benoît XV.
Dès le début, l'Empereur
Charles conçut sa charge comme un service saint à ses sujets. Sa principale
préoccupation était de suivre la vocation du chrétien à la sainteté
également dans son action politique. C'est pour cette raison que l'assistance
sociale avait une telle importance à ses yeux. Qu'il soit un exemple pour nous
tous, en particulier pour ceux qui ont aujourd'hui une responsabilité politique
en Europe!
7. Avec l'Eglise
tout entière, louons et rendons grâce au Seigneur pour les merveilles qu'il a
accomplies chez ces serviteurs bons et fidèles de l'Evangile. Que la Très
Sainte Vierge Marie, que nous évoquons en ce mois d'octobre de façon
particulière à travers la prière du Rosaire, nous aide à devenir à notre tour
de généreux et courageux apôtres de l'Evangile. Amen!
© Copyright 2004 - Libreria
Editrice Vaticana
Münster, Kreuzigungsgruppe am Horsteberg hinter dem Dom von Bildhauer de:Bert Gerresheim; Figuren von links: die selige Schwester Maria Euthymia, links unter dem Kreuz de:Anna Katharina Emmerick, rechts unter dem Kreuz Kardinal von Galen mit Predigtaufzeichnungen, abseits rechts der Täufer de:Jan van Leiden mit einer Schnittlinie, die sein Scheitern markieren soll, zu seinen Füßen Zeichen des Terrors: "Herrschaftsinsignien des Jan, ein Figurentorso als Bilderstürmer-Relikt, das Hakenkreuz, das Judenstern-Schandzeichen des NS-Terrors und das Hammer-und-Sichel-Emblem des Weltkommunismus" (Bert Gerresheim)
Münster, Kreuzigungsgruppe am Horsteberg hinter dem Dom von Bildhauer de:Bert Gerresheim; Figuren von links: die selige Schwester Maria Euthymia, links unter dem Kreuz de:Anna Katharina Emmerick, rechts unter dem Kreuz Kardinal von Galen
Anna Katharina Emmerick aus
der Kreuzigungsgruppe (Bert Gerresheim)
am St.-Paulus-Dom, Münster, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Anna Katharina Emmerick of the
Crucifixion group (Bert Gerresheim) at St Paul's Cathedral, Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Photographie
: Dietmar Rabich (1962–)
Anne-Catherine Emmerich
Anne-Catherine
Emmerich naît le 8 septembre 1774 dans une famille nombreuse (9 frères et
sœurs) de petits paysans à Coeseld-Flamschen en
Westphalie. Toute jeune enfant, elle jouit de la présence de son
ange gardien et a déjà des visions sur des épisodes de l’Ancien et du
Nouveau Testament. Dès l’âge de 13 ans, elle travaille dur à la ferme,
puis exerce le métier de couturière à la maison. Depuis longtemps, elle ressent
l’appel à la vie religieuse, mais elle rencontre des difficultés pendant bien
des années (opposition de ses parents pourtant très pieux, pauvreté, etc.). En
1802, elle entre enfin chez les Augustines de Dülmen et,
bien qu’elle soit incomprise à cause de ses dons extraordinaires,
Anne-Catherine peut prononcer ses vœux l’année suivante. Elle participe à la
vie monastique avec ferveur, toujours prête à accomplir les travaux les plus
durs que personne ne veut faire. Elle tombe fréquemment malade et doit
supporter de grandes souffrances. Malgré cela elle considère ces années de vie
religieuse comme les plus belles de sa vie. Elle reçoit les stigmates de la
Couronne d’épines, mais elle les tient cachés. En 1811, le couvent est fermé
lorsque Jérôme
Bonaparte, frère de Napoléon, est
nommé roi de Westphalie et
les religieuses sont jetées à la rue. Dès lors, vivant en pleine ville, à
Dülmen, elle ne peut plus tenir cachés les phénomènes mystiques dont elle est
l’objet, d’autant plus qu’en 1812, elle reçoit les autres stigmates de la
Passion et, la même année, elle cesse de se nourrir, ne vivant plus que de
l’Eucharistie. Le docteur Franz Wesener, un agnostique, impressionné par ces
phénomènes (dont le charisme de l’hiérognosie), se convertit. Il devient son
confident et ami. Malgré ses souffrances qui la clouent au lit, elle a le souci
d’exercer la charité envers son prochain par ses travaux de couture, ses charismes
et ses nombreux contacts. Ce qui frappe en elle, c’est d’abord son
Amour de la Croix et de Jésus son "fiancé". Elle unit ses
souffrances à celles de Jésus son Époux et meurt le 9 février 1824 en ayant
comme dernière paroles : « Seigneur c’est par toi que je vis,
c’est pour toi que je meurs. J’ai toujours considéré le service du prochain
comme la plus haute vertu. Dans ma jeunesse, j’ai prié Dieu afin qu’il veuille
bien me donner la force de servir mon prochain et d’être utile. A présent je
sais qu’il a exaucé ma prière ». Les restes d'Anne-Catherine Emmerich
reposent dans la crypte de l'église Sainte-Croix à Dülmen.
En lisant Anne-Catherine
Emmerich, on y voit décrit la vie de Jésus avec un luxe de détails
impressionnant qui contrastent évidemment avec la brièveté des
Évangiles. Certes, béatifier une mystique n’équivaut pas à reconnaître
officiellement ses visions, mais si les livres contenaient quelque chose de
contraire à la foi, la cause n’aurait pas passé. Avec le Nouveau Testament
se clôt la Révélation. Les visions et révélations particulières ne peuvent
qu’expliciter ce qui y est déjà contenu en germe. La Révélation engage notre
foi, tandis qu’on reste libre vis-à-vis des révélations particulières. A noter
que Mel Gibson a utilisé les visions du Chemin de Croix
dans son film sur La
Passion du Christ. À la suite des visions d'Anne-Catherine, la
sépulture et la maison de Marie ont été redécouverts sur une colline près d'Éphèse.
SOURCE : http://notredamedesneiges.over-blog.com/article-16417460.html
Anna Katharina Emmerick
Entre 1818 et 1824, le
poète Clemens Brentano, à son chevet, prend en note ses
visions. Ses retranscriptions remplissent 40 cahiers in-folio.
Il est difficile de faire
la part de ce qui a été effectivement dit par la mystique allemande et de ce
qui peut constituer une réélaboration du poète.
Brentano décrit en détail
des scènes et des récits (avant tout) du Nouveau Testament et de la vie de
Marie. Mel Gibson a utilisé les visions du Chemin de Croix
dans son film La Passion du Christ.
À la suite des visions
d'Anna Katharina, la sépulture et la maison de la Vierge Marie auraient
été redécouvertes en 1881 par l'abbé Gouyet sur une colline près d'Éphèse.
Les restes d'Anna
Catherine Emmerick reposent dans la crypte de l'église Sainte-Croix à Dülmen.
Le premier procès de
Béatification fut suspendu en 1927, avant tout parce qu'il était difficile de
juger l'authenticité des textes de Brentano, mais il fut rouvert en 1973 et se
termina le 03 Octobre 2004 avec sa Béatification par le Pape Jean-Paul II. Les stigmates ne sont toutefois pas
mentionnés.
La fête d’Anna Katharina Emmerick a lieu le 09 Février, jour de son décès.
Stigmates et autres phénomènes.
Les stigmates.
Dès 1799, Anne-Catherine
ressent les douleurs de la couronne d'épines; le sang coule chaque vendredi,
mais elle réussit à le dissimuler.
En automne 1807,
commencent les douleurs des stigmates aux pieds et aux mains, sans écoulement de
sang ni marque extérieure.
Le 25 novembre 1812, une
croix se forme sur la poitrine; cette croix, qui se doublait à Noël, saignait
ordinairement le mercredi.
Les derniers jours de
1812, les stigmates des mains, des pieds et du côté deviennent apparents; le
sang coule.
Aucune vision
n'accompagne la stigmatisation, comme A.C. Emmerich l'affirmera sous serment
aux enquêteurs ecclésiastiques.
Par l'indiscrétion d'une sœur, qui découvre les plaies des mains le 28 février
1813, ces phénomènes arrivent à la connaissance de la ville.
Le médecin de Dülmen, le
Docteur Franz Wesener (1782-1832), qui rendit visite à la malade en vue de la
"démasquer", fut l'objet (comme, après lui, le Dr Druffel et
d'autres) d'une preuve impressionnante de sa cardiognosis.
Le 25 mars, le vicaire général Clemens Auguste von Droste-Vischering
(1773-1845), futur Archevêque de Cologne, vint accompagné du Dr Druffel et du
supérieur du séminaire Bernard Overberg (1754-1826).
Le Dr Krauthausen ancien
médecin du couvent, tenta de traiter les blessures, mais sans succès; il fut
également chargé d'une surveillance médicale assidue.
Le jeûne perpétuel.
Une surveillance étroite
pendant dix jours (10-19 juin) confirma l'écoulement du sang des stigmates et
le jeûne perpétuel.
Depuis l'apparition des
stigmates, en effet, l'appétit avait disparu, sans que cela soit en rapport
avec une maladie quelconque; bientôt A.C. Emmerich ne consomma plus que de
l'eau. Par la suite, une enquête gouvernementale (5-29 août 1819) ne put
apporter les preuves d'aucune supercherie.
Le Docteur Franz Wesener se chargea des soins médicaux. Son Journal, rédigé
consciencieusement de mars 1813 à novembre 1819, ainsi que l'Histoire abrégée
qu'il écrivit l'année de la mort d'Anne-Catherine pour une revue médicale,
constituent "une source rare pour l'étude psychologico-religieuse et
médicale de la stigmatisation et des phénomènes analogues".
La hiérognosie.
Docteur Franz Wesener, le
premier, relate, chez A.C. Emmerich, de nombreux cas de hiérognosie.
Dès 1817, Christian Brentano avait, en effet, découvert, comme s'en étaient
déjà aperçus l'abbé Lambert et le P. Limberg, l'extrême sensibilité de la
stigmatisée au sacré, surtout pendant ses extases, qu'il s'agisse
d'authentifier des reliques, de reconnaître des hosties consacrées ou d'obéir
aux ordres de l'autorité ecclésiastique.
Clément Brentano, de son
côté, rendit le Docteur Franz Wesener attentif au fait que la stigmatisée
acceptait volontairement de prendre sur elle maladies et souffrances d'autrui.
Dans son Histoire abrégée, le docteur s'en explique. "Ce n'est qu'au cours
des deux dernières années de sa vie que j'ai compris ses souffrances
mystérieuses.
La plupart de ses
maladies, en effet, étaient l'acceptation spontanée de souffrances de ses amis,
qui lui avaient confié leurs soucis et se recommandaient à ses prières. Dans
ses extases elle s'exprimait clairement là-dessus, indiquant la plupart du
temps le moment où son intervention se terminerait".
Une religieuse malade d'une grave tuberculose des poumons et du larynx demanda
à Anne-Catherine Emmerich d'intercéder auprès de Dieu et se retrouva guérie
d'une manière inexplicable.
D'autres cas de guérison subite et simultanée auraient été attestés.
Les visions et les écrits
de Clemens Brentano.
La plupart des visions
d'A.C. Emmerich lui ont été attribuées par Clemens Brentano. Ces ouvrages
racontent la vie et la Passion du Christ et la vie de la Vierge d'après le
récit, quasi-journalier, d'A.C. Emmerich, fait à Brentano de 1818 à 1824.
Non seulement elle a vu la Passion du Sauveur, mais pendant trois ans, elle l'a
suivi dans tous ses voyages à travers la Palestine et hors de la Palestine.
La nature du sol, les
fleuves, les montagnes, les forêts, les habitants, leurs mœurs, tout a passé
sous ses regards dans des images claires et distinctes.
En outre, elle pouvait
plonger son regard dans un passé bien plus éloigné (Adam et Ève) et embrasser
l'histoire entière.
Le travail considérable de Clemens Brentano, 16.000 feuillets de notes
diverses, parut en trois fois :
en 1833, neuf ans
après la mort d'A.C. Emmerich, "La douloureuse Passion de Notre-Seigneur
Jésus-Christ" (Das bittere Leiden unsers Herrn Jesu Christus), précédée
d'une esquisse biographique de la stigmatisée.
en 1852 "La vie de la Vierge Marie" (Leben der heiligen
Jungfrau Maria) : l'impression commencée fut interrompue par la mort de Clemens
(1842), remaniée et poursuivie par son frère Christian, mort en 1851, et
achevée par sa belle-sœur, dix ans après la mort de Clemens.
en 1858-1860, six ans plus tard, les trois volumes de "La vie de
Notre-Seigneur et Sauveur Jésus-Christ", (Das Leben unsers Herrn und
Heilandes Jesu Christi) publiés par le rédemptoriste K. E. Schmöger d'après les
manuscrits de Brentano, profondément remaniés et amendés.
La polémique.
On ne peut négliger de
souligner la différence d'un titre à l'autre : "d'après les méditations"
dit Clemens Brentano (''Nach den Betrachtungen der gottselingen A.K. Emmerick'')
dans le premier ouvrage; "d'après les visions" imprime K.E. Schmöger
en tête du dernier (''Nach den Gesichten der gottselingen A.K.
Emmerick…aufgeschrieben von C. Brentano'').
Malheureusement, ses "méditations" ou ses "visions" brodent
considérablement sur la trame et le texte des évangiles; elles ajoutent faits,
discours et attitudes qui semblent provenir d'apocryphes ou de légendes
hagiographiques.
La part de Brentano,
consciente ou non, semble importante. Comment démêler ce qui relève de la
"vision" et ce qui est rédaction personnelle de l'écrivain ?
Les aléas de leur publication ne simplifient pas le discernement. "Une
étude critique du texte reste encore à faire" concluait d'ailleurs Joachim
Bouflet, un des spécialistes d'A.C. Emmerich, dans son avant-propos à la
réédition récente de la "Vie de la Vierge Marie"
L'appréciation objective des visions d'A.C. Emmerich est délicate. Clemens
Brentano et, à sa suite, K.E. Schmöger, Th. Wegener, J. Niessen et d'autres,
les considèrent sans hésiter comme d'authentiques révélations surnaturelles
privées, en raison même des précisions topographiques qui semblaient alors ne
pouvoir être connues autrement.
En revanche, d'autres
y ont signalé des inexactitudes; mais cela ne préjuge en rien de
l'authenticité des visions, distinctes de la façon dont elles sont rapportées.
L'étude des sources a permis de déceler de nombreux emprunts. Christian
Brentano, le frère de Clemens, a consigné le fait dans ses notes au Journal de
son frère.
Clemens a avoué
l'influence des écrits de Martin de Cochem dans ''La douloureuse Passion''.
Les travaux de L. Stahl (1909), de H. Cardauns (1916) et de W. Hümpfner, ont
montré ces influences sans équivoque possible.
Position de l'Église
catholique.
Attribution des visions.
En 1927, la congrégation
des Rites, prenant pour base les travaux de W. Hümpfner, renonçait à son tour à
considérer les notes et la rédaction de Brentano comme des écrits d'A.C.
Emmerich et à l'en rendre responsable.
C'est cette position que reprend le Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, préfet de la
Congrégation pour les Causes des Saints lors de la Béatification
d'Anne-Catherine Emmerich en Octobre 2004 par le Pape Jean-Paul II.
"La bienheureuse
Anne-Catherine Emmerick, ne nous a laissé que trois lettres dont l’authenticité
soit sûre.
Les autres écrits, qui
lui sont attribués par erreur, ont des origines diverses: les “visions” de la
Passion du Christ ont été annotées, réélaborées très librement et sans contrôle
par l’écrivain allemand Clemens Brentano et ont été publiées en 1833 sous le
titre ''La douloureuse Passion de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ''. […]
Les œuvres en discussion
ne peuvent donc pas être considérées comme des œuvres écrites ou dictées par
Anne-Catherine Emmerick ni comme des transcriptions fidèles de ses déclarations
et de ses récits, mais comme une œuvre littéraire de Brentano qui a procédé à
de telles amplifications et manipulations qu’il est impossible d’établir quel
est le véritable noyau attribuable à la bienheureuse".
Cela n'empêche pas le
Pape Jean-Paul de citer, dans le décret
officiel de béatification, "La Douloureuse
Passion"
L'Église et les
révélations privées.
La position de l'Église
Catholique sur les révélations privées est rappelée dans les articles 66,
67 et 514 du
Catéchisme de l'Église Catholique (1992).
Les deux premiers rappellent qu'elles ne sont pas une alternative à l'Évangile
: "Au fil des siècles il y a eu des révélations dites "privées",
dont certaines ont été reconnues par l’autorité de l’Église.
Elles n’appartiennent
cependant pas au dépôt de la Foi. Leur rôle n’est pas "d’améliorer"
ou de "compléter" la Révélation définitive du Christ, mais d’aider à
en vivre plus pleinement à une certaine époque de l’histoire".
Le troisième en souligne cependant tout l'intérêt : "Toute la vie du
Christ est un mystère et […] Beaucoup de choses qui intéressent la curiosité
humaine au sujet de Jésus ne figurent pas dans les Évangiles".
Il ne fait ainsi que
reprendre ce que dit Jean à la fin de son évangile (Jean
20,30-31 et Jean
21,24-25).
Anne-Catherine Emmerich
et les autres voyantes.
Les visions de scènes de
l'Évangile n'est pas un cas réservé à la seule Anne-Catherine Emmerich.
De grandes saintes en ont
bénéficié comme sainte Hildegarde de Bingen (1098-1179), sainte Angèle de
Bohême (+ 1243), sainte Gertrude de Helfta (1256-1302), sainte Brigitte de
Suède (1302-1373), sainte Thérèse d'Avila (1515-1582), sainte Marie-Madeleine de
Pazzi (1568-1607), et d'autres. Mais elles ne fournissent que des visions
limitées sur divers aspects de la vie de Jésus.
Trois voyantes ont reçu des visions complètes : la bienheureuse Marie
d'Agréda (María Jesús de Ágreda; 1602-1665), la bienheureuse A.C.
Emmerich et Maria
Valtorta (1897-1961).
Toutes ces voyantes ont
en commun d'avoir vu une très grande polémique autour de leur œuvre et
d'avoir eu une vie de souffrance acceptée.
Mais alors que les visions de Marie d'Agréda ne concernent que la vie de la
Vierge Marie (peu décrite dans l'Évangile), celles d'A.C. Emmerich embrassent
pour la première fois aussi la vie de Jésus, sujet central de l'Évangile.
Elles sont aussi les
premières à donner la prééminence à la narration historique sur les
commentaires spirituels, au début d'un siècle qui ne demandait que cela.
Cela explique sans doute
l'immense succès de ces œuvres, mais aussi la polémique qu'elles ont engendrée,
comme d'ailleurs les œuvres des autres voyantes.
Un extrait peut permettre de juger de l'apport spécifique d'A.C. Emmerich :
c'est celui de l'agonie de Jésus au Mont des Oliviers.
Dans cet
extrait, publié du vivant de C. Brentano, l'extrême sensibilité d'A.C.
Emmerich rend vivants et palpables l'angoisse de Jésus jusqu'à la sueur de sang
(Luc
22,44) et les assauts pervers de la Tentation.
L'intérêt de l'œuvre de
Maria Valtorta tient principalement en trois points :
1. Alors que les visions
de Marie d'Agréda, concernent la vie de Marie, peu connue des Évangiles, celles
de Maria Valtorta, comme d'ailleurs celles d'Anne-Catherine Emmerich, relatent
en plus la vie de Jésus, autrement dit l'Évangile.
L'œuvre de Maria Valtorta
est si précise dans cette relation qu'une concordance exacte a pu être établie
entre les quatre Évangiles et l'œuvre de Maria Valtorta.
2. Alors que les visions de Marie d'Agreda souffrent d'une narration tardive (à
plus de trente ans de distance) et que celles d'Anne-Catherine Emmerich
souffrent d'une narration indirecte (Clemens Brentano et ses héritiers), celles
de Maria Valtorta sont retranscrites immédiatement et directement après les
visions.
3. Enfin, plus encore qu'Anne-Catherine Emmerich, Maria Valtorta rapportent la
vision historique des scènes d'Évangile, sans interférer dans leur narration.
Les enseignements (de Jésus) sont distincts et rapportés dans la série des
trois "Cahiers".
SOURCE : http://www.maria-valtorta.org/ValtortaWeb/ACEmmerich.htm.
Blessed Anne
Catherine Emmerich
Also
known as
Anne Catherine Emmerick
Profile
Born to poor but
pious peasants.
She was a very pious child who
suffered with poor
health, but who received visions and prophesies; they were so common that
she thought all children could
see the Child Jesus and the souls in Purgatory.
She was able to diagnose illness and
recommend cures, and to see a person’s sins.
She worked on her
family’s and other area farms,
as a seamstress,
and as a servant to
a poor organist where
she studied the
instrument. Entered the Augustinian convent at
Agnetenberg, Dulmen, Germany in 1802.
Though her health
was poor, her enthusiasm for the religious
life was great, and she either energized her sisters, or put them off
badly. Given to going into religious ecstasies in church, her cell,
or while working.
The convent was
closed by government order in 1812,
and Anne moved in with a poor widow.
Her health failed,
and instead of working as a servant,
in 1813 she
became a patient. Her visions and prophesies increased, and later that year she
received the stigmata with
wounds on her hands and feet, her head from the crown
of thorns, and crosses on her chest, and the gift of inedia,
living off nothing but Holy
Communion for the rest of her life. She tried to hide the wounds, but
word leaked out, and her vicar-general instituted a lengthy and detailed
investigation; it was determined to be genuine.
In 1818 she
was relieved of the stigmata.
In 1819 the
government opened their own investigation. She was imprisoned,
threatened, cajoled, and kept under 24-hour-a-day surveillance. The commission
found no evidence either way, could not get Anne to change her story,
eventually gave up, and failed to publish their findings. When they were forced
to report, they declared the incident a fraud, but could not explain why they
thought so, or why they had not published their findings.
The poet Klemens
Brentano visited Anne. She announced that she had seen Brentano in a vision,
and that he was to make a written record
of the revelations that she received. He made notes of the messages, translating from
Anne’s Westphalian dialect
to common German,
getting Anne to confirm his version. In 1833 these
were published as The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord
Jesus Christ according to the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich.
This was followed in 1852 by The Life of The Blessed Virgin Mary, and a three-volume Life of Our Lord from 1858 to 1880.
While many such revelatory works deal with spirituality and ideas, these are
very much straight-forward narratives and descriptions of events, yet have been
the source of encouragement for many.
Her Cause for Canonization formally
introduced on 14
November 1892.
Due to accusations about her vow
of chastity, the investigation was halted on 30
November 1928.
However, the accusations were proven false, and the investigation resumed
on 18
May 1973.
Born
8
September 1774 at
Flamsche, diocese of Munster, Westphalia, Germany
9
February 1824 at
Dülmen, Germany
due to rumours that her
body had been stolen, her grave was opened six weeks after her death
the body was found incorrupt
relics translated
to Holy Cross Church, Dülmen, Germany on 15
February 1975
24
April 2001 by Pope John
Paul II
3
October 2004 by Pope John
Paul II
decree of beatification miracle promulgated
on 7
July 2003
bed-ridden stigmatist
Additional
Information
Stories
of Holy Lives, by M. F. S.
The
Holiness of the Church in the 19th Century
Nativity of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, by Blessed Anne
Catherine Emmerich
books
Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Blessed Anna
Mary Magdalen in the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich
Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Blessed Anna
Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (4
Volumes)
The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich, by
Father K E Schmoger (2-Volume Set)
other
sites in english
Samuel Sinner: Some Further Perspectives on Anne Catherine
Emmerich
images
audio
The
Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Blessed Anne
(Librivox audiobook)
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Blessed Anne
(Librivox audiobook)
video
e-books
on other sites
Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich Complete
Life
of Anne Catharine Emmerich, by Helen Ram
—
The
Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Blessed Anna
The Life Of Jesus Christ And Biblical Revelations Complete,
by Blessed Anna
The Dolorous
Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Blessed Anna
The
Lowly life and bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother,
by Blessed Anna
sites
en français
Vision d’Anne-Catherine Emmerich
fonti
in italiano
Associazione Storico-Culturale S. Agostino
Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi
websites
in nederlandse
nettsteder
i norsk
Readings
The Church is the only
one, the Roman Catholic! And if there were left upon earth but one Catholic, he
would be the one, universal Church, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus
Christ against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail. – Blessed Anne
If the Church is true,
all in her is true; he who admits not the one, believes not the other. – Blessed Anne
Blessed Anna
Katharina Emmerick showed and experienced in her own flesh “the bitter passion
of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” The fact that, from being the daughter of poor
peasants, who constantly sought closeness to God, she became the famous “mystic of
Muenster” is a work of divine grace. Her material poverty is contrasted with
her rich interior life. As much as by her patience to endure her physical
weaknesses, we are impressed by the strength of character of the new blessed
and her firmness in the faith. She received this strength from the Holy
Eucharist. In this way, her example opened the hearts of poor and rich men,
educated and humble people, to complete loving passion toward Jesus Christ.
Still today she communicates to all the salvific message: “By his wounds you
have been healed” (see 1 Peter 2:24). – Pope John
Paul II, homily at the beatification of Blessed Anne, 3
October 2004
MLA
Citation
“Blessed Anne Catherine
Emmerich“. CatholicSaints.Info. 7 July 2023. Web. 8 February 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-anne-catherine-emmerich/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-anne-catherine-emmerich/
.jpg)
Anna-Katharina-Emmerick-Gedenkstätte in der Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Anna Katharina Emmerick Memorial of the Holy Cross Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Photographie : Dietmar Rabich (1962–)
Bl. Anne Catherine
Emmerick
Feastday: February 9
Birth: 1774
Death: 1824
Beatified: October 3, 2004, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City by Pope John
Paul II
As a young lay woman in
Coesfeld, Germany, Anne Catherine Emmerick, employed as a seamstress, daily
attended Mass, visited the Blessed Sacrament, and in the late evening spent
hour upon hour praying on her knees. Around midnight, she would leave her home
to make the Stations
of the Cross by candlelight at a series of wayside shrines outside her
village, along a lengthy path that wound through the pine woods, taking over
two hours to complete. She offered her devotions especially for the souls in
purgatory, who in turn assisted her, as she explained: “Whenever I do something
for them, they pray for me.” In her interior life, she drew much inspiration from
the liturgical ceremonies of the Church, especially those of Holy Week. At the
age of twenty-eight, Anne Catherine entered an Augustinian convent. But in
1811, after nine years of religious life, she was forced to leave when
her convent was
suppressed by Napoleon, who controlled the region. Soon afterward, she fell
ill, and spent her remaining years bedridden. In this state of suffering, she
received numerous visions, private revelations, and the mystical gift of the
stigmata.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=6001
New
Catholic Dictionary – Anne Catherine Emmerich
Article
Augustinian nun,
stigmatic and ecstatic, born Flamsche, near Coesfeld, Westphalia, 1774; died Dülmen, 1824.
Her piety was manifested at an early age and aroused some antipathy among the
sisters in her convent, which she was obliged to leave when it was closed by
order of Jerome Bonaparte in 1812.
In 1813 she
became bedridden. The supernatural favors accorded her were investigated by an
episcopal and a governmental commission (1819).
When she was visited by the famous Klemens Brentano she recognized him as the
man who was to enable her to fulfill God’s command of writing down her
revelations. In 1833 appeared
the first work he had written at her dictation, “The
Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” “The
Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary” did not appear until 1852,
and in 1881 was
published “The Life of Our Lord,” which
Brentano had left in manuscript.
MLA
Citation
“Anne Catherine
Emmerich”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info.
13 October 2015. Web. 8 February 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-anne-catherine-emmerich/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-anne-catherine-emmerich/
ANNA KATHARINA EMMERICK
(1774-1824)
Anna Katharina Emmerick
was born on September 8, 1774 in the farming community of Flamsche near
Coesfeld. She grew up amidst a host of nine brothers and sisters. She had to
help out in the house and with the farm work at an early age. Her school
attendance was brief, which made it all the more remarkable that she was well
instructed in religious matters. Her parents and all those who knew Anna
Katherina noticed early on that she felt drawn to prayer and to the religious life
in a special way.
Anna Katharina labored
for three years on a large farm in the vicinity. Then she learned to sew and
stayed in Coesfeld for her further training. She loved to visit the old
churches in Coesfeld and to join in the celebration of Mass. She often walked
the path of Coesfeld's long Way of the Cross alone, praying the stations by
herself.
Anna Katharina wanted to
enter the convent, but since her wish could not be fulfilled at that time, she
returned to her parental home. She worked as a seamstress and, while doing so,
visited many homes.
Anna Katherina asked for
admission to different convents, but she was rejected because she could not
bring a significant dowry with her. The Poor Clares in Münster finally agreed
to accept her if she would learn to play the organ. She received her parents'
permission to be trained in Coesfeld by the organist Söntgen. But she never got
around to learning how to play the organ. The misery and poverty in the Söntgen
household prompted her to work in the house and help out in the family. She
even sacrificed her small savings for their sake.
Together with her friend
Klara Söntgen Anna Katharina was finally able to enter the convent Agnetenberg
in Dülmen in 1802. The following year she took her religious vows. She
participated enthusiastically in the life of the convent. She was always
willing to take on hard work and loathsome tasks. Because of her impoverished
background she was at first given little respect in the convent. Some of the
sisters took offence at her strict observance of the order's rule and
considered her a hypocrite. Anna Katharina bore this pain in silence and quiet
submission.
From 1802 to 1811 Anna
Katharina was ill quite often and had to endure great pain.
As a result of
secularization the convent of Agnetenberg was suppressed in 1811, and Anna
Katharina had to leave the convent along with the others. She was taken in as a
housekeeper at the home of Abbé Lambert, a priest who had fled France and lived
in Dülmen. But she soon became ill. She was unable to leave the house and was
confined to bed. In agreement with Curate Lambert she had her younger sister
Gertrud come to take over the housekeeping under her direction.
During this period Anna
Katharina received the stigmata. She had already endured the pain of the
stigmata for a long time. The fact that she bore the wounds of Christ could not
remain hidden. Dr. Franz Wesener, a young doctor, went to see her, and he was so
impressed by her that he became a faithful, selfless and helping friend during
the following eleven years. He kept a diary about his contacts with Anna
Katharina Emmerick in which he recorded a wealth of details.
A striking characteristic
of the life of Anna Katharina was her love for people. Wherever she saw need
she tried to help. Even in her sickbed she sewed clothes for poor children and
was pleased when she could help them in this way. Although she could have found
her many visitors annoying, she received all of them kindly. She embraced their
concerns in her prayers and gave them encouragement and words of comfort.
Many prominent people who
were important in the renewal movement of the church at the beginning of the
19th century sought an opportunity to meet Anna Katharina, among them Clemens
August Droste zu Vischering, Bernhard Overberg, Friedrich Leopold von Stolberg,
Johann Michael Sailer, Christian and Clemens Brentano, Luise Hensel, Melchior
and Apollonia Diepenbrock.
The encounter with Clemens
Brentano was particularly significant. His first visit led him to stay in
Dülmen for five years. He visited Anna Katharina daily to record her visions
which he later published.
Anna Katharina grew ever
weaker during the summer of 1823. As always she joined her suffering to the
suffering of Jesus and offered it up for the salvation of all. She died on
February 9, 1824.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
was buried in the cemetery in Dülmen. A large number of people attended the
funeral. Because of a rumor that her corpse had been stolen the grave was
reopened twice in the weeks following the burial. The coffin and the corpse
were found to be intact.
Clemens Brentano wrote
the following about Anna Katharina Emmerick: “She stands like a cross by the
wayside”. Anna Katharina Emmerick shows us the center of our Christian faith,
the mystery of the cross.
The life of Anna
Katharina Emmerick is marked by her profound closeness to Christ. She loved to
pray before the famous Coesfeld Cross, and she walked the path of the long Way
of the Cross frequently. So great was her personal participation in the
sufferings of our Lord that it is not an exaggeration to say that she lived,
suffered and died with Christ. An external sign of this, which is at the same
time, however, more than just a sign, are the wounds of Christ which she bore.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
was a great admirer of Mary. The feast of the Nativity of Mary was also Anna
Katharina's birthday. A verse from a prayer to Mary highlights a further aspect
of Anna Katharina's life for us. The prayer states, “O God, let us serve the
work of salvation following the example of the faith and the love of Mary”. To
serve the work of salvation - that is what Anna Katharina wanted to do.
In Colossians the apostle
Paul speaks of two ways to serve the gospel, to serve salvation. One consists
in the active proclamation in word and deed. But what if that is no longer
possible? Paul, who obviously finds himself in such a situation, writes: “Now I
rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is
lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church”
(Col 1:24).
Anna Katharina Emmerick
served salvation in both ways. Her words, which have reached innumerable people
in many languages from her modest room in Dülmen through the writings of
Clemens Brentano, are an outstanding proclamation of the gospel in service to
salvation right up to the present day. At the same time, however, Anna
Katharina Emmerick understood her suffering as a service to salvation. Dr.
Wesener, her doctor, recounts her petition in his diary: “I have always
requested for myself as a special gift from God that I suffer for those who are
on the wrong path due to error or weakness, and that, if possible, I make reparation
for them.” It has been reported that Anna Katharina Emmerick gave many of her
visitors religious assistance and consolation. Her words had this power because
she brought her life and suffering into the service of salvation.
In serving the work of salvation
through faith and love, Anna Katharina Emmerick can be a model for us.
Dr. Wesener passed on
this remark of Anna Katharina Emmerick: “I have always considered service to my
neighbor to be the greatest virtue. In my earliest childhood I already requested
of God that he give me the strength to serve my fellow human beings and to be
useful. And now I know that he has granted my request.” How could she who was
confined to her sickroom and her bed for years serve her neighbor?
In a letter to Count Stolberg,
Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, the vicar‑general at that time, called
Anna Katharina Emmerick a special friend of God. In the words of Hans Urs von
Balthasar we can say, “She brought her friendship with God to bear in
solidarity with human beings.”
To bring friendship with
God to bear in solidarity with human beings - does this not shed light on an
important concern in the life of the church today? The Christian faith no
longer includes everyone. In our world the Christian community represents
people before God. We must bring our friendship with God to bear, let it be the
decisive factor in solidarity with human beings.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
is united to us in the community of believers. This community does not come to
an end with death. We believe in the lasting communion with all whom God has
led to perfection. We are united with them beyond death and they participate in
our lives. We can invoke them and ask for their intercession. We ask Anna
Katharina Emmerick, the newly named Blessed, to bring her friendship with God
to bear in solidarity with us and with all human beings.
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20041003_emmerick_en.html
BEATIFICATION OF FIVE
SERVANTS OF GOD
HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II
Sunday, 3 October
2004
1. "Verbum
Domini manet in aeternum - The Word of the Lord will endure for ever". The
Gospel acclamation takes us back to the very roots of the faith. As we face the
passing of time and the continuous upheavals of history, the revelation that
God offered us in Christ endures for ever and opens horizons of eternity to us
on our earthly journey.
This is the unique
experience of the five new Blesseds: Peter
Vigne, Joseph-Marie
Cassant, Anne
Catherine Emmerick, Maria
Ludovica De Angelis and Charles
of Austria. They let the Word of God guide them as a bright and safe
beacon that never ceased to enlighten them on their way.
2. Contemplating
Christ present in the Eucharist and the saving Passion, Fr
Peter Vigne was led to be a true disciple and a faithful missionary of
the Church. May his example give the faithful the desire to draw daring for the
mission from the love of the Eucharist and from the adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament! Let us ask him to move the hearts of the young so that, if God calls
them, they are ready to dedicate themselves to him without reserve in the
priesthood or in the Religious life. May the Church in France find in Fr Vigne
an example to raise up new sowers of the Gospel!
3. Fr
Joseph-Marie always put his trust in God, in contemplation of the
mystery of the Passion and in communion with Christ present in the
Eucharist.
Thus, he was imbued with
love for God and abandoned himself to him, "the only true happiness on
earth", detaching himself from worldly goods in the silence of the
Trappist monastery. In the midst of trials, his eyes fixed on Christ, he
offered up his sufferings for the Lord and for the Church.
May our contemporaries,
especially contemplatives and the sick, discover following his example the
mystery of prayer, which raises the world to God and gives strength in trial!
4. "God did not
give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and
self-control" (II Tm 1: 7). St Paul's words invite us to collaborate
in building the Kingdom of God in the perspective of faith. They can be aptly
applied to the life of Bl.
Ludovica De Angelis, whose existence was totally dedicated to the
glory of God and the service of her peers.
She was a person with an
outstanding mother's heart, leadership qualities and the daring typical of saints.
She also showed concrete and generous love to sick children, making sacrifices
to bring them relief; with her co-workers in La Plata Hospital, she was a model
of cheerfulness and responsibility, creating a family atmosphere. As a Daughter
of Our Lady of Mercy, she set an authentic example to the Sisters in her
community. She was sustained in all this by prayer and by making her life a
continuous communication with the Lord.
5. Bl. Anne
Catherine Emmerick told of "the sorrowful passion of our Lord
Jesus Christ" and lived it in her body. The fact that the daughter of poor
peasants who sought tenaciously to be close to God became the well-known
"Mystic of the Land of Münster" was a work of divine grace. Her
material poverty contrasted with her rich interior life. We are
equally impressed by the new Blessed's patience in putting up with physical
weakness and her strong character, as well as her unshakable faith.
She found this strength
in the Most Holy Eucharist. Her example opened the hearts of poor and rich
alike, of simple and cultured persons, whom she instructed in loving dedication
to Jesus Christ.
Still today, she passes
on to all the saving message: Through the wounds of Christ we have been
saved (cf. I Pt 2: 24).
6. The decisive task
of Christians consists in seeking, recognizing and following God's will in all
things. The Christian statesman, Charles
of Austria, confronted this challenge every day. To his eyes, war
appeared as "something appalling". Amid the tumult of the First World
War, he strove to promote the peace initiative of my Predecessor, Benedict
XV.
From the beginning, the
Emperor Charles conceived of his office as a holy service to his people. His
chief concern was to follow the Christian vocation to holiness also in his
political actions. For this reason, his thoughts turned to social assistance.
May he be an example for all of us, especially for those who have political
responsibilities in Europe today!
7. Let us praise and
thank the Lord with the entire Church for the marvels he has worked through
these good and faithful servants of the Gospel. May Mary Most Holy, who in this
month of October we invoke in a special way with the prayer of the Rosary, help
us to become in turn generous and courageous apostles of the Gospel.
Amen!
© Copyright 2004 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Ven. Anne Catherine
Emmerich
An Augustinian nun, stigmatic,
and ecstatic,
born 8 September, 1774, at Flamsche, near Coesfeld, in the Diocese
of Münster, Westphalia,
Germany; died at Dulmen, 9 February, 1824.
Her parents,
both peasants, were very poor and
pious. At twelve she was bound out to a farmer, and later was a seamstress for
several years. Very delicate all the time, she was sent to study music,
but finding the organist's family very poor she
gave them the little she had saved to enter a convent,
and actually waited on them as a servant for several years. Moreover, she was
at times so pressed for something to eat that her mother brought her bread at
intervals, parts of which went to her master's family.
In her twenty-eighth year (1802) she entered the Augustinian convent at
Agnetenberg, Dulmen. Here she was content to be regarded as the lowest in the
house. Her zeal,
however, disturbed the tepid sisters,
who were puzzled and annoyed at her strange
powers and her weak health, and notwithstanding her ecstasies in church,
cell, or at work, treated her with some antipathy. Despite her excessive
frailty, she discharged her duties cheerfully
and faithfully. When Jerome Bonaparte closed the convent in
1812 she was compelled to find refuge in a poor widow's house.
In 1813 she became bedridden. She foresaw the downfall of Napoleon twelve
years in advance, and counseled in a mysterious way
the successor
of St. Peter. Even in her childhood the supernatural was
so ordinary to her that in her innocent ignorance she
thought all other children enjoyed the same favours that she did, i.e. to
converse familiarly with the Child
Jesus, etc. She displayed a marvellous knowledge when
the sick and poor came
to the "bright little sister" seeking aid; she knew their diseases
and prescribed remedies that did not fail. By nature she was quick and lively
and easily moved to great sympathy by the sight of the sufferings of others.
This feeling passed into her spiritual being with the result that she prayed and
suffered much for the souls of Purgatory whom
she often saw, and for the salvation of
sinners whose miseries were known to her even when far away. Soon after she was
confined to bed (1813) the stigmata came
externally, even to the marks of the thorns.
All this she unsuccessfully tried to conceal as she had concealed the crosses impressed
upon her breast.
Then followed what she
dreaded on account of its publicity, an episcopal
commission to inquire into her life, and the reality of these
wonderful signs.
The examination was very strict, as the utmost care was necessary to furnish no
pretext for ridicule and insult on the part of the enemies of the Church.
The vicar-general,
the famous Overberg,
and three physicians conducted the investigation with scrupulous care and
became convinced of the sanctity of
the "pious Beguine",
as she was called, and the genuineness of the stigmata.
At the end of 1818 God granted
her earnest prayer to
be relieved of the stigmata,
and the wounds in her hands and feet closed, but the others remained, and
on Good
Friday were all wont to reopen. In 1819 the government sent a
committee of investigation which discharged its commission most brutally. Sick
unto death as she was, she was forcibly removed to a large room in another
house and kept under the strictest surveillance day and night for three weeks,
away from all her friends except her confessor. She was insulted, threatened,
and even flattered, but in vain. The commission departed without finding
anything suspicious, and remained silent until its president, taunted about his
reticence, declared that there was fraud, to which the obvious reply was: In
what respect? and why delay in publishing it? About this time Klemens
Brentano, the famous poet, was induced to visit her; to his great amazement
she recognized him, and told him he had been pointed out to her as the man who
was to enable her to fulfil God's command,
namely, to write down for the good of innumerable souls the revelations made
to her. He took down briefly in writing the main points, and, as she spoke
the Westphalian dialect,
he immediately rewrote them in ordinary German.
He would read what he wrote to her, and change and efface until she gave her
complete approval. Like so many others, he was won by her evident purity, her
exceeding humility and
patience under sufferings indescribable. With Overberg, Sailer
of Ratisbon, Clement Augustus of Cologne, Stollberg, Louisa
Hensel, etc., he reverenced her as a chosen bride
of Christ.
In 1833 appeared the
first-fruits of Brentano's toil,
"The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the
Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich" (Sulzbach). Brentano prepared
for publication "The Life of The Blessed Virgin Mary", but this
appeared at Munich only
in 1852. From the manuscript of Brentano Father
Schmoeger published in three volumes "The Life of Our Lord"
(Ratisbon, 1858-80), and in 1881 a large illustrated edition of the same. The
latter also wrote her life in two volumes (Freiburg, 867-70, new edition,
1884). Her visions go
into details, often slight, which give them a vividness that strongly holds the
reader's interest as one graphic scene follows another in rapid succession as
if visible to the physical eye. Other mystics are
more concerned with ideas,
she with events; others stop to meditate aloud
and to guide the reader's thoughts, she lets the facts speak for themselves
with the simplicity, brevity, and security of a Gospel narrative.
Her treatment of that difficult subject, the twofold nature of Christ,
is admirable. His humanity stands out clear and distinct, but through it shines
always a gleam of the Divine. The rapid and silent spread of her works
through Germany, France, Italy,
and elsewhere speaks well for their merit. Strangely enough they produced no
controversy. Dom
Guéranger extolls their merits in the highest terms (Le Monde, 15
April, 1860).
Sister Emmerich lived
during one of the saddest and least glorious periods of the Church's history,
when revolution triumphed,
impiety flourished, and several of the fairest provinces of its domain were
overrun by infidels and
cast into such ruinous condition that the Faith seemed
about to be completely extinguished. Her mission in part seems to have been by
her prayers and
sufferings to aid in restoring Church
discipline, especially in Westphalia,
and at the same time to strengthen at least the little ones of the flock in
their belief.
Besides all this she saved many souls and
recalled to the Christian
world that the supernatural is
around about it to a degree sometimes forgotten. A rumour that the body
was stolen caused
her grave to
be opened six weeks after her death. The body was found fresh, without any sign
of corruption. In 1892 the process of her beatification was
introduced by the Bishop of Münster.
Sources
WEGENER, tr.
McGOWAN, Sister Anne Katherine Emmerich (New York, 1907); DeCAZALES,
Life of A. C. Emmerich prefixed to the 2d ed. of The Dolorous Passion of
Our Lord (London, 1907); URBANY in Kirchenlexikon, s.v.; MIGNE, Dict.
de mystique chrétienne (Paris, 1858).
Graham,
Edward. "Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 28
Feb. 2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05406b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T. Barrett. Dedicated to
the Poor Souls in Purgatory.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05406b.htm
The
Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century – Anna Catharine Emmerich
Article
The name of the ecstatic
of Dülmen, the Servant of God, Anna Catharine Emmerich, is known and honored
throughout the whole Christian world. God set her as a shining light for all
who seek the truth in these days of unbelief and indifference and as a standing
challenge to the rationalistic spirit of the times. It is certain that her
marvelous life has brought consolation and courage to many in these days of
affliction for the Church and that many have been aroused by it to a life of
renewed religious zeal.
Sanctity manifests itself
especially in purity of intention and in virtuous action. Extraordinary gifts
of grace are not absolutely necessary to it. In Anna Catharine Emmerich all
these are abundantly united.
She was born on 8
September 1774, in Flamsche, a farming village near Coesfeld, Westphalia. Her
parents were poor. In her earlier years she was obliged to work at home and
among strangers as well. She was able to attend school regularly for only a few
months; still, people were astonished at her knowledge and her skill in
handicrafts. While yet very young she received revelations in matters
pertaining to faith and enjoyed visible converse with heavenly persons,
especially with her guardian angel, who lovingly instructed her in many things.
This was quite an ordinary matter for her, so that she was altogether surprised
when she learned that others saw nothing of the sort. Her holiness became
manifest at an equally early age. She had the greatest horror of every sin, a
tender charity for the neighbor, and she would weep over the misery of others
as if it were her own. She found a pleasure in prayer unusual for one of her
age and a delight in every kind of self-denial.
No one was surprised that
a vocation to the religious life soon developed in this child; but
circumstances seemed to be against her being able to follow it. Her parents
were by no means willing to part with their daughter; they were not able to
give her a dowry, and no convent was found willing to receive her without it. A
convent of Poor Clares in Coesfeld needed an organist. So Catharine, now
twenty-five years old, obtained permission from her parents to take lessons on
the organ from Soentgen, the organist at Coesfeld, with the hope of being
received into the convent without the dowry. But she found the family of
Soentgen in straitened circumstances, and her charity prompted her to relieve
their misery by the work of her hands. Learning the organ was thus out of the
question. Through her intercourse with Catharine, Soentgen’s daughter Clara developed
a religious vocation. She applied to the Augustinian Sisters at Agnetenberg,
Dülmen, and being an expert organist was gladly received. But Soentgen informed
the Sisters that he would give his daughter leave only on the one condition, i.
e., that Catharine also would be received. The condition was reluctantly
accepted. Catharine’s parents found the sacrifice very hard. When she was
leaving and asked for a trifling sum of traveling money, her father, otherwise
so charitable and pious a Catholic, said to her: “If you were to be buried
to-morrow I would indeed pay the funeral expenses, but for a journey to the
cloister I shall give you nothing.”
Thus Catharine, already
twenty-eight years of age, saw her desire at length fulfilled on 18 September
1802. But if she had hoped to find her life free of care and suffering she
would have been grievously disappointed. In Agnetenberg there was little of the
spirit of a convent, the rules were in great part neglected, and there was no
spiritual direction. The Servant of God was ill-treated by the Sisters, who
considered her as useless on account of her weak health. On her entrance she
had asked the superior to accept her as the meanest in the house. Only too
literally was her prayer heard. She was regarded as a servant girl for the
convent. Her piety and the extraordinary conditions to be observed in her only
gave these Sisters occasion to think lightly of her. Catharine bore it all very
well. One day she complained to Our Lord in the chapel that there was no one
who understood her or with whom she could share her feelings. She received the
answer: “I am enough for you.” In fact the continual nearness of the tabernacle
– she was for a long time assistant of the sacristan – the frequent opportunity
for prayer, the consciousness of having given all to God by her vows,
compensated for all want of regard on the part of others. It is touching to
note what love and enthusiasm she had for her vocation, though she met with so
little gratification in it.
No one, therefore, felt the
blow as heavy as she when in 1811 the convent of Agnetenberg was secularized.
The news made her ill; they feared even that her end had come. But the most
important period of her life was just beginning. A French priest, Vicar
Lambert, who used to say Mass at the convent and had been impressed by her
modest behavior, had the sick and neglected Catharine brought to his residence
in Dülmen. It was long before her condition improved. Toward the end of 18 12
her confessor, Father Limberg, a secularized Dominican, who came to give her
Holy Communion, saw on the backs of her hands bleeding stigmata. He told Vicar
Lambert of his discovery and both thought it was wise to make nothing of the
matter and to keep it secret. Father Limberg had no liking for the visions,
ecstasies, and other extraordinary things he noticed in his penitent. Catharine
had experienced before her entrance into the convent the pains of the crown of
thorns and now were added the stigmata and a doubled cross upon her breast. The
bleeding of the wounds was of frequent occurrence, especially on feast-days and
Fridays.
In March 1813,
Catharine’s former sister in religion, Clara Soentgen, paid her a visit and saw
the stigmata. In a few days all Dülmen knew of it. Great excitement arose among
the people, some favorable to her, some against her. A young physician, Dr.
Franz Wilhelm Wesener, who had lost his faith at the university, visited the
sick Sister with the intention of unmasking the fraud. But the first visit was
sufficient to convince him of the genuineness of the stigmata and to effect in
him a radical reform of his life, especially when the sick person showed
herself thoroughly acquainted with the condition of his soul. Under Wesener’s
direction a joint investigation of the stigmata was held in which the physician
Krauthausen, the parish priest Dechant Rensing, Father Limberg, and Vicar
Lambert took part. A record of the proceedings was sent to the episcopal court
at Münster. A few days later the vicar-general and administrator of the diocese,
Clement August von Droste Vischering, afterward archbishop of Cologne,
accompanied by the president of the seminary Bernhard Overberg, and the medical
consultor, Professor von Druffel, came to Dulmen to make accurate inquiry into
the matter and to interfere directly should any suspicion arise from the
investigation. To this many other persons were invited. It occupied four weeks
and its verdict was in every way favorable to Catharine. It was extremely
painful for her to see every one’s attention turned upon her, for, as her
biographer says, “she was a soul hungry for solitude.” 141 Often she besought
Our Lord to remove the visible wounds and leave her only the suffering.
But worse was to befall
her. The State undertook to meddle in the matter because stubborn doubters
raised a cry of fraud. Governor von Vincke appointed a committee of
investigation in 1819. The members came to Dülmen firmly persuaded that they
were to deal with superstition and common trickery, and this inspired their
treatment of the Servant of God. The head of the committee, Karl von
Bonninghausen, forcibly removed her to another house and here kept her prisoner
under the closest observation for three weeks. They subjected her to the most
painful examination, watching her day and night. They spared neither flatteries
nor promises, denunciation nor threats to induce her to acknowledge fraud. She
had but one answer – that she was willing to die, but could not say what was
not true. The committee acted the part of guard at the sepulcher of Our Lord.
But they were obliged to acknowledge the fact of the wounds and their bleeding
and to admit that it was as clear as midday that all fraud was absent. They
departed ashamed of their rude behavior and their defeat; but there were some
members of the committee who afterward audaciously spread a rumor that fraud
had been found, though no confirmation or reason was alleged in support of it.
In view of the many
observations of numerous witnesses not to be suspected of favor and in
consideration of the innocent and wholly unselfish character of Catharine
Emmerich there remains not the least doubt of the genuineness of the stigmata.
It is another question whether they could be explained by mental suggestion or
whether they are to be attributed to a supernatural cause. The biographers
affirm the latter. Those who do not agree with them must at least admit that
the passion of Our Lord had taken hold of Catharine’s mind in quite an
extraordinary manner. Yet this would hardly account sufficiently for all the
accessory visions.
Catharine possessed in a
high degree the gifts of contemplation. The whole life of Christ passed before
her mind in clear pictures. She lived in sympathy with Him. Clement Brentano
was sent to her by Providence – an event she had long foreseen – to receive an
account of her visions. Most extraordinary was her knowledge of the secrets of
hearts and of distant events. She was obliged to suffer much and to pray for
important events in Church and State of her days, for high Church dignitaries,
for certain dioceses, and for particular persons who were wholly unknown to
her. She was a secret instrument in God’s hand for the salvation of many souls.
We behold in Catharine
Emmerich a noble flower of supernatural holiness, a rare miracle of divine
grace. We can understand how those who came near to her were so powerfully
impressed by the sight of her. Day after day this highly favored virgin
displayed from her bed of suffering the deepest humility, the most inspired
love of the cross, the most self-sacrificing charity. She had no other interest
than the cause of Christ. Her life was an offense to unbelievers – but a
consolation to the faithful. She passed from the earth on 9 February 1825.
Bishop Hermann Dingelstadt gratified the desires of many when in 1892 he
instituted the preliminary work toward the process of her beatification.
MLA
Citation
Father Constantine Kempf,
SJ. “Anna Catharine Emmerich”. The Holiness of the
Church in the Nineteenth Century: Saintly Men and Women of Our Own Times, 1916. CatholicSaints.Info.
23 March 2018. Web. 21 November 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/the-holiness-of-the-church-in-the-nineteenth-century-anna-catharine-emmerich/>
Stories
of Holy Lives – Anne Catherine Emmerich
Article
Away in the little
Westphalian village of Coesfeld there dwelt, about a hundred years ago, a
sweet, bright, loving child, who was dear to all who knew her, and dearer still
to God because of her innocent and guileless heart, which was given entirely to
Him. She was not among those who are great in. the world: her home was a
miserable hut roofed over with moss-grown thatch, while inside there were but a
few broken chairs, a table, and a spinning-wheel, for furniture, with hay and
straw to serve as beds. But Jesus lay in the stable of Bethlehem, and many of
His dearest saints have been born and reared in poverty and want, and little
Anne Catherine Emmerich learned in that humble cottage to live and suffer, and
at last die in the love and fear of God.
The child’s parents were
honest, hard-working, and pious people, and she would often say that her
earliest recollection was being taught the “Our Father,” and having her tiny
fingers bent to trace the form of the cross upon her brow and upon her breast.
When she sent little Catherine to play, the good mother would tell her that the
holy angels, and even the Child Jesus, came to join in the games of those
children who were pure and gentle, and the little thing, in her innocence, took
these words in their literal meaning, and would often stand gazing up at the
sky, longing to see the heavenly visitors appear. She was taught also to say
short prayers as she went to or from church, and in after years she has said
that she accustomed herself to make the cross on her brow and lips and heart,
which should be so many keys to lock out all wicked thoughts or words.
Little Anne Catherine had
to work hard every day, for her parents trained her with some austerity,
believing it the way to prepare her for the steep rough road of the cross when
she was older. As quite a small child she had to go to the field at break of
day in summer and winter time, to fetch up the horse, which was a vicious
creature, and often more than a man could manage, although with Anne Catherine
it was always gentle. She had also to tend the cows, to carry wood, and to help
in the hard work of harvesting when she was but five or six years old.
The child had much to
suffer, for though her parents were constantly thanking God for the graces He
had given her soul, they were so afraid of her feeling any pride or complacency
in herself, that they concealed their joy and satisfaction under a harsh manner,
punishing her with severity for the smallest fault.
But the little peasant
girl was happy in her hard life – happy because she was always conscious of the
Presence of God; and while she prayed to Him in the fields, with her cows
grazing around her, her heart was filled with love and the desire to please
Him. In a corner of the poor cottage there hung its one ornament – a little
picture of the Blessed Virgin with the Holy Child in her arms – and this was an
altar for Anne Catherine, where she often prayed, and where, as almost a baby,
she would lay her favourite toys, and any little gifts she might receive, as an
offering to the Infant Jesus.
When any of these things
disappeared she was delighted, because she believed it a sign that the Divine
Child was pleased with the little sacrifice she had made for Him. The fear of
offending God was so strong, that even at three years of age the child was
often heard to pray for and desire death, so as to avoid sinning as she grew
older. But the Divine purpose in bringing little Anne Catherine Emmerich into
the world was an unusual one. Instead of dying early, as in her simplicity she
desired, instead of growing up to do some great work for His glory in the
world, she was to be a perpetual and willing sacrifice, offering herself to God
for the sins of others, bearing their pains, and learning in Buffering strange
secrets concerning Christ and His Church. All this was to be the work of the
untaught, humble peasant girl – the work of standing as a victim before the Almighty
for His sinful creatures, offering, in union with our blessed Lord, her tears,
her pains, her prayers, in expiation of their sins.
As a very little thing,
she would ask God to send upon her the illness under which she saw some other
child suffering, and often her prayers were granted at once. If she saw one of
her companions commit a fault, she would directly lay upon herself some
penance; and if she was asked what made her do this, she would say that God
made her feel that desire in her heart, and she could not help it. One time
Anne Catherine’s mother was ill in bed with erysipelas, and her face was
terribly swollen, but at the prayer of the child the pain and the swelling
passed to her own head, and as she suffered, her mother became suddenly quite well.
At four years old this
brave little girl began to practise rising in the night for prayer, going out
to a field on the hill above her father’s cottage, and kneeling there for two
or three hours, and often even to the dawn of day. We must not think this was
easy to Anne Catherine Emmerich – she was like other children of her age, and
felt weary and sleepy after her day’s hard toil; she dreaded, too, going alone
into the darkness, but because it was God’s Will that she should do this, He
allowed her to hear the voice of her angel bidding her rise and pray, and she
obeyed directly, though tears would spring to her eyes at the effort it cost
her.
Many children much older
than this little peasant girl would find much prayer very difficult, and would
hardly know any subjects to occupy them for so long a time; but to her the
hours went fast because she had so much to ask for others, and as God intended
her to be useful to the souls of many who were sinning against Him, she was
allowed to see, like a picture in her mind, all sorts of scenes in distant
places. Sometimes it would be a soul in its death-agony, unrepentant and
passing from the world without confessing its sins; sometimes it would be the
sight of some poor homeless child, or the miseries of prisoners and captives,
or a traveller in danger of perishing. Such were the visions which were sent to
little Anne Catherine from God, to awaken her pity and her fervent prayers and
penance.
But the greater number of
her petitions were for the holy souls, and often during the winter nights she
would kneel upon the frozen snow, or in summer scourge herself with sharp
nettles, that so she might get them relief. As quite a young child, she also
was permitted to see in vision the scenes which are contained in the Old Testament
history, and many a night when her father was resting in his arm-chair by the
cottage fire after a hard day’s toil, little Anne Catherine would sit on his
knee, describing these things to him so wonderfully, that he would exclaim,
“Child, who told thee this?” and she could only answer, “Oh, father, I seem to
see it all quite plainly.”
Jesus not only taught
this little girl these wonderful things, but He also showed Himself to her in
her common daily life.
When she was working in
the fields, or driving home her cows, He would come to her side in the form of
a little boy, and help her, telling her all about His own childhood, and the
humiliations and sufferings He had to undergo. At other times He would appear
before her in the form of a child bearing a heavy cross, and the expression of
weariness, yet patience, in His eyes, touched the heart of little Anne
Catherine with such sorrow and such love, that she too would seize upon the
heaviest piece of wood she could find, and carry it on her shoulders as long as
her strength lasted, so that she might imitate Jesus.
This wonderful
intercourse of our dear Lord had a great influence upon this little peasant
girl’s heart. Seeing Him so frequently in vision, she never lost the
recollection of His blessed Presence, and so in her games with other children
she always managed to put in some thought of spiritual things. Sometimes she
would persuade them to form a little procession as they went along the lanes
between the thick hedgerows, imagining themselves in the company of the angels;
again, she would model in sand the holy places of Jerusalem of which God had
taught her, the hill of Calvary or the garden of Gethsemane.
At about seven years old
Anne Catherine prepared to make her first confession, and she was so filled
with contrition for the faults of her little life, which she imagined must be
mortal sins, that she burst into a flood of tears when she knelt before the
priest, in her fear that he would refuse her absolution, on account of such
great offences against God. Four years after, she made her First Communion, and
then her one thought was to put herself entirely into God’s hands, for Him to
do with her what was His Will. As she went to the church upon that happy day,
she kept her eyes shut all the way, lest she should see anything that might
even for a second turn her mind from God. Her request was then that she “might
be made a good child,” and the prayer must have found favour with the Almighty,
for that First Communion day seems to be a fresh starting-point upon the path
of holiness for Anne Catherine, as from that time her humility and sweetness
and mortification seemed to have still deeper root. But though God gave her so
many divine favours, He did not spare her from being exposed to the attacks of
the evil one. At night, when she and her eldest brother would get up and kneel
on the floor, praying with outstretched arms, a terrible voice which made them
tremble would order them back to bed, but though the boy obeyed, Anne Catherine
prayed on until the tempter left her in peace.
When she went across the
narrow path to the old cross on the hill for her midnight prayer, the child
often would see a horrible monster standing before her, but the sign of the
cross either drove it away, or prevented it touching her.
Once, on her way to
church, in the dusky light of early morning, a form something like a dog rushed
past, striking her face so roughly that it swelled to a great size, and was
only cured by holy water. Thus, and in many other ways was Anne Catherine assaulted
by her spiritual enemy, but God’s angel preserved her from every snare.
After such a childhood,
it is not strange that as she grew older this girl should have a great longing
to advance in the service of God, and a hope that He would put clearly before
her the life which should assist her to follow Him more closely. Long before,
she had made avow to her Divine Spouse to enter into a convent when she was old
enough; and though she had never seen the exact way in which she could do this,
her confidence in God was so strong, that she never doubted but that He would
make it possible. However, at twelve years of age Anne Catherine was sent out
as a servant to a farmer’s wife, who says she was a “quiet, gentle little
girl;” but when they laughed at her thought of being some day a nun, she would
beg them not to talk like that, for it would be so after a while. After three
years had been spent thus, the girl’s father and mother took her home to assist
in field work, and then when the bell of the convent at Coesfeld rang for
Vespers or the Angelus, such a longing filled her heart, that she knew not how
to bear it, and a voice seemed borne to her upon the wind, which said, “Go into
a convent, let be what may.”
Anne Catherine grew very
sad, so that her mother asked why it was, and when she heard of this desire,
she was very angry, and said how absurd it was to expect that a poor sickly
peasant child could ever be a nun. But the girl always answered, “God is
infinitely rich, and He will bring it about for me and with this thought she
waited in hope and confidence. The next thing her mother did was to apprentice
her to a dressmaker, and thus she spent two years of her life, keeping her
heart in union with God as she plied her needle, and seeing many a fair vision
of Jesus, His Mother, and the Saints, as she accomplished difficult pieces of
work.
After two years, illness
overtook Anne Catherine, so that she returned to her home, and upon her
recovery she began to go out daily to needlework, in the hope of gaining enough
to take as a dower into some convent. But the little money she earned was spent
as soon as she had it, for the poor, whom she so much loved. Strongly as she
desired the life of a Religious, her compassion for the needy was stronger
still, and she sacrificed her great longing for their sake. It was a hard time
just then, for parents and brothers and sisters opposed her plans, and she
herself was distressed by a fear lest she was growing cold in God’s service.
Happily in all this desolation and darkness an opportunity came for her to
receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, and a wonderful strength of heart was
given to her then, which helped her to accept with increased sweetness all the
blame and unkind treatment offered her, and also to lay upon herself fresh
practices of penance in expiation for the guilt of others. This peasant girl
had always been frequent in practising the Devotion of the Stations of the
Cross, which were erected at intervals along the steep path which led up the
hill from Coesfeld; and now that her days were busy with work, she made the
Stations at night, when to reach them she must climb over the crumbling walls,
and grope through a dense gloomy wood, because the city gates were shut. At
length, after long delay and bitter disappointments and humiliations, the
peasant maiden was received into a convent of the Augustinian order at Dulmen,
by the influence of a friend who was going there herself; and so Anne Catherine
took leave of her parents and her humble cottage home. Though so very poor in
earthly goods, this holy girl was wonderfully rich in heavenly graces; but in
order to sanctify her soul more, God blinded the eyes of the nuns to her great
perfection, so that it seemed to them as if she was full of faults. Her life
there was a difficult one. Nobody liked her, and she expected from day to day
to be sent home, and all her meekness and patience failed to overcome the
strong dislike and distrust of the community; and yet God’s power was so great
that He carried her through all these obstacles, so that the time came for her
to kneel before the altar and make her final vows of religion. Upon that
profession-day Anne Catherine’s face glowed with such a heavenly sweetness,
that for once the sisters felt drawn lovingly towards her, but this affection
was but passing – it was not God’s way of perfecting her. At the close of the
year 1811 this convent was suppressed, the church closed, and the community had
to arrange for their departure. Although she had suffered so much within those
walls, Anne Catherine was greatly troubled at leaving the place where she had
bound herself irrevocably to God; and, becoming very ill, she stayed on alone
till spring in her little damp cell, where the birds paid friendly visits to
her, and even the mice seemed welcome in her solitude. One old servant and the
abbé who had belonged to the convent had pity upon the poor deserted nun, and
provided her with what food they could obtain, and in spring they took her to
the house of a widow woman in Dulmen, where she could have a room. Before one
day had been passed there Anne Catherine was taken dangerously ill, soon
becoming too weak to rise from her bed. This went on till autumn, when, after
receiving the last Sacraments, she grew slightly better, so that she could be
removed into another lodging, which had a little garden opening from it.
Here her wonderful
visions became more frequent, more marvellous. Our Lord, who had imprinted in
her heart so long the love of the cross, saw fit to let her bear its mark upon
her poor weak body, and to be one of those whom He has chosen to bear His own
sacred wounds in hands and feet and side, from which drops of blood were seen
to flow. Many doubted, many were angry, some suspicious, some puzzled, and yet
it was a truth that there, in the little village of Dulmen, the lowly, despised
Sister Emmerich was lying with the sacred stigma of the Passion of Christ. That
strange grace was the beginning of a sort of long and weary martyrdom. She who
had loved silence and solitude was now a public character, one who for years
must bear a course of visits for questioning and examination; one who should be
deemed an impostor, and mistrusted by even the priests of God. Larger books
give the history of this time, but ours is rather a story of her early days as
a little peasant maiden, and we can but glance at the closing years of her
life. If those years were trying, they were filled with the richest of God’s
graces. If Jesus brought her the cross, He brought her, too, the love and
strength with which to bear it; and He led her in vision through every scene of
His most sacred Passion, so that she might patiently endure all suffering for
Him. In her own account of the “Dolorous Passion of Christ” we shall see how
she went step by step from Gethsemane to Calvary in a series of visions granted
by God for her comfort and sanctification, and also for the instruction of the
entire Catholic world; and then when suffering had done its perfect work, and
every grace the Holy Sacraments can give was granted her, Anne Catherine
peacefully kissed her crucifix, and lovingly exclaiming, “Help me, help me,
Lord Jesus!” passed into the valley of the shadow of death – that death which
was the happy ending of life’s sorrows and pains.
This was on the evening
of the 9th of February, 1824. On the 18th she was carried to the grave, with
the whole population of Dolmen following her to the quiet comer in the parish
churchyard which had been chosen for her resting-place.
Although Sister Emmerich
has neither been pronounced “saint” or “blessed” by the voice of the Church, it
seems that she merits a place among those whose virtues have, by God’s Will,
been made more publicly known, for it is a history of simple love and fidelity
to her Lord, from which all may draw help and example. Even if she should never
in future years be raised to the altars of the Church on earth, we may be sure
that her place in heaven is very near to Him whom she set before her as a
pattern of suffering and sacrifice, and her crown set with many a gem gained
amidst the hardships of her child life, the humiliations of the convent, or the
mysterious agonies of her later years.
MLA
Citation
M.F.S. “Anne Catherine
Emmerich”. Stories of Holy Lives. CatholicSaints.Info.
5 May 2022. Web. 8 February 2025. <https://catholicsaints.info/stories-of-holy-lives-anne-catherine-emmerich/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/stories-of-holy-lives-anne-catherine-emmerich/
Bildnis der Anna Katharina Emmerick (Hubert
Wiggering, 1986), Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Portrait of Anna Katharina Emmerick, Holy Cross church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Photographie : Dietmar Rabich (1962–)
Beata Anna Katharina Emmerick
Grabstein und -kreuz der Anna Katharina Emmerick (Kreuz
gestaltet von Ruth Schaumann), Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Grave stone and cross of der Anna Katharina Emmerick (cross made by Ruth Schaumann), Holy Cross Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Kreuz an der Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Cross
at the Holy Cross Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
crucifix: Anna Cath. Emmerick // Ord. S. Augustini // * 8. September 1774 // † 9. Februar 1824 // transl. 7. Feb. 1975. Photographie : Dietmar Rabich (1962–)
Beata Anna Katharina Emmerick
Kreuz an der Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Cross at the Holy Cross Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Grabstein und -kreuz der Anna Katharina Emmerick (Kreuz
gestaltet von Ruth Schaumann), Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Nach dem Diebstahl des Kreuzes und der Bronzefigur im September 2014 wurde die
Figur wieder aufgefunden. Das Kreuz wurde erneuert und am 26. März 2015 wieder
aufgestellt.
Grave
stone and cross of der Anna Katharina Emmerick (cross made
by Ruth Schaumann), Holy Cross Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
The wooden cross is a reproduction and installed on March 26th, 2015.
Beata Anna Caterina
Emmerick Vergine
Flamske, Germania, 8
settembre 1774 – Dülmen, Germania, 9 febbraio 1824
Da bambina faceva la
pastorella ed avvertì la vocazione a consacrarsi al Signore, incontrando però
l’opposizione del padre. Durante la sua giovinezza Dio la colmò di grandi doni,
quali fenomeni di estasi e visioni, ma a causa di ciò fu rifiutata da varie comunità.
Nel 1802, a 28 anni, con l’aiuto dell’amica Clara Soentgen ottenne di entrare
nel monastero delle Canonichesse Regolari di S. Agostino di Agnetenberg presso
Dülmen. La vita in monastero fu per lei molto dura, perché non era della stessa
condizione sociale delle altre e ciò le veniva fatto pesare, come pure le si
rimproverava di essere stata accolta dietro insistenti pressioni. Inoltre
soffrì di varie infermità ed in conseguenza di un incidente del 1805 fu
costretta a stare quasi continuamente nella sua stanza dal 1806 al 1812. Da
contadina riusciva a tenere nascosti i fenomeni mistici che si manifestavano in
lei, ma nel monastero alcune suore per zelo o per ignoranza la fecero oggetto
di insinuazioni maligne e sospetti di ogni genere. Nel 1811 il convento fu
soppresso dalle leggi napoleoniche. Anna Caterina Emmerick si mise allora al
servizio del sacerdote Giovanni Martino Lambert, nella cui casa, verso la fine
del 1812, i fenomeni mistici si moltiplicarono e ricevette le stigmate. Per due
mesi riuscì a tenerle nascoste, ma il 28 febbraio 1813 non poté lasciare più il
letto, che diventò il suo strumento di espiazione per i peccati degli uomini,
unendo le sue sofferenze a quelle della Passione di Gesù. Ebbe visioni
riguardanti la vita di Gesù e di Maria, ma soprattutto della Passione di
Cristo, da cui ha preso spunto per il suo celebre film il regista Mel Gibson.
La mistica fece individuare la presunta casa della Madonna ad Efeso e il
castello di Macheronte nel quale sarebbe stato decapitato san Giovanni
Battista. San Giovanni Paolo II l’ha dichiarata Beata il 3 ottobre 2004.
Finalmente questa venerabile suora, mistica, veggente, stigmatizzata del secolo XVIII, è giunta alla fine di un lungo processo di canonizzazione, durato più di 135 anni, papa Giovanni Paolo II l’ha scritta nell’albo dei Beati il 3 ottobre 2004.
Anna Catharina Emmerick nacque l’8 settembre 1774 a Flamske bei Coestfeld (Westfalia, Germania); i suoi genitori Bernardo Emmerick e Anna Hillers, erano di umile condizione ma buoni cattolici.
Da bambina faceva la pastorella e in questo periodo avvertì la vocazione a farsi religiosa, ma incontrando l’opposizione del padre; durante la sua giovinezza Dio la colmò di grandi doni, come fenomeni di estasi e visioni.
Ma questo non le giovò, in quanto fu rifiutata da varie comunità; nel 1802 a 28 anni, grazie all’interessamento dell’amica Clara Soentgen, una giovane della borghesia, ottenne alla fine di entrare nel monastero delle Canonichesse Regolari di S. Agostino di Agnetenberg presso Dülmen.
La vita nel monastero fu per lei molto dura, perché non della stessa condizione sociale delle altre e questo le veniva fatto pesare, come pure le si rimproverava di essere stata accolta dietro insistenti pressioni.
A ciò si aggiunse che soffrì di varie infermità, per le conseguenze di un incidente patito nel 1805, fu costretta a stare quasi continuamente nella sua stanza, dal 1806 al 1812.
Quando era una contadina riusciva a tenere nascosti i fenomeni mistici che si manifestavano in lei, ma nel monastero, un ambiente più ristretto, ciò non le riusciva, pertanto alcune suore o per zelo o per ignoranza la fecero oggetto di insinuazioni maligne e sospetti di ogni genere.
Nel 1811 il convento fu soppresso dalle leggi francesi di Napoleone Bonaparte e le suore disperse; Anna Caterina Emmerick nel 1812 si mise allora al servizio di un sacerdote, emigrato a Dülmen proveniente dalla diocesi francese di Amiens, don Giovanni Martino Lambert.
Ed in casa del sacerdote verso la fine di quell’anno, i fenomeni sempre presenti prima, si moltiplicarono e negli ultimi giorni di dicembre 1812 ricevette le stigmate; per due mesi riuscì a tenerle nascoste, ma il 28 febbraio 1813 non poté lasciare più il letto, che diventò il suo strumento di espiazione per i peccati degli uomini, unendo le sue sofferenze a quelle della Passione di Gesù.
Fu sottoposta ad un’indagine sulle stigmate, sulle sofferenze della Passione e sui fenomeni mistici che si manifestavano in lei, indagine che confermò la sua assoluta innocenza e il carattere soprannaturale dei fenomeni.
Si sa che ebbe visioni riguardanti la vita di Gesù e di Maria, ma soprattutto della Passione di Cristo; ad esempio fece individuare la casa della Madonna ad Efeso e il castello di Macheronte nel quale fu decapitato san Giovanni Battista.
È diventato difficile sapere quali visioni furono effettivamente sue, perché un suo contemporaneo, il poeta e scrittore Clemente Brentano (1778-1842) le pubblicò facendo delle aggiunte e abbellimenti al suo racconto, creando così una grande confusione, che pesò fortemente sul futuro processo di beatificazione.
Anna Caterina Emmerick morì a Dülmen il 9 febbraio 1824, diventando una delle Serve di Dio più conosciute in Europa.
Per l’appartenenza da suora all’Ordine delle Canonichesse Regolari, i monaci Canonici Regolari di sant’Agostino promossero la sua causa di beatificazione, che come già accennato subì varie battute di arresto, interventi di vescovi e dello stesso papa Leone XIII, coinvolgimenti nelle vicende politiche della Germania, ecc., finché il 4 maggio 1981 ci fu il decreto sull’introduzione della causa.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/92102
ANNA KATHARINA EMMERICK
(1774-1824)
Anna Katharina
Emmerick nacque l'8 settembre 1774 nella comunità di contadini di
Flamschen presso Coesfeld. Lei crebbe insieme a nove fra fratelli e sorelle.
Già da piccola lei dovette aiutare in casa e nei lavori dei campi. Frequentò
per poco tempo la scuola, ma si notava il fatto che lei era ben istruita su
cose religiose. Ben presto i genitori e tutti quelli che conoscevano Anna
Katharina si accorsero che lei si sentiva attratta in maniera particolare dalla
preghiera e dalla vita religiosa.
Per tre anni Anna
Katharina Emmerick fu a servizio in una grande fattoria dei dintorni. In
seguito lei imparò a cucire e andò a Coesfeld per una ulteriore formazione. Lei
amava visitare la vecchia chiesa di Coesfeld e partecipare alla Messa. Spesso
faceva da sola in preghiera la Via Crucis.
Anna Katharina aveva il
desiderio di entrare in monastero. Poiché questo desiderio per il momento non
si avverava, tornò a casa dai genitori. Lei lavorò come sarta andando di casa
in casa.
Anna Katharina chiese di
essere ammessa in diversi monasteri, ma fu respinta poiché non poteva portare
alcuna dote particolare. Le Clarisse di Münster si dichiararono, infine, pronte
ad accoglierla se lei avesse imparato a suonare l'organo. Lei ebbe il permesso
dai suoi genitori di trasferirsi dall'organista Söntgen di Coesfeld per il
tirocinio. Lei però non trovò mai il tempo per imparare a suonare l'organo. Il
bisogno e la povertà di quella famiglia la indussero a contribuire con il
lavoro nella casa e in famiglia. Lei sacrificò i propri miseri risparmi per
aiutare la famiglia Söntgen.
Nel 1802, insieme alla
sua amica Klara Söntgen, Anna Katharina poté finalmente entrare nel monastero
di Agnetenberg presso Dülmen. L'anno seguente prese i voti. Lì prese parte alla
vita mo‑nastica con fervore, era sempre pronta ad assumersi i lavori più
pesanti e non amati. A causa della sua povera origine, lei fu in principio poco
considerata. Alcune delle sue consorelle si scandalizzavano della sua esatta
osservanza alla regola dell'Ordine e la consideravano un'ipocrita. Anna
Katharina sopportava in silenzio questo dolore e in silenziosa rassegnazione.
Dal 1802 al 1811 Anna
Kataharina si ammalò frequentemente e aveva gravi dolori da sopportare.
Nel 1811 il Monastero di
Agnetenberg, a causa del movimento di secolarizzazione, venne soppresso. Anche
Anna Katharina dovette abbandonare il monastero e trovò accoglienza come
domestica presso l'Abbé Lambert, un prete fuggito dalla Francia, che viveva a
Dülmen. Ma presto lei si ammalò e non poté più lasciare la casa e fu costretta
a letto. D'accordo con il vicario Lambert, Anna Katharina fece venire la sua
sorella più giovane, Gertrud, la quale sotto la sua direzione doveva curare il
governo della casa.
In questo periodo Anna
Katharina Emmerick ricevette le stigmate, i cui dolori aveva già sofferto da
molto più tempo. Il fatto che lei portava le piaghe non poteva rimanere
nascosto. Il Dr. Franz Wesener, un giovane medico, le fece visita e fu da lei
così tanto impressionato che divenne per lei, negli 11 anni seguenti, un fedele,
aiutante e disinteressato amico. Lui tenne un diario sui suoi incontri con Anna
Katharina Emmerick, in cui ha fissato una montagna di particolari.
Un tratto particolare
della vita di Anna Katharina fu il suo amore per le persone. Dove lei vedeva il
bisogno, cercò sempre di aiutare. Anche dal suo letto di ammalata lei
confezionò abiti per i bambini più poveri ed era felice se in questo modo li
poteva aiutare. Sebbene qualche volta i molti visitatori sarebbero potuti
diventare fastidiosi, lei li accoglieva tutti gentilmente, si interessava alle
loro richieste con la preghiera e offriva loro incoraggiamento e conforto.
Molte personalità, che
erano di rilievo nel movimento di rinnovamento della Chiesa agli inizi del
secolo XIX, cercarono l'incontro con Anna Katharina Emmerick, fra gli altri: il
barone Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, Friederich Leopold von Stolberg,
Johann Michael Sailer, Christian e Clemens Brentano, Luise Hensel, Melchior e
Apollonia Diepenbrock.
Di importante significato
fu l'incontro con Clemens Brentano. Dal suo primo incontro nel 1818 derivò un
soggiorno di cinque anni, in cui giornalmente lui visitò Anna Katharina per
disegnare le sue visioni che più tardi pubblicò.
Nell'estate del 1823 Anna
Katharina divenne sempre più debole. Come in tutti gli anni passati lei unì la
sua sofferenza con la sofferenza di Gesù e la offrì per la redenzione degli
uomini. Anna Katharina Emmerick morì il 9 febbraio 1824.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
fu sepolta nel cimitero di Dülmen. Numerose persone presero parte al funerale.
Poiché sorse la diceria che il cadavere di Anna Katharina fosse stato
trafugato, la tomba, nelle settimane successive al funerale, aperta due volte:
la bara con il cadavere fu trovata intatta.
Clemens Brentano scrisse
di Anna Katharina Emmerick: «Lei sta come una croce ai lati della strada» Anna
Katharina Emmerick ci indica il centro della nostra fede cristiana, il segreto
della Croce.
La vita di Anna Katharina
Emmerick è contraddistinta da una profonda unione con Cristo. Lei amava pregare
davanti alla famosa croce di Coesfeld, spesso lei andava alla Via Crucis. Lei
partecipava così intimamente alla sofferenza del Signore che non è esagerato
dire: lei visse, soffrì e morì con Cristo. Un segno esteriore di questo, ma che
è nello stesso tempo più di un semplice segno, sono le stigmate che lei
portava.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
fu una grande devota di Maria. La festività della nascita di Maria era anche il
suo compleanno. Una frase da una preghiera mariana ci indica un ulteriore
aspetto della vita di Anna Katharina. In questa preghiera si recita: «O Dio,
lasciaci servire l'opera della Redenzione secondo il modello della fede e
dell'amore di Maria». Servire l'opera della Redenzione: questo voleva Anna
Katharina Emmerick.
L'Apostolo Paolo parla
nella lettera ai Colossesi di due modi di servizio al Vangelo, di servizio alla
Redenzione. Un modo si realizza nell'attivo annuncio con parole e fatti. Ma
cosa fare quando questo non è possibile? Paolo, che evidentemente si trovava in
una tale situazione, scrive: «Perciò sono lieto delle sofferenze che sopporto
per voi e completo nella mia carne quello che manca ai patimenti di Cristo, a
favore del suo corpo che è la Chiesa». (Col 1, 24).
In entrambi i modi Anna
Katharina Emmerick ha servito la Redenzione. La sua parola, che dalla sua
modesta stanza di Dülmen ha raggiunto, attraverso gli scritti di Clemens
Brentano, innumerevoli persone in molte lingue, è fin ai nostri giorni
un'eccellente annuncio del Vangelo nel servizio alla Redenzione. Ma nello
stesso tempo Anna Katharina Emmerick ha interpretato la sua sofferenza come un
servizio alla Redenzione. Il Dr. Wesener, il suo medico, riportò nel suo diario
la richiesta di Anna Katharina Emmerick: «Io ho sempre supplicato Dio che mi
desse come particolare dono che io per loro soffra e possibilmente dia
soddisfazione a coloro che a causa di errori o di debolezze si trovano sulla
strada sbagliata». Si racconta che Anna Katharina Emmerick dispensò a molti dei
suoi visitatori aiuto nella fede e consolazione. La sua parola aveva questa
forza, poiché lei portava dentro la sua vita e la sua sofferenza il servizio
della Redenzione.
Attraverso la fede e
l'amore servire l'opera di Redenzione: Anna Katharina Emmerick ci può essere di
esempio in questo. Il Dr. Wesener tramanda l'osservazione di Anna Katharina
Emmerick: «Io ho sempre considerato il servizio al prossimo come la più alta
virtù. Nella mia giovinezza io pregai Dio affinché mi volesse conferire la
forza di servire il mio prossimo ed essere utile. Ed ora so che lui ha esaudito
la mia preghiera». Come poteva servire il prossimo lei che per anni fu relegata
in una camera da ammalata e costretta a letto?
Il Vicario Generale di
allora, Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, in una lettera al conte Stolberg
chiama Anna Katharina Emmerick una speciale amica di Dio. Con le parole di Hans
Urs von Balthasar possiamo dire: «Lei gettò la sua amicizia con Dio sul piatto
della bilancia nella solidarietà con gli uomini».
Gettare l'amicizia con
Dio sul piatto della bilancia nella solidarietà con gli uomini: qui non diviene
chiara una richiesta per la vita della Chiesa dei nostri giorni? La fede
cristiana non abbraccia più tutti; nel nostro mondo la comunità cristiana è
chiamata ad intercedere per gli uomini davanti a Dio. Noi dobbiamo gettare la
nostra amicizia con Dio sul piatto della bilancia nella solidarietà con gli
uomini.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
ci ha unito nella comunità dei fedeli. Questa comunità non finisce con la
morte. Noi crediamo nella comunità durevole con tutti quelli che Dio ha
condotto a compimento. Noi siamo uniti al di là della morte e lei partecipa
alla nostra vita. Noi possiamo chiamarla e domandare la sua intercessione. Noi
preghiamo Anna Katharina Emmerick, la nuova Beata, affinché getti la sua
amicizia con Dio sul piatto della bilancia nella solidarietà con noi e con
tutti gli uomini.
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20041003_emmerick_it.html
CAPPELLA PAPALE PER LA
BEATIFICAZIONE DI CINQUE SERVI DI DIO
OMELIA DI GIOVANNI PAOLO
II
Domenica, 3
ottobre 2004
1. "Verbum Domini
manet in aeternum - La Parola del Signore rimane in eterno".
L'esclamazione del Canto al Vangelo ci riporta ai fondamenti stessi
della fede. Di fronte al trascorrere del tempo e ai continui rivolgimenti della
storia, la rivelazione che Dio ci ha offerto in Cristo rimane stabile per
sempre ed apre sul nostro cammino terreno un orizzonte di eternità.
E’ quanto hanno
sperimentato in modo singolare i cinque nuovi Beati: Pierre
Vigne, Joseph-Marie
Cassant, Anna
Katharina Emmerick, Maria
Ludovica De Angelis, Carlo
d'Austria. Essi si sono lasciati guidare dalla Parola di Dio come da un
faro luminoso e sicuro, che non ha mai cessato di illuminare il loro cammino.
2. Contemplant le Christ
présent dans l’Eucharistie et la Passion salvifique, le Père Pierre Vigne fut
conduit à être un véritable disciple et un missionnaire fidèle à l’Église. Que
son exemple donne aux fidèles le désir de puiser dans l’amour de l’Eucharistie
et dans l’adoration du Saint-Sacrement l’audace pour la mission !
Demandons-lui de toucher le cœur de jeunes, pour qu’ils acceptent, s’ils sont
appelés par Dieu, de se consacrer totalement à Lui dans le sacerdoce ou la
vie religieuse. Que l’Église en France trouve dans le Père Vigne un modèle,
pour que se lèvent de nouveaux semeurs de l’Évangile.
3. Le Frère Joseph-Marie a
toujours mis sa confiance en Dieu, dans la contemplation du mystère de la
Passion et dans l’union avec le Christ présent dans l’Eucharistie. Il
s’imprégnait ainsi de l’amour de Dieu, s’abandonnant à Lui, "le seul
bonheur de la terre", et se détachant des biens du monde dans le silence
de la Trappe. Au milieu des épreuves, les yeux fixés sur le Christ, il offrait
ses souffrances pour le Seigneur et pour l’Église. Puissent nos contemporains,
notamment les contemplatifs et les malades, découvrir à son exemple le mystère
de la prière, qui élève le monde à Dieu et qui donne la force dans les
épreuves !
Traduzione italiana della
parte pronunciata in lingua francese:
2. Contemplando Cristo
presente nell'Eucaristia e nella Passione salvifica, Padre Pierre Vigne giunse
ad essere un vero discepolo e un missionario fedele alla Chiesa. Che il suo
esempio infonda nei fedeli il desiderio di attingere dall'amore per
l'Eucaristia e dall'adorazione del Santissimo Sacramento l'audacia per la
missione! Chiediamogli di toccare il cuore dei giovani, affinché accettino, se
sono chiamati da Dio, di consacrarsi completamente a Lui nel sacerdozio o nella
vita religiosa. Che la Chiesa in Francia trovi in Padre Vigne un modello,
perché nascano nuovi seminatori del Vangelo!
3. Frate Joseph-Marie ha
sempre riposto la sua fiducia in Dio, nella contemplazione del mistero della
Passione e nell'unione con Cristo presente nell'Eucaristia. Si permeava così
dell'amore di Dio, abbandonandosi a Lui, "la sola felicità della
terra", e distaccandosi dai beni del mondo nel silenzio del convento
trappista. Nelle prove, lo sguardo fisso a Cristo, offriva le sue sofferenze
per il Signore e per la Chiesa. Possano i nostri contemporanei, soprattutto i
contemplativi e i malati, scoprire seguendo il suo esempio il mistero della
preghiera, che eleva il mondo a Dio e che dà forza nelle prove!
4. "Dios no nos ha
dado un espíritu cobarde, sino un espíritu de energía, amor y buen juicio"
(2Tm 1,7). Estas palabras de San Pablo nos invitan a colaborar en la
construcción del Reino de Dios, desde la perspectiva de la fe. Bien se pueden
aplicar a la vida de la Beata Ludovica de Angelis, cuya existencia estuvo
consagrada totalmente a la gloria de Dios y al servicio de sus semejantes.
En su figura destacan un
corazón de madre, sus cualidades de líder y la audacia propia de los santos.
Con los niños enfermos tuvo un amor concreto y generoso, afrontando sacrificios
para aliviarlos; con sus colaboradores en el Hospital de La Plata fue modelo de
alegría y responsabilidad, creando un ambiente de familia; para sus Hermanas de
comunidad, fue un auténtico ejemplo como Hija de Nuestra Señora de la
Misericordia. En todo estuvo sostenida por la oración, haciendo de su vida una
comunicación continua con el Señor.
Traduzione italiana della
parte pronunciata in lingua spagnola:
4. "Dio infatti non
ci ha dato uno Spirito di timidezza, ma di forza, di amore e di saggezza"
(2 Tm 1, 7). Queste parole di San Paolo ci invitano a collaborare
nell'edificazione del Regno di Dio, nella prospettiva della fede. Si possono
applicare bene alla vita della Beata Ludovica De Angelis, la cui esistenza fu
completamente dedita alla gloria di Dio e al servizio dei suoi simili.
Nella sua figura spiccano
un cuore di madre, le sue qualità di guida e l'audacia propria dei santi. Per i
bambini malati provò un amore concreto e generoso, affrontando sacrifici per
consolarli; per i suoi collaboratori nell'Ospedale di La Plata fu modello di
gioia e di responsabilità, creando un ambiente familiare; per le sue consorelle
fu un autentico esempio come Figlia di Nostra Signora della Misericordia. In
tutto fu sostenuta dalla preghiera, facendo della sua vita una comunicazione
continua con il Signore.
5. Die selige Anna
Katharina Emmerick, hat „das bittere Leiden unseres Herrn Jesu Christi"
geschaut und an ihrem Leib erfahren. Daß aus der Tochter armer Bauern, die
beharrlich Gottes Nähe suchte, die bekannte „Mystikerin des Münsterlandes"
wurde, ist ein Werk der göttlichen Gnade. Ihrer materiellen Armut steht ein reiches
inneres Leben gegenüber. Wie die Geduld im Ertragen ihrer körperlichen
Schwäche beeindruckt uns die charakterliche Stärke der neuen Seligen
und ihre Festigkeit im Glauben.
Die Kraft dazu bezog sie
aus der heiligsten Eucharistie. So hat ihr Beispiel die Herzen Armer und
Reicher, einfacher und gebildeter Menschen für die liebende Ganzhingabe an
Jesus Christus erschlossen. Noch heute vermittelt sie allen die erlösende
Botschaft: Durch Christi Wunden sind wir geheilt (vgl. 1
Petr 2, 24).
6. Die entscheidende
Aufgabe des Christen besteht darin, in allem Gottes Willen zu suchen, zu
erkennen und danach zu handeln. Dieser täglichen Herausforderung stellte sich
der Staatsmann und Christ Karl aus dem Hause Österreich. Er war
ein Freund des Friedens. In seinen Augen war der Krieg „etwas
Entsetzliches". Mitten in den Stürmen des Ersten Weltkriegs an die
Regierung gelangt, versuchte er die Friedensinitiative meines Vorgängers
Benedikt XV. aufzugreifen.
Von Anfang an verstand
Kaiser Karl sein Herrscheramt als heiligen Dienst an seinen Völkern. Sein
ernstes Bestreben war es, der Berufung des Christen zur Heiligkeit auch in
seinem politischen Handeln zu folgen. Dabei war ihm der Gedanke der sozialen
Liebe wichtig. Sei er uns allen ein Vorbild, besonders denen, die heute in
Europa politische Verantwortung tragen!
Traduzione italiana della
parte pronunciata in lingua tedesca:
5. La Beata Anna
Katharina Emmerick, ha gridato "la dolorosa passione di nostro
Signore Gesù Cristo" e l'ha vissuta sul suo corpo. È opera della grazia
divina il fatto che la figlia di poveri contadini, che con tenacia ricercò la
vicinanza di Dio, sia divenuta la nota "Mistica del Land di Münster".
La sua povertà materiale si contrappone a una ricca vita interiore. Così
come la pazienza nel sopportare la debolezza fisica ci impressiona anche
la forza caratteriale della nuova Beata e la sua stabilità nella
fede.
Ella traeva questa forza
dalla santissima Eucaristia. Il suo esempio ha dischiuso i cuori di poveri e di
ricchi, di persone semplici ed istruite alla dedizione amorosa a Gesù Cristo.
Ancora oggi trasmette a
tutti il messaggio salvifico: Attraverso le ferite di Cristo siamo
salvati (cfr1 Pt 2, 24).
6. Il compito decisivo
del cristiano consiste nel cercare in tutto la volontà di Dio, riconoscerla e
seguirla. L'uomo di Stato e cristiano Carlo d'Austria si pose
quotidianamente questa sfida. Ai suoi occhi la guerra appariva come
"qualcosa di orribile". Nei tumulti della Prima Guerra Mondiale cercò
di promuovere l'iniziativa di pace del mio predecessore Benedetto XV.
Fin dall'inizio,
l'Imperatore Carlo concepì la sua carica come servizio santo ai suoi popoli. La
sua principale preoccupazione era di seguire la vocazione del cristiano
alla santità anche nella sua azione politica. Per questo, il suo pensiero
andava all'assistenza sociale. Sia un esempio per noi tutti, soprattutto per
quelli che oggi hanno in Europa la responsabilità politica!
7. Insieme con la Chiesa
intera, lodiamo e ringraziamo il Signore per le meraviglie che ha compiuto in
questi servi buoni e fedeli del Vangelo. Maria Santissima, che in questo mese
di ottobre invochiamo in modo particolare con la preghiera del Rosario, ci
aiuti a diventare a nostra volta generosi e coraggiosi apostoli del Vangelo.
Amen!
© Copyright 2004 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Anna Katharina Emmerick
(1774-1824)
Beatificazione:
- 03 ottobre 2004
- Papa Giovanni
Paolo II
Ricorrenza:
- 9 febbraio
"O Dio, lasciaci servire l'opera della Redenzione secondo il modello della fede e dell'amore di Maria"
Anna Katharina
Emmerick nacque l'8 settembre 1774 nella comunità di contadini di
Flamschen presso Coesfeld. Lei crebbe insieme a nove fra fratelli e sorelle.
Già da piccola lei dovette aiutare in casa e nei lavori dei campi. Frequentò
per poco tempo la scuola, ma si notava il fatto che lei era ben istruita su
cose religiose. Ben presto i genitori e tutti quelli che conoscevano Anna
Katharina si accorsero che lei si sentiva attratta in maniera particolare dalla
preghiera e dalla vita religiosa.
Per tre anni Anna
Katharina Emmerick fu a servizio in una grande fattoria dei dintorni. In
seguito lei imparò a cucire e andò a Coesfeld per una ulteriore formazione. Lei
amava visitare la vecchia chiesa di Coesfeld e partecipare alla Messa. Spesso
faceva da sola in preghiera la Via Crucis.
Anna Katharina aveva il
desiderio di entrare in monastero. Poiché questo desiderio per il momento non
si avverava, tornò a casa dai genitori. Lei lavorò come sarta andando di casa
in casa.
Anna Katharina chiese di
essere ammessa in diversi monasteri, ma fu respinta poiché non poteva portare
alcuna dote particolare. Le Clarisse di Münster si dichiararono, infine, pronte
ad accoglierla se lei avesse imparato a suonare l'organo. Lei ebbe il permesso
dai suoi genitori di trasferirsi dall'organista Söntgen di Coesfeld per il
tirocinio. Lei però non trovò mai il tempo per imparare a suonare l'organo. Il
bisogno e la povertà di quella famiglia la indussero a contribuire con il
lavoro nella casa e in famiglia. Lei sacrificò i propri miseri risparmi per
aiutare la famiglia Söntgen.
Nel 1802, insieme alla
sua amica Klara Söntgen, Anna Katharina poté finalmente entrare nel monastero
di Agnetenberg presso Dülmen. L'anno seguente prese i voti. Lì prese parte alla
vita mo‑nastica con fervore, era sempre pronta ad assumersi i lavori più
pesanti e non amati. A causa della sua povera origine, lei fu in principio poco
considerata. Alcune delle sue consorelle si scandalizzavano della sua esatta
osservanza alla regola dell'Ordine e la consideravano un'ipocrita. Anna
Katharina sopportava in silenzio questo dolore e in silenziosa rassegnazione.
Dal 1802 al 1811 Anna
Kataharina si ammalò frequentemente e aveva gravi dolori da sopportare.
Nel 1811 il Monastero di
Agnetenberg, a causa del movimento di secolarizzazione, venne soppresso. Anche
Anna Katharina dovette abbandonare il monastero e trovò accoglienza come
domestica presso l'Abbé Lambert, un prete fuggito dalla Francia, che viveva a
Dülmen. Ma presto lei si ammalò e non poté più lasciare la casa e fu costretta
a letto. D'accordo con il vicario Lambert, Anna Katharina fece venire la sua
sorella più giovane, Gertrud, la quale sotto la sua direzione doveva curare il
governo della casa.
In questo periodo Anna
Katharina Emmerick ricevette le stigmate, i cui dolori aveva già sofferto da
molto più tempo. Il fatto che lei portava le piaghe non poteva rimanere
nascosto. Il Dr. Franz Wesener, un giovane medico, le fece visita e fu da lei
così tanto impressionato che divenne per lei, negli 11 anni seguenti, un
fedele, aiutante e disinteressato amico. Lui tenne un diario sui suoi incontri
con Anna Katharina Emmerick, in cui ha fissato una montagna di particolari.
Un tratto particolare
della vita di Anna Katharina fu il suo amore per le persone. Dove lei vedeva il
bisogno, cercò sempre di aiutare. Anche dal suo letto di ammalata lei
confezionò abiti per i bambini più poveri ed era felice se in questo modo li
poteva aiutare. Sebbene qualche volta i molti visitatori sarebbero potuti
diventare fastidiosi, lei li accoglieva tutti gentilmente, si interessava alle
loro richieste con la preghiera e offriva loro incoraggiamento e conforto.
Molte personalità, che
erano di rilievo nel movimento di rinnovamento della Chiesa agli inizi del
secolo XIX, cercarono l'incontro con Anna Katharina Emmerick, fra gli altri: il
barone Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, Friederich Leopold von Stolberg,
Johann Michael Sailer, Christian e Clemens Brentano, Luise Hensel, Melchior e
Apollonia Diepenbrock.
Di importante significato
fu l'incontro con Clemens Brentano. Dal suo primo incontro nel 1818 derivò un
soggiorno di cinque anni, in cui giornalmente lui visitò Anna Katharina per
disegnare le sue visioni che più tardi pubblicò.
Nell'estate del 1823 Anna
Katharina divenne sempre più debole. Come in tutti gli anni passati lei unì la
sua sofferenza con la sofferenza di Gesù e la offrì per la redenzione degli
uomini. Anna Katharina Emmerick morì il 9 febbraio 1824.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
fu sepolta nel cimitero di Dülmen. Numerose persone presero parte al funerale.
Poiché sorse la diceria che il cadavere di Anna Katharina fosse stato
trafugato, la tomba, nelle settimane successive al funerale, aperta due volte:
la bara con il cadavere fu trovata intatta.
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/anna-katharina-emmerick.html
L’EREDITÀ
Clemens Brentano scrisse
di Anna Katharina Emmerick: «Lei sta come una croce ai lati della strada» Anna
Katharina Emmerick ci indica il centro della nostra fede cristiana, il segreto
della Croce.
La vita di Anna Katharina
Emmerick è contraddistinta da una profonda unione con Cristo. Lei amava pregare
davanti alla famosa croce di Coesfeld, spesso lei andava alla Via Crucis. Lei
partecipava così intimamente alla sofferenza del Signore che non è esagerato
dire: lei visse, soffrì e morì con Cristo. Un segno esteriore di questo, ma che
è nello stesso tempo più di un semplice segno, sono le stigmate che lei
portava.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
fu una grande devota di Maria. La festività della nascita di Maria era anche il
suo compleanno. Una frase da una preghiera mariana ci indica un ulteriore
aspetto della vita di Anna Katharina. In questa preghiera si recita: «O Dio,
lasciaci servire l'opera della Redenzione secondo il modello della fede e
dell'amore di Maria». Servire l'opera della Redenzione: questo voleva Anna
Katharina Emmerick.
L'Apostolo Paolo parla
nella lettera ai Colossesi di due modi di servizio al Vangelo, di servizio alla
Redenzione. Un modo si realizza nell'attivo annuncio con parole e fatti. Ma
cosa fare quando questo non è possibile? Paolo, che evidentemente si trovava in
una tale situazione, scrive: «Perciò sono lieto delle sofferenze che sopporto
per voi e completo nella mia carne quello che manca ai patimenti di Cristo, a
favore del suo corpo che è la Chiesa». (Col 1, 24).
In entrambi i modi Anna
Katharina Emmerick ha servito la Redenzione. La sua parola, che dalla sua
modesta stanza di Dülmen ha raggiunto, attraverso gli scritti di Clemens
Brentano, innumerevoli persone in molte lingue, è fin ai nostri giorni
un'eccellente annuncio del Vangelo nel servizio alla Redenzione. Ma nello
stesso tempo Anna Katharina Emmerick ha interpretato la sua sofferenza come un
servizio alla Redenzione. Il Dr. Wesener, il suo medico, riportò nel suo diario
la richiesta di Anna Katharina Emmerick: «Io ho sempre supplicato Dio che mi
desse come particolare dono che io per loro soffra e possibilmente dia
soddisfazione a coloro che a causa di errori o di debolezze si trovano sulla
strada sbagliata». Si racconta che Anna Katharina Emmerick dispensò a molti dei
suoi visitatori aiuto nella fede e consolazione. La sua parola aveva questa
forza, poiché lei portava dentro la sua vita e la sua sofferenza il servizio
della Redenzione.
Attraverso la fede e
l'amore servire l'opera di Redenzione: Anna Katharina Emmerick ci può essere di
esempio in questo. Il Dr. Wesener tramanda l'osservazione di Anna Katharina
Emmerick: «Io ho sempre considerato il servizio al prossimo come la più alta
virtù. Nella mia giovinezza io pregai Dio affinché mi volesse conferire la forza
di servire il mio prossimo ed essere utile. Ed ora so che lui ha esaudito la
mia preghiera». Come poteva servire il prossimo lei che per anni fu relegata in
una camera da ammalata e costretta a letto?
Il Vicario Generale di
allora, Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, in una lettera al conte Stolberg
chiama Anna Katharina Emmerick una speciale amica di Dio. Con le parole di Hans
Urs von Balthasar possiamo dire: «Lei gettò la sua amicizia con Dio sul piatto
della bilancia nella solidarietà con gli uomini».
Gettare l'amicizia con
Dio sul piatto della bilancia nella solidarietà con gli uomini: qui non diviene
chiara una richiesta per la vita della Chiesa dei nostri giorni? La fede
cristiana non abbraccia più tutti; nel nostro mondo la comunità cristiana è
chiamata ad intercedere per gli uomini davanti a Dio. Noi dobbiamo gettare la
nostra amicizia con Dio sul piatto della bilancia nella solidarietà con gli
uomini.
Anna Katharina Emmerick
ci ha unito nella comunità dei fedeli. Questa comunità non finisce con la
morte. Noi crediamo nella comunità durevole con tutti quelli che Dio ha
condotto a compimento. Noi siamo uniti al di là della morte e lei partecipa
alla nostra vita. Noi possiamo chiamarla e domandare la sua intercessione. Noi
preghiamo Anna Katharina Emmerick, la nuova Beata, affinché getti la sua
amicizia con Dio sul piatto della bilancia nella solidarietà con noi e con
tutti gli uomini.
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/anna-katharina-emmerick.html
Coesfeld-Flamschen: Emmerickhaus, von Nordosten; Juli 2017
Coesfeld-Flamschen: Bildstock am Emmerickhaus - Maria mit dem Kinde, Inschrift mit Zitat der A.K. Emmerick; Juli 2017
Den salige Anna Katarina
Emmerick (1774-1824)
Minnedag:
9. februar
Den salige Anna Katarina Emmerick (Emmerich) (ty: Anna Katharina) ble født den 8. september 1774 i bondesamfunnet Flamsche nær Coesfeld i bispedømmet Münster i Westfalen i det nordvestre Tyskland. Hun var den femte av ni søsken og ble døpt samme dag. Foreldrene svært fattige, men fromme, og Anna Katarina måtte hjelpe til i huset og med gårdsarbeidet fra tidlig alder. Hennes skolegang var kort, noe som gjorde det desto mer bemerkelsesverdig at hun var velutdannet i religiøse spørsmål. Hennes foreldre og alle som kjente henne, merket tidlig at hun følte seg trukket mot bønn og det religiøse liv på en spesiell måte.
Fra Anna Katarina var
tolv år gammel arbeidet hun i tre år på en stor gård i området. Deretter lærte
hun å sy og bodde i Coesfeld for videre opplæring. Hun elsket å besøke de gamle
kirkene i Coesfeld og å være der under feiringen av messen. Hun gikk ofte alene
langs den lange Korsveien i Coesfeld og ba stasjonene for seg selv. Anna
Katarina ønsket å tre inn i et kloster, men siden hennes ønske ikke kunne
oppfylles på det tidspunkt, vendte hun tilbake til barndomshjemmet. Hun
arbeidet som syerske samtidig som hun besøkte mange hjem.
Anna Katarina fortsatte å
søke om å bli opptatt i ulike klostre, men hun ble avvist fordi hun ikke kunne
bringe med seg en tilstrekkelig medgift. Klarissene i Münster gikk til slutt
med på å ta imot henne hvis hun ville lære å spille orgel. Hun fikk foreldrenes
tillatelse til å få opplæring i Coesfeld av organisten Söntgen. Men hun kom
aldri så langt som å lære å spille orgel. Elendigheten og fattigdommen i
Söntgens husholdning gjorde at hun i stedet begynte å arbeide i huset og hjelpe
til i familien. Hun ga til og med avkall på sine få sparepenger for deres
skyld.
Som et resultat av
sekulariseringen ble klosteret Agnetenberg nedlagt i 1811, og Anna Katarina
måtte forlate klosteret sammen med de andre nonnene. Hun ble tatt inn som
husholderske i hjemmet til abbé Lambert, en prest som hadde flyktet fra
Frankrike og bodde i Dülmen. Men hun ble snart syk. Hun var ute av stand til å
forlate huset og ble lenket til sengen fra 1813. Etter avtale med abbé Lambert
fikk hun sin yngre søster Gertrud til å komme og ta over husholdningen under
hennes ledelse.
I denne perioden mottok
Anna Katarina stigmata etter lenge å ha gjennomgått smertene ved
stigmatiseringen. Det faktum at hun bar Jesu Kristi sårmerker kunne ikke holdes
skjult, selv om hun prøvde i det lengste. Dr. Franz Wesener, en ung lege, dro
for å se henne, og han ble så imponert over henne at han ble en trofast,
uselvisk og hjelpende venn i de neste elleve årene. Han førte en dagbok over
sin kontakt med Anna Katarina Emmerick hvor han skrev ned rikelig med detaljer.
I en av visjonene avslørte hun Marias grav og bolighus i Efesos.
En biskoppelig kommisjon
ble oppnevnt for å granske hennes liv og hennes sårmerker. Det var en grundig
undersøkelse, foretatt av generalvikar Bernhard Overberg og tre leger, og de
ble overbevist om den «fromme beginerens» hellighet. Mot slutten av 1818
innvilget Gud hennes oppriktige bønner om å slippe stigmata, og sårene på
hendene og føttene lukket seg. Men de andre sårene ble værende, og på
Langfredag åpnet de seg alle sammen. I 1819 ble hun utsatt for en ny
undersøkelse, denne gangen med stor brutalitet, men kommisjonen fant ikke noe
mistenkelig.
En slående karakteristikk
av Anna Katarinas liv var hennes kjærlighet til alle mennesker. Overalt hvor
hun så nød, forsøkte hun å hjelpe. Selv i sykesengen sydde hun klær til fattige
barn og var fornøyd når hun kunne hjelpe dem på denne måten. Selv om hun kunne ha
funnet sine mange besøkende plagsomme, mottok hun dem alle vennlig. Hun la frem
deres anliggender i sine bønner og ga dem oppmuntring og trøstende ord.
Mange fremtredende
mennesker som var viktige i Kirkens fornyelsesbevegelse på begynnelsen av
1800-tallet, søkte en anledning til å møte Anna Katarina, blant dem Clemens
August Droste zu Vischering, Bernhard Overberg, Friedrich Leopold von Stolberg,
Johann Michael Sailer, Christian og Clemens Brentano, Luise Hensel, Melchior og
Apollonia Diepenbrock.
Møtet med den berømte
dikteren Clemens Brentano var av spesiell betydning. Hans første besøk fikk ham
til å bli i Dülmen i fem år (1818-24). Han besøkte Anna Katarina daglig for å
skrive ned hennes visjoner, samtidig som han oversatte beretningen fra hennes Westfalen-dialekt
til høytysk. Senere publiserte han beretningen, og hans bok «Vår Herres Jesu
Kristi bitre lidelse» fra 1833 gjorde Anna Katarina verdensberømt. Han begynte
også å forberede «Den salige Jomfru Marias
liv», men den kom ikke ut før i 1852.
Anna Katarina ble stadig
svakere sommeren 1823. Som alltid sluttet hun i sine lidelser seg til Jesu
lidelser og ofret dem for alles frelse. Hun døde den 9. februar 1824. Hun ble
gravlagt på kirkegården i Dülmen. Et stort antall mennesker var til stede i
begravelsen. På grunn av et rykte om at hennes legeme var blitt stjålet ble
graven åpnet to ganger i ukene etter begravelsen. Kisten og legemet ble funnet
intakt.
En saligkåringsprosess
for Anna Katarina ble innledet i 1892 av biskopen av Münster. Men denne
prosessen ble innstilt i 1927. Først i 1973 ble den gjenopptatt etter initiativ
fra biskop Heinrich Tenhumberg av Münster. Den 7. februar 1975 ble hennes
jordiske rester flyttet til krypten i Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche i Dülmen.
Anna Katarina Emmerich
fikk ny berømmelse etter at Mel Gibsons film «The Passion of the Christ» delvis
var bygd på hennes visjoner. Mange av filmens scener som ikke bygger på
Bibelen, finnes i Brentanos bok. Boken reflekterer antisemittismen som hersket
på hennes tid, spesielt handler det om jødenes rolle i Kristi død. Vatikanet
sier at i de nedskrevne versjonen er vanskelig å skjelne mellom det Anna
Katarina sa og det Clemens Brentano har redigert. Boken var ikke ferdig skrevet
før etter hennes død. Grunnen til at saligkåringsprosessen stanset opp i
1927/28 var at Vatikanet mente at Brentano trolig hadde utbrodert hennes
visjoner betraktelig. Uansett var det ikke for disse visjonene hun ble
saligkåret, men for sine dyder.
Den 24. april 2001 ble
hennes «heroiske dyder» anerkjent og hun fikk tittelen Venerabilis («Ærverdig»).
Den 7. juli 2003 undertegnet pave Johannes Paul II (1978-2005) dekretet fra
Helligkåringskongregasjonen som godkjente et mirakel på hennes forbønn. Det
gjaldt den uforklarlige helbredelsen av en ung ordenskvinne, som i 1879/80 led
av alvorlig tuberkulose. Hun ba Anna Katarina Emmerick om å gå i forbønn for
henne hos Gud, og hun ble fullstendig helbredet. Den 3. oktober 2004 ble Anna
Katarina saligkåret av paven på Petersplassen i Roma. Dette var pave Johannes
Paul IIs siste saligkåring. Hennes minnedag er dødsdagen 9. februar.
Kilder:
Schauber/Schindler, Index99, CE, Patron Saints SQPN, Bautz, Heiligenlexikon,
vatican.va, EWTN/OR, wdr.de, kbwn.de - Kompilasjon og oversettelse:
p. Per Einar
Odden - Sist oppdatert: 2005-07-07 18:01
SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/aemmerich
Anna-Katharina-Emmerick-Grab in der Krypta in der Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Anna Katharina Emmerick grave in the crypt in the Holy Cross Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Photographie : Dietmar Rabich (1962–)
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Anna-Katharina-Emmerick-Grab in der Krypta in der Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Dülmen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland
Anna Katharina Emmerick grave in the crypt in the Holy Cross Church, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Photographie : Dietmar Rabich (1962–)
Anna-Katharina Emmerich,
Dülmen, Westfalen, Duitsland; mystica & gestigmatiseerde; † 1824.
Feest 9 februari.
Zij werd op 8 september
1774 geboren in het dorpje Flamske bij Coesfeld. Zewas van het begin af aan zo
zwak dat men haar een korte levensverwachting toedichtte. Haar ouders waren
arme boeren en ondanks haar delicate gezondheid hielp zij mee het vee te hoeden
of het land te bewerken.
Reeds als kind had ze
visioenen, overigens zonder het zelf te beseffen. Onbevangen vertelde zij hoe
Jezus, engelen en
heiligen met haar kwamen spelen. Zij meende dat iedereen zulke ervaringen had.
Al gauw leerde zij dat het verstandiger was zulke dingen niet hardop te zeggen…
Voortdurend had ze Jezus
en de gebeurtenissen uit het evangelie voor ogen; ze beleefde ze alsof ze er
zelf bij was. Ze nam zich voor alles te doen wat ze Jezus zag doen; ze wilde
Hem vooral navolgen in zijn naastenliefde. Zij verlangde ernaar het klooster in
te gaan, maar de kloosters waren zelf te arm, en zij kon geen bruidschat
meenemen, want die had ze eenvoudig niet. Weliswaar verdiende ze intussen zelf
de kost met naaiwerk, maar omdat ze steeds Jezus voor ogen had, gaf ze alles
wat ze teveel had, meteen weer weg.
Uiteindelijk werd ze in
1803 toegelaten tot het augustinessenklooster Agnetenberg in Dülmen bij
Münster. Dat was mogelijk geworden, omdat een meisje dat mooi orgel kon spelen
beloofde in te treden op voorwaarde dat Anna-Katharina ook mee mocht komen…
Eind 1812 vertoonden zich
voor het eerst de stigmata (=
Jezus’ kruiswonden aan handen, voeten en zij) in haar lichaam. Toen een zuster
van haar communiteit buiten het klooster haar mond voorbij praatte, wist binnen
de kortste keren de hele omgeving ervan en kwamen vanaf dat moment allerlei
mensen op haar af: medici om haar te onderzoeken, begeleiders die het beste met
haar voor hadden, en doodgewone nieuwsgierigen.
Een van de weinige mensen
die zij aan haar bed vertrouwde, was de Duitse dichter Clemens Brentano. Hij
schreef op wat zij met haar innerlijk oog te zien kreeg. Het resulteerde in
drie boeken ‘Das bittere Leiden unseres Herrn Jesu Christi’ uit 1833,
‘Das Leben der heiligen Jungfrau Maria’ uit 1852, en ‘Das Leben unseres Herrn
und Heilandes Jesu Christi’ dat in 1858-1860 verscheen in drie delen.
Om enig idee te hebben
van de inhoud van haar visioenen, beperken we ons tot wat zij te vertellen
heeft over enkele lotgevallen uit het leven van Maria. Ze zijn verbluffend
concreet en precies, en laten zich wonderwel inpassen in de tot nu toe bekende
historische gegevens. Waar nuttig zullen we er in kleinere letter - enkele
verklarende opmerkingen bij plaatsen. Op 13 augustus 1822 vertelt zij:
"Na de hemelvaart
van Christus woonde Maria nog drie jaar in Sion (= Jeruzalem), drie jaar in
Bethanië en negen jaar in Efese, waar Johannes haar naartoe had gebracht, kort
nadat de Joden Lazarus en zijn zusters over zee weggezonden hadden."
Er bestaat inderdaad een
legendarische overlevering dat ook Lazarus met zijn beide zussen Martha en
Maria en in gezelschap van nog een aantal personen rond het jaar veertig door
de joden in een stuurloos bootje de zee op werden gejaagd. Als we de gegevens
van Anna Katharina willen inpassen, moeten we het jaartal enigszins vervroegen:
rond 39. Het vaartuigje zou - aldus de legende - schipbreuk geleden hebben op
de Zuid-Franse kust van de Provence. Daar heeft o.a. het plaatsje
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer zijn naam aan te danken. De opvarenden werden gered
door een zigeunerin Sara. Dit feit wordt tot op de dag van vandaag elk jaar
uitbundig met processies gevierd op 24 en 25 mei. Lazarus evangeliseerde met
zijn beide zussen de omgeving. Vandaar dat hij begraven ligt te Autun in de
beroemde naar hem genoemde kathedraal St-Lazare; Maria Magdalena ligt in de nog
meer beroemde, prachtige romaanse pelgrimskerk Sainte-Madeleine te Vézelay en
Martha is begraven in het nabijgelegen Tarascon. Maar dit terzijde.
"Maria woonde niet
in Efese zelf, maar in de streek waar verscheiden vrouwen, bekenden van Maria,
zich eerder gevestigd hadden."
Dit is niet onmogelijk,
maar er is bij mijn weten geen enkele oude bron, die ons nader informeert.
"De woning van Maria
lag, als men uit Jeruzalem komt, ongeveer drie en een half uur van Efese op een
heuvel aan de linkerkant. Toen Johannes de Heilige Maagd hier naartoe bracht,
na een huis voor haar te hebben gebouwd, woonden in die streek reeds
verscheidene christelijke gezinnen en vrome vrouwen, sommigen in ondergrondse
grotten, die zij bewoonbaar hadden gemaakt met eenvoudige houten betimmeringen,
en anderen van hen in schamele tenten en hutten. Zij waren hier naartoe
gevlucht wegens een hevige vervolging."
Aangenomen dat dit alles
zich nog steeds goed laat inpassen binnen de ons bekende historische kaders,
dan zou het dus gaan om de vervolgingen na Stefanus' dood, nog vóór Herodes
Agrippa aan de macht kwam. Stellen wij immers het jaar van Jezus' heengaan op
33, dan zou Maria zes jaar later het land verlaten hebben: in 39.
"Omdat zij de
grotten en holen als schuilplaats gebruikten, zoals deze door de natuur
ontstaan waren, lagen deze onderkomens meestal niet verder dan een kwartier
gaans van elkaar en de hele nederzetting leek wel een verspreid dorp."
Iets verder landinwaarts,
in Anatolië, bestaan nog van dergelijke grotwoningen.
"Alleen het huis van
Maria was van steen. Achter dit huis was een smal pad naar de top van de berg,
vanwaar men over de heuvels en de bomen heen Efese kon zien en de zee met haar
vele eilanden. Deze plek leek dichter bij de zee te liggen dan Efese dat een
paar uur van de kust afligt.
Daar dichtbij is een
kasteel waar een afgezette koning woont. Johannes kwam er dikwijls en hij heeft
hem ook bekeerd. Deze plaats werd later de zetel van een bisdom."
Over welke plaats het
hier gaat, is niet duidelijk. Of het zou Selçuk moeten zijn? In ieder geval
bevestigt de zieneres, dat Johannes het evangelie verkondigde in de omgeving
van Efese. Dat vertelt ook de kerkhistoricus uit de 3e eeuw, Eusebius.
"Tussen de woning
van de H. Maagd en Efese slingerde zich een wondermooie beek. De H. Maagd
woonde hier alleen met haar dienstmaagd, die zorgde voor het weinige benodigde
voedsel. Zij leefden zeer rustig en in de grootste vrede. Er was daar geen man
in huis. Dikwijls kwamen de apostelen en hun leerlingen haar op hun reizen
bezoeken."
Tot zover Anna Katharina
Emmerich, die overigens geen enkele scholing bezat. Hoewel deze verhalen dus
wetenschappelijk gesproken zonder waarde zijn, spreekt ook een man als Godfried
Bomans er zijn verwondering over uit, dat deze vrouw zoveel bijzonderheden
kende uit het leven van Jezus en Maria, die in haar tijd nog volkomen onbekend
waren, maar zich uitstekend lieten inpassen in bestaande overleveringen.
Daarnaast zijn er een aantal in de loop van de afgelopen twee eeuwen door
historisch onderzoek bewaarheid.
Ontdekking Maria' huisje ("Meryem Ana Evi")
Het meest spectaculair is de vreemde ontdekking van Maria's huisje. In 1881 was de Parijse priester Julien Gouyet zo gefascineerd door de beschrijvingen van Anna Katharina Emmerich, dat hij zelf polshoogte wilde gaan nemen. Bij zijn terugkomst meldde hij enthousiast, dat hij het huisje van Maria inderdaad gevonden had. Niemand geloofde het en schonk er verder enige aandacht aan.
Tien jaar later gingen vier katholieken uit het nabijgelegen Izmir - twee paters lazaristen en twee leken - na lezing van Anna Katharina's geschriften op onderzoek uit. Vanuit Kusadasi besloten zij haar boek als gids te gebruiken. In een tabaksveld vroegen ze een boerenvrouw om water. Ze verwees hen naar 'de put bij het klooster'. Het bleek een zwaar vervallen bouwsel te zijn.... met een berg erachter, en de zee in de verte; exact volgens Anna Katharina's beschrijving.
Voor alle zekerheid gingen ze nog de andere omringende heuveltoppen na, maar behalve die van het huis was er geen vanwaar je tegelijk de zee en de stad Efese kon zien! Ze hadden Maria's huisje gevonden.
Sinds ruim honderd jaar is Maria's huisje een drukbezochte bedevaartplaats voor moslims en christenen. Er komen per jaar meer dan honderdduizend bezoekers. In 1967 werd het heiligdom bezocht door paus Paulus VI en in 1989 door paus Johannes Paulus II.
Bij historisch onderzoek bleek dat de muren goeddeels stamden uit de 6e en 7e
eeuw, maar dat er sporen te vinden waren uit de eerste eeuw.
Op 19 april, Goede
Vrijdag, van het jaar 1819 braken alle wonden open en bloedden hevig. In
datzelfde jaar zij van 7 tot 29 augustus nauwkeurig door een team van artsen en
natuurwetenschappers onderzocht. Zij kwamen tot de slotsom dat wat zij
waarnamen niet op wetenschappelijke wijze was te verklaren, en dat zij
uitsloten dat er bedrog in het spel was. Op Goede Vrijdag van het jaar daarop,
30 maart 1820, bloedden haar wonden weer. In 1821 en 1822 bloedden ze niet op
Goede Vrijdag, maar op 30 maart, de dag waarop Christus’ lijden, historisch
gesproken, had plaats gevonden.
Op 27 januari 1824
ontving ze het sacrament van de stervenden; ze stierf op 9 februari. Na haar
dood wilde een Nederlandse arts haar lichaam kopen om er onderzoek op te doen.
Het gerucht ging dat het al uit het graf gestolen was. Zeven weken nadien wilde
men zekerheid en maakte het graf open om te zien wat er waar was van de
geruchten. Men trof een volkomen gaaf en onaangetast lichaam aan. Men
beschouwde het als het zoveelste teken van de bijzondere genaden die haar ten
deel waren gevallen.
[000; 103; 122; 162:295; 163:209; 340p:49; 500; Dries van den Akker
s.j./2007.12.11]
© A. van den Akker
s.j. / A.W. Gerritsen
SOURCE : https://heiligen-3s.nl/heiligen/02/09/02-09-1824-anna.php
Voir aussi : http://livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/CatherineEm/titre.html
http://prophetesetmystiques.blogspot.ca/2009/11/i-propheties-anne-catherine-emmerich.html
http://jesusmarie.free.fr/anne_catherine_emmerich.html
http://jesus-passion.com/ANNE_CATHERINE_EMMERICH.htm
http://www.maria-valtorta.org/ValtortaWeb/ACEmmerich.htm
