The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ - Anna Catherine Emmerich
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From the Meditations of
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Copyright Notice: This ebook was prepared from the 20th edition of
this book, which was published in 1904 by Benziger Brothers in New
York. The copyright for that edition is expired and the text is in the
public domain. This ebook is not copyrighted and is also in the public
domain.
PREFACE TO THE FRENCH TRANSLATION.
BY THE ABBE DE CAZALES.
The writer of this Preface was travelling in Germany, when he
chanced to meet with a book, entitled, The History of the Passion of
our Lord Jesus Christ, from the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich,
which appeared to him both interesting and edifying. Its style was
unpretending, its ideas simple, its tone unassuming, its sentiments
unexaggerated, and its every sentence expressive of the most complete
and entire submission to the Church. Yet, at the same time, it would
have been difficult anywhere to meet with a more touching and lifelike
paraphrase of the Gospel narrative. He thought that a book possessing
such qualities deserved to be known on this side the Rhine, and that
there could be no reason why it should not be valued for its own sake,
independent of the somewhat singular source whence it emanated.
Still, the translator has by no means disguised to himself that this
work is written, in the first place, for Christians; that is to say,
for men who have the right to be very diffident in giving credence to
particulars concerning facts which are articles of faith; and although
he is aware that St. Bonaventure and many others, in their paraphrases
of the Gospel history, have mixed up traditional details with those
given in the sacred text, even these examples have not wholly reassured
him. St. Bonaventure professed only to give a paraphrase, whereas these
revelations appear to be something more. It is certain that the holy
maiden herself gave them no higher title than that of dreams, and that
the transcriber of her narratives treats as blasphemous the idea of
regarding them in any degree as equivalent to a fifth Gospel; still it
is evident that the confessors who exhorted Sister Emmerich to relate
what she saw, the celebrated poet who passed four years near her couch,
eagerly transcribing all he heard her say, and the German Bishops, who
encouraged the publication of his book, considered it as something more
than a paraphrase. Some explanations are needful on this head.
The writings of many Saints introduce us into a new, and, if I may
be allowed the expression, a miraculous world. In all ages there have
been revelations about the past, the present, the future, and even
concerning things absolutely inaccessible to the human intellect. In
the present day men are inclined to regard these revelations as simple
hallucinations, or as caused by a sickly condition of body.
The Church, according to the testimony of her most approved writers,
recognises three descriptions of ecstasy; of which the first is simply
natural, and entirely brought about by certain physical tendencies and
a highly imaginative mind; the second divine or angelic, arising from
intercourse held with the supernatural world; and the third produced by
infernal agency. (See, on this head, the work of Cardinal Bona, De
Discretione Spirituum.) Lest we should here write a book instead of a
preface, we will not enter into any development of this doctrine, which
appears to us highly philosophical, and without which no satisfactory
explanation can be given on the subject of the soul of man and its
various states.
The Church directs certain means to be employed to ascertain by what
spirit these ecstasies are produced, according to the maxim of St.
John: 'Try the spirits, if they be of God.' (1 Jn 4:1). When circumstances
or events claiming to be supernatural have been properly examined
according to certain rules, the Church has in all ages made a selection
from them.
Many persons who have been habitually in a state of ecstasy have
been canonised, and their books approved. But this approbation has
seldom amounted to more than a declaration that these books contained
nothing contrary to faith, and that they were likely to promote a
spirit of piety among the faithful. For the Church is only founded on
the word of Christ and on the revelations made to the Apostles.
Whatever may since have been revealed to certain saints possesses
purely a relative value, the reality of which may even be disputed--it
being one of the admirable characteristics of the Church, that, though
inflexibly one in dogma, she allows entire liberty to the human mind in
all besides. Thus, we may believe private revelations, above all, when
those persons to whom they were made have been raised by the Church to
the rank of Saints publicly honoured, invoked, and venerated; but, even
in these cases, we may, without ceasing to be perfectly orthodox,
dispute their authenticity and divine origin. It is the place of reason
to dispute and to select as it sees best.
With regard to the rule for discerning between the good and the evil
spirit, it is no other, according to all theologians, than that of the
Gospel. A fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos. By their fruits you shall
know them. It must be examined in the first place whether the person
who professes to have revelations mistrusts what passes within himself;
whether he would prefer a more common path; whether far from boasting
of the extraordinary graces which he receives, he seeks to hide them,
and only makes them known through obedience; and, finally, whether he
is continually advancing in humility, mortification, and charity. Next,
the revelations themselves must be very closely examined into; it must
be seen whether there is anything in them contrary to faith; whether
they are conformable to Scripture and Apostolic tradition; and whether
they are related in a headstrong spirit, or in a spirit of entire
submission to the Church.
Whoever reads the life of Anne Catherine Emmerich, and her book,
will be satisfied that no fault can be found in any of these respects
either with herself or with her revelations. Her book resembles in many
points the writings of a great number of saints, and her life also
bears the most striking similitude to theirs. To be convinced of this
fact, we need but study the writings or what is related of Saints
Francis of Assisi, Bernard, Bridget, Hildegard, Catherine of Genoa,
Catherine of Sienna, Ignatius, John of the Cross, Teresa, and an
immense number of other holy persons who are less known. So much being
conceded, it is clear that in considering Sister Emmerich to have been
inspired by God's Holy Spirit, we are not ascribing more merit to her
book than is allowed by the Church to all those of the same class. They
are all edifying, and may serve to promote piety, which is their sole
object. We must not exaggerate their importance by holding as an
absolute fact that they proceed from divine inspiration, a favour so
great that its existence in any particular case should not be credited
save with the utmost circumspection.
With regard, however, to our present publication, it may be urged
that, considering the superior talents of the transcriber of Sister
Emmerich's narrations, the language and expressions which he has made use
of may not always have been identical with those which she employed. We
have no hesitation whatever in allowing the force of this argument.
Most fully do we believe in the entire sincerity of M. Clement
Brentano, because we both know and love him, and, besides, his
exemplary piety and the retired life which he leads, secluded from a
world in which it would depend but on himself to hold the highest
place, are guarantees amply sufficient to satisfy any impartial mind of
his sincerity. A poem such as he might publish, if he only pleased,
would cause him to be ranked at once among the most eminent of the
German poets, whereas the office which he has taken upon himself of
secretary to a poor visionary has brought him nothing but contemptuous
raillery. Nevertheless, we have no intention to assert that in giving
the conversations and discourses of Sister Emmerich that order and
coherency in which they were greatly wanting, and writing them down in
his own way, he may not unwittingly have arranged, explained, and
embellished them. But this would not have the effect of destroying the
originality of the recital, or impugning either the sincerity of the
nun, or that of the writer.
The translator professes to be unable to understand how any man can
write for mere writing's sake, and without considering the probable
effects which his work will produce. This book, such as it is, appears
to him to be at once unusually edifying, and highly poetical. It is
perfectly clear that it has, properly speaking, no literary pretensions
whatever. Neither the uneducated maiden whose visions are here relate,
nor the excellent Christian writer who had published them in so entire
a spirit of literary disinterestedness, ever had the remotest idea of
such a thing. And yet there are not, in our opinion, many highly
worked-up compositions calculated to produce an effect in any degree
comparable to that which will be brought about by the perusal of this
unpretending little work. It is our hope that it will make a strong
impression even upon worldlings, and that in many hearts it will
prepare the way for better ideas,--perhaps even for a lasting change of
life.
In the next place, we are not sorry to call public attention in some
degree to all that class of phenomena which preceded the foundation of
the Church, which has since been perpetuated uninterruptedly, and which
too many Christians are disposed to reject altogether, either through
ignorance and want of reflection, or purely through human respect. This
is a field which has hitherto been but little explored historically,
psychologically, and physiologically; and it would be well if
reflecting minds were to bestow upon it a careful and attentive
investigation. To our Christian readers we must remark that this work
has received the approval of ecclesiastical authorities. It has been
prepared for the press under the superintendence of the two late
Bishops of Ratisbonne, Sailer and Wittman. These names are but little
known in France; but in Germany they are identical with learning,
piety, ardent charity, and a life wholly devoted to the maintenance and
propagation of the Catholic faith. Many French priests have given their
opinion that the translation of a book of this character could not but
tend to nourish piety, without, however, countenancing that weakness of
spirit which is disposed to lend more importance in some respects to
private than to general revelations, and consequently to substitute
matters which we are simply permitted to believe, in the place of those
which are of faith.
We feel convinced that no one will take offence at certain details
given on the subject of the outrages which were suffered by our divine
Lord during the course of his passion. Our readers will remember the
words of the psalmist: 'I am a worm and no man; the reproach of men, and
the outcast of the people;' (Ps 22:6) and those of the Apostle: 'Tempted in
all things like as we are, without sin.' (Heb 4:15). Did we stand in need
of a precedent, we should request our readers to remember how plainly
and crudely Bossuet describes the same scenes in the most eloquent of
his four sermons on the Passion of our Lord. On the other hand, there
have been so many grand platonic or rhetorical sentences in the books
published of late years, concerning that abstract entity; on which the
writers have been pleased to bestow the Christian title of the Word, or
Logos, that it may be eminently useful to show the Man-God, the Word
made flesh, in all the reality of his life on earth, of his
humiliation, and of his sufferings. It must be evident that the cause
of truth, and still more that of edification, will not be the losers.
INTRODUCTION
The following meditations will probably rank high among many similar
works which the contemplative love of Jesus has produced; but it is our
duty here plainly to affirm that they have no pretensions whatever to
be regarded as history.1 They are but intended to take one of the
lowest places among those numerous representations of the Passion which
have been given us by pious writers and artists, and to be considered
at the very utmost as the Lenten meditations of a devout nun, related
in all simplicity, and written down in the plainest and most literal
language, from her own dictation. To these meditations, she herself
never attached more than a mere human value, and never related them
except through obedience, and upon the repeated commands of the
directors of her conscience.
The writer of the following pages was introduced to this holy
religious by Count Leopold de Stolberg. (The Count de Stolberg is one
of the most eminent converts whom the Catholic Church has made from
Protestantism. He died in 1819.) Dean Bernard Overberg, her director
extraordinary, and Bishop Michael Sailer, who had often been her
counsellor and consoler, urged her to relate to us in detail all that
she experienced; and the latter, who survived her, took the deepest
interest in the arrangement and publication of the notes taken down
from her dictation. (The Bishop of Ratisbonne, one of the most
celebrated defenders of the faith in Germany.) These illustrious and
holy men, now dead, and whose memory is blessed, were in continual
communion of prayer with Anne Catherine, whom they loved and respected,
on account of the singular graces with which God had favoured her. The
editor of this book received equal encouragement, and met with no less
sympathy in his labours, from the late Bishop of Ratisbonne, Mgr.
Wittman. (Mgr. Wittman was the worthy successor of Sailer, and a man of
eminent sanctity, whose memory is held in veneration by all the
Catholics of the south of Germany.) This holy Bishop, who was so deeply
versed in the ways of Divine grace, and so well acquainted with its
effects on certain souls, both from his private investigations of the
subject, and his own experience, took the most lively interest in all
that concerned Anne Catherine, and on hearing of the work in which the
editor of this book was engaged, he strongly exhorted him to publish
it. 'These things have not been communicated to you for nothing,' would he
often say; 'God had his views in all. Publish something at least of what
you know, for you will thereby benefit many souls.' He at the same time
brought forward various instances from his own experience and that of
others, showing the benefit which had been derived from the study of
works of a similar character. He delighted in calling such privileged
souls as Anne Catherine the marrow of the bones of the Church,
according to the expression of St. John Chrysostom, medulla enim hujus
mundi sunt, and he encouraged the publication of their lives and
writings as far as lay in his power.
The editor of this book being taken by a kind friend to the dying
bed of the holy Bishop, had no reason whatever to expect to be
recognised, as he had only once in his life conversed with him for a
few minutes; nevertheless the dying saint knew him again, and after a
few most kind words blessed and exhorted him to continue his work for
the glory of God.
Encouraged by the approbation of such men, we therefore yield to the
wishes of many virtuous friends in publishing the Meditations on the
Passion, of this humble religious, to whom God granted the favour of
being at times simple, ingenuous, and ignorant as a child, while at
others she was clear sighted, sensible, possessed of a deep insight
into the most mysterious and hidden things, and consumed with burning
and heroic zeal, but ever forgetful of self, deriving her whole
strength from Jesus alone, and steadfast in the most perfect humility
and entire self-abnegation.
We give our readers a slight sketch of her life, intending at some
future day to publish her biography more in full.
The Life Of Anne Catherine Emmerich,
Religious Of The Order Of St. Augustine,
At The Convent Of Agnetenberg, Dulmen, Westphalia.
Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich2 was born at Flamske, a village
situated about a mile and a half from Coesfeld, in the bishopric of
Munster, on the 8th of September 1774, and was baptised in the church
of St. James at Coesfeld. Her parents, Bernard Emmerich and Anne
Hiller, were poor peasants, but distinguished for their piety and
virtue.
The childhood of Anne Catherine bore a striking resemblance to that
of the Venerable Anne Garzias de St. Barthelemi, of Dominica del
Paradiso, and of several other holy persons born in the same rank of
life as herself. Her angel-guardian used to appear to her as a child;
and when she was taking care of sheep in the fields, the Good Shepherd
himself, under the form of a young shepherd, would frequently come to
her assistance. From childhood she was accustomed to have divine
knowledge imparted to her in visions of all kinds, and was often
favoured by visits from the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven, who,
under the form of a sweet, lovely, and majestic lady, would bring the
Divine Child to be, as it were, her companion, and would assure her
that she loved and would ever protect her. Many of the saints would
also appear to her, and receive from her hands the garlands of flowers
which she had prepared in honour of their festivals. All these favours
and visions surprised the child less than if an earthly princess and
the lords and ladies of her court had come to visit her. Nor was she,
later in life, more surprised at these celestial visits, for her
innocence caused her to feel far more at her ease with our Divine Lord,
his Blessed Mother and the Saints, than she could ever be with even the
most kind and amiable of her earthly companions. The names of Father,
Mother, Brother, and Spouse, appeared to her expressive of the real
connections subsisting between God and man, since the Eternal word had
been pleased to be born of a woman, and so to become our Brother, and
these sacred titles were not mere words in her mouth.
While yet a child, she used to speak with innocent candour and
simplicity of all that she saw, and her listeners would be filled with
admiration at the histories she would relate from Holy Writ; but their
questions and remarks having sometimes disturbed her peace of mind, she
determined to keep silence on such subjects for the future. In her
innocence of heart, she thought that it was not right to talk of things
of this sort, that other persons never did so, and that her speech
should be only Yea, yea, and Nay, nay, or Praise be to Jesus Christ.
The visions with which she was favoured were so like realities, and
appeared to her so sweet and delightful, that she supposed all
Christian children were favoured with the same; and she concluded that
those who never talked on such subjects were only more discreet and
modest than herself, so she resolved to keep silence also, to be like
them.
Almost from her cradle she possessed the gift of distinguishing what
was good or evil, holy or profane, blessed or accursed, in material as
well as in spiritual things, thus resembling St. Sibyllina of Pavia,
Ida of Louvain, Ursula Benincasa, and some other holy souls. In her
earliest childhood she used to bring out of the fields useful herbs,
which no one had ever before discovered to be good for anything, and
plant them near her father's cottage, or in some spot where she was
accustomed to work and play; while on the other hand she would root up
all poisonous plants, and particularly those ever used for
superstitious practices or in dealings with the devil. Were she by
chance in a place where some great crime had been committed, she would
hastily run away, or begin to pray and do penance. She used also to
perceive by intuition when she was in a consecrated spot, return thanks
to God, and be filled with a sweet feeling of peace. When a priest
passed by with the Blessed Sacrament, even at a great distance from her
home or from the place where she was taking care of her flock, she
would feel a strong attraction in the direction whence he was coming,
run to meet him, and be kneeling in the road, adoring the Blessed
Sacrament, long before he could reach the spot.
She knew when any object was consecrated, and experienced a feeling
of disgust and repugnance when in the neighbourhood of old pagan
cemeteries, whereas she was attracted to the sacred remains of the
saints as steel by the magnet. When relics were shown to her, she knew
what saints they had belonged to, and could give not only accounts of
the minutest and hitherto unknown particulars of their lives, but also
histories of the relics themselves, and of the places where they had
been preserved. During her whole life she had continual intercourse
with the souls in purgatory; and all her actions and prayers were
offered for the relief of their sufferings. She was frequently called
upon to assist them, and even reminded in some miraculous manner, if
she chanced to forget them. Often, while yet very young, she used to be
awakened out of her sleep by bands of suffering souls, and to follow
them on cold winter's nights with bare feet, the whole length of the Way
of the Cross to Coesfeld, though the ground was covered with snow.
From her infancy to the day of her death she was indefatigable in
relieving the sick, and in dressing and curing wounds and ulcers, and
she was accustomed to give to the poor every farthing she possessed. So
tender was her conscience, that the slightest sin she fell into caused
her such pain as to make her ill, and absolution then always restored
her immediately to health.
The extraordinary nature of the favours bestowed on her by Almighty
God was no hindrance in the way of her devoting herself to hard labour,
like any other peasant-girl; and we may also be allowed to observe that
a certain degree of the spirit of prophecy is not unusually to be found
among her country men and women. She was taught in the school of
suffering and mortification, and there learned lessons of perfection.
She allowed herself no more sleep or food than was absolutely
necessary; passed whole hours in prayer every night; and in winter
often knelt out of doors on the snow. She slept on the ground on planks
arranged in the form of a cross. Her food and drink consisted of what
was rejected by others; she always kept the best parts even of that for
the poor and sick, and when she did not know of anyone to give them to,
she offered them to God in a spirit of child-like faith, begging him to
give them to some person who was more in need than herself. When there
was anything to be seen or heard which had no reference to God or
religion, she found some excuse for avoiding the spot to which others
were hastening, or, if there, closed her eyes and ears. She was
accustomed to say that useless actions were sinful, and that when we
denied our bodily senses any gratification of this kind, we were amply
repaid by the progress which we made in the interior life, in the same
manner as pruning renders vines and other fruittrees more productive.
From her early youth, and wherever she went, she had frequent
symbolical visions, which showed her in parables, as it were, the
object of her existence, the means of attaining it, and her future
sufferings, together with the dangers and conflicts which she would
have to go through.
She was in her sixteenth year, when one day, whilst at work in the
fields with her parents and sisters, she heard the bell ringing at the
Convent of the Sisters of the Annunciation, at Coesfeld. This sound so
inflamed her secret desire to become a nun, and had so great an effect
upon her, that she fainted away, and remained ill and weak for a long
time after. When in her eighteenth year she was apprenticed at Coesfeld
to a dressmaker, with whom she passed two years, and then returned to
her parents. She asked to be received at the Convents of the
Augustinians at Borken, of the Trappists at Darfeld, and of the Poor
Clares at Munster; but her poverty, and that of these convents, always
presented an insuperable obstacle to her being received. At the age of
twenty, having saved twenty thalers (about 3l. English), which she had
earned by her sewing, she went with this little sum--a perfect fortune for
a poor peasant-girl--to a pious organist of Coesfeld, whose daughter she
had known when she first lived in the town. Her hope was that, by
learning to play on the organ, she might succeed in obtaining
admittance into a convent. But her irresistible desire to serve the
poor and give them everything she possessed left her no time to learn
music, and before long she had so completely stripped herself of
everything, that her good mother was obliged to bring her bread, milk,
and eggs, for her own wants and those of the poor, with whom she shared
everything. Then her mother said: 'Your desire to leave your father and
myself, and enter a convent, gives us much pain; but you are still my
beloved child, and when I look at your vacant seat at home, and reflect
that you have given away all your savings, so as to be now in want, my
heart is filled with sorrow, and I have now brought you enough to keep
you for some time.' Anne Catherine replied: 'Yes, dear mother, it is true
that I have nothing at all left, because it was the holy will of God
that others should be assisted by me; and since I have given all to
him, he will now take care of me, and bestow his divine assistance upon
us all.' She remained some years at Coesfeld, employed in labour, good
works, and prayer, being always guided by the same inward inspirations.
She was docile and submissive as a child in the hands of her
guardian-angel.