Marie de Nazareth
To Jesus, through Mary
Philippe de Champaigne. Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
In the work entitled The Life of the Virgin Mary (Leben der heiligen Jungfrau Maria), Blessed Anne-Catherine Emmerich recounts the vision she received of the birth of the Virgin Mary. Her account shows, in particular, the extraordinary joy that it produced, in heaven and on earth, and the power that the Virgin Mary, from the moment of her birth, possessed over demons.
"Joy in heaven, in limbo and on earth at the birth of Mary. At the very moment when the infant Mary lay in the arms of her holy mother, I saw her in heaven, presented before the Most Holy Trinity, and greeted by all the angels with inexpressible joy. All her glories, all her sorrows, her whole life, were then revealed to her by a supernatural light. She was initiated into the infinite mysteries, yet she remained a child.
How did this knowledge come to her? We cannot understand, because the second science, fruit of the cursed tree, has obscured our true and first science. She knew all this as a child knows its mother's womb, and knows that it must seek there the nourishment of its life. It was at the moment when this vision ceased that I heard her cry for the first time.
At that very moment, the birth of Mary was announced to the patriarchs in limbo. I saw them all, especially Adam and Eve, filled with ineffable joy; they were at last seeing the fulfilment of the promise they had made in paradise. I was also shown that their grace and felicity were growing, that their dwelling was becoming more beautiful and expansive, and that their action over the things of this world had become more powerful. It seemed as if all their labours, all their penances, all their struggles, all their prayers and all their desires had come to an end and produced their precious fruit.
In the same way, there was an immense awakening of joy in all nature: all upright and good hearts felt it, even the animals felt it.
- 33 - As for the sinners, they felt a kind of anguish and heartbreak in their souls.
Around Nazareth and even in the rest of the Promised Land, many of those possessed were seized with the most violent fits of rage. The demons shook them with fury and cried out through their mouths: "We must give in, we must get out! In Jerusalem, the old priest Simeon, who lived near the temple, heard the horrible cries of several frenzied and possessed people locked up in a nearby house, which he was partly responsible for guarding. He went out to the square in front of the house and asked one of the furious men why he was shouting. How dare he disturb the sleep of the town? The man did not answer, but continued to shout even louder that he had to get out. Simeon opened the door for him; the possessed man rushed out, and the demon continued to shout through his mouth: "I must get out! We must get out! A Virgin has just been born! There are now too many angels on earth to torment us! We must get out! Henceforth we shall no longer be able to enter into the world of men! Simeon recollected himself and prayed; then the demon threw the unfortunate possessed man to the ground, violently and repeatedly, and at last I saw him coming out of himself. The sight of old Simeon gave me great joy. The prophetess Anna and Naomi, the sister of Lazarus' mother, were also awakened at the same time and warned of the birth of a chosen child. As soon as they met, they told each other what had been revealed to them. I believe they were both friends of Saint Anne.
Source : Life of the Virgin Mary, Chapter XIII
-on the apocryphal account of the birth of Mary (Gospel of James), in the Marian Encyclopaedia
-on the shrines of the Nativity of Mary in Jerusalemin the Marian Encyclopaedia
-on the birth of Mary in artin the Marian Encyclopaedia
-on the birth of Mary in the liturgies of the worldin the Marian Encyclopaedia
L’équipe de MDN.