The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, by Blessed Anne Catherine
Emmerich, translated by George
Richardson, 1899
Preface
As I am now more than eightysix years old I don't think it probable that I shall attempt any more translations of Sister Emmerich s revelations. I wish, therefore, to say a few words about dear Sister Emmerich before parting. I have read through her revelations several times during the last sixty years, and I have more frequently read through the New Testament, and have never been able to detect the slightest opposition between them.
The discovery of the House of the Blessed Virgin near Ephesus, exactly corresponding with Sister Emmerich s description of it, has given a new impetus to the desire to read her revelations. This discovery will lead, no doubt, in God s good time, to the finding of our Lady s Tomb, the scene of her glorious Assumption.
The statements made by Sister Emmerich must be regarded only as those of a devout Nun, and must not be confounded with statements of facts supported by the testimony of the Church.
George Richardson, Alma Park, Levenshulme, 1899
The Marriage of the Blessed Virgin
The Holy Virgin lived in the Temple with several other virgins under the charge of pious matrons.
These virgins were occupied with embroidery and other works of the same kind for the hangings of the Temple and the vestments of the priests: they were also employed in washing the vestments and in other matters pertaining to the divine worship. They had little cells whence they had a view of the interior of the Temple, and where they prayed and meditated. When they were arrived at a marriageable age they married. Their parents had given them entirely to God in conducting them to the Temple, and there was among the most pious of the Israelites a secret presentiment that one of these marriages would be the cause some day of the coming of the Messiah.
The Blessed Virgin being fourteen years old, and about soon to leave the Temple and be married, with seven other young girls, I saw Saint Anne come to visit her. Joachim was no longer living. When they informed Mary that she must leave the Temple and be married, I saw her deeply moved, declare to a priest that she had no desire to quit the Temple, that she was consecrated to God alone, and had no inclination for marriage: but they told her she must take a husband.
I saw her afterwards in her oratory pray to God with fervour. I remember also that being very thirsty, she descended with her little pitcher to draw water from a fountain or a reservoir, and that there, without any visible apparition, she heard a voice which consoled and fortified her, at the same time making known to her that she must consent to be married.
I saw also a very old priest who was unable to walk it might be the High Priest. He was carried by other priests into the Holy of Holies, and, whilst he lighted the sacrifice of incense, he read some prayers from a roll of parchment placed on a kind of pulpit. I saw him in an ecstasy. He had a vision, and his finger was placed on the following passage out of the Prophet Isaiah which was written on the roll: "A branch shall arise from the root of Jesse and a flower shall spring from this root" (Isaiah 9:1). When the old priest returned to himself he read this passage and knew something by this.
I then saw that messengers were sent to all parts of the country, and that they convoked to the Temple all the men of the race of David who were unmarried. When many of them were assembled in the Temple in their festival dress, they were presented to the Blessed Virgin.
