When did Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of
Jesus die? Very little is known about it. Holy Bible doesn’t say anything about
it.
Part one:
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (September 8, 1774
– February 9, 1824), a Roman Catholic nun, experienced visions on the life and
passion of Jesus Christ, reputed to be revealed to her by the Blessed Virgin
Mary under religious ecstasy.
The poet
Clemens Brentano interviewed her at length and wrote two books based on his
notes of her visions. The authenticity of Brentano's writings has been
questioned and critics have characterized the books as "conscious
elaborations by a poet" and a "well-intentioned fraud" by
Brentano.
Brentano prepared
The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the Visions of Anna Catherine Emmerich
for publication, but he died in 1842. The book was published posthumously in
1852 in Munich. Catholic priest Father Karl Schmoger edited Brentano's
manuscripts and from 1858 to 1880 published the three volumes of The Life of
Our Lord. In 1881, a large illustrated edition followed.
The Vatican
does not endorse the authenticity of the books written by Brentano. However, it views their general message as
"an outstanding proclamation of the gospel in service to salvation".
Here it begins…..
On the afternoon of August 14, Catherine
Emmerich said to the writer: They are following the Way of the Cross and are
preparing the grave of the Mother of God. When she said this, she was already
seeing what happened after Mary's death.
After a pause she continued, marking on her
fingers the figures she mentioned: See this number, a stroke I and then a V,
does not this make four? Then again V and three strokes, does not that make
eight? This is not properly written out; but I see them as separate figures
because I do not understand big sums in Roman letters.
It
means that the year 48 after Christ's Birth is the year of the Blessed Virgin's
death. Then I see X and III and then two full moons as they are shown in the
calendar, that means that the Blessed Virgin died thirteen years and two months
after Christ's Ascension into Heaven. This is not the month in which she died
-- I think I already saw this vision several months ago. Ah, her death was full
of sorrow and full of joy.'
Yesterday at midday I saw that there was
already great grief and mourning in the Blessed Virgin's house. Her maidservant
was in the utmost distress, throwing herself on her knees and praying with
outstretched arms, sometimes in corners of the house and sometimes outside in
front of it. The Blessed Virgin lay still and as though near death in her
little cell. She was completely enveloped in a white sleeping coverlet, even
her arms being wrapped in it. It was like the one I described when she went to
bed in Elizabeth's house at the Visitation.
The
veil over her head was arranged in folds across her forehead; when speaking
with men she lowered it over her face. Even her hands were covered except when
she was alone. In the last days of her life I never saw her take any
nourishment except now and then a spoonful of juice which her maidservant
pressed from a bunch of yellow berries like grapes into a bowl near her couch.
Towards
evening the Blessed Virgin realized that her end was approaching and therefore
signified her desire, in accordance with Jesus' will, to bless and say farewell
to the Apostles, disciples and women who were present.
Her sleeping cell was opened on all sides, and
she sat upright on her couch, shining white as if suffused with light. The
Blessed Virgin, after praying, blessed each one by laying her crossed hands on
their foreheads. She then, once more, spoke to them all, doing everything that
Jesus had commanded her at Bethany. When Peter went up to her, I saw that he
had a scroll of writing in his hand. She told John what was to be done with her
body, and bade him divide her clothes between her maidservant and another poor
girl from the neighborhood who sometimes came to help.
The
Blessed Virgin in saying this pointed to the cupboard standing opposite her
sleeping cell, and I saw her maidservant go and open the cupboard and then shut
it again. So I saw all the Blessed Virgin's garments and will describe them
later. After the Apostles, the disciples who were present approached the
Blessed Virgin's couch and received the same blessing.
The men
then went back into the front part of the house and prepared for the service,
while the women who were present came up to the Blessed Virgin's couch, knelt
down and received her blessing. I saw that one of them bent right down over
Mary and was embraced by her.
In the meantime the altar was set up and the
Apostles vested themselves for the service in their long white robes and broad
girdles with letters on them. Five of them who assisted in offering the Holy
Sacrifice (just as I had seen done when Peter first officiated in the new
church at the pool of Bethsaida after the Ascension) put on the big, rich,
priestly vestments.
Peter,
who was the celebrant, wore a robe which was very long at the back but did not
trail on the ground. There must have been some sort of stiffening round its
hem, for I see it standing out all round.
They were still engaged in putting on their
vestments when James the Greater arrived with three companions. He came with
Timon the deacon from Spain, and after passing through Rome had met with
Eremenzear and still another. The Apostles already present, who were just going
up to the altar, greeted him with grave solemnity, telling him in few words to
go to the Blessed Virgin.
He and
his companions, after having had their feet washed and after arranging their
garments, went in their traveling dress to the Blessed Virgin's room. She gave
her blessing first to James alone, and then to his three companions together,
after which James went to join in the service. The latter had been going on for
some time when Philip arrived from Egypt with a companion. He at once went to
the Mother of Our Lord, and wept bitterly as he received her blessing.
In the meantime Peter had completed the Holy
Sacrifice. He had performed the act of consecration, had received the Body of
the Lord, and had given Communion to the Apostles and disciples. The Blessed
Virgin could not see the altar from her bed, but during the Holy Sacrifice she
sat upright on her couch in deep devotion.
Peter,
after he and the other Apostles had received Communion, brought the Blessed
Virgin the Blessed Sacrament and administered extreme unction to her. The
Apostles accompanied him in a solemn procession. Thaddeus went first with a
smoking censer. Peter bore the Blessed Sacrament in the cruciform vessel of
which I have spoken, and John followed him, carrying a dish on which rested the
Chalice with the Precious blood and some small boxes. The Chalice was small,
white, and thick as though of cast metal; its stem was so short that it could
only be held with two or three fingers. It had a lid, and was of the same shape
as the Chalice at the Last Supper.
A little altar had been set up by the Apostles
in the alcove beside the Blessed Virgin's couch. The maidservant had brought a
table which she covered with red and white cloths. Lights (I think both tapers
and lamps) were burning on it. The Blessed Virgin lay back on her pillows pale
and still. Her gaze was directed intently upwards; she said no word to anyone
and seemed in a state of perpetual ecstasy. She was radiant with longing; I
could feel this longing, which was bearing her upwards -- ah, my heart was
longing to ascend with hers to God!
Peter approached her and gave her extreme
unction, much in the way in which it is administered now. From the boxes which
John held, he anointed her with holy oil on her face, hands, and feet, and on
her side, where there was an opening in her dress so that she was in no way
uncovered. While this was being done the Apostles were reciting prayers as if
in choir.
Peter then gave her Holy Communion. She raised
herself to receive it, without supporting herself, and then sank back again.
The Apostles prayed for a while, and then, raising herself rather less, she
received the Chalice from John. As she received the Blessed Sacrament I saw a
radiance pass into Mary, who sank back as though in ecstasy, and spoke no more.
The Apostles then returned to the altar in the front part of the house in a
solemn procession with the sacred vessels and continued the service. St. Philip
now also received Holy Communion. Only a few women remained with the Blessed
Virgin.
Afterwards
I saw the Apostles and disciples once more standing round the Blessed Virgin's
bed and praying. Mary's face was radiant with smiles as in her youth. Her eyes
were raised towards heaven in holy joy.
Then I saw
a wonderfully moving vision. The ceiling of the Blessed Virgin's room
disappeared, the lamp hung in the open air, and I saw through the sky into the
heavenly Jerusalem. Two radiant clouds of light sank down, out of which
appeared the faces of many angels. Between these clouds a path of light poured
down upon Mary, and I saw a shining mountain leading up from her into the
heavenly Jerusalem.
She
stretched out her arms towards it in infinite longing, and I saw her body, all
wrapped up, rise so high above her couch that one could see right under it.
I saw her soul leave her body like a little
figure of infinitely pure light, soaring with outstretched arms up the shining
mountain to heaven. The two angel-choirs in the clouds met beneath her soul and
separated it from her holy body, which in the moment of separation sank back on
the couch with arms crossed on the breast.
My gaze followed her soul and saw it
enter the heavenly Jerusalem by that shining path and go up to the throne of
the most Holy Trinity.
I saw
many souls coming forward to meet her in joy and reverence; amongst them I
recognized many patriarchs, as well as Joachim, Anna, Joseph, Elizabeth,
Zechariah and John the Baptist.
The Blessed Virgin soared through them all to
the Throne of God and of her Son, whose wounds shone with a light transcending
even the light irradiating His whole Presence. He received her with His Divine
Love, and placed in her hands a scepter with a gesture towards the earth as
though indicating the power which He gave her.
Seeing
her thus entered into the glory of heaven, I forgot the whole scene round her
body on the earth.
Some of the Apostles, Peter and John for
example, must have seen this too, for their faces were raised to heaven, while
the others knelt, most of them bowed down low to the earth. Everywhere was
light and radiance, as at Christ's Ascension. To my great joy I saw that Mary's
soul, as it entered heaven, was followed by a great number of souls released
from purgatory; and again today, on the anniversary, I saw many poor souls
entering heaven, amongst them some whom I knew. I was given the comforting
assurance that every year, on the day of the Blessed Virgin's death, many souls
of those who have venerated her receive this reward.
When I once more looked down to earth, I saw
the Blessed Virgin's body lying on the couch. It was shining; her face was
radiant; her eyes were closed, and her arms, crossed on her breast. The
Apostles, disciples, and women knelt round it praying. As I saw all this there
was a beautiful ringing in the air and a movement throughout the whole of
nature like the one I had perceived on Christmas night. The Blessed Virgin died
after the ninth hour, at the same time as Our Lord.
The women now laid a covering over the holy
body, and the Apostles and disciples betook themselves to the front part of the
house. The fire on the hearth was covered, and all the household utensils put
aside and covered up. The women wrapped and veiled themselves and, sitting on
the ground in the room in front of the house, they began to lament for the
dead, kneeling and sitting in turns.
The men muffled their heads in the piece of
stuff which they wore round their necks and held a mourning service. There were
always two praying at the head and foot of the holy body. Matthew and Andrew
followed the Blessed Virgin's Way of the Cross till the last Station, the cave
which represented Christ's sepulcher.
They had tools with them with which to enlarge
the tomb, for it was here that the Blessed Virgin's body was to rest.
The cave was not as spacious as Christ's and
hardly high enough for a man to enter it upright. The floor sank at the
entrance, and then one saw the burial-place before one like a narrow altar with
the rock-wall projecting over it.
The two Apostles did a good deal of work in
it, and also arranged a door to close the entrance to the tomb. In the
burial-place a hollow had been made in the shape of a wrapped-up body, slightly
raised at the head. In front of the cave there was a little garden with a
wooden fence round it, as there had been in front of Christ's sepulcher. Not
far away was the Station of Calvary on a hill. There was no standing cross
there, but only one cut into a stone. It must have been half an hour's journey
from Mary's house to the tomb.
Four times did I see the Apostles relieve each
other in watching and praying by the holy body. Today I saw a number of women,
among whom I remember a daughter of Veronica and the mother of John Mark,
coming to prepare the body for burial. They brought with them cloths, as well
as spices to embalm the body after the Jewish fashion. They all carried little
pots of fresh herbs. The house was closed and they worked by lamplight.
The Apostles were praying in the front part of
the house as though they were in choir. The women took the Blessed Virgin's
body from her death-bed in its wrappings, and laid it in a long basket which
was so piled up with thick, roughly woven coverings or mats that the body lay
high above it. Two women then held a broad cloth stretched above the body,
while two others removed the head-covering and wrappings under this cloth,
leaving the body clothed only in the long woolen robe. They cut off the Blessed
Virgin's beautiful locks of hair to be kept in remembrance of her.
In the meantime the Apostles had assisted at
the Holy Sacrifice offered by Peter and received Communion with him, after
which I saw Peter and John, still in great bishops' cloaks, going from the
front part of the house to the death chamber.
John carried a vessel with ointment, and
Peter, dipping the finger of his right hand into it, anointed the hands and
feet of the Blessed Virgin, praying as he did so.
A transparent handkerchief was folded
back from the face, which shone white between the bunches of herbs. They then
placed the holy body in the coffin which stood near; it was like a bed or a
long basket. It was a kind of board with a low edge and a slightly arched lid.
The Apostles, disciples, and all others
present then came in to see the beloved face once more before it was covered
up. The holy women, after making their farewells, covered the holy face and
placed the lid on the coffin, which they fastened round with gray bands at each
end and in the middle.
Then I
saw the coffin lifted onto a bier and carried out of the house on the shoulders
of Peter and John. They must have changed places, for later on I saw six of the
Apostles acting as bearers -- at the head, James the Greater and James the
Less; in the center, Bartholomew and Andrew; and behind, Thaddeus and Matthew.
There must have been a mat or piece of leather attached to the carrying-poles,
for I saw the coffin hanging between them as if in a cradle. Some of the
Apostles and disciples went on ahead, others followed with the women. It was
already dusk, and four lights were carried on poles round the coffin.
MARY'S AGE.
On the
morning of August 13, 1822, Catherine Emmerich said: Last night I had a great
vision of the death of the Blessed Virgin, but have completely forgotten it
all. On being asked, in the middle of a conversation on everyday matters, how
old the Blessed Virgin was when she died, Catherine Emmerich suddenly looked
away and said: She reached the age of sixty-four years all but three and twenty
days: I have just seen the figure X six times, then I, then V; is not that
sixty-four?' (It is remarkable that Catherine Emmerich was not shown numbers
with our ordinary Arabic figures, with which she was familiar, but never saw
anything but Roman figures in her visions).
WHERE DID MARY LIVE:
After Christ's Ascension Mary lived for three
years on Mount Sion, for three years in
Bethany, and for nine years in Ephesus, whither St. John took her soon after the
Jews had set Lazarus and his sisters adrift upon the sea.
Mary did not live in Ephesus itself, but in
the country near it where several women who were her close friends had
settled. Mary's dwelling was on a hill to the left of the road from
Jerusalem some three and a half hours from Ephesus. This hill slopes steeply
towards Ephesus; the city as one approaches it from the south-east seems to lie
on rising ground immediately before one, but seems to change its place as one
draws nearer. Great avenues lead up to
the city, and the ground under the trees is covered with yellow fruit. Narrow
paths lead southwards to a hill near the top of which is an uneven plateau,
some half-hour's journey in circumference, overgrown, like the hill itself,
with wild trees and bushes. It was on this plateau that the Jewish settlers had
made their home. It is a very lonely place, but has many fertile and pleasant
slopes as well as rock-caves, clean and dry and surrounded by patches of sand.
It is wild but not desolate, and scattered about it are a number of trees,
pyramid-shaped, with big shady branches below and smooth trunks.
John had had a house built for the Blessed
Virgin before he brought her here. Several Christian families and holy women
had already settled here, some in caves in the earth or in the rocks, fitted
out with light woodwork to make dwellings, and some in fragile huts or tents.
They had come here to escape violent persecution.
Their dwellings were like hermits' cells, for
they used as their refuges what nature offered them. As a rule, they lived at a
quarter of an hour's distance from each other. The whole settlement was like a
scattered village.
Mary's house was the only one built of stone.
A little way behind it was the summit of the rocky hill from which one could
see over the trees and hills to Ephesus and the sea with its many islands. The
place is nearer the sea than Ephesus, which must be several hours' journey
distant from the coast. The district is lonely and unfrequented. Near here is a
castle inhabited by a king who seems to have been deposed. John visited him
often and ended by converting him. This place later became a bishop's see.
Between the Blessed Virgin's dwelling and Ephesus runs a little stream which
winds about in a very singular way.
MARY'S HOUSE IN EPHESUS.
Mary's house was built of rectangular stones,
rounded or pointed at the back. The windows were high up near the flat roof.
The house was divided into two compartments by the hearth in the center of it.
The fireplace was on the floor opposite the door; it was sunk into the ground
beside a wall which rose in steps on each side of it up to the ceiling. In the
centrE of this wall a deep channel, like the half of a chimney, carried the
smoke up to escape by an opening in the roof. I saw a sloping copper funnel
projecting above the roof over this opening.
The front
part of the house was divided from the room behind the fireplace by light
movable wicker screens on each side of the hearth. In this front part, the
walls of which were rather rough and also blackened by smoke, I saw little
cells on both sides, shut in by wicker screens fastened together. If this part
of the house was needed as one large room, these screens, which did not nearly
reach to the ceiling, were taken apart and put aside. These cells were used as
bedrooms for Mary's maidservant and for other women who came to visit her.
To the
right and left of the hearth, doors led into the back part of the house, which
was darker than the front part and ended in a semicircle or angle. It was
neatly and pleasantly arranged; the walls were covered with wickerwork, and the
ceiling was vaulted. Its beams were decorated with a mixture of paneling and
wickerwork, and ornamented with a pattern of leaves. It was all simple and
dignified.
The
farthest corner or apse of this room was divided off by a curtain and formed
Mary’s oratory. In the center of the wall was a niche in which had been placed
a receptacle like a tabernacle, which could be opened and shut by pulling at a
string to turn its door. In it stood a cross about the length of a man’s arm in
which were inserted two arms rising outwards and upwards, in the form of the
letter Y, the shape in which I have always seen Christ’s Cross.
It had
no particular ornamentation, and was more roughly carved than the crosses which
come from the Holy Land nowadays. I think that John and Mary must have made it
themselves. It was made of different kinds of wood. It was told me that the
pale stem of the cross was cypress, the brown arm cedar, and the other arm of
yellow palm-wood, while the piece added at the top, with the title, was of
smooth yellow olive-wood. This cross was set in a little mound of earth or
stone, like Christ’s Cross on Mount Calvary.
At its foot there lay a piece of parchment
with something written on it; Christ’s words, I think. On the cross itself the
Figure of Our Lord was roughly outlined, the lines of the carving being rubbed
with darker color so as to show the Figure plainly. Mary’s meditation on the
different kinds of wood forming the cross were communicated to me, but alas I
have forgotten this beautiful lesson. Nor can I for the moment be sure whether
Christ’s Cross itself was made of these different kinds of wood, or whether
Mary had made this cross in this way only for devotional reasons. It stood
between two small vases filled with fresh flowers.
I also saw a cloth lying beside the cross, and
had the impression that it was the one with which the Blessed Virgin had wiped
the blood from all the wounds in Our Lord’s holy body after it was taken down
from the cross. The reason why I had this impression was that, at the sight of
the cloth, I was shown that manifestation of the Blessed Virgin’s motherly
love. At the same time I had the feeling that it was the cloth which priests
use at Mass, after drinking the Precious Blood, to cleanse the chalice; Mary,
in wiping the
To the right of this oratory, against a niche
in the wall, was the sleeping place or cell of the Blessed Virgin. Opposite it,
to the left of the oratory, was a cell where her clothes and other belongings
were kept. Between these two cells a curtain was hung dividing off the oratory.
It was Mary’s custom to sit in front of this curtain when she was working or
reading. The sleeping place of the Blessed Virgin was backed by a wall hung
with a woven carpet; the side-walls were light screens of bark woven in
different-colored woods to make a pattern. The front wall was hung with a
carpet, and had a door with two panels, opening inwards. The ceiling of this
cell was also of wickerwork rising into a vault from the center of which was
suspended a lamp with several arms. Mary’s couch, which was placed against the
wall, was a box one and a half feet high and of the breadth and length of a
narrow plank.
A covering was stretched on it and fastened to
a knob at each of the four corners. The sides of this box were covered with
carpets reaching down to the floor and were decorated with tassels and fringes.
A round cushion served as pillow, and there was a covering of brownish material
with a check pattern. The little house stood near a wood among pyramid-shaped
trees with smooth trunks. It was very quiet and solitary. The dwellings of the
other families were all scattered about at some distance. The whole settlement
was like a village of peasants.
MARY.S MAIDSERVANT AND JOHN THE APOSTLE.
The
Blessed Virgin lived here alone, with a younger woman, her maidservant, who
fetched what little food they needed. They lived very quietly and in profound
peace. There was no man in the house, but sometimes they were visited by an
Apostle or disciple on his travels. There was one man whom I saw more often
than others going in and out of the house; I always took him to be John, but
neither here nor in Jerusalem did he remain permanently near the Blessed
Virgin. He came and went in the course of his travels. He did not wear the same
dress as in Jesus. time. His garment was very long and hung in folds, and was
of a thin grayish-white material. He was very slim and active, his face was
long, narrow, and delicate, and on his bare head his long fair hair was parted
and brushed back behind his ears. In contrast with the other Apostles, this
gave him a womanish, almost girlish appearance.
Last time he was here I saw Mary becoming ever
quieter and more meditative: she took hardly any nourishment. It was as if she
were only here in appearance, as if her spirit had already passed beyond and
her whole being was far away. In the last weeks before she died I sometimes saw
her, weak and aged, being led about the house by her maidservant.
Once I
saw John come into the house, looking much older too, and very thin and
haggard. As he came in he girt up his long white ample garment in his girdle,
then took off this girdle and put on another one, inscribed with letters, which
he drew out from under his robe. He put a sort of maniple on his arm and a
stole round his neck. The Blessed Virgin came in from her bedchamber completely
enveloped in a white robe, and leaning on her maidservant’s arm.
Her face was white as snow and as though
transparent. She seemed to be swaying with intense longing. Since Jesus’
Ascension her whole being seemed to be filled with an ever-increasing yearning
which gradually consumed her. John and she went together to the oratory. The
Blessed Virgin pulled at the ribbon or strap which turned the tabernacle in the
wall to show the cross in it. After they had knelt for a long time in prayer
before it, John rose and drew from his breast a metal box. Opening it at one
side, he drew from it a wrapping of material of fine wool, and out of this took
a little folded cloth of white material. From this he took out the Blessed
Sacrament in the form of a small square white particle. After speaking a few
solemn words, he gave the Sacrament to the Blessed Virgin. He did not give her
a chalice.
Behind the house, at a little distance up the
hill, the Blessed Virgin had made a kind of Way of the Cross. When she was
living in Jerusalem, she had never failed, ever since Our Lord’s death, to
follow His path to Calvary with tears of compassion. She had paced out and
measured all the distances between the Stations of that Via Crucis, and her
love for her Son made her unable to live without this constant contemplation of
His sufferings.
Soon after her arrival at her new home I saw
her every day climbing part of the way up the hill behind her house to carry
out this devotion. At first she went by herself, measuring the number of steps,
so often counted by her, which separated the places of Our Lord's different
sufferings. At each of these places she put up a stone, or, if there was
already a tree there, she made a mark upon it. The way led into a wood, and upon
a hill in this wood she had marked the place of Calvary, and the grave of
Christ in a little cave in another hill. After she had marked this Way of the
Cross with twelve Stations, she went there with her maidservant in quiet
meditation: at each Station they sat down and renewed the mystery of its
significance in their hearts, praising the Lord for His love with tears of
compassion.
Afterwards she arranged the Stations better,
and I saw her inscribing on the stones the meaning of each Station, the number
of paces and so forth. I saw, too, that she cleaned out the cave of the Holy
Sepulcher and made it a place for prayer. At that time I saw no picture and no
fixed cross to designate the Stations, nothing but plain memorial stones with
inscriptions, but afterwards, as the result of constant visits and attention, I
saw the place becoming increasingly beautiful and easy of approach. After the
Blessed Virgin's death I saw this Way of the Cross being visited by Christians,
who threw themselves down and kissed the ground.
MARY TRAVELS FROM EPHESUS TO JERUSALEM.
After three years' sojourn here Mary had a
great longing to see Jerusalem again, and was taken there by John and Peter.
Several of the Apostles were, I believe, assembled there: I saw Thomas among
them and I think a Council was held at which Mary assisted them with her
advice.
On their arrival at Jerusalem in the dusk of
the evening, before they went into the city, I saw them visiting the Mount of
Olives, Calvary, the Holy Sepulcher, and all the holy places outside Jerusalem.
The Mother of God was so sorrowful and so moved by compassion that she could
hardly hold herself upright, and Peter and John had to support her as they led
her away.
She came to Jerusalem from Ephesus once again, eighteen
months before her death, and I saw her again visiting the Holy Places with the
Apostles at night, wrapped in a veil. She was inexpressibly sorrowful,
constantly sighing, O my Son, my Son'. When she came to that door behind the
palace where she had met Jesus sinking under the weight of the Cross, she too
sank to the ground in a swoon, overcome by agonizing memories, and her
companions thought she was dying. They brought her to Sion, to the Cenacle,
where she was living in one of the outer buildings.
Here
for several days she was so weak and ill and so often suffered from fainting
attacks that her companions again and again thought her end was near and made
preparations for her burial. She herself chose a cave in the Mount of Olives,
and the Apostles caused a beautiful sepulcher to be prepared here by the hands
of a Christian stonemason.
During this time it was announced more than
once that she was dead, and the rumor of her death and burial was spread abroad
in Jerusalem and in other places as well. By the time, however, that the
sepulcher was ready, she had recovered and was strong enough to
journey back to her home in Ephesus, where she did in fact die eighteen months
later.
The
sepulcher prepared for her on the Mount of Olives was always held in honor, and
later a church was built over it, and John Damascene (so I heard in the spirit,
but who and what was he?) wrote from hearsay that she had died and
been buried in Jerusalem. I expect that the news of her death, burial-place,
and assumption into heaven were permitted by God to be indefinite and only a
matter of tradition in order that Christianity in its early days should not be
in danger of heathen influences then so powerful. The Blessed Virgin might
easily have been adored as a goddess.
-- Part 2 to be followed.
