VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The German mystic whose recorded visions helped inspire "The Passion of the Christ" will be beatified Oct. 3.

Anna Katharina Emmerick (1774-1824) will be beatified at the Vatican along with Karl I (1887-1922), emperor of Austria and king of Hungary.

The Vatican Secretariat of State communicated the news of Emmerick's beatification to the Muenster Diocese.

Emmerick, an Augustinian religious and a native of Westphalia, "bore the stigmata of the Lord's Passion and received extraordinary charisms that she used for the consolation of numerous visitors," said Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, when reading the decree of recognition of a miracle last July.

Beginning in 1813, illness kept the religious confined. From then on, she was nourished only by the Eucharist. During her last years, she lived day by day the preaching and passion of Jesus.

Forced to leave her convent by the Napoleonic invasion, the invalid and stigmatic tried to describe in her Low German dialect the daily visions of the supernatural. Clemens Brentano, a notable German writer, met her, was converted, and remained at the foot of her bed copying the visionary's accounts from 1818 to 1824.

The result was the book "The Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ." That work, in addition to the Gospels, helped inspire Mel Gibson in the making of "The Passion of the Christ." The film had taken in $603 million at the box office as of May 23.

The Diocese of Vienna announced that on Oct. 3 the Pope also will beatify Karl I von Habsburg, last emperor of Austria and king of Hungary.

Proclaimed emperor of Austria in 1916, Karl I abdicated in November 1918, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell. He left Austria in March 1919 and was formally dismissed by the Austrian Parliament in April. He spent his exile on the Portuguese island of Madeira, where he died at 34.

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 commmon 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 ecstacies 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 investgation. 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 him 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 her 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 relevatory works deal with spirituality and ideas, these are very much straight-forward narratives and descriptions of events, yet have beent he source of encouragement for many.
Born: 8 September 1774 at Flamsche, diocese of Munster, Westphalia, Germany
Died: 9 February 1824 at Dulmen, 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, Dulmen, Germany on 15 February 1975
Beatified: pending; Cause formally introduced on 14 November 1892; due to slanderous accusations about her vow of chastity, the investigation was halted on 30 November 1928; the accusations being proved false, the investigation resumed on 18 May 1973 and is still under investigation; decree of beatification miracle promulgated on 7 July 2003;
Representation: bed-ridden stigmatist
Additional Information: Our Lady of the Rosary Libary
Life of Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich
Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Venerable Anne
FraterNet français
Catholic Encyclopedia, by E P Graham
Some Further Perspectives on Anne Catherine Emmerich, by Samuel Sinner
Vision d'Anne-Catherine Emmerich français
Visions of Jesus Christ
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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.

- Venerable Anne
If the Church is true, all in her is true; he who admits not the one, believes not the other.

- Venerable Anne

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