Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume V ^ | Nihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor | E.P. GRAHAM

[narses]

Then followed what she dreaded on account of its publicity, an episcopal commission to inquire into her life, and the reality of these wonderful signs. The examination was very strict, as the utmost care was necessary to furnish no pretext for ridicule and insult on the part of the enemies of the Church. The vicar-general, the famous Overberg, and three physicians conducted the investigation with scrupulous care and became convinced of the sanctity of the "pious Beguine", as she was called, and the genuineness of the stigmata.

[narses]

Then followed what she dreaded on account of its publicity, an episcopal commission to inquire into her life, and the reality of these wonderful signs. The examination was very strict, as the utmost care was necessary to furnish no pretext for ridicule and insult on the part of the enemies of the Church. The vicar-general, the famous Overberg, and three physicians conducted the investigation with scrupulous care and became convinced of the sanctity of the "pious Beguine", as she was called, and the genuineness of the stigmata.

[sinkspur]

And she has not been canonized because the accuracy of her visions came under scrutiny in 1928, due to the purported exaggerations of those visions by her secretary, who transcribed the details.

She still has not been canonized.

[narses]

FYI

[Support Free Republic]

[narses]

And the result of whatever investigation you refer to? What are your sources Deacon?

[sinkspur]

Emmerich's sainthood process was stalled in 1928 because of the uncertainty over Brentano's embellishments.

[narses]

Beliefnet is far from an authoritative source, it is a protestant website given to anti-Catholic posts as I recall.

[sinkspur]

So how do you explain that her cause for canonization stopped dead in 1928?

[netmilsmom]

Is she who Gibson used for the Passion?

[narses]

In part, yes.

[narses]

"So how do you explain that her cause for canonization stopped dead in 1928?"

1 - What a non-sequiter!
2 - How does beliefnet rise to the level of explanation, in your opinion?
3 - How do you know her canonization has "stopped dead"?
4 - What have your comments to do with the price of tea in China?
5 - Isn't it likely that the Pope who said "It is as it was" may well reopen the case for Canonization?

[sinkspur]

How do you know her canonization has "stopped dead"?

Because nothing has happened for seventy-six years!

[narses]

"Because nothing has happened for seventy-six years!"

1 - How do you know?
2 - How unusual is that?
3 - The Venn. Bede hasn't been Canonized either, so what?

[narses]

Gosh, look, Sinky is wrong, it has NOT been 76 years since anything has been done:

Leo Cardinal Scheffczk, who was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in February 2001, and who has been involved in the Emmerich beatification case, compared this servant of God to St. Teresa of Avila while he spoke at the 1990 episcopal Emmerich symposium in Munster. Referring to her stigmata, Scheffczyk remarked that her life can be seen as a "path of union with the suffering of Christ and her person as a paradigm of mystical suffering worthy of being entered into the ranks of a Teresa of Avila."

In his address, this now prince of the Church examined the signs that speak for the authenticity and supernatural origin and character of Emmerich’s stigmata, childhood life of penance, and visions. These are "not to be explained by a natural religious inclination" in Emmerich, and they can "without the working of a special grace scarcely be explained.... Her mystical grace was of the highest order.... Emmerich was marked with the highest mystical grace, represented as the ‘mystical betrothal’ and the ‘spiritual wedding.’ The knowledge and spiritual instructions which she communicated in conversations and speeches with her contemporaries and which she could not have gathered through reading or self-study, are also an indirect proof for the authenticity of her elevated mystical state?’

The recorded visions of Emmerich were praised and recommended by, among others, St. John Neumann, St. Sophie Madeleine Barat (canonized 1925), St. Mary Euphrasia (canonized 1940), and Leon Dupont, the famous "holy man of Tours."

In further comments, Scheffczyk stated that Emmerich’s was an anima ecciesiastica and that her calling was to suffer for souls and for the Church as a whole. It was furthermore "not without significance" that historically Emmerich’s visions concerning the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, so closely anticipated the renewed interest among theologians in this aspect of the Church in the first four decades of the 20th century, which of course found its culmination in Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Mystici Corporis.

In his final remarks, Scheffczyk noted the importance of Emmerich "in an epoch of advances in science and civilization. . . in which the meaning of the transcendence of human life is generally obscured, but in which especially the meaning of suffering has almost vanished. Without the wisdom of the cross, a supernatural healing cannot be achieved. The great bearer of suffering Anne Catherine Emmerich can teach us precisely this."

Sources

"Bischöfliches Offizialat Münster" (October 20, 2000) .

Göckener, Norbert, "Akte mit ‘wunderbarem’ Inhalt Seligsprechungsverfahren für Emmerick in entacheidender Phase" (March 24, 2001) .

" 'Mystikerin der Münsterlandes.’ Das ‘Wunderverfahren’ für Anna Katharina Emmerick hat begonnen" (October 23, 2000) http:// www.bistum-muenster.de .

Scheffczyk, Leo, "Die Mystik der Anna Katharina Emmerick," in: Anna Katharina Emmerick. Die Mystikerin des Münsterlandes. Symposion 1990 der Bischöflichen Kommission "Anna Katharina Emmerick" Münster. Clemens Engling, Hubert Festring, Hermann Flothkötter (Herausgeber). (Dülmen: Laumann-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1991), 39-62.

Seller, Hermann Josef, Im Banne des Kreuzes. Lebensbild der stigmatisierten Augustinerie A.K. Emmerick (Würzburg: Augustinus-Verlag, 1949), 451-457. (This source records various miracles effected through the intercession of Emmerich.)

From http://www.emmerich1.com/VenerableEmmerich.htm

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Sister Emmerich lived during one of the saddest and least glorious periods of the Church's history, when revolution triumphed, impiety flourished, and several of the fairest provinces of its domain were overrun by infidels and cast into such ruinous condition that the Faith seemed about to be completely extinguished.

Times like we are in now. Lord, send us great saints!

[firerosemom]

I'm currently reading her book (The Dolorous Passion) and among other things was struck by this quote (in chapter LIX - An Account of the Descent into Hell) "In the center of Hell I saw a dark and horrible-looking abyss, and into this Lucifer was cast, after being first strongly secured with chains;...God himself had decreed this; and I was likewise told, if I remember rightly, that he will be unchained for a time fifty or sixty years before the year of Christ 2000." Yikes!

[Desdemona]

There's also the little fact that her body was incorrupt when exhumed.

Whoever stopped the canonization process for this lady wasn't thinking clearly.

[topcat54]

But according to most evangelical protestant minsters who support the movie it all came from the Bible, that's how they rationalized it to their flocks. So which is it?