The Miraculous Birth of Christ as Relayed by Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich

David Martin | The Daily Knight

In modern times Christmas has lost a lot of its sparkle, and a key reason is because the world has lost sight of the true dignity of She who gave birth to Christ. Today’s festive commercialization of Christmas has blinded many to the fact that the birth of Christ occurred in a miraculous way without labor pains or any alteration to the Virgin Mary’s corporal integrity.

This makes perfect doctrinal sense since enduring labor pains at birth is one of the results of Original Sin, from which Mary was completely exempt. From the first instance of Her Immaculate Conception Mary bore not the least trace of sin since God had decreed from eternity that this woman would be different and set apart from other women—human, but sublime.

For she was present in the mind of God long before her placement on earth. St. Bernardine of Sienna says of her:

“Thou wast preordained in the mind of God, before all creatures, that thou might beget God Himself as man.” Mary indeed was preordained to be that holy vessel and tabernacle wherewith to bring the Messiah to man.

As such, it was only fit that the birth of her Son would be very unlike the birth of other children. Great ecclesial mystics like Veronica of the Cross and Mary of Ageda point out that at the time of Christ’s birth Mary was levitated off the ground and wrapped in a rapturous ecstasy that rendered her insensible to the fact that her Son was being born. She became completely spiritualized and absorbed in the Holy Trinity at which time the Archangel Michael miraculously delivered the Christ Child through her corporal being with no pain or breaking of the virginal wall.

It wasn’t until after the Child was delivered and Mary had come down from her ecstatic levitation that she was cognizant that her Divine Son had been born. It was the sound of the Babe crying that awakened her to this reality.

Ann Catherine Emmerich

Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) was an Augustinian nun, Marian visionary, and stigmatist, who like Venerable Mary of Agreda, was given a clear, supernatural vision of what transpired when Christ was born in Bethlehem. Christ told her that her gift of seeing the past, present, and future in mystic vision was greater than that possessed by anyone else in history.

Ann Catherine Emmerich spent her life as a victim soul assisting Christ in the salvation of souls. She entered the convent in 1802 and by 1811 she was racked with intense sufferings that rendered her bedridden for the rest of her life. For a space of 12 years beginning in 1812 she ate no food and drank no liquids, other than water, and subsisted solely on the Holy Eucharist until her passing in 1824.

Sister Emmerich’s Vision of the Nativity

Without further ado, we proceed with Ann Catherine Emmerich’s account of the Birth of Christ. A handful of editorial notes have been inserted to clarify the meaning.

I saw Joseph… arranging a seat and couch for Mary in the so-called Suckling Cave of Abraham, which was also the sepulcher of Maraha, his nurse. It was more spacious than the cave of the Crib. Mary remained there some hours, while Joseph was making the latter more habitable. He brought also from the city many different little vessels and some dried fruits.

Mary told him that the birth hour of the Child would arrive on the coming night. It was then nine months since her Conception by the Holy Ghost [when Christ had become incarnate upon the Angel’s salutation to Mary]. She begged him to do all in his power that they might receive as honorably as possible this Child promised by God, this Child supernaturally conceived; and she invited him to unite with her in prayer for those hard-hearted people who would afford Him no place of shelter. Joseph proposed to bring some pious women whom he knew in Bethlehem to her assistance; but Mary would not allow it, she declared that she had no need of anyone [that is, she knew she wouldn’t need a midwife]. It was five o'clock in the evening when Joseph brought Mary back again to the Crib Cave. He hung up several more lamps, and made a place under the shed before the door for the little she-ass, which came joyfully hurrying from the fields to meet them.

When Mary told Joseph that her time was draw­ing near and that he should now betake himself to prayer, he left her and turned toward his sleeping place to do her bidding. Before entering his little recess, he looked back once toward that part of the cave where Mary knelt upon her couch in prayer, her back to him, her face toward the east. He saw the cave filled with the light that streamed from Mary, for she was entirely enveloped as if by flames. It was as if he were, like Moses, looking into the burning bush. He sank prostrate to the ground in prayer and looked not back again. The glory around Mary became brighter and brighter, the lamps that Joseph had lit were no longer to be seen. Mary knelt, her flowing white robe spread out before her. At the twelfth hour, her prayer became ecstatic, and I saw her raised so far above the ground that one could see it beneath her. Her hands were crossed upon her breast, and the light around her grew even more resplendent. I no longer saw the roof of the cave. Above Mary stretched a pathway of light up to Heaven, in which pathway it seemed as if one light came forth from another, as if one figure dissolved into another, and from these different spheres of light other heavenly figures issued. 

Mary continued in prayer, her eyes bent low upon the ground. At that moment she gave birth to the Infant Jesus.  I saw Him like a tiny, shining Child, lying on the rug at her knees, and far brighter than all the other brilliancy. He seemed to grow before my eyes. But dazzled by the glittering and flashing of light, I know not whether I really saw that, or how I saw it. Even inanimate nature seemed stirred. The stones of the rocky floor and the walls of the cave were glimmer­ing and sparkling, as if instinct with life.

Mary's ecstasy lasted some moments longer. Then I saw her spread a cover over the Child, but she did not yet take It up, nor even touch It. After a long time, I saw the Child stirring and heard It crying, and then only did Mary seem to recover full con­sciousness. She lifted the Child, along with the cover that she had thrown over It, to her breast and sat veiled, herself and Child quite enveloped. I think she was suckling It. I saw angels around her in human form prostrate on their faces. It may, perhaps, have been an hour after the birth when Mary called St. Joseph, who still lay prostrate in prayer. When he approached, he fell on his knees, his face to the ground, in a transport of joy, devotion, and humility. Mary again urged him to look upon the Sacred Gift from Heaven, and then did Joseph take the Child into his arms. And now the Blessed Virgin swathed the Child in red and over that in a white veil up as far as under the little arms, and the upper part of the body from the armpits to the head, she wrapped up in another piece of linen. She had only four swaddling cloths with her. She laid the Child in the Crib, which had been filled with rushes and fine moss over which was spread a cover that hung down at the sides. The Crib stood over the stone trough, and at this spot the ground stretched straight and level as far as the pas­sage, where it made a broader flexure toward the south. The floor of this part of the cave lay some­what deeper than where the Child was born, and down to it steps had been formed in the earth. When Mary laid the Child in the Crib, both she and Joseph stood by It in tears, singing the praises of God.

The seat and the couch of the Blessed Virgin were near the Crib. I saw her on the first day sitting upright and also resting on her side, though I noticed in her no special signs of weakness or sickness. Both before and after the birth, she was robed in white. When visitors came, she generally sat near the Crib more closely veiled.

On the night of the Birth there gushed forth a beautiful spring in the other cave that lay to the right. The water ran out, and the next day Joseph dug a course for it and formed a spring.

In those visions to which the event itself, and not the feast of the Church, gave rise, I saw, indeed, no such sparkling joy in nature as I sometimes see at holy Christmastide. Then the joy has an interior sig­nification. But yet, I saw extraordinary gladness, and in many places, even in the most distant regions of the world, something marvelous on that midnight. By it the good were filled with joyful longings, and the bad with dread. I saw also many of the lower animals joyfully agitated. I saw fountains gushing forth and swelling, flowers springing up in many places, trees and plants budding with new life, and all sending forth their fragrance. In Bethlehem it was misty, and the sky above shone with a murky, reddish glare. But over the valley of the shepherds, around the Crib, and in the vale of the Suckling Cave floated bright clouds of refreshing dew….

The Birth of Christ Brought about the Destruction of Idols

I saw something very wonderful taking place in the Temple. The writings of the Sadducees [upon Christ’s birth] were more than once hurled by an invisible force [God] from the places in which they were kept, which circumstance gave rise to unaccountable dread. The fact was ascribed to sorcery, and large sums of money were paid [by the Jews] to hush the matter up.

I saw that in Rome, across the river where num­bers of Jews dwelt, a well of oil gushed forth spon­taneously, to the wonder of all the witnesses. And when Jesus was born, a magnificent statue of the god Jupiter fell with violence from its place. All were struck with fear. Sacrifices were offered and another idol, I think Venus, was interrogated as to the cause. The devil was forced to speak by its mouth, and he proclaimed that it had happened because a virgin unmarried [i.e., chaste] had conceived and brought forth a son. He [the devil] told them also of the miracle of the oil well. Where this took place now stands a Church in honor of the Mother of God. I saw that the pagan priests were deeply perplexed at the whole affair. They searched their writings, and discovered the follow­ing history. About seventy years previously, this idol [Jupiter] had been greatly venerated. It was mag­nificently ornamented with gold and precious stones, grand ceremonies were held in its honor, and numer­ous sacrifices [were] offered to it.

But there was in Rome at that time an extraordinarily pious woman who lived on her own means. I know not for certain whether she was a Jewess or not; but she had visions, uttered prophecies, and informed many persons as to the cause of their sterility. This woman had thrown out words to this effect that they should not honor the idol at so great a cost, for that they would one day behold it burst asunder in their midst. This speech proved so offensive that she was imprisoned and tor­mented until by her prayers she obtained from God the information as to when that misfortune would happen. The pagan priests demanded [to know] what had been revealed to her, and when at last she replied: "The idol will be shattered when an Immaculate Virgin shall bring forth a son," they hooted at her, and released her as a fool. And now the people recalled the fact and declared that the woman had spoken truly. I saw also that the Roman consuls, of whom one was named Lentulus and who was a friend of St. Peter and an ancestor of the martyr-priest Moses, made notes of this occurrence, as well as that of the bursting forth of the oil well.

On this night [of Jesus’ birth], I saw the Emperor Augustus at the Capitol where he had an apparition of a rainbow upon which sat the Virgin and Child. From the ora­cle that he caused to be interrogated upon what he had seen, he received the answer: "A Child is born, and before Him we must all flee!" The emperor at once erected an altar and offered sacrifice to the Son of the Virgin, as to the "Firstborn of God."

For the full, unedited account of Ann Catherine Emmerich's vision, please go to this link and pick it up at section 8, Birth of the Child Jesus.