Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
February 9 we celebrate the feast day of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. Blessed Anne Catherine was born in 1774 to a family of poor farmers in a small community near Münster, Germany.
A pious child, she received little formal education and when she was twelve years old, she started work at a local farm before receiving training as a seamstress. Feeling called to religious life, she applied to several local convents but was refused because she could not afford the customary dowry.
The Poor Clares in Münster accepted her on the condition that she play organ for the community. She was unable to fulfill this condition, however, because she sacrificed her small savings—intended to pay for lessons—to help provide for a poor family.
In 1802, Anne Catherine was finally accepted as a member of the Augustinian convent in Agnietenberg; she pronounced religious vows the following year.Known for her strict adherence to the community’s rules, she began to experience serious illness and great pain beginning in 1811.
Sadly, the community was suppressed by order of King Jérôme Bonaparte in 1812 and Anne Catherine took refuge in the home of a local widow.
In early 1813, the marks of the stigmata were reported on Anne Catherine’s body. After being examined by physicians and by church authorities, no evidence of fraud was found and she began to experience a series of visions and mystical experiences.
Her visions focused on New Testament events and events of the lives of Mary and Jesus not recorded in Scripture. These visions were eventually compiled and published. While the Holy See has not endorsed these visions, the writings have been described as “an outstanding proclamation of the gospel in the service to salvation.”
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich died on February 9, 1824. She was beatified in 2004 on the virtues of her life of faithful suffering and fidelity to her vocation, rather than on the merits of her mystical experiences.
Bl. Anne Emmerich lives on the Eucharist alone for 12 years
From the moment she received the Sacred Wounds until her death, Anne Catherine Emmerich took no solid food, existing only on the Sacred Host.
In fact, when she would try to eat or drink she would have a severe reaction and would vomit violently when attempting to consume food, even broth. She was however able to consume the Holy Eucharist and her diet consisted only of the Eucharist.
In 1819 she was once again investigated by high-ranking secular authorities. She was taken away from all of her acquaintances and moved to a house in the country belonging to one of the authorities. They referred to her as ‘The Imposter’. She was locked up for three weeks with the authorities watching her 24×7 in 6 hour shifts.
Much to the aggravation of her captors, she still consumed no food and bled through her Stigmata even though she prayed not to bleed so they would release her. After three weeks, she was finally sent back to her home in Dulmen by her frustrated captors. Two of them became very sympathetic to her cause
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.
Other facts:
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich – Mystic, Visionary, Stigmatist, Prophet
🔅Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich had the gift of seeing the past, present, and future in mystic visions.
🔅During the last 12 years of her life, she could eat no food except Holy Communion, nor take any drink except water, subsisting entirely on the Holy Eucharist.
🔅From 1802 until her death, she bore the wounds of the Crown of Thorns, and from 1812, the full stigmata of Our Lord, including a cross over her heart and the wound from the lance.
🔅Anne Catherine Emmerich possessed the gift of reading hearts, and she saw, in actual, visual detail, the facts of Catholic belief which most of us simply have to accept on faith.
🔅The basic truths of the catechism–angels, devils, Purgatory, the life of Our Lord and the Blessed Mother, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the grace of the Sacraments–all these truths were as real to her as the material world.
🔅She saw that each parish and diocese, each city and country has its own particular and powerful guardian angel.
🔅She saw that the Church never has allowed children of Catholics to be raised outside her fold, and that as soon as solidly established, she banned mixed marriages.
🔅She saw how the various indulgences we gain actually remit specific punishments which otherwise would await us in Purgatory.
🔅She revealed that to gain an indulgence we must approach the Sacraments with true repentance and a firm purpose of amendment–or we do not gain it.
🔅She deposes that it is more holy to pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory than for sinners who are still alive.
🔅She revealed that saints are particularly powerful on their feast days and should be invoked then.
🔅She revealed that Our Lord suffered from the wound in His shoulder more than from any other.
🔅She continually saw a false church, and wicked men scheming against the Catholic Church and doing much harm–both in her own time and in the future.
🔅She saw in a vision the enemies of the Church tearing it down and trying to build a new one on strictly human plans–but none of the saints would lend a hand. Later, this church of men is destroyed and the saints of God join in to rebuild the true Church of God, which becomes more glorious than ever before.
🔅She saw the revival of the priesthood and the religious orders after a period of great decadence.
Story of Saints 
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