Sr. Anne Catherine Emmerich
rough draft 10/25
Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Augustinian nun, which is a bride of Christ and one of the
closest to Him for she was blessed with many great spiritual gifts. She was given the Stigmata,
the ability to recognize Saints relics, and visions of our Lord's passion and life beyond any other,
and lived on the Eucharist almost exclusively the last decade of her life. She lived from 1774 to
1824. Born on Sept. 8, the feast day of the birth of the Virgin Mary, in Flamske a small village
outside Coesfeld, Germany.
A painting from the cover of of one of the her books. She was called the invalid. But in reality she
was a loving, strong and powerful woman who was a victim soul for the church and suffered much.
This short biography is from the book "The Dolorous Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ" and
from a 2 volume set on her life and revelations. The first book was written by Clemens Brentano
who was a writer in Anne's time who stopped by for a visit and dropped everything he was doing
and spent the last 5 years of her life listening to her recount her visions. For he realized that she
was a window into the greatest events that have taken place on earth. He only wrote the Dolorous
Passion before his death. She called him the pilgrim and had seen him coming to her before he
showed up and was told spiritually to deal with him. After Brentano's death the Father Carl
Schmoger, C.SS.R. took up the task of arranging the rest of Brentano's notes into a 4 volume
book, "The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations" what didn't go in there he put
into the 2 volume book on her life along with a long biography including the 2 primary
investigations into Sr. Anne's wounds and her not eating any food except the Eucharist. Also
a special thanks to a nun who translated the works from German to English and wished to
remain unknown among men. I recommend you at least read the Dolorous Passion. It is the
book that was used to make the film Passion of the Christ in 2003.
For more info on the books go to Books worth reading.
At a very early age her Guardian Angel would appear to her and teach her, she also had visions at
an early age and thought all Christian children received them. In school when Biblical topics were
discussed she would talk about them from her knowledge of the subject. But she quickly learned that
this made the others uncomfortable and she began to keep them to herself. Her family was very poor
and she was not strong physically but was very strong spiritually, with tremendous time spent in
prayer and practicing mortification for the help of others. She spent hours crying in church over the
ingratitude of people, towards our Lord Jesus Christ. In winter she would kneel in the snow and from
the beginning she gave what little she had away to the poor and the suffering. Poor souls would
come to her and ask her for help, which she did at great expense to her well being. The Virgin Mary
came to her with the Child Jesus to be her friend, and also many Saints came to her to console
her. In her visions she went to the places and was a part of the vision, being in the room or at the
event and not watching from a distance.
As she grew older she made money by sewing, though she gave most of it away. Her goal was to
become a nun, a bride of Christ. In 1798 at the Jesuits church in Coesfeld Jesus came to her as a
young man with 2 crowns, one was flowers and one was thorns. She chose the thorns, and Jesus
pushed the crown down onto her head. She was a victim soul for the Church and kept this to herself.
How it was revealed was in a vision she related about this poor woman who suffered terribly and
her own suffering was nothing compared to this poor woman, but she was that poor but spiritually
wealthy, courageous, and very strong woman. On November 13, 1802 she entered as a novitiate.
She obeyed the rules to the letter and was not well liked. On Christmas of that year she had a
great pain in her heart that never left. This was not revealed until 1812 when a cross appeared
over her heart. The cross would change and grow and liquid would come from it at times. She
made her Solemn vows on November 13, 1803 and became a bride of Christ. She had many
trials, while working in the garden birds would come and land on her and they would sing
together to God.
She was very weak and sickly but kept up her mortifications and prayer life as she
patiently dealt with her trials. The convent closed in 1811 though she stayed on into the next
year because she was so poor and sick. All souls day in 1812 was her last time outside. A
2nd smaller cross appeared above the first one which blood used to flow from on Fridays.
She received the Stigmata on December 29, 1812 at 3 PM, which is the hour Jesus died.
Jesus descended to her and with a lance of lights created the wounds on her hands and
feet, and on her side. She always wore a bandage on her head to hide the Crown of Thorns
but now with all the other wounds, the public found out in February and the first commission
began the following month in March. She said that all of her blood seemed to flow to the
wounds. To the commission she said; "No words can describe in what manner it flows.".
When asked by superiors where the wounds came from; "I hope they come from the hand
of God."
By 1815 she couldn't walk or rise from bed. Anne had many visitors and liked to sew
things for children and the poor. She was very sick and received last rites several times.
When the Eucharist was brought into her room she would strengthen and be drawn to
it like a magnet. During her ecstasies she would still work in her garden but it represented
the Church, she was pulling weeds and taking care of parts of it by her tremendous suffering.
She traveled with her Guardian Angel to the ends of the earth and beyond, Paradise, hell
and purgatory. She said you can see the consecrated fingers of priests glowing even in
the fires of hell. She knew there were 9 planets more than 100 years before astronomers did.
She spoke of a place called Prophet Mountain and a book she was allowed to read, "The
Book of the Prophets" which she finished just before she died. She told how Melchizedek
went around and marked places where later on in history great events would take place
and cities would be founded. She also spoke about the Chalice used at the Last Supper
as being the same one used by Abraham and Melchizedek and that it would reappear
at some time in the future, probably our times.
In 1821 a few weeks before Easter she was told that she would suffer on the actual date
of the Passion of our Lord. On Friday March 30th at 10 AM her body was covered with
wounds like those from a whip and at 12:00 PM, her arms were stretched forth as if she
were being nailed to a cross. The story of the Passion is so vivid how in the garden Jesus
was shown everything, not just what would happen to Him but also what would happen
throughout history. Before He left the Garden an Angel descended with a Chalice that
He drank from to fortify Himself, for the supreme test.
She was a living saint, simple and humble, and loving and caring about others while
keeping God first in her life. She was an example of what Jesus said about our Almighty
Father; You have kept yourself hidden from the learned and the wise and have revealed
yourself to the simple and the innocent. After almost 50 years of suffering for her Husband
she was called home on the evening of February 9th, 1824.
I would recommend that you at least read the Dolorous Passion, I would rank it second
only to the Bible of books we can read. The Book of the Prophets is not a book kept by
any man, only God holds the key to this book. I do not know how many or if any others
have been allowed to read it. This little chapter does not do justice to the great story
of the life of Anne Catherine Emmerick, and I apologize Anne. I also thank you and Fr. Carl
and the Pilgrim, as you were with me in the airport in Lisbon, Portugal as I finished Fr. Carl's
book on your life and Revelations.