Saints Who Saw Mary

By Raphael Brown

"How lovely is Thy Dwelling-Place, O Lord God of Hosts!" —Psalm 83 (84)

To gaze upon and speak with Our Lady is one of the tenderest longings of the pious Christian soul. Our Lord could not have conceived of a greater human creature than His own Mother, and so it is one of the most sublime graces to be granted a vision of that Heavenly Garden, the True Eden and New Eve. It is no wonder, then, that those most blessed souls who have loved Christ most have merited to see her, who only leads us deeper into His love.

Saints Who Saw Mary recounts the stories of 17 canonized saints who kept company with the Ark of the New Covenant, the Mother of God. Their stories are profound, enlightening, inspiring, and tantalizing. Learn of Our Lady's dealings with such luminaries of the sanctoral patrimony as:

Gertrude the Great

Francis

Bridget

Catherine of Siena

Teresa of Avila

John of the Cross

And more!

It is no coincidence that Our Lady appeared to these who are among the greatest saints in the history of the Church. For anyone who does not love His Mother, who bore God, can merit to bear Christ and His glorious resurrection. Let these accounts move you not only to longing for the sight of the Mother of God and her Son, but, what is far more important, to a deeper love and longing to be united to Him through her who is most blessed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TAN Books
• Release date: Jan 1, 1994
• ISBN: 9781505102543

Raphael Brown

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (8 September 1774 – 9 February 1824) was an Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary, and ecstatic. On October 3, 2004, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II. Mary of Agreda (2 April 1602 – 24 May 1665) was a Franciscan nun known for writing the Mystical City of God, a lengthy account of revelations received about the earthly and heavenly life of the Blessed Virgin.

Book preview

Saints who

Saw Mary

Raphael Brown

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a publication contains no doctrinal or moral error. They are not an endorsement of the content or views expressed.

The author wishes to state that in regard to the apparitions, visions, etc., herein mentioned, no claims are made as to their authenticity beyond that which is officially approved by the Church.

Copyright © 1955 by St. Meinrad Archabbey, Inc.

First published in 1955, by St. Meinrad's Archabbey, Inc., as A Grail Publication. Retypeset and republished in 1994 by TAN Books, an Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC. The type in this book is the property of TAN Books, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part, without written permission of the Publisher. (This restriction applies only to reproduction of this type, not to quotations from the book.)

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 93-61596

Cover design by Milo Persic.

Cover image: Our Lady gives the Rosary to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. From Saint Dominic's Church in the town of Stone, Staffordshire, England. Photo copyright © 2008 by Br. Lawrence, O.P.

TAN Books

Charlotte, North Carolina

2012

I have given thee My own most merciful Mother for thine, and it is through her that I will dispense My graces to thee.

—Words of Our Lord to

St. Gertrude (See p. 55).

OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

THE LIFE OF MARY AS SEEN BY THE MYSTICS

MARY COMMUNES WITH THE SAINTS (retitled and republished as SAINTS WHO SAW MARY)

THE MYSTERY OF THE WIZARD CLIP (booklet)

WORLD SURVEY OF CATHOLIC LEPROSY WORK (booklet)

OUR LADY AND ST. FRANCIS

FIFTY ANIMAL STORIES OF ST. FRANCIS

THE WOUNDED HEART: ST. CHARLES OF SEZZE, FRANCISCAN BROTHER

FRANCISCAN MYSTIC: THE LIFE OF BLESSED BROTHER GILES OF ASSISI

TRUE JOY FROM ASSISI: THE ASSISI EXPERIENCE OF INNER PEACE AND JOY–AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY OF ST. FRANCIS

THE ROOTS OF ST. FRANCIS: A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN ASSISI AND UMBRIA BEFORE ST. FRANCIS

Co-editor with Ignatius Brady, O.F.M., author of Introduction and Appendices, and compiler of Bibliography of SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI: A BIOGRAPHY, by Omer Englebert, 2nd English ed., revised and augmented; translated by Eve Marie Cooper.

Articles in THE NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA

Articles and Book Reviews in THE CORD and WAY OF ST. FRANCIS.

TRANSLATIONS

THE LITTLE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS

THE PERFECT JOY OF ST. FRANCIS, by Felix Timmermans

THE REVELATIONS OF ST. MARGARET OF CORTONA, by Ange Marie Hiral, O.F.M.

AN APOSTLE OF TWO WORLDS: GOOD FATHER FREDERIC JANSSOONE, O.F.M., by Romain Légaré, O.F.M.

Member of the International Society of Franciscan Studies, Assisi, and holder of an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from St. Bonaventure University, 1982.

CONTENTS

Foreword

1. St. Gregory the Wonderworker

2. St. Meinrad and St. Conrad of Constance

3. St. Bernard of Clairvaux

4. St. Francis of Assisi

5. The Seven Servite Saints

6. St. Simon Stock

7. St. Mechtilde

8. St. Gertrude

9. St. Bridget of Sweden

10. St. Catherine of Siena

11. St. Bernardine of Siena

12. St. Frances of Rome

13. St. Nicholas of Flue

14. St. Ignatius of Loyola

15. St. Teresa of Avila

16. St. John of the Cross

17. St.Catherine Labouré

FOREWORD

THE CHAPTERS of this book were originally published as a series of articles in Our Lady of the Cape magazine. The author herewith expresses his gratitude to the editors of that magazine, the Reverend Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Guardians of the National Canadian Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, for permission to reprint the articles in this book.

Each chapter is based on research in the most authoritative and scholarly biographical sources which the writer was able to find in the Library of Congress [where he was employed for 31 years] and in the Catholic University library.

These brief but inspiring glimpses of Our Lady which have been granted to some of the Saints can be considered, as it were, a continuation of the materials compiled in The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics.

Of course, there are many other saints who have been privileged to see or speak with Our Lady. Many more chapters could have been added to the book, but this would have made for a huge work. Rather, these stories may be considered a small sample of the many wonderful interventions of Mary in the lives of the Saints.

May these mystical communings of the Mother of God with some of her greatest devotees stimulate us, especially in this Marian year [1954], to know and love her better!

CHAPTER ONE

ST. GREGORY

THE WONDERWORKER

(c. 213-268)

IN THE TOWN of Neocaesarea in Asia Minor during the third century after Christ, there lived a rich and prominent family of pagans whose son, Gregory, was a brilliant and promising young law student. He possessed a keen and inquiring mind, and he relentlessly pursued the truth no matter where it might lead him. Now while he was on a trip to Palestine, Divine Providence, as Gregory himself tells us, led him to meet the fiery Christian philosopher Origen. And when this inspiring teacher had proved to Gregory the necessary limitations of human reason in the most important of all fields of knowledge, namely religion, the young man opened his mind to the light of God's grace and became a fervent and convinced apostle of Christ.

After seven years of study under Origen in the Holy Land, Gregory returned to his home in Neocaesarea. No doubt his friends were shocked to find that this distinguished young man had become a devout, reserved, and humble convert to a mystical other-worldly sect. Certainly Gregory must have been shocked to learn that in all this great and prosperous city, which was steeped in vice and idolatry, there were exactly seventeen Christians.

But he was even more disturbed when he heard that the archbishop of the province was planning not only to ordain him a priest, but also to make him a bishop. In his humility Gregory fled into the desert to think over this unexpected summons. Finally he came to realize that God Himself was calling him to share with his pagan neighbors the grace of conversion which God had given him. So he made an agreement with the archbishop that, after a period of spiritual preparation in the solitude of the desert, he would come to be ordained and consecrated.

Now he set about purifying his mind and soul. But he was sorely troubled by one problem. At that time the most bitter controversy was raging over the exact nature of the Holy Trinity, for the language of theology was not so precise then as it has since become. And Gregory also knew that some of the teachings of Origen were not considered orthodox. Consequently, knowing that as a shepherd of souls he would soon have to teach the truth on these difficult subjects, he turned to God and sought divine light in fervent and continuous prayer.

One night he fell asleep while still meditating. Then, all of a sudden, a venerable old man with an air of almost superhuman dignity and beauty was standing before him. Gregory jumped to his feet in amazement and asked the stranger, Who are you? What do you want?

The old man replied quietly and soothingly, Calm yourself, my son. I have come to help you.

Somehow Gregory immediately felt reassured, and the other continued in his gentle voice: God has sent me to enlighten you, to solve the problems that are troubling you, and to teach you the truth you are seeking.

As Gregory was beginning to feel new hope and joy, the stranger raised his hand and pointed to one side.

Looking in that direction, Gregory perceived a dazzling light, in the midst of which was a woman whose beauty, grace, and majesty were utterly godlike. As he lowered his eyes before this marvelous being, he heard the lovely woman tell the old man, whom she called John the Evangelist, to explain to Gregory the mystery of the Divine Trinity.

Then St. John said, I will gladly comply with the wish of the Mother of God. And he proceeded to give Gregory an exact and masterful description of the nature of the three Persons who form the Trinity, ending with these words:

There is therefore nothing created, nothing greater or less in the Trinity, nothing superadded . . . The Father has never been without the Son, nor the Son without the Spirit; and this same Trinity is immutable and forever unalterable.

In a flash all Gregory's questions were perfectly answered, and he was filled with an inspiring new insight into the deepest mysteries of the Divinity. But now, to his intense sorrow, both the gracious Virgin and St. John vanished from his sight. However, with a prayer of thanks in his heart, he immediately set down in writing the exact words which he had just heard.

And henceforth, as Cardinal Newman writes, he preached in the Church according to that form, and bequeathed to posterity, as an inheritance, that heavenly teaching. Moreover, Gregory's life was marked by an abundance of miracles. As a result, when Gregory died about thirty years later, he had richly earned his title of St. Gregory the Wonderworker–that is, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus–and in all the city of Neocaesarea there were exactly seventeen non-Christians.

OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP. The Mother of God can never be outdone in loving generosity. She appeared to St. Gregory the Wonderworker (c. 213-268), accompanied by St. John the Evangelist, and instructed St. John to explain to Gregory the mystery of the Divine Trinity. In a flash, all of St. Gregory's questions were answered. With thanks in his heart, the Saint wrote down the exact words he had been told.

WITH DIVINE ASSISTANCE, St. Gregory earned the title, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, or The Wonderworker. The Saint is credited with an abundance of miracles. The Blessed Virgin Mary, pictured above as the Sorrowful Mother, inspired St. Gregory to heavenly teaching on the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

CHAPTER TWO

ST. MEINRAD (d.861) and ST. CONRAD OF CONSTANCE

(d. 975)

EARLY IN THE ninth century, a saintly, quiet-loving young Benedictine monk named Meinrad, while passing through the city of Zurich on his way to become a teacher at the small monastery of Bollingen, was deeply thrilled when the Abbess-Princess Hildegarde gave him a lovely three-foot wooden statue of the Mother of God holding the Child Jesus in her arms.

Very often during his several years at Bollingen, young Father Meinrad used to gaze out of the window of his cell with ever-increasing longing at a forest-clad mountain on the other side of the lake, for he wished more than anything else to become a hermit and to live a life of prayer, penance and