Friday
June 10, 2005
vol 16, no. 161

If something is not from or of God, it will eventually fail, but if something is from and of God, nothing can stop it. Though several tried to silence Venerable Mary of Agreda, God saw to it that the word got out about the Word and His Immaculate Mother.

"Simply put, the book is the history and life of the Virgin Mother of God (Conception, iii). Though intended as the life of Mary, multitudes (myself included) consider it the best life of Christ outside of Holy Scripture. Not meant to impart mere knowledge, the book could be called the 'Imitation of Mary,' since its special role is identical to that of St. Louis de Montfort - forming apostles of Mary who desire to imitate our Queen and, through her, to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ. Almighty God specifically reserved the knowledge of the life and virtues of His Mother, much of it hidden in the Old Testament, for our days for this purpose."

    The primary purpose of this article is to summarize the research of three priests on the official decision of the Holy Roman Catholic Church regarding The Mystical City of God by Venerable Mary of Jesus of Agreda and to ascertain thereby whether it is permitted for anyone of any authority whatsoever to forbid the reading of this extraordinary book.

    Why is this necessary? Because there are many who believe the Church has "condemned" The City of God and has forbidden it to be read. I know many traditional priests who either once believed this or still do. One person I know threw his four-volume set away after hearing a sermon by a traditional priest, and in another case, such a priest went so far as to confiscate such a set from a nun under his direction.

    My confessor suggested The Reign of Mary for publication of this article. This is particularly appropriate since this Congregation has so distinguished itself in True Devotion to our Immaculate Queen -this being, most certainly, a primary reason they have suffered such persecution. What a glory! To suffer for Most Holy Mary! The very thought enchants me, as does the thought of banding together with those striving to practice the great devotion destined to be the "heel of the Woman" (Genesis 3:15) Holy Slavery. 1

    We must desire, pray and labor to become part of her heel by Holy Slavery, becoming so docile as to be used, poor, unknown and despised as we are, to crush the head of the ancient serpent by striving to imitate the virtues of our Immaculate Queen - all for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. And, rest assured, these are the fruits Almighty God seeks for having vouchsafed the City of God to us in these, the last ages (Apocalypse 3:12).

    The three main sources I will utilize for this article each represent extensive research of original Magisterial documents by a priest wishing to silence those who, in his day, held and taught that The City of God was "condemned" by the Church.

    The first is Abbe J.A. Boullan, doctor in theology, who extracted his book, The Admirable Life of the Glorious Patriarch St. Joseph (New York: Sadlier, 1860), from the City of God. Two appendices to this book are: "Life of Venerable Mary of Jesus, of Agreda" (pp. 241-314), and "Historical Notice of the Mystical City of God" (pp. 315-324). The former is a precise abridgement of the beautiful life of Venerable Mary written by her contemporary biographer, Most Rev. Joseph Zimenez Samaniego, who was also her Provincial in the Franciscan order and later Bishop of Placenza. The latter is a concise summary of a three-year theological study of the status which The City of God holds in the Church in which he utilizes primarily the "acts of the process for the canonization" of Venerable Mary which are documents, as he states, "of unexceptionable authority" (Boullan, 316).

    The second source is James A. Carrico's book, Life of Venerable Mary of Agreda (Stockbridge, Mass.: Marian Press), also taken from Bishop Samaniego's biography. In this book (pp. 85-91), Very Reverend Peter Mary Rookey, O.S.M., Consultor General of the Servite Order, summarizes his research of the original handwritten manuscript, The Cause for the Beatification of the Venerable Mary of Jesus de Agreda, dated 1773, found to this day (hopefully) in the Archives of the Congregation of Rites. The third source is none other than the English translation of The Mystical City of God by Rev. George J. Blatter. 2 Rev. Blatter, who spent ten years translating the original Spanish into English, and perturbed by the continued attacks against The City of God, devotes a section at the beginning of each of the four volumes in defense of the book, stating the decisions of the Popes on the subject (ex. Conception, xxi), as well as statements of various cardinals, bishops, theologians, and heads of religious orders and universities, who all seem to seek to outdo one another in heaping the highest praises on this book.

Background

    The Mystical City of God was written by Venerable Mary of Jesus of Agreda (1602-1665), a Spanish Franciscan nun, based on private revelations she received from Almighty God and Our Lady. Though comprising three parts and eight books, it is divided into four volumes for publication - The Conception, The Incarnation, The Transfixion, and The Coronation - which together total some 2,676 pages.

    Simply put, the book is the history and life of the Virgin Mother of God (Conception, iii). Though intended as the life of Mary, multitudes (myself included) consider it the best life of Christ outside of Holy Scripture. Not meant to impart mere knowledge, the book could be called the "Imitation of Mary," since its special role is identical to that of St. Louis de Montfort - forming apostles of Mary who desire to imitate our Queen and, through her, to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ. Almighty God specifically reserved the knowledge of the life and virtues of His Mother, much of it hidden in the Old Testament, for our days for this purpose.

    The original Spanish edition of 1770 was received with high praises, the book was subsequently published in many editions in all the major languages, though only in this century in English.

Tried by Fire

    Both Our Lord and Our Lady -- repeatedly commanded Venerable Mary over the space of ten years to write the book, she delaying out of a profound sense of unworthiness. Finally, communicating the command of Heaven to her confessor, Father Francis Andre de la Torre, he consulted his superiors, and they all unanimously commanded her to begin, and so she did in 1637, finishing the first part (The Conception, 610 pages) in an astonishing 20 days (Boullan, 285)! The demon was then given permission to persecute her, and succeeded in delaying the completion of the book (ibid., 286-7). Yet, by the grace of God, the book was finished around 1643.

    In 1643 King Philip IV visited Venerable Mary and, feeling "such virtue in her words,...prayed her to be his mediatrix with God for his people and himself" (ibid., 296), a correspondence which was to last right up to her death 22 years later and in which she counseled him to reform the morals of his kingdom. After the book had been written the first time, Philip IV heard of it and, though she was unwilling (out of humility), received a copy of it from her. "Astonished at the depth of the doctrine it contained, (he) submitted it to eminent theologians for examination" (Carrico, 63), one of whom was none other than the famous Dominican, John of St. Thomas, called one of "the most learned men of his time" and "one of the foremost interpreters" of St. Thomas Aquinas in history, and appointed by King Philip as royal confessor. 3 The eminent theologian stated (in a refreshingly unstuffy manner): "(I) would wager upon a whole room full of theologians that that woman possessed the divine science." 4

    As if to show to all the perfect obedience of Venerable Mary, and that she was only the instrument of Heaven, Almighty God permitted a substitute confessor to command her in 1643 to burn The City of God and all her writings (numerous by that time, all written under obedience). Immediately and "without reply, she burned all the manuscripts that were within her power" (Boullan 299; cf. Carrico, 65). Her regular confessor returned and commanded her to rewrite it. He died shortly thereafter, and the same confessor as had substituted for him before was appointed her confessor and, having come into possession of all her other writings, burned them also (Boullan, 300; Carrico, 65).

    This confessor died in 1650 and by God's mercy a prudent confessor, Father Andrew de Fuen Mayor, was appointed and he confessed her until her death in 1665. He, again with his superiors and Almighty God and our Immaculate Queen, commanded her to re-write The City of God, even threatening her with the censures of the Church to overcome her even deeper humility. She promptly obeyed, beginning on December 8, 1655 (Venerable Mary, Conception, 21) and finishing on May 6, 1660 (Carrico, 68). This time the ancient serpent was given full permission to do all in his power to hinder the work. Venerable Mary stated: "...I have not composed a sentence or a word, nor have I brought myself to write the least part of it, without experiencing more temptations than the letters of the alphabet of which it is composed" (Coronation, 5). Yet, in one of the most astonishing facts in the history of literature, Venerable Mary rewrote all 2600-plus pages essentially word-for-word! This fact is called a miracle by Pope Benedict XIV:

"...It happened, not without a miracle, that the same work was rewritten by the servant of God, without any discrepancy from the one which was burned previously, except for certain unimportant additions."5

The Prohibition and Approval

    Now we come to the heart of our topic - the decision of the Holy Roman Catholic Church regarding The City of God. The following is taken largely from the original handwritten document, The Cause for the Beatification of the Venerable Mary of Jesus of Agreda as cited by Carrico (86-90) and corroborated by Boullan (318-19, 324) and Blatter (especially Conception, xvi-xviii).

    As soon as the book appeared in print after Venerable Mary's death on May 24,1665, the Spanish Inquisition scrutinized it for fourteen years (!) and, finding nothing contrary to faith or morals, allowed the books to be read (Carrico, 86). Lest you think the Spanish Tribunal was prejudiced in favor of the Spanish nun claiming revelations, know that certainly the opposite was true, since in that epoch of Spanish history false mystics were numerous, this being, in fact, a primary reason the Inquisition was revived, not excepting even the great St. Teresa of Avila from its scrutiny. 6

    Cardinal Aquaviva, unfolding the story for Pope Benedict XIV, after citing the approval of the Spanish Inquisition and the Holy Office in Portugal, says: "The cause for the Beatification of the Servant of God having been introduced at Rome...these works were once more presented to the Supreme Inquisition, which prohibited them..." (Carrico, 87). Pope Blessed Innocent XI signed the prohibition on August 4, 1681 (ibid. Boullan, 318).

    Why was The City of God prohibited? "In regards to the circumstances of the time,' according to the postulator of the cause" of Venerable Mary (Boullan, 318). What were "the circumstances"? Primarily the controversy stirred up the influential Paris University, the Sorbonne. The facts of the case make the prohibition among the most curious in the history of the Church.

Next Week: Part Two Roadblocks
Tim Duff

FOOTNOTES:

1 St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, 1956, p. 37.

2 Washington, NJ: Ave Maria Institute, 1990. The City of God was originally published in 1914 bearing the copyright of Rev. Blatter himself and the imprimatur of His Excellency H.J. Alerding, Bishop of Fort Wayne. All subsequent English editions have been merely photographic reproductions of the original edition with newly added imprimaturs.

3 Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 1907, Vol. VIII, p. 479. More will be said of the 1907 edition later.

4 Cursus Theologus: Tome I pi XXXII - Appendix XII Joannis A .S. Toma de Agreda Judicium, as quoted in Carrico, p. 63 and p. 98, fn. 39.

5 Magnum Bullarium Romanum, edit. Luxemburg! MDCCLII, as quoted in Carrico, pp. 68-9 and p. 99, fn. 46

6 cf. William Thomas Walsh, Characters of the Inquisition, pp. 222-3; also St. Teresa of Avila, pp. 108 ff., and 233; both by TAN Books: Rockford IL, 1987.

(First Published in Reign of Mary #75, Fall 1993)

For the full volumes of Venerable Mary of Agreda's work on line, see THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD

For past articles in Fiat Voluntas Dei, see 2005tim.htm Archives