Mary of Agreda and Maria Valtorta

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Venerable Mary of Agreda (1602-1665)

María Jesús de Ágreda (1602-1665) is not the first seer to receive visions of the Gospel. However, she is the first to receive such comprehensive visions (relayed in approximately 1,800 pages), even though entire sections of the Public Life of Jesus are not mentioned. She thus inaugurates the monumental visions later received by the Blessed Anne-Catherine Emmerich (Anna Katharina Emmerick; 1774-1824) and Maria Valtorta (1897-1961). Unfortunately, the late writing (thirty-three years apart) of her visions very likely allowed personal memories to interfere with the initial vision, which she herself acknowledges. While the historical part of the accounts may have been influenced, it remains that the theological value of her work, innovative in several areas, makes it a reference book in revealed lives.

Her life[edit | edit source]

María Fernandez Coronel, better known as María Jesús de Ágreda, was born in Ágreda, Province of Soria (Castile and León), on April 2, 1602, into a family of four children, of Francisco Coronel and Catalina Arana (Catherine de Arana). The Province of Soria is one of the most deserted in Spain.

Her entire existence took place in her hometown. On January 13, 1619, at just over sixteen years old, she entered a Franciscan order: the Order of the Immaculate Conception (Discalced Conceptionists, under the jurisdiction of the Friars Minor). She took the habit in her family home (bequeathed to be transformed into a convent), with her mother and sister, while her father and two brothers entered another Franciscan order, the Brothers of the Blessed Sacrament. It was indeed before her father, who had become a Franciscan friar, that she pronounced her vows on February 2, 1620. She never left the cloister until her death.

Her early years of convent life were marked by many temptations and extraordinary difficulties, such as mystical external phenomena that attracted the curiosity of those around her (ecstasies, levitations, bilocations…). She asked the Lord to deliver her from these, and she obtained it.

The second phase of her life began when she was elected abbess in 1627; she was twenty-five years old. She was re-elected until her death, except for the three years from 1652 to 1655, at her request. During her thirty-five years of governance, she maintained the life and regular observance and prospered the goods of the community. She built a new convent inaugurated in 1633; at the same time, she notably increased the revenues to the point of supporting thirty-three nuns, instead of the twelve she directed at the beginning of her abbacy.

She had as spiritual advisors two Franciscan theologians and scholars: Friar Francisco Andrés de la Torre, from 1623 to 1647, and Friar Andrés de Fuenmayor, from 1650 until her death.

The era of visions[edit | edit source]

The year of her election (1627, when she was 25), Mary of Agreda received her visions. Tormented inwardly, she waited ten years before writing her revelations. An occasional confessor made her burn her writings because "women should not write in the holy Church"[1]. however, the ordinary confessor of the community ordered her to rewrite it. She did so, from December 8, 1655 to May 6, 1660[2], shortly before her death, overcoming revulsions, conflicts, and intense temptations.

Her trial by the Spanish Inquisition first took place in 1635. It concerned what was said about the nun. At that time, they limited themselves to questioning various witnesses and informants. But in 1649, the trial resumed, and Mary of Agreda participated directly. On January 18, 1650, her interrogation began at the convent of Ágreda and lasted until January 29, six hours a day except Sunday. Mary's answers satisfied the qualifiers of the Holy Office; they approved Mary's holiness and knowledge, and the Grand Inquisitor confirmed their approval. Her epistolary relations, begun in 1643, with King Philip IV of Spain must have played a role in the verdict, but this does not lessen the stress caused by an appearance before the Spanish Inquisition, which still felt the fires of the Reconquista period.

Mary of Agreda died on May 24, 1665, Pentecost Day. Such a crowd surrounded the monastery to venerate her remains that the Governor had to use force to clear it. Following the miracles due to her intercession, her cause was introduced on November 21, 1671, and declared Venerable by decree of Pope Clement X on September 2, 1679. He introduced her cause of beatification shortly thereafter.

Her work[edit | edit source]

Her work was one of the longest religious controversies of the late 17th century and lasted until the mid-18th century. Considering the controversies raised, her beatification process remained pending.

Three historical writings are particularly significant of Mary of Agreda’s fruitful life:

  • La Mistica Ciudad de Dios (The Mystical City of God), her main work started in 1637,
  • her correspondence with Philip IV of Spain, begun in 1643,
  • and the report of the personal examination carried out by the tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition in January 1650.

The Mystical City of God[edit | edit source]

The eight books of the Mystica Ciudad de Dios, rewritten thirty-three years after the original visions, follow the order of the life of the Virgin Mary. The work comprises three parts:

  1. from the predestination of the Virgin to the Incarnation (Books 1-2),
  2. from the Incarnation to the Lord's Ascension (Books 3-6),
  3. from the Ascension to the Assumption and the crowning of Mary in heaven (Books 7-8).

Each part is:

  • preceded by an introduction,
  • followed, from chapter 16 of the first book, by a "Doctrina que me dio la Reina del cielo" (Instruction that the Queen of Heaven gave me).

Each chapter describes an episode in the life of Jesus (Books 3 to 6) and Mary (Books 1 to 8). However, the subject of this history remains Mary, the Mystical City in whom God dwells and delights.

The second version, the only one we know[3], is probably enriched with more important spiritual teachings than the first:
15. "I wrote a second time by the will of the Lord and by the order of obedience, this divine history because, the first time, the light by which I knew its mysteries was so abundant, and my incapacity so great, that the tongue could not express all things, nor the terms or the lightness of the pen be sufficient to declare them. Therefore, I left some things out, and today I find myself, with the help of time and the new knowledge I have received, more disposed to write them; and yet I will always omit much of what is revealed to me and what I have known; for it is absolutely impossible to say everything in such abundance. Besides this reason, the Lord made me know another: that the first time I wrote, the care of the material and arrangement of this work occupied me greatly, and then temptations and fears were so great, the storms that fought and agitated me so excessive that, fearing to seem rash for having undertaken such a difficult and important work, I resolved to burn all I had written; and I believe this was not without a singular permission of the Lord, because, in the troubles I was, my soul was not disposed to receive all the suitable preparations that the Most High wanted to provide me so that I might write, engraving His Doctrine in me; and to oblige me later to write it as He now commands, which can be inferred from the following event (Introduction, § 15)."

Style[edit | edit source]

It is not a doctrinal and theological exposition (although it contains much theology and spiritual doctrine). The narration of episodes in the lives of Jesus and Mary alternates with teachings given by Mary for a spiritual and universal scope.

But the vicissitudes of the narration of the visions, notably the long interval between their writing and the initial visions, as well as the psychological pressures to which Mary of Agreda was subjected, have introduced elements of the era, as Jesus later confirmed to Maria Valtorta.
"Do you see? There is a person wishing to know something about the enigma of Agreda? Who ruined the truly holy work of Mary de Agreda? Men's haste [the intervention of her director], which prompted caution and resentment. It forced a remake of the descriptive part by the illuminated woman. In the part containing instruction the Spirit provided, and its teaching remains the same. What did that remake lead to? Great suffering, exertion, and disturbance in the illuminated woman and corruption of the magnificent primitive work.

"Every describer and prophet is a slave to his time. While he writes and sees (I am speaking of those writing by God's will), he writes by describing exactly, even in a manner contrary to his mode of seeing, in keeping with his times. He is astonished, for instance, at not seeing one thing or another or at noticing objects and ways of life different from those in his time, but he describes them as he sees them. When having to repeat a whole series of visions without seeing them any more, however, some time after the visions were received, he falls over and over into his own personality and the customs of his time. And those coming after are then dismayed by certain excessively human traces in the sketching of a picture from God.

"Mary de Agreda, in the descriptive part, thus fell into the frills of Spanish humanism, turning the holy poverty in which my Mother lived, her sublime creation on earth, and her reigning in Heaven into a bundle of elements of rutilant pomp from Spain's royal court in the most pompous era there has ever been. Her tendency as a Spaniard, and a Spaniard of her time, and suggestions by others‑who, because they were Spaniards, and of that time, were led to see, dream, conceive of, and transfer into the eternal and supernatural domain what was temporary and human‑adorned the descriptions with the tinsel which deforms without honoring.

"It is a big mistake to impose certain remakes! The human mind' Perfect and very imperfect, it cannot repeat something‑especially a work of this kind and these proportions‑without falling into errors‑involuntary ones, but doing harm to what was perfect because it was illuminated by God."[4]
Hence three faults:
  • artificially re-composed language,
  • an abundance of superstructures,
  • with an excess of the marvelous.
However, the clear, methodical, almost "Cartesian" exposition in its demonstration captivates its reader. It presents a life of Mary proper to teaching and spirituality. In Mary of Agreda, the "catecheses" of the Virgin Mary stand out especially. They carry a deep and fruitful spiritual meaning that the Virgin Mary explains to Mary of Agreda:
In past centuries some of the mysteries concerning me have been successively revealed; but the fullness of this light has been communicated to you, [...] so that men may seek their remedy and eternal salvation through my intercession.
The text adopts a narrative, clear, and methodical genre. The authoritative situation in which Mary of Agreda lived all her life and the era in which she wrote give a particular tone to her style. The French translation, 1715, dates her work, which is nevertheless easy to read.

The sufferings of its author[edit | edit source]

Mary of Agreda explains herself about the torment that was the elaboration of this work:
The Most High crucified my heart throughout my life with a continual fear I cannot express, caused by the uncertainty I was in, not knowing if I was on the right path, if I was losing His friendship or if I was in His grace.[5]
The testimony of her last confessor, Fr. Fuenmayor, recorded by the Inquisition tribunal, confirms that the composition of this work "was a painful passion and a cross for its author"[6].

The theological value of the work[edit | edit source]

In Mary of Agreda's work, the doctrine relative to the prerogatives and functions of the Mother of God is inspired by Scripture, notably the Apocalypse of John. Julio Campos, in the encyclopedic notice devoted to her, defines Mary de Ágreda’s work in terms that apply perfectly to the work of Maria Valtorta:
The text adopts a narrative genre; it is not a doctrinal and theological exposition, although there is much theology and spiritual Doctrine. This narration overflows the framework of history and ventures into the transcendent domain of time and space.
He concludes:
Among Mary of Agreda’s teachings on the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the Co-Redemption, universal mediation, royalty, on the role of mother and mistress the Virgin Mother fulfills towards the Church, some were later confirmed dogmatically[7].
Without any doubt, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between what belongs to private revelation and what is the fruit of knowledge. Mary of Agreda sometimes says she cannot well discern one from the other. But she is very aware of the clarity, more or less great, of the lights she receives[8].

The controversy[edit | edit source]

The theological battle triggered around Mary de Ágreda's work lasted almost a century. It was condemned by the Roman Inquisition (1681), but approved by the Spanish Inquisition (1686) following theological commissions working on the work since the Venerable's death (1665). The kings of Spain obtained from Pope Innocent XI then Innocent XII that the publication of the decree of prohibition be suspended where it had not been proclaimed[9]. Quickly, the controversy crystallized around the Immaculate Conception, between those for whom Mary was Most Holy for having resisted sin, and those who, like Mary of Agreda, said so because she was preserved from original sin.

The Sorbonne fired broadsides against Mary of Agreda's affirmation while the universities of the Spanish empire defended it tooth and nail. At the court of Versailles, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, bishop of Meaux[10] and Eusèbe Amort in Germany, were fierce opponents of Mary of Agreda's work.

The rest is known: the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed by Pius IX in 1854 and confirmed by the Marian Apparitions at Lourdes four years later. The battle was hard: popes succeeded one another to defend Mary of Agreda’s work without success, because the weight of the Magisterium does not hold in the balance of private revelations. Sometimes Heaven must come to reinforce.

  1. Clement X (1670-1676) introduced the cause of Mary of Agreda and lifted the defense made by the Congregation of the Index.
  2. Alexander VII (1689-1691) declared that the work could be read with full safety: "licitly and without penalty."
  3. Clement XI (1700-1721) ordered that her work be completely removed from the Index of Prohibited Books where it had been placed.
  4. Clement XIII (1758-1769) declared valid the apostolic process opened 95 years earlier in Spain.
  5. Benedict XIII (1724-1730) ordered the beatification to proceed and ruled that the work should no longer be subject to further examination.
  6. Benedict XIV (Lambertini) (1740-1758) was very interested in the work and reserved judgment that would recognize the authenticity of the text (May 7, 1757), but left a paper found after his death soon after, requesting that the cause of the Venerable be left pending for fear of seeing an endless controversy between opponents and supporters of the Immaculate Conception—a dogma proclaimed a century later and confirmed by the Lourdes Apparitions!
  7. Clement XIV (1769-1774), who supported the resumption of the beatification cause, preferred to leave it there.

In the 19th century, Dom Prosper Guéranger, abbot of Solesmes, was a great defender of Mary of Agreda[11]. This restorer of the Benedictine order in France is the author notably of The Liturgical Year, a reference work for several generations, and promoter of the liturgical movement which was "like a passage of the Spirit in the Church," said Pius XII in 1956 in his closing speech of the international congress in Assisi.

In the last of his conferences on Mary of Agreda (the 28th), he settles accounts, with real relief, with the Sorbonne which had virulently attacked the Immaculate Conception promoted by The Mystical City. Strangely, it is the same subject that recently returned in charge Against Maria Valtorta, but the Liturgy cannot be "heretical"![12]

The letters exchanged with Philip IV of Spain[edit | edit source]

The Cartas del Rey nuestro Señor para Sor María de Jesùs y sus Respuestas form 614 letters published in two volumes. They have been studied under historical, political, and spiritual aspects as witnesses of the Spanish Golden Age. Mary of Agreda, in a letter preserved at the Ágreda convent, gives their origin.
"The king [...] passed through this place and entered our convent on July 10, 1643, and commanded me to write to him; I obeyed."
Perhaps this monarch sought consolation through the misfortunes that afflicted his reign.

Bibliography[edit | edit source]

Besides the sources cited in the article, note concerning the works of Mary of Agreda:

  • Mistica Ciudad de Dios. First Spanish edition in 1670. This work has led to 168 various translations. The French translation by Fr. Thomas Croset, "The Mystical City of God", dates from 1715. It has recently been reissued in facsimile by Téqui editions. It can be consulted online on the monastic library website.
  • Divine life of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. Summary of The Mystical City of God, made by Canon Victor Viala. In facsimile by Téqui editions.
  • Cartas del Rey nuestro Señor para Sor María Jesús y sus Respuestas. Two volumes, Ágreda convent. Partial first French edition: La S. Mary of Agreda et Philippe IV… Unpublished correspondence – Manuscript by A. Germond de Lavigne, National Library, Paris 1855 (42 letters).
  • The bilocations of Sister María Jesùs de Ágreda {es} - Account of the trial and of the bilocations she was responsible for.

Notes and references[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ The Mystical City of God – Introduction, § 19. This phrase is the rather "narrow" interpretation an occasional confessor made of Saint Paul's injunction: "Women must keep silent in the churches" (1 Corinthians 14:34)
  2. ↑ Between the first visions and the final point of rewriting, 33 years had passed.
  3. ↑ The first version was burned by order of an occasional confessor.
  4. ↑ Notebooks 1944 - September 24.
  5. ↑ The Mystical City of God – Introduction, § 6.
  6. ↑ Trial report, Questions 45 and 58.
  7. ↑ Julio Campos notice - Dictionary of Spirituality, encyclopedia made by Jesuit initiative, Bureschne editions 1960 – Volume 10, page 511.
  8. ↑ The Mystical City of God, Book 1, chapter 2, §§ 14 and 15.
  9. ↑ In other words, the Spanish empire at the time. So, juridically, one could read the Mystical City in Brussels or Madrid but not in Paris or Rome. This creates a rather comical situation.
  10. ↑ Remarks on the book titled: The Mystical City of God. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet.
  11. ↑ Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875), abbot of Solesmes, published a series of 28 articles on Mary of Agreda in the journal L’Univers, from May 23, 1858 to November 6, 1859.
  12. ↑ Marie of Nazareth: Response to Don Chevallier: There is no doctrinal error in the writings of Maria Valtorta.

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