Daniel of Nain
Jesus raises against the funeral procession of the young man, dead for a day and a half. Everyone is moved to see a widow lose her only son. His mother has gone gray in a few hours.
Jesus stops the convoy and raises Daniel: "he commands with all the power of his voice: 'Young man! I say to you: arise!'"
Daniel immediately stands up and calls his mother "with the stammering and frightened voice of a terrified child."[1] She must teach him common gestures again.[2]
Daniel's wife must be healed: the successive sorrow and joy have brought her to the brink of madness. Later, scribes and Pharisees bombard the young Daniel with questions: What did he experience when returning to life?
"Nothing. I found myself alive and well as if I had awakened from a long and heavy sleep."
Does he remember his death?
"I remembered that I had been very ill, up to the agony. That is all."
What did he see in the interval between life and death?
"Nothing. There is nothing. A black hole, an empty space in my life... Nothing."
The Pharisees insist:
"Are you sure you were dead?"
The people of Nain leap up:
"If he was dead? And what do you want more? When we put him on the stretcher, he was already starting to smell bad. And then! With all the balms and bandages, even a giant would have died."[3]
On the evening of Good Friday, the memory of the three resurrected by Jesus: Lazarus, Miryam, the daughter of Jairus and Daniel, helps the Virgin Mary to keep hope in the Resurrection of her son.[4]-[5]
His name
Daniel means "God has judged." Historical reference: the famous prophet deported to the court of Babylon; he interprets dreams and descends with his companions into the pit where he is saved by the angel.
Where is he mentioned in the work?
EMV 189 EMV 612 EMV 649
Learn more about this character
Excerpts from the Dictionary of Gospel characters, Salton Maria Valtorta (Mgr René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Editions Salvator, 2012):
A tradition, taken up by Caesar Baronius and Saint Peter Canisius in the 16th century, names him Materne and places him in the list of the seventy-two Disciples. From the year 42 (48 according to other sources), Peter sends him to evangelize northern Gaul and the Rhineland, with two companions: Euchaire and Valère.[6]His nickname, Maternus (maternal) could mean that he owed his resurrection to his mother whose grief stirred Jesus so much.
Saint Materne, a 1st-century disciple, should not be confused with Materne of Lombardy, who lived in the 3rd century.
Notes and references
- ↑ EMV 189.1-4
- ↑ EMV 612.3
- ↑ EMV 300.3-5
- ↑ EMV 610.12
- ↑ EMV 612.3
- ↑ Testimonies of Orosius and Socrates in the 5th century, and Saints of Belgium in the first millennium by Jean Hamblenne.