Ephesus

Model of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Ephesus at the time of Jesus was one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean, today known as Saltçuk on the western coast of Turkey. The city then had more than 100,000 inhabitants. Its Temple of Artemis, of great renown, was considered the fourth of the Seven Wonders of the World. Its worship generated a whole trade on which much of the population lived. Maria Valtorta only mentions it once, in EMV 364, but the reason for this article is the assertion that the Assumption of the Virgin Mary took place in Jerusalem and not in Ephesus as reported by other mystics, notably Anne-Catherine Emmerich.

What Scripture and Tradition Say

The Evangelization of Ephesus: Paul and Apollos

Also, from 52 to 57, when the apostle Paul evangelized it successfully, he provoked a riot instigated by Demetrius, a prosperous silversmith who sold silver replicas of the Temple of Artemis: the conversions endangered his trade. Chapter 19 of the Acts of the Apostles reports this episode.    

Upon arriving in this metropolis, Paul found only "a few Disciples" instructed by Apollos of Alexandria, a talented speaker. He taught exactly what concerned Jesus, "but he only knew the baptism of John." Paul then baptized "about a dozen" of them who received the outpouring of the Spirit as soon as the apostle laid hands on them.    

After a first stay, Paul remained two years in Ephesus. He proclaimed the Gospel, first at the synagogue then, faced with violent opposition, in a friendly place. Maria Valtorta knows the leader of the synagogue who officiated thirty years earlier: John. He had the peculiarity of being born on the same day and in the same place as Jesus. Having become a Confessant, he returned to Palestine where he was healed and remained there as a disciple. We had wondered, without concluding, whether he was the "priest John" mentioned by Benedict XVI. But the evangelization of Ephesus is attributed to Apollos, not to this John.          

Paul not only evangelized: he performed such extraordinary miracles that they used cloths that had touched him to heal the sick. Seven itinerant Jewish exorcists, all brothers, wanted to appropriate this power. It was, apparently, a local specialty because the expression Ephesia grammata (Ephesian characters) had become a proverb to designate magical or divinatory characters. They were badly mistaken because the demon attacked them: they had to flee naked and wounded. Sceva, the father of these presumptuous exorcists, is known to Maria Valtorta, although she does not name him. He was a Sadducee, member of the Sanhedrin, devoted to necromancy which was severely condemned by Scripture. He had been the lover of Mary of Magdala (Magdalene) about thirty years before the incidents in Ephesus. One detail links his life to the divinatory practices of Ephesus: Sceva practiced a magical procedure consisting of invoking the secret name of God to bend it to their will.

John the Evangelist in Ephesus

Salton Irenaeus of Lyon (circa 130 in Smyrna - 202 in Lyon), disciple of Polycarp and contemporary of Saint John the Apostle, stayed in Ephesus before the fall of the Temple (70 AD). It was there that he wrote his Gospel, the last of the four.

"After the other Disciples, John, the disciple of the Lord who reclined on his breast, also gave his version of the gospel while he was staying in Ephesus."

Salton Clement of Alexandria, John was later exiled in 94 to the island of Patmos off the coast of Ephesus, where he wrote the Apocalypse. Ephesus is one of the seven Churches of the Apocalypse, faithful, but asleep in its former glory: forty years had passed since the beginning of its evangelization. After the death of Domitian in 96, he returned to Ephesus. From there, he radiated through local Christian communities, "sometimes to establish bishops there, sometimes to organize complete Churches, sometimes to choose as a cleric one of those who were designated by The Spirit". He died in Ephesus in 101, at about 90 years old. He is said to be buried near Ephesus, where there was a Saint John's basilica now in ruins.    

A tradition supposes that the Virgin Mary followed him during the first persecutions of Herod Agrippa in 44. This does not emerge from the visions of Maria Valtorta, nor from Scripture: Mary, born in 21 before Jesus Christ, would have "died" at 70, around the year 49, in Jerusalem. It is only after this date that John could have settled in Ephesus. Indeed, when Paul stayed there between 52 and 57, there is no trace of the apostle John, nor of the Virgin Mary. The few disciples he finds there know nothing of the baptism of the Spirit and have only received the baptism of John the Baptist announced by Apollos, a situation incompatible with the Presence of John or the Virgin Mary who had lived Pentecost. If such a stay took place, it can only be after Paul. Therefore, it would have nothing to do with the persecution of 44 in Jerusalem and would contradict sources that postulate the Assumption of Mary took place in Ephesus.

The Council of Ephesus

In 431 a council was held in Ephesus to decide the title of Theotokos (Mother of God), which popular piety attributed to Mary. Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, wanted to replace it with the title of Christotokos (Mother of Christ) because he did not believe that Jesus was true God as he was true man.    

The council, full of twists and turns, met "in the great Church called Mary". Marian devotion was very strong in Ephesus, which from our point of view is explained by the successive apostolates of Paul and John a few centuries earlier. So when the Virgin Mary was proclaimed "Mother of God" and Nestorius condemned then deposed, the people burst into joy.

A letter from this time relates this anecdote and speaks of John the apostle and the Virgin Mary. Unfortunately, the text omits an essential verb, thus opening the door to diverse opinions: some complete "Ephesus, where John and Mary died". Others interpret: "Ephesus, where John and Mary have a Church". Most put ellipses without deciding.

Maria Valtorta Distinguishes Herself from Other Mystics and Traditions

Mary’s Stay in Ephesus

"House of the Virgin Mary" near Ephesus

The presence of Mary in Ephesus took on particular importance at the end of the 19th century when her house was located at Panaghia-Capouli (Gate of the All-Holy) based on the visions of Anne-Catherine Emmerich. 

The descriptions she gave of the location led to the discovery of a building, apparently very old, identified as Mary’s house described by the visionary.

"Around the fourth year following the death of Christ, when persecution arose Against Lazarus and his people, Mary received a warning and John led her, with others, to Ephesus, where some Christians had already settled. After the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary lived about three years at Zion, three years at Bethany and nine years in Ephesus. However, the Blessed Virgin did not live in Ephesus itself; her house was located three and a half leagues from there, on a mountain visible to the left coming from Jerusalem, gently sloping toward the city. When coming from the south, Ephesus seems Ramah (Judea)ssée at the foot of the mountain; but as you approach, you see it unfold all around. To the south, one sees paths lined with magnificent trees, then narrow trails lead up the mountain, covered with rustic greenery. The summit presents a rolling and fertile plain about half a league in circumference: it was there the Blessed Virgin had settled.      

"The country was solitary and wild; among small sandy spots, caves were dug into the rock, bWater lots of fertile and pleasant hills dotted with pyramidal-shaped trees, with smooth trunks, forming beautiful shade. Before leading the Blessed Virgin to Ephesus, John had built a house for her in this place, where already bWater many holy Women and several Christian Families had settled even before the great persecution broke out. They lived under tents or in caves made habitable with some woodwork. Since caves and other places as offered by nature were used, their dwellings were isolated and often a quarter of a league apart from each other. Behind Mary's house, the only one made of stone, the mountain offered, up to the summit, only a mass of rocks from which one could see, beyond the tree-lined paths, the city of Ephesus and the sea with its many islands. A very winding watercourse meandered between the city and the dwelling of the Blessed Virgin. Later, this locality became the residence of a bishop.

"Mary’s house was square, only the rear part was rounded; windows were placed high in the walls, and the roof was flat. It was divided into two parts by the hearth, located in the center. …"

When comparing this description to the state of the place, there is no Doubt that Anne-Catherine Emmerich really had the vision. However, many details and some inconsistencies sow Doubt about the transcription we have received, and therefore about the conclusions drawn from it:    

Contradictions in A.C. Emmerich's visions:        

• Joachim Bouflet, the translator of "The Life of Mary", notes several Anachronisms in these passages of A.C. Emmerich: Mary would have died in Ephesus in 48, the supposed date of the Council of Jerusalem when the visionary actually attended it a few years earlier. James the Greater (son of Zebedee) would have witnessed Mary's death in Ephesus before suffering martyrdom in Jerusalem. But he is dated to 44.

• The description of Mary’s square house does not correspond to the discovered building, which is apparently a Church, except for a few insufficient details for a real identification (e.g. the hearth is not in the square house, …).    

• Archaeology dates the building to the 4th century and not the first.        

Contradictions with Scripture:

• Regarding the spirit: Mary and John, at the foot of the Cross, proved that fidelity to Christ was above fear. Mary did not flee Jerusalem out of fear of persecutions! Applied to Christ by Peter, this thought earned him his vade retro Satanas!. James of Zebedee the Apostle died a martyr in Jerusalem during Herod-Agrippa’s persecution. James of Alphaeus the Apostle was murdered there 20 years later. It is in this city that Paul confronted John after 17 years of apostolate (Galatians 1 and 2). If the other Apostles dispersed, it was to spread the Gospel, not out of fear.    

• Regarding the letter: whereas Mary and John would have resided for several years in Ephesus, this city was evangelized shortly afterwards only by Apollos then by Paul (Acts 18 and 19). There is no memory of Mary’s Presence nor of all the faithful who, according to Emmerich, served Mary. Paul finds only a handful of believers who do not know the Holy Spirit and are not baptized in his name. All these are incoherent and incompatible elements with the Presence of Mary and John.    

What is really the case? We only have this description from third hand: the visionary described it to Clemens Brentano who sometimes introduced his own conclusions drawn from other readings that fascinated him. After his death, his brother Christian and his widow took up Clemens’s thousands of notes to write "The Life of the Virgin Mary."

From Mary’s Church to Mary’s House

There has undoubtedly been a semantic shift from "Mary’s house" due to the very strong Marian piety of the Ephesians, no doubt under the effect of the apostle John who stayed there toward the end of his life. First a "Church of Mary", it became a major place of Marian worship after the Council of Ephesus which proclaimed her Theotokos (Mother of God), one of her greatest titles of Glory, if not the foremost. This event gradually shifted toward the notion of residence, then of Dormition. But A.C. Emmerich saw "Mary’s Church" where the council was held.      

Moreover, the three popes (Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI) who visited the House of Mary at Panaghia Capouli, honored the Theotokos and the council, and not the house where Mary lived.

The Tradition of Ephesus

The tradition of Mary staying in Ephesus did not start with Anne-Catherine Emmerich: already Mary of Ágreda, in the 17th century notes Mary’s passage in Ephesus, but she dies (dormition) in Jerusalem.  

According to her, "a whole year had passed since the death of our Savior, when the Apostles resolved, by divine inspiration, to go preach the faith throughout the world." Each receives by The Holy Spirit the indication of the lands to evangelize. John is assigned to assist and serve the Virgin Mary and administer her the Eucharist. He shares these duties with James the lesser. When persecutions come, John suggests to Mary to leave for Ephesus. They find refuge with some faithful who came from Palestine. Mary "chose for her dwelling the house of some poor Women, who lived without any company of men in seclusion and solitude […] they stayed in this house as long as they remained in this city of Ephesus". John and Mary would only definitively leave Ephesus to attend the Council of Jerusalem (year 48 or 49). City where she returns to die. There too the stay of John and Mary in Ephesus would have preceded Paul's arrival who finds no trace of their passage or evangelization.        

Pope Benedict XIV (Lambertini) was in favor of this stay in Ephesus, perhaps under the influence of the revelations of Mary of Ágreda, it is unknown.    

If the testimonies on the Presence of John in Ephesus are numerous, the Presence of Mary is only attested from the 5th century at the Council of Ephesus where the phrase is unfortunately truncated of the verb necessary for its full meaning. The mystical sources that attest it contradict each other, and the testimony of the Acts of the Apostles does not endorse this hypothesis.

For Further Reading

• Mgr Andrew the Apostle Timoni, Panaghia Capouli or the House of the Holy Virgin near Ephesus. 1896. This illustrated booklet includes the plan of the Church (the house) of Mary.
• Reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis.
• Ephesus today on Biblelieux.

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The Gospel as it was revealed to me (Maria Valtorta).

Extraordinary assembly of representatives of the Catholic Church, convened to discuss and collectively decide on important issues.

Person or animal who has been killed by stones. This punishment was used in the East and especially among the Jews. (For example, Jews stoned adulterers, blasphemers).