Father François Marxer: "The Mystic Women"

"The Mystic Women, History and Dictionary" brings together under the direction of Audrey Fella, 517 entries written by 80 authors including Fr. François Marxer (1947-2023) who wrote the postface and the entry on Maria Valtorta.

Audrey Fella conducts her research and publications on Woman and the sacred. She wrote the preface and introduction of the work (43 pages).

Fr. F. Marxer was a diocesan priest. He taught the history of spirituality and spiritual theology at the Faculty of Theology of the Centre Sèvres in Paris (Jesuit higher education and research institute).

This collective work displays three specificities:

• Mysticism, devalued by our time but which regains a certain renewed interest.
• The specific contribution of Woman in this relationship.
• The universal view of this path to the absolute which, finding its epicenter in Christianity, is not confined to it.

So it is very appropriate that Maria Valtorta is mentioned in such a work.

Mysticism

In her preface, Audrey Fella draws this picture of contemporary mysticism which very well describes the view that a certain current establishment too often, alas, holds towards Maria Valtorta.

"Defined as the set of beliefs and practices aimed at an intimate union of man and [God]," mysticism is today more commonly accepted as a belief or philosophical doctrine leaving an excessive role to feeling and intuition. Many authors — historians, philosophers, scientists, etc. — influenced by positivism even use this word in a frankly pejorative sense, to designate inconsistent religious daydreams or mental pathologies. Thus, 'the term mysticism is one of the most confused that exist... It can mean almost anything, provided it is irrational, obscure, pre-logical, affective and, if possible, with some strange psychosomatic manifestations,' writes Claude Tresmontant. But the term admits a completely different meaning. Originating from the Greek *mustikos*, meaning 'related to mysteries,' it designates a genuine mode of knowledge of God and the absolute, derived from experience, capable of transfiguring the human condition. Experience signifies an affective and dynamic mode of knowledge richer than notional, reflective or intellectual knowledge. [...] Mysticism thus concerns the possibility for the human Soul to enter into relation with God."

The power of mysticism reveals itself in glorious periods of the Church. For example, in the 16th century Spanish period called the Golden Age of Spanish Mysticism, from a country of 8 million inhabitants emerged great figures such as St. Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits), St. John of Avila, Doctor of the Church, St. Francis Xavier (co-founder of the Jesuits and co-patron of missions), St. Teresa of Avila, reformer of the Carmelites and Doctor of the Church, St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, etc.

Likewise, in 17th century France, the "School of Spirituality" emerged and was called the "Great Century of Souls" by Daniel-Rops. This school left a lasting mark on the Church through the various religious orders founded in France at that time: Eudists, Sulpicians, Oratorians, Lazarists, Montfortians, Visitandines, reformed Carmelites, Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul, etc.

Mysticism is original, linked to the "religious adventure" writes Audrey Fella. We cannot help but observe that its rejection or marginalization has led to the impoverishment of evangelization. The disdainful look of some of our contemporaries towards mysticism is the same as that towards private revelations (apparitions, visions, revelations), which abound in mysticism. Yet these are manifestations as ancient as religion itself; the Old Testament is full of them, St. Paul testifies to this and spirituality is paved with them.

A symptom of the gap still to be bridged: the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church concluded its work with 55 resolutions. The 47th mentioned private revelations in only one very general line lost among a text dealing with... cults.

The work and testimony of the mystic Maria Valtorta are keys of "the relationship with God" for our time. This book reminds us, the spiritual Fruits prove it.

The entry on Maria Valtorta

On four columns, pages 941 to 943, Fr. Marxer presents the case of Maria Valtorta. The entry adopts a measured tone and factual narration, even though the author advances his personal conclusions, which is legitimate. However, some inaccuracies or approximations may cause confusion. Here are the clarifications:

About Maria Valtorta

"Her mother, a French teacher, was a strict agnostic; she felt no affection for her daughter, who could not replace a son who died prematurely."

Iside, her mother, had indeed lost a little boy who died prematurely but she was ill with liver disease and was very strict, doing everything out of duty. It is unknown if the traumatic loss of her son was really the cause of her emotional coldness towards her daughter, which was real and painful. She was an advocate of minimal religion, but educated her daughter in religious institutions. Her brother, on the other hand, was an atheist.

"She made her interrupt her studies at the age of thirteen."

On February 23, 1913, she definitively left school at her mother's request: she was about to turn 16.

"The following year [1917], she enlisted as a nurse at the military hospital in Milan."

It concerned the military hospital in Florence. She was 20 and enlisted as a "Samaritan nurse" to care for the soldiers. That was the name given to these health auxiliaries.

"From January 1933, she was immobilized at home, before being bedridden permanently in 1943."

On January 4, 1933, she could no longer leave home but was still doing household chores. It was on April 1, 1934, Easter day, that she was definitively confined to bed. She remained there until her death, twenty-seven years later.

About her work

"This one [Mary of Ágreda], weakness or complacency, is reproached for having corrupted the pure revelation originally received. Her manner of narrating is seen as unfaithful or inadequate, for which there is no remedy, Christ offended refusing any correction or reframing. [...] It is clear that these divine reproaches to the Spanish visionary legitimize the Valtortian accounts."

The dictation from Jesus on September 12, 1944 specifies that only the descriptive part (the historical accounts) was flawed, but not the instructive part (the teachings) because "The Spirit provided." For reminder, Mary of Ágreda wrote her second version (the first was burned) 35 years after receiving her visions and undergoing an Inquisition trial. Jesus tells Maria Valtorta: "Anyone who describes, any prophet, is a slave to his time. At the moment he writes and sees (I speak of those who write by the will of God), he does so describing perfectly, even against his own way of seeing, conforming to his era [...] If, however, he must repeat a whole series of visions no longer having them before his eyes, after a long interval of time, he continually falls back into his own personality and the habits of his time. Those who come after are therefore startled by certain too human traces in the description of a divinely originated picture." Moreover, in his comparative study between seers, Mgr Laurentin notes there was no influence of one seer on another: "The influence of the first [Mary of Ágreda] on the others [including Maria Valtorta] does not appear to apply because, according to all confrontations, they ignore each other and are apparently independent, except Consuelo toward M. d'Agréa."

"This claim to purity and original authenticity [of Maria Valtorta] clashes with an indisputable and troubling prolixity of Christ, laboriously redundant and contrasting with the sobriety of the Gospels."

This criticism, already made by the Osservatore Romano article, encounters the two speeches of Jesus reported by the Gospels: the sermon on the mount which covers 3 of the 28 chapters of Matthew and the Last Supper discourse which covers 5 of the 21 chapters of John. Several times Jesus repeats his teachings to the Apostles, as they did not understand them immediately.

"The matter was brought before Pope Pius XII who 'orally' authorized the publication."

Fr. Marxer downplays the pope's opinion. But an audience is not a request. It takes place and concludes orally. Mgr Gagnon, for his part, considered that such a pontifical opinion, delivered before several witnesses (who hurried to note it), was de facto an imprimatur and nihil obstat.

"This was without counting on the vigilance of the Holy Office which sought to have all authorization procedures respected."

According to the testimony of Fr. A. Cecchin, one of three eyewitnesses, the pope requested that the work thus encouraged should receive a customary imprimatur. This was done in the following months. This imprimatur by Mgr C. Barneschi was contested by the Holy Office. Two other Italian bishops then offered to grant it after a thorough study by the dean of the Pontifical Lateran faculty, Mgr Ugo Emilio Lattanzi. The two bishops were successively prevented from doing so. The authorization was "snatched from their hands." A fourth, Cardinal Siri wrote that despite the favorable impression, he could not challenge the control of the Holy Office.

"An article in the very official Osservatore Romano expresses profound perplexity about the strangely contemporary style and content of the words attributed to Christ in the Valtortian visions." This perplexity is shared by Fr. Marxer.

With justice and honesty, Fr. Marxer does not mention the Index placement, since this condemnation has been abolished. This very regulated procedure did not envisage condemning a book for its style or literary quality. Maria Valtorta’s work was so marked for lack of imprimatur (CIC 1917), which must be related to the information above. But Fr. Marxer’s reflection highlights three essential points:

1. The "modernity" of Christ's words in Maria Valtorta proves that the Gospel is the same yesterday and today: it is eternal, a fundamental affirmation of Maria Valtorta’s work. The Osservatore Romano emphasizes three times the high theological level of the work.
2. The highlighting of new aspects, as were, in their time, the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption, absent from the Gospel, is a function of private revelations as recalled by Blessed Dom Guéranger or Pope Benedict XVI.
3. The fact that the O.R. devotes such a long article on its front page, usually reserved for major world and Church events, to a book by an unknown author published without publicity in a poor edition, proves the exceptional character of the work defended by "illustrious personalities". These came from the entourage of the recently deceased Pope Pius XII.

Notes and references

Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.

In a Christian sense, study concerning God and divine things in the light of Revelation.

In a Christian sense, study concerning God and divine things in the light of Revelation.

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