The Life Of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich & The Nativity Of Our LORD JESUS CHRIST By Bl. Emmerich

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Anne Catherine Emmerich (Virgin, Penitent, Marian Visionary and Stigmatist) -also Anna Katharina Emmerick; 8 September 1774 – 9 February 1824- was a Roman Catholic Augustinian Canoness Regular of Windesheim, mystic, Marian visionary, ecstatic and stigmatist.
She was born in Flamschen, a farming community at Coesfeld, in the Diocese of Münster, Westphalia, Germany, and died at age 49 in Dülmen, where she had been a nun, and later become bedridden. Emmerich experienced visions on the life and passion of Jesus Christ, reputed to be revealed to her by the Blessed Virgin Mary under religious ecstasy.
During her bedridden years, a number of well-known figures were inspired to visit her.[1] The poet Clemens Brentano interviewed her at length and wrote two books based on his notes of her visions.[3] The authenticity of Brentano’s writings has been questioned and critics have characterized the books as “conscious elaborations by a poet”.
Emmerich was beatified on 3 October 2004, by Pope John Paul II. However, the Vatican focused on her own personal piety rather than the religious writings associated to her by Clemens Brentano.
“Her example opened the hearts of poor and rich alike, of simple and cultured persons, whom she instructed in loving dedication to Jesus Christ.”
— Pope John Paul II, Homily, Sunday, 3 October 2004.
The process of Emmerich’s beatification was started in 1892 by the Bishop of Münster. In 1928, however, the Vatican suspended the process when it was suspected that Clemens Brentano had fabricated some of the material that appeared in the books he wrote, and which he had attributed to Emmerich.
In 1973, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints allowed the case for her beatification to be re-opened, provided it only focused on the issue of her life, without any reference to the possibly doctored material produced by Clemens Brentano.
In July 2003, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints promulgated a decree of a miracle attributed to her, and that paved the way for her beatification.
On 3 October 2004, Anne Catherine Emmerich was beatified by Pope John Paul II.[21] However, the books produced by Brentano were set aside, and her cause adjudicated solely on the basis of her own personal sanctity and virtue.[5] Peter Gumpel, who was involved in the analysis of the matter at the Vatican, told Catholic News Service:
“Since it was impossible to distinguish what derives from Sister Emmerich and what is embroidery or additions, we could not take these writings as a criteria [in the decision on beatification]. Therefore, they were simply discarded completely from all the work for the cause.”
In 2003 actor Mel Gibson used Brentano’s book The Dolorous Passion as a key source for his movie The Passion of the Christ. Gibson stated that Scripture and “accepted visions” were the only sources he drew on, and a careful reading of Brentano’s book shows the film’s high level of dependence on it.
In 2007 German director Dominik Graf made the movie The Pledge as a dramatization of the encounters between Emmerich (portrayed by actress Tanja Schleiff [de]) and Clemens Brentano, based on a novel by Kai Meyer.