the place where he lived was rather like Vergui, and it was afterwards laid waste by an inundation.  I do not remember that Ctesiphon was ever martyred.  He wrote several books containing details concerning the Passion of Christ; but there have been some books falsely attributed to him, and others, which were really from his pen, ascribed to different writers.  Rome has since rejected these books, the greatest part of which were apocryphal, but which nevertheless did contain some few things really from his pen.  One of the guards of our Lord’s sepulchre, who would not let himself be bribed by the Jews, was his fellow countryman and friend.  His name was something like Sulei or Suleii.  After being detained some time in prison, he retired into a cavern of Mount Sinai, where he lived seven years.  God bestowed many special graces upon this man, and he wrote some very learned books in the style of Denis the Areopagite.  Another writer made use of his works, and in this manner some extracts from them have come down to us.  Everything concerning these facts was made known to me, as well as the name of the book, but I have forgotten it.  This countryman of Ctesiphon, afterwards followed him into Spain.  Among the companions of Ctesiphon in that country were this brother Cecilius, and some other men, whose name were Intalecius, Hesicius, and Euphrasius.  Another Arab, called Sulima, was converted in the very early days of the Church, and a fellow countryman of Ctesiphon, with a name like Sulensis, became a Christian later, in the time of the deacons.

THE END.

1 Anne Catherine’s visions clearly fall in the category of private revelation.  Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition are infallible; private revelation is fallible.  However, her visions are neither mere human meditations nor pious fiction.  Her account of events in the lives of Jesus and Mary were revealed to her by God.  Although God cannot err in anything He does, errors can be introduced into private revelation by a misunderstanding on the part of the person who receives the revelation, or by an error made by the person who writes down or transmits the revelation.  Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition are immune from these types of error; private revelation is not.  Anne Catherine’s visions come from God, but they are fallible because they come to us through fallible human persons.

2 Her name in German, her native language, is Anna Katharina Emmerick.  With the decree of April 24, 2001, the servant of God Anna Katharina Emmerick has been awarded the degree of heroic virtue (Decretum super virtutibus), with which she has been awarded by Church practice the title “Venerable.”

3 In more modern times, holy persons who also had the stigmata include:  Audrey Marie Santo (Worcester, Massachusetts), Venerable Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Venerable Anna Maria Taigi, Theresa Neumann, and many others.

4 In her book, The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations, Anne Catherine Emmerich details the events of the 31/2-year Ministry of Jesus Christ.  Although she explicitly states that Christ’s Ministry lasted 31/2 years (Vol. 1, p. 496), the astute reader of that work will notice a gap of about one year.