On
this blog we have two articles about Catholic mystics Therese Neumann and Anne Catherine Emmerich who,
in their visions, saw Jesus and other Biblical characters as having
red/auburn hair.
I
recently found out that another mystic, the Italian Maria Valtorta,
had similar visions.
 |
| Maria Valtorta at age 15, 1912 |
Maria
Valtorta (14 March 1897 – 12 October 1961) was a Franciscan tertiary and a
lay member of the Servants of Mary who lived much of her life
bedridden in Viareggio, Tuscany.
She
is best known for her 5,000 page book The
Poem of the Man-God,
first published in 1956 and later titled The
Gospel as Revealed to Me.
The book was mostly written from 1944-1947 and was later translated
into many languages.
Valtorta
was born in Caserta, just north of Naples. Her parents were from
Lombady, northern Italy. Her father, Giuseppe, was in the Italian cavalry; her
mother, Iside, was a teacher of French. Following her father’s
regiment, the family moved first to Faenza and then to Milan. In
1913, after Giuseppe’s retirement, the family settled in Florence.
In
1917 Valtorta volunteered as a Samaritan nurse and for 18 months
worked at a military hospital set up in Florence to care for the
wounded soldiers who had returned from the war.
 |
| In 1918, at age 21, in the uniform of a Samaritan nurse, during the First World War |
In
March 1920, when she was 23 years old, Maria was walking on a street
in Florence with her mother, when the young son of her mother's
dressmaker struck her in the back with an iron bar and shouted a
slogan against the wealthy and the bourgeoisie. As a result of that
injury, she was confined to bed for a few months and although she
seemed to have recovered, the complications from that incident
eventually confined her to bed for 28 years, from April 1934 to the
end of her life.
In
October 1924, when Maria was 27 years old, the Valtorta family moved
from Florence to the nearby city of Viareggio.
In
1942, Valtorta was visited by Romualdo Migliorini, then a priest of
the Servants of Mary and later a bishop. He became her spiritual
director and suggested she write her autobiography, which she
completed in 1943.
After
completing her autobiography, in Valtorta began writing a series of
what she claimed were messages from Jesus. From 1943 to 1947 Valtorta
wrote about 15,000 pages in her notebooks, 10,000 of which were later
selected as the basis of her main book The
Poem of the Man-God,
and the rest were gradually organized and published after her death.
Valtorta was initially reluctant to have any of her handwritten notes
published, but in 1947 her priest convinced her to agree to their
publication.
Maria
Valtorta died in 1961, at age 64, and was buried in the town cemetery
in Viareggio. Later, in 1973, her remains were moved to the chapel of
the great cloister of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in
Florence.
Valtorta's
work has continued to remain controversial and various Biblical
experts, historians and scientists support and criticize it to this
day, and yearly conferences on the scientific and theological aspects
of her writings are held in Italy. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later
Pope Benedict XVI) and Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi have written
letters stating that the material in the book is just literary and
has no supernatural origin.
 |
| Tomb of Maria Valtorta at the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata in Florence |
Here
are some excerpts from Valtorta’s notebooks.
29 December 1943
Capelli
più chiari nella Madre, più accesi nel Figlio, ma sempre d’un
biondo tendente al color rame e ugualmente fini, morbidi e mossi in
onde…
Hair
fairer than his Mother’s, more vibrant in the Son, but always of a
coppery blond, equally fine, soft and wavy...
7 April 1944
Capelli
divisi alla metà del capo e ricadenti in lunghe ciocche sino alle
spalle. Ondulati per un buon palmo, poi terminanti in vero ricciolo.
Lucidi, sottili, ben ravviati, di un colore biondo acceso che specie
nel ricciolo finale ha decise tonalità di rame... Essa [la barba] è,
dove è folta, di un color rame scuro: un biondo-rosso scuro. E così
sono i baffi...
Hair
parted in the middle and falling in long strands to the shoulders.
Wavy for a good hand's breadth, ending in a true curl. Shiny, fine,
well-styled, a bright blonde colour that, especially in the final
curl, has bold copper tones… It [the beard] is, where it is thick,
a dark copper colour: a dark red-blond. And the moustache is the
same...
7 June 1944
… folte
ciglia di un castano scintillante di biondo-rosso ... bei capelli
lunghi e morbidi, dal biondo rosso più vivo nei punti in luce e più
cupo nel fondo delle pieghe.
… thick
lashes of a shimmering red-blond brown... beautiful long, soft hair,
with a brighter red-blond in the highlights and darker at the bottom
of the folds.
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