The house of Mary

[Greenham]

If you’re not familiar, there’s a house in Ephesus purported to be the home of the Virgin Mary. It was discovered after Catherine Anne Emerich recorded visions of where it was and what it looked like, and expeditions verified the reports. According to one webpage:

Archbishop Timoni of Ismir convened a commission to investigate the discovery in the late nineteenth century. He composed a lengthy document that was signed by every member of the commission. It listed in detail the priests’ findings and showed how they conformed exactly to the descriptions of Sister Catherine. The document concluded, “The ruins are truly the remains of the House inhabited by the Virgin Mary.”

Anyone know if there is a resource where I can directly compare her descriptions to the actual house?

 

[Arizona_Fat_Gir]

I wish I knew more about it, too. I wonder if Mary always lived alone? I guess St. John came and went on his different missions.

 

[pianistclare]

Catholics have known about Mary’s house in Ephesus for eons. It was built by St, John (a temple/church in his honor was erected there…only the ruins remain) and hte FRanciscan Order has been charged with protecting it ( as they do many of the places about the Holy Land). It’s cruciform.
Google is your friend.
Peace!

 

[Greenham]

Google is your friend.

I came here after spending hours with Google without finding answers to my questions.

If your contention is that the Emmerich visions were irrelevant to the Catholic Church’s knowledge of the house, I’d like to see a source for that, because it contradicts everything I read so far.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

I came here after spending hours with Google without finding answers to my questions.

If your contention is that the Emmerich visions were irrelevant to the Catholic Church’s knowledge of the house, I’d like to see a source for that, because it contradicts everything I read so far.

I think that Pianist Clare is perhaps relating the story more from our perspective in Europe than what seems to be circulated among the English speaking, particularly of the United States…if I may say.

I, too, in my younger days led pilgrimages to this site as it is convenient to visit the House of the Lady, and celebrate Mass there, along with visits to where the Council of Ephesus was held in 431 that proclaimed the Theotokos as well as what remains of the Basilica of Saint John and also to visit the ancient city…all of which are more excavations than functioning holy sites.

The Blessed Anne Catherine is alleged to have had visions of the house, as it was in the first century.

The people of the locale, on the other hand, had preserved a memory of the residence, which was of course in ruin after so many centuries.

A French Daughter of Charity, Soeur Marie de Mandat-Grancey, combining what she knew from the geographical/topographical descriptions of Emmerich and relying on the help of locals was able, as it were, to bring the two together.

The mountain that had been preserved in oral tradition as where the Virgin was supposed to have lived matched the descriptions given by Emmerich and the remnants of a structure that had been remembered as being the house was found to, indeed, match the layout of what Emmerich described.

The story of the French Sister exists in English although, of course, the source texts are obviously in French.

tanbooks.com/index.php/blessed-virgin/life-of-sr-marie-de-mandat-grancey-mary-s-house-in-ephesus.html

 

[pianistclare]

I came here after spending hours with Google without finding answers to my questions.

If your contention is that the Emmerich visions were irrelevant to the Catholic Church’s knowledge of the house, I’d like to see a source for that, because it contradicts everything I read so far.

??? What? Where did you get THAT?
I said nothing about visions.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Do the Muslims also see this as a Holy Site?

 

[Don_Ruggero]

Do the Muslims also see this as a Holy Site?

The Muslims in the area certainly did.

 

[Greenham]

??? What? Where did you get THAT?
I said nothing about visions.

That’s my point. I mentioned her visions in the original post, and you made no mention of them, and spoke as though knowledge of the house was present long before her visions.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

That’s my point. I mentioned her visions in the original post, and you made no mention of them, and spoke as though knowledge of the house was present long before her visions.

There, in fact, was a knowledge of the house before the visions…but it was a very localised knowledge and crosses the divide between the Church of the West and the Churches of the East.

Regarding the primary source document you are seeking, I suggest trying to obtain the book I recommended via a library. It is too many years now since I read it but I would have to believe the author included a primary source document of a diocesan commission…it is too central to leave out. I remember the book as well written and quite good but my memory cannot recall the level of specificity your question demands.

 

[The_Serpent]

If you’re not familiar, there’s a house in Ephesus purported to be the home of the Virgin Mary. It was discovered after Catherine Anne Emerich recorded visions of where it was and what it looked like, and expeditions verified the reports. According to one webpage:

Anyone know if there is a resource where I can directly compare her descriptions to the actual house?

The links will take you to the relevant books on the subject. “The Life of Sr. Marie de Mandat-Grancey and Mary’s House in Ephesus”; and the primary source is Emmerich’s visions in “The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations: From the Visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (Complete Set of 4)”.

tanbooks.com/index.php/life-of-sr-marie-de-mandat-grancey-mary-s-house-in-ephesus-2625.html

tanbooks.com/index.php/life-of-jesus-christ-and-biblical-revelations-from-the-visions-of-ven-anne-catherine-emmerich.html

 

[JW55]

We visited there and it was a particularly significant pilgrimage for my wife. It was quite an experience. However, I felt we were hustled thru it and thus not given time to allow the reverence it warranted.