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The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
2. MARY'S HOUSE IN EPHESUS.
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Mary's house was built of rectangular stones, rounded or pointed at the
back. The windows were high up near the flat roof. The house was
divided into two compartments by the hearth in the center of it. The
fireplace was on the floor opposite the door; it was sunk into the
ground beside a wall which rose in steps on each side of it up to the
ceiling. In the center of this wall a deep channel, like the half of a
chimney, carried the smoke up to escape by an opening in the roof. I
saw a sloping copper funnel projecting above the roof over this
opening.
The front part of the house was divided from the room behind the
fireplace by light movable wicker screens on each side of the hearth.
In this front part, the walls of which were rather rough and also
blackened by smoke, I saw little cells on both sides, shut in by wicker
screens fastened together. If this part of the house was needed as one
large room, these screens, which did not nearly reach to the ceiling,
were taken apart and put aside. These cells were used as bedrooms for
Mary's maidservant and for other women who came to visit her.
To the right and left of the hearth, doors led into the back part of
the house, which was darker than the front part and ended in a
semicircle or angle. It was neatly and pleasantly arranged; the walls
were covered with wickerwork, and the ceiling was vaulted. Its beams
were decorated with a mixture of paneling and wickerwork, and
ornamented with a pattern of leaves. It was all simple and dignified.
The farthest corner or apse of this room was divided off by a curtain
and formed Mary.s oratory. In the center of the wall was a niche in
which had been placed a receptacle like a tabernacle, which could be
opened and shut by pulling at a string to turn its door. In it stood a
cross about the length of a man.s arm in which were inserted two arms
rising outwards and upwards, in the form of the letter Y, the shape in
which I have always seen Christ.s Cross. It had no particular
ornamentation, and was more roughly carved than the crosses which come
from the Holy Land nowadays. I think that John and Mary must have made
it themselves. It was made of different kinds of wood. It was told me
that the pale stem of the cross was cypress, the brown arm cedar, and
the other arm of yellow palm-wood, while the piece added at the top,
with the title, was of smooth yellow olive-wood. This cross was set in
a little mound of earth or stone, like Christ.s Cross on Mount Calvary.
At its foot there lay a piece of parchment with something written on
it; Christ.s words, I think. On the cross itself the Figure of Our Lord
was roughly outlined, the lines of the carving being rubbed with darker
color so as to show the Figure plainly. Mary.s meditation on the
different kinds of wood forming the cross were communicated to me, but
alas I have forgotten this beautiful lesson. Nor can I for the moment
be sure whether Christ.s Cross itself was made of these different kinds
of wood, or whether Mary had made this cross in this way only for
devotional reasons. It stood between two small vases filled with fresh
flowers.
I also saw a cloth lying beside the cross, and had the impression that
it was the one with which the Blessed Virgin had wiped the blood from
all the wounds in Our Lord.s holy body after it was taken down from the
cross. The reason why I had this impression was that, at the sight of
the cloth, I was shown that manifestation of the Blessed Virgin.s
motherly love. At the same time I had the feeling that it was the cloth
which priests use at Mass, after drinking the Precious Blood, to
cleanse the chalice; Mary, in wiping the Lord.s wounds, seemed to me to be acting in the same way, and as she
did it she held the cloth just as the priest does. Such was the
impression I had at the sight of the cloth beside the cross.
To the right of this oratory, against a niche in the wall, was the
sleeping place or cell of the Blessed Virgin. Opposite it, to the left
of the oratory, was a cell where her clothes and other belongings were
kept. Between these two cells a curtain was hung dividing off the
oratory. It was Mary.s custom to sit in front of this curtain when she
was working or reading. The sleeping place of the Blessed Virgin was
backed by a wall hung with a woven carpet; the side-walls were light
screens of bark woven in different-colored woods to make a pattern. The
front wall was hung with a carpet, and had a door with two panels,
opening inwards. The ceiling of this cell was also of wickerwork rising
into a vault from the center of which was suspended a lamp with several
arms. Mary.s couch, which was placed against the wall, was a box one
and a half feet high and of the breadth and length of a narrow plank. A
covering was stretched on it and fastened to a knob at each of the four
corners. The sides of this box were covered with carpets reaching down
to the floor and were decorated with tassels and fringes. A round
cushion served as pillow, and there was a covering of brownish material
with a check pattern. The little house stood near a wood among
pyramid-shaped trees with smooth trunks. It was very quiet and
solitary. The dwellings of the other families were all scattered about
at some distance. The whole settlement was like a village of peasants.
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