Maria Valtorta | |
|---|---|
 Maria Valtorta at age 15, 1912
| |
| Born |
March 14, 1897 Caserta, Italy |
| Died | October 12, 1961 (aged 64) Viareggio, Italy |
| Resting place | Basilica of Santissima Annunziata, Florence |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Notable works |
The Poem of the Man-God The Book of Azariah |
Maria Valtorta (14 March 1897 – 12 October 1961) was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet. She was a Franciscan tertiary and a lay member of the Servants of Mary who reported personal conversations with, and dictations from, Jesus Christ.
In her youth, Valtorta travelled around Italy due to her father's military career. Her father eventually settled in Viareggio. In 1934, an injury confined her to bed for the remaining 28 years of her life. Her spiritual life was influenced by reading the autobiography of Thérèse of Lisieux and, in 1925, at the age of 28, before becoming bedridden, she offered herself to God as a victim soul.
From 23 April 1943, until 1951 she produced over 15,000 handwritten pages in 122 notebooks, mostly detailing the life of Jesus as an extension of the gospels. Her handwritten notebooks, containing close to 700 reported episodes in the life of Jesus, were typed on separate pages by her priest and reassembled, becoming the basis of her 5,000-page book The Poem of the Man-God.
Valtorta lived most of her life bedridden in Viareggio, Italy, where she died in 1961. She is buried at the grand cloister of the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata in Florence.
Life
Joachim Bouflet notes that most Maria Valtorta's life is known "only by the autobiography she wrote on the advice of her spiritual father [Migliorini] when she was 46 years old".
Early life
Valtorta was born in Caserta, in the Campania region of Italy, the only child of parents from the Lombardy region, her father being born in Mantova and her mother in Cremona. Her father, Giuseppe, was in the Italian cavalry; her mother, Iside, was a teacher of French. At age 7 she was enrolled in the Institute of the Marcellienne Sisters and at age 12 she was sent to the boarding school in Monza administered by the Sisters of Charity.
In 1913, when she was about 16 years old, her father retired and the family moved to Florence. She stated that in 1916 she had a personal religious experience and felt a closeness to God which transformed her life.
Settling in Viareggio
Influenced by the autobiography of Thérèse de Lisieux, on 28 January 1925 (several years before becoming bedridden) she made a vow to offer herself to God as a victim soul and to renew that offer to God every day. Later, in 1943, after reading about the life of John Vianney she wrote that she also considered him a victim soul. In 1931 she took private vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.
The last day Valtorta was able to leave her house on her own, despite her high level of fatigue, was 4 January 1933. From 1 April 1934 she was no longer able to leave her bed. In 1935, a year after she was bed-ridden, Martha Diciotti began to care for her. Valtorta's father died in 1935 and her mother in 1943, after which she was mostly alone in the house, with Martha Diciotti taking care of her to the end of her life.. Except for a brief wartime evacuation to Sant’ Andrea di Compito in Lucca, from April to December 1944, during the Second World War, the rest of her life was spent in her bed at 257 Via Antonio Fratti in Viareggio.
In 1942, Valtorta was visited by Fr Romuald M. Migliorini of the Servants of Mary, who became her spiritual director. As a missionary priest, Father Migliorini had previously been the vicar apostolic in Swaziland, Africa.
Books by Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta's publications are mostly based on material she hand wrote in a series of notebooks purchased for her by her priest, Fr Migliorini. Over the years these were gathered, typed and published as books. Before anything else, she began to write her autobography and completed it in 1942.
In 1943 she began writing what she claimed to be private revelations. Some of these contains alleged visions of the life of Jesus from his birth to the Passion with more elaboration than the canonical gospels provide. This would later become her work, The Poem of the Man-God.
Valtorta was at first reluctant to have any of her writings published, but on the advice of Fr. Migliorini she agreed to publication, provided she remained anonymous.
The Poem of the Man-God
Valtorta signed a contract with Michele Pisani to publish her book, and the first of the four volumes was published without an author name under the Italian title Il Poema di Gesu (i.e. "The Poem of Jesus"). The other three volumes were also published without an author name, but had a different Italian title: Il Poema dell'Uomo-Dio (i.e. "The Poem of the Man-God").
On 16 December 1959, the Congregation of the Holy Office ordered the 4-volume work to be placed on the Index of Forbidden Books; this was formally reported in the 6 January 1960 issue of the Osservatore Romano. The front page of the January 6, 1960 issue of the Osservatore also included an anonymously written article titled "A Badly Fictionalized Life of Jesus". The article was critical of the book, and stated that the only information about the author was that her first name may be Maria. The Index was abolished in June 1966 and formal sanctions against reading books placed on the Index ended at this time.
Other books by Valtorta
After her death several other books by Valtorta were gradually published by using her handwritten note books.
Death and burial
Valtorta died in 1961 at age 64 and was buried in the town cemetry in Viareggio. Later, in 1973, her remains wer moved to the chapel of the great cloister of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata of Florence. Presiding over the services at Valtorta's "privileged burial" and the relocation of her remains from Viareggio to the Santissima Annunziata Basilica was Msgr Gabriel M. Roschini.
See also
- God-man (Christianity)
- Our Lady of Medjugorje
- Faustina Kowalska
- Anne Catherine Emmerich
- Ottavio Michelini
- Concepción Cabrera de Armida
Bibliography
- Maria Valtorta, The Poem of the Man-God, ISBN 978-99-9264-557-4
- Maria Valtorta, The Gospel as revealed to me, ISBN 978-88-7987-100-6
- Maria Valtorta, The Book of Azariah, ISBN 978-88-7987-143-3
- Maria Valtorta, Lessons on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans ISBN 978-88-7987-150-1
- Maria Valtorta, The Notebooks 1943 ISBN 978-88-7987-135-8
- Maria Valtorta, The Notebooks 1944 ISBN 978-88-7987-136-5
- Maria Valtorta, The Notebooks 1945–1950 ISBN 978-88-7987-137-2
- Maria Valtorta, The Little Notebooks ISBN 978-88-7987-383-3
- Maria Valtorta, Autobiography ISBN 978-88-7987-034-4
External links
