Maria Valtorta

Maria Valtorta
A black and white profile picture of Valtorta
Maria Valtorta at age 15, 1912
Born(1897-03-14)14 March 1897
Caserta, Kingdom of Italy
Died12 October 1961(1961-10-12) (aged 64)
Viareggio, Italy
Resting placeBasilica of Santissima Annunziata, Florence
NationalityItalian
GenreChristian mysticism, visions
Notable worksThe Poem of the Man-God
The Book of Azariah

Maria Valtorta (14 March 1897 – 12 October 1961) was a Catholic Italian writer. She was a Franciscan tertiary and a lay member of the Servants of Mary who reported personal conversations with, and dictations from, Jesus Christ. She lived much of her life bedridden in Viareggio in Tuscany where she died in 1961.[1] She is buried at the grand cloister of the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata in Florence.[2]

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 is based on 10,000 of the 15,000 pages in her handwritten notebooks. The 10,000 pages were mostly written from 1944-1947 and detail the life of Jesus as an extended narrative of the gospels. These handwritten pages were typed on separate pages by her spiritual advisor, Father Romualdo Migliorini, O.S.M, and chronologically reassembled into a book.[3] The additional 5,000 pages were later published as separate books.[4][5]

Her main book was placed on the (now abolished) Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1959, and has remained controversial since its publication. Various Biblical experts, historians and scientists continue to support and criticize the book to this day, and yearly conferences on the scientific and theological aspects of her writings are held in Italy.[4][6][7][8]

  1. ^ Freze, Michael (1993). Voices, Visions, and Apparitions. OSV Publishing. p. 251. ISBN 087973454X.
  2. ^ Fortune, Jane (2011). To Florence con Amore: 90 Ways to Love the City (2nd ed.). Florentine Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-8890243486.
  3. ^ Lindsey, David Michael (2001). The Woman and the Dragon: Apparitions of Mary. Pelican Publishing Company. pp. 324–326. ISBN 978-1565547315.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference RLuarentin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference IlGiornale was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Pillari was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference ToscanaO was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nazione1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).