The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a transcription of an extended vision by Anne Catherine Emmerich, a German Augustinian nun. The vision is a narrative account of the events from the Last Supper to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We join Christ in his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and then read for hundreds of pages about every assault Christ took on his way to his trial and every fall to the ground he took on his way to his final execution.

It’s a fascinating read at every moment, providing detailed descriptions of everything and everyone, much more dialogue than we get from the Bible and explanations to people’s actions. Emmerich claims, for example, that Judas didn’t fully realize what the priests were planning to do to Jesus and that that accounts for his madness when he realized what he’d done. She also details Herod’s bored fascination with Christ and tells us he passed no judgment to appease Pilot. Every minute of Christ final day is spelled out with increasingly meticulous and disconcerting descriptions.

It’s hard to tell if this vision was for real, but whether you believe it’s actually a vision or just a hoax, it’s an interesting and engaging account – and particularly interesting from the LDS perspective.

First of all, though the account is from a Catholic nun, and includes a major amounts of details and proceedings that are not found in the Bible, none of it really contradicts any of the many details which have been added though LDS theology. There are a few things that clearly appear interpreted from the Catholic perspective, but it’s most likely the nun was just explaining what she saw the way she understood it.

More fascinating than the lack of contradictions are the multiple references that describe accounts that include allusions to exclusively Mormon doctrines. A few examples. As far as I know, the LDS church is the only church that takes seriously the washing of the feet – such that it’s actually a rare ordinance in the church. Emmerich describes the washing of the feet as a spiritual event and seems to give it much more weight than a mere representation of servant leadership.

Some of Christ’s words also approach exclusively LDS doctrines. For example, Christ’s visions of the future fall just short of outlining a full fledged apostasy. “He saw the primitive church, numbering but few souls in her fold at first, and then in proportion as her numbers increased, disturbed by heresies and schisms breaking out among her children, who repeated the sin of Adam by pride and disobedience. He saw the tepidity, malice, and corruption of an infinite number of Christians, the lies and deceptions of proud teachers, all the sacrileges of wicked priests, the fatal consequences of each sin, and the abomination of desolation in the kingdom of God….and he beheld, as it were floating before him, all the apostates, heresiarchs, and pretended reformers, who deceive men by an appearance of sanctity.” Sounds like an outline of the Great Apostasy followed by a description that sounds rather similar to God’s own words to Joseph Smith about the state of the world.

The most striking aspect of Emmerich’s account, however, is the description of the suffering in the garden of Gethsemane. As far as I know, the LDS church is the only church that believes that the primary source of Christ’s suffering occurred in the garden before he was arrested. The LDS belief is that this is the time when the greater part of the suffering took place which atoned for the sins of all mankind. The Dolorous Passion gives just such a description. Emmerich goes on for many pages describing the anguish Christ suffered at this point, with words such as, “truly did our dear Lord writhe like a worm beneath the weight of his anguish and sufferings!” (102). She also makes it explicitly clear that it is at this point that Christ is taking the sins of the world upon him.

Another interesting note, though fairly minor, is Christ’s bleeding from every pore. Again, as far as I am aware, the LDS church is the only church that actually believes he literally bled from every pore. The description in the Bible is a simile, and so most Christians have concluded that he merely sweat heavily. The additions of the Joseph Smith Translation and passages in The Doctrine and Covenants make it clear, however, that he did actually bleed profusely – and the church has received some criticism for it. But Emmerich explains what she saw with disconcerting clarity, “his sufferings were so great, indeed, that a bloody sweat issued forth from all the pores of his sacred body,” (107) and a few pages later, “from every pore of his sacred body there burst forth large drops of blood, which fell trickling on to the ground” (112). Strange that an exclusively LDS belief should be outlined so explicitly.

It gets stranger. The vision took place in the year 1923, the same year as the unveiling of The Book of Mormon on the other side of the world. Stranger still, the series of visions took place in February through April of that year, finishing on April 6th – the holiest of days in LDS culture. Now I’m not entirely convinced that The Dolorous Passion was brought about by a genuine vision, but it makes me wonder. A detailed account of the final days of Christ, not really contradicting LDS doctrine and including many aspects of exclusively LDS doctrine, all culminating on the 6th of April, 1823. That’s really, really strange to say the least.

Even if you discredit its legitimacy, it’s still a fascinating read. The Dolorous Passion allows us to see those final days in great detail, to walk with Christ in his final hours. The book brings these events to life even more than the Mel Gibson film which it inspired. Not only has the Bible story come to life, but its importance is underscored in the process. Emmerich treats reverently and respectfully the most horrid of events and brings them to us in a way that reminds us of the importance of these events in the history of the world as well as in our individual lives.

06/04