Emerentia is the name given for a grandmother of
Mary, mother of Jesus
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
, in some European traditions and art from the late 15th century. She is not to be confused with Saint
Emerentiana, a Roman
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...
of the 3rd century who features briefly in
Alban Butler's ''The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints'' 1812, volume 1.
Sources
There is no reference to the grandmother of Mary, by name or otherwise, in the canonical
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
or the
Protoevangelium of James, which is the earliest source naming
Saint Joachim and
Saint Anne as the parents of Mary.
Stories about Anne form part of
Jacobus de Voragine's , but her mother is not mentioned. An early source mentioning Emerentia, is
Josse Bade's (Jodocius Badius Ascensius, 1461–1535) 1502 translation of
Petrus Dorlandus' work contained in the larger compilation (published in Paris), which tells the story:
Another source is
Johann Eck, who related in a sermon that Anne's parents were named Stollanus and Emerentia.
In art
Emerentia appears in a number of depictions of the
Holy Kinship, the pictorial and sometimes sculptural depiction of the ancestors and descendants of St Anne by many artists around the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century in Northern Europe. Where Emerentia is featured in these groupings, which were often altarpieces, they are known as "Emerentia Selbviert". These rare examples of a matrilineal
genealogy of Jesus have been found interesting by modern academics in the field of gender studies, and in feminist critiques of English literature, for example, Vanita argues that the feminine 'trinity' of Mary, her mother Anne and her grandmother Emerentia is reflected in two of
Shakespeare's plays.
In 18th century and modern literature
In ''The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary From the Visions of
Anna Catherine Emmerich'' (1852), Emerentia is known as "Emorun," which translates as "noble woman".
[Michael Brown, Spirit Daily, "Mystic described 'ancestors' of Blessed Mary and signs preceding her holy birth" http://www.spiritdaily.net/emmerichmarylife1.htm ] Emmerich describes in her visions how Emerentia lived as one of the
Essenes, a particularly devout wing of the Jewish faith that believed it was destined to produce the
Messiah, near
Mount Carmel, and relates the story of how a prophet, entering the Cave of
Elijah, saw the following growing from Emerentia's heart:
References
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External links
Saint Emerentiaat th
Christian Iconographyweb site
Mary, mother of Jesus
Catholic art
Catholic Mariology
Family of Jesus
Judean people