Clemens Brentano had planned a Life of Mary, to e based, like The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord, on his recording of the visions of the famous mystic, Anne Catherine Emmerich. On his death in 1842 the work was left unfinished, and it was not till many years later that it was finally completed by other hands.
‘Though the accounts of these visions’, to quote Bertano’s Preface to the Dolorous Passion, ‘solemnly reject the slightest claim to bear the character of historical truth’ – being merely ‘a pious nun’s Lenten meditations’ – yet he was at pains to try to verify, often with surprising success, the scriptural, historical and geographical elements in the mystical visions he recorded. The results of his researches he embodied in notes which are reprinted, together with further critical notes, on both the original text and Brentano’s comments, by Father Sebastian Bullough, O.P.
‘A treasury of holy scenes and pictures which contribute to the edification and inspiration of the faithful; the Life of Mary is ‘a worthy companion’ to the earlier book, and should obviously be read in conjunction with the Dolorous Passion, since the one narrative often supplements the other.