 Mysticism, especially of the visionary type, has always been a subject of discussion in the church. Among its manifestations, some few have merited the approval of the prudent, others are looked upon as doubtful, while many have been rejected as false. In certain cases the church has intervened with the condemnation, only recently, February 3, 1951, an unofficial but authoritative warning has been uttered by a member of the Roman Curia, Monsignor Alfredo Ataviani, against the flood of allegedly supernatural events in various parts of the world which tend to substitute a frenzied religiosity for obedience to the church and reception of the sacraments. Even in the case of holy people, and when the supernatural character of the phenomena seems sufficiently guaranteed, caution is necessary. The person receiving the favor may not distinguish with enough exactness the period of illumination from that which immediately follows, in which the soul remains in dispositions of the greatest fervor. Saint Ignatius Loyola teaches that in this second period, quote, it often happens that by its own thoughts, from its own habits, and a consequence of its conceptions and judgments, whether by the suggestion of the good or evil spirit, the soul makes various resolves and plans which are not inspired immediately by God our Lord, unquote. Although the saint is speaking only of resolves and plans, strong reasons lead us to extend this prudent observation to the content of visions. The imagination working on the memory will inevitably supply details. Difficulties of terminology, which are common to all technical literature, also play a role in spiritual writings. St. Robert Bellarmine's remark still holds good, quote, writers on mystical theology are usually blamed by some and praised by others because what they say is not understood in the same way by all, unquote. The visionaries whose writings are used in this volume were women of no special competence in theology, but they were possessed of some gifts as writers and especially of lively imaginations. Trying to express in concrete terms their supernatural experiences, they had to borrow a vocabulary from books and persons or, if they were capable of it, forge one of their own. In either case, they ran considerable risk of not reproducing faithfully the content of their visions. Despite difficulties which are obvious to all who have had some experience in this thorny field, the Church has never been adverse to the prudent exploitation of the mystical writings of her saintly children. Catholic doctrine on revelation is clear enough to supply the required safeguards. The Church teaches as a revealed dogma that public revelation ceased with the death of the last apostle over eighteen hundred years ago. The deposit of faith is complete. No further revelation binding all will be forthcoming to the end of time, quote, even if an angel from heaven were to preach a gospel other than that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema, unquote. Galatians 1.18. God's revelation in and through his Son is final. The Church, which possesses the fullness of this revelation, can alone impose beliefs on the faithful at large, and the Church imposes only such as are contained in the Holy Scripture and in divine and apostolic tradition. The first law of new revelations is, therefore, that they cannot be really new. They must agree with Holy Scripture and tradition, with morality and the decisions of the Church. Again, a private revelation will rightly be looked on with suspicion if the person receiving it is not approved by a good life, manifested by irreproachable conduct, by the practice of all the virtues of his state of life, and especially by humility. And this before, during, and after the favor. Even when satisfied that there is nothing offensive to reason, faith, or morals in a revelation, and that the character of the recipient is such as to lend probability to the report, and even if the Church should approve, we accept it with a merely human belief. St. Thomas Aquinas remarks that Catholic faith, quote, rests upon the revelation made to the apostles and prophets, who wrote the canonical Scriptures, but not on a revelation, if any made to others, unquote. The Church, in approving of mystical phenomena, affirms that there is nothing against faith or morals in the content of the revelations, but does not guarantee their truth. The possibility of error in the facts is not excluded. Because of this reserve, the attitude of Catholics could, and has not failed to, manifest remarkable divergencies, quote, we have Moses and the prophets, many assert, and we do not require fresh visions and private revelations. Others, on the contrary, read such writings with avidity once competent ecclesiastical authority has sanctioned the publication. In this class are found numerous devout Christians of saintly life. To name but one, Matt Talbot, the Dublin working man, whose solid virtues have greatly edified the Church in our day, was much given to the perusal of this type of spiritual literature. In addition to these two responses to private revelations, there are others which it will not be necessary to specify here. Some might think that St. Therese of the infant Jesus, who has taught so many the way of holiness, would be out of sympathy with a point of view which stresses the marvelous in the life of our blessed mother. Her little way of humility and love does require that we rejoice in the night of faith and suffering and wait until death for the revelation of God's glory and that of the blessed Virgin and the saints. Still, the short life of the little flower was not devoid of the charismatic element. She was, for example, favored with a vision of the blessed Virgin. Furthermore, our blessed lady's life differed in this respect from that of even the greatest saints. We have scriptural testimony that Mary and Joseph had visions. There are many years at Nazareth with Jesus were, in a sense, a long vision of surpassing grandeur which included much intimate revelation. If we were to accept as true all the visions of all the saints, we should still be obliged to judge that their favors taken together are not worthy to be compared with those of the incomparable Virgin. As St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the doctor of the church who was preeminent in Mariology declared, quote, What wonder is there if God, who is wonderful in his saints, has shown himself still more wonderful in his mother? It is true, of course, that our blessed lady, unlike her divine son, did not have in this life the beatific vision. She lived as we her children live by faith. Indeed, she is the model and mistress of faith and of the faithful. We must, however, admit that her faith was aided in many marvelous ways, and we can readily believe that our loving mother in heaven approves of devout writings long and use in the church and rightly considered helpful in the spiritual struggle in which all are engaged. While some persons may doubtless wish that the readers of this book will remember at every page the prudent warning sounded in the introduction that the work is to be read as a religious novel and not as a fifth gospel, nevertheless many Catholics and non-Catholics, too, will be very thankful for this pleasing compilation of vivid narratives of the Blessed Virgin's life as seen by four great mystics of the church. Reverend Edward A. Ryan, professor of Church History, Woodstock College.