VISIO QUINTA, cap. XVI
The Woman Persecuted and Preserved
The ancient serpent, enraged at his expulsion from heaven, turns his fury upon the woman clothed with divine knowledge, yet she is given wings of refuge and sustained through every age by heavenly desire and the salvation of souls, until the fullness of justice in the Incarnation of the Son utterly deceives and defeats the old enemy.
And who would lift up the lost person who had forgotten their deceived Creator, except the one who, overshadowed by no darkness of that ignorance, grieved with them? But when the devil saw the woman clothed—in that envious knowledge by which he knew he had been cast down from heaven—he inwardly questioned why God had given her that garment, and he tore himself apart, as it is written in Revelation: 'And after the dragon saw he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who bore the male child.'✦ And two great eagle's wings were given to the woman, so she could fly to her place in the desert, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.✦ This is how you should understand it: the ancient dragon, seeing that he had lost the place where he wanted to establish his seat because he had been cast down into the depths, directed his anger against the woman, because he knew she was the root of all humanity through childbirth; and holding her in the greatest hatred, he said to himself that he would never stop pursuing her until he had drowned her like something in the sea, because he had first deceived her. But she, as though squeezed by the very act of giving birth, at last seized the strongest help of consolation, and upheld by divine protection, she set herself against the devil in every way. For two safeguards of blessedness were given to her: namely, a heavenly desire and the salvation of souls, so that when she stretched out in these things into the secrets of her heart, receiving the nourishment of salvation there, through the time that was before the flood, and the times after the flood, and the half-time that was in the circumcision before the Incarnation of my Son, and it lasted to the fullness of the Gospel era; in which all the fullness of true and just order rose up against the ancient serpent. Before the flood and after the flood, and also in the circumcision, they worshipped God, who obtained the redemption of their souls through the shed blood of my Son. But when the glowing dawn-time came—that is, the fullness of justice through my Son—the ancient serpent was greatly terrified and stunned, because through the woman, namely the Virgin, he was completely deceived.
The River of Persecution and the Earth's Rescue
The serpent sends a flood of unbelief and persecution to sweep the woman away, but the earth helps her because the Son took human flesh from her, enduring reproach and suffering in his own body to shame the ancient persecutor.
That is why the ancient persecutor blazed up against her in his fury, just as it is written in my will: 'And the serpent sent water from its mouth after the woman like a river, to sweep her away by the current, and the earth helped the woman.'✦12 Here is how to understand this: the ancient persecutor sent out from his most wicked voracity the woman's uprightness — she who had brought forth the man — as unbelief and faithlessness into the peoples of the Jews and the pagans, intending that, worn down by very many persecutions, she would be subjugated to him or even completely choked out, just as a ship is choked out by shipwreck, so that her whole name would be destroyed from the earth, just as something from the earth is destroyed when it is thrown into the depths of a river.34 But the woman was snatched away by the earth's help, because my Son took the garment of his humanity from her — he who endured many reproaches and sufferings, to the shame of that same serpent, in his own body.5
God's Self-Glorification in Creation
God glorified himself in establishing the world, revealing himself as Creator to rational creatures and magnifying humanity through the subjection of all things, as the opening of Genesis declares from the creation of heaven and earth through the first day.
Because God, in establishing the world, also glorified himself, showing himself to the rational creature as the creator of all things, and at the same time magnified man through the subjection of all the things that are in the world — and how the beginning of the book of Genesis is to be understood according to the letter, from the place where it is written, "In the beginning God created heaven and earth," up to the point where it says, "And there was evening and there was morning, one day."✦✦ "
Read the original Latin
Et quis levaret perditum hominem, qui deceptus Creatoris sui oblitus est, nisi ille qui nulla caligine obumbratus ignorantiae illius condoluit? sed cum diabolus mulierem vestitam vidisset, in invida scientia, qua se de coelo projectum cognovit, intra sciscitando ut quid Deus illi vestitum dedisset, se ipsum decerpsit, ut in Apocalypsi scriptum est: « Et postquam vidit draco quod projectus est in terram, persecutus est mulierem quae peperit masculum. Et datae sunt mulieri duae alae aquilae magnae, ut volaret in desertum locum suum, ubi alitur per tempus et tempora, et dimidium temporis a facie serpentis . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Antiquus draco, videns quia locum illum perdidisset in quem sedem suam ponere volebat, quoniam in tartarea loca projectus erat, iram suam in mulierem exacuit, quia illam radicem omnis humani generis per partum esse cognovit; et in maximo odio eam habens, intra se dixit quod nunquam cessaret illam persequendo quousque ipsam velut in mari suffocaret, quia eam primum deceperat. Sed ipsa quasi pariendo angustiata, fortissimum adjutorium consolationis tandem arripuit, divinaque protectione suffulta in omnibus modis diabolo se opposuit. Nam ipsi data sunt duo munimenta beatitudinis, scilicet coeleste desiderium et salvatio animarum, ut cum in his in secreta cordis sui tenderet, ibidem nutrimenta salutis accipiens, per tempus quod ante diluvium fuit, et tempora post diluvium et dimidium temporis quod in circumcisione ante Incarnationem Filii mei erat, et perduravit usque ad plenum tempus Evangelii; in quo omnis plenitudo verae et justae constitutionis, adversus antiquum serpentem surrexit. Ante diluvium et post diluvium, necnon et in circumcisione, Deum colentes fuerunt, qui redemptionem animarum suarum per effusum sanguinem Filii mei adepti sunt. Cum autem tempus rutilans aurorae, id est plenae justitiae per Filium meum venit, antiquus serpens valde exterritus obstupuit, quoniam per mulierem, videlicet Virginem, totus deceptus est.
Quapropter in furore suo contra illam exarsit, ut in voluntate mea scriptum est: « Et misit serpens ex ore suo post mulierem aquam tanquam flumen, ut eam faceret trahi a flumine, et adjuvit terra mulierem . Hoc considerandum sic est: Misit antiquus persecutor ex nequissima voracitate sua rectitudinem mulieris, quae virum protulerat, incredulitatem et infidelitatem in populos Judeorum et paganorum, hoc intendens ut illam plurimis persecutionibus attritam sibi subjugaret, vel omnino suffocaret, quemadmodum navis per naufragium suffocatur, quatenus nomen ipsius totum de terra deleretur, sicut et res illa de terra deletur quae in profundum fluminis projicitur. Sed adjutorio terrae mulier erepta est, quia Filius meus vestem humanitatis suae de ipsa sumpsit, qui plurima opprobria et passiones ad confusionem ejusdem serpentis in corpore suo pertulit.
Quia Deus mundum constituens et se ipsum glorificaverit, rationali creaturae ostendendo se omnium creatorem et hominem simul ex subjectione eorum quae in mundo sunt magnificaverit; et quomodo secundum litteram intelligendum sit initium libri Genesis ab eo loco quo scriptum est: « In principio creavit Deus coelum et terram, » usque ad id, « factumque est vespere et mane dies unus. »
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rev.12.13 — And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
- ↩Rev.12.14 — And the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she might fly into the wilderness, to her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, away from the presence of the serpent.
- ↩Rev.12.15 — And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so as to sweep her away in the torrent.
- ↩Gen.1.1 — In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- ↩Gen.1.5 — And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning: the first day.
Notes
- 1 ↩The quoted span echoes Revelation 12:15 ('And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood'); the Latin 'flumen' aligns with Vulgate 'flood' rather than the supplied 'aquam tanquam flumen' phrasing, which appears to be a paraphrastic expansion. Final source resolution deferred.
- 2 ↩First 'ut' rendered as 'just as' (comparative, introducing the citation); second 'ut' rendered as 'to' (purpose/result).
- 3 ↩'rectitudinem mulieris' rendered as 'the woman's uprightness' — the sense may carry moral/spiritual uprightness or orthodoxy; the allegorical register leaves both in play.
- 4 ↩'quemadmodum' rendered as 'just as' (simile); 'quatenus' rendered as 'so that' (purpose/result); 'sicut et' rendered as 'just as' (comparison).
- 5 ↩'vestem humanitatis suae de ipsa sumpsit' rendered as 'took the garment of his humanity from her' — a clear reference to the Incarnation, Christ assuming human nature from the Virgin Mary. 'ad confusionem ejusdem serpentis' rendered as 'to the shame of that same serpent,' preserving the sense of disgrace brought upon the enemy.
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