Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 

    God also gave Blessed Anne Catherine visions of these same events on the day specified for each event in 

the liturgical calendar of the Church. God wants His people to know the true dates of these important events, 

but He also wants us to follow the current liturgical calendar of the Church. In teaching Blessed Anne 

Catherine the true dates, God nevertheless did not allow her to ignore the liturgical calendar to follow the true 

dates. 

    The same reasoning applies today. God wants us to know the true dates of these important events, but we 

must continue to follow the Church's liturgical calendar, for the Christian Church is Christ's Church. 

However, I believe that the Church will eventually make changes to the liturgical calendar to bring these true 

dates into practice throughout the universal Church (see chapter 15). 

     The actual date of Christ's Birth, as I always see it, is four weeks earlier than its celebration by the Church; 

it must have happened on St. Catherine's feast day. I always see the Annunciation as happening at the end of 

February. 

164

    St. Catherine of Alexandria's feast day is November 25. In this case, when Blessed Anne Catherine says 

 four weeks,  she does not mean 28 days, but rather a full month. The actual date of the Birth of Jesus Christ, 

as revealed to Blessed Anne Catherine, was November 25, a full month earlier than the date in the liturgical 

calendar of the Church. 

    The date of November 25 for the Birth of Jesus Christ agrees with the date revealed to Blessed Anne 

Catherine for the Incarnation of Christ (the Annunciation). She saw the Annunciation as occurring on 

February 25. And she states that it was a full nine months from the Incarnation to the Birth of Christ.  Mary 

had told St. Joseph that to night at midnight would be the hour of the child's birth, for then the nine months 

since the Annunciation would have been completed. 

165

The Year of Christ's Birth 

    The year of the Birth of Jesus Christ can be determined using two separate lines of reasoning. The first is 

based on the visions given to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. The second is based on a new chronology of 

the reigns of various Roman rulers. 

    Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich does not reveal the year of Christ's Birth by the 

B.C.

/

A.D.

 calendar 

system. However, she gives us much information, which can be used to determine the year of the Birth of 

Jesus Christ. First, as stated above, Jesus was born in  a year when November 25 fell on a Sunday. But 

November 25 did not fall on a Sunday in any of the years most commonly given for the Birth of Our Lord (see 

Appendix I, Chart 2). From 20 

B.C.

 to 

A.D.

 7, inclusive, the only years in which November 25

coincided with 

a Sunday are 15 

B.C.

, 4 

B.C.

, and 

A.D.

 3. Most of the more commonly proposed years for Christ's Birth, in 

the range of 3 

B.C.

 to 

A.D.

 1 and 12 

B.C.

 to 5 

B.C.

, are then ruled out.

166

 So, without referring to the 

conclusions of chapter 2, we begin with 15 

B.C.

, 4 

B.C.

, and 

A.D.

 3 as possible years for the Birth of Christ. 

Seven Years Earlier 

    Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich tells us that the dates which are typically given for events around the 

time of the Birth of Jesus are offset from the actual dates.  Afterwards people forgot the period of three years 

and a portion of a year   and then reckoned our new era as beginning four years later, so that Christ was born 

seven years and a portion of a year earlier than according to our reckoning. 

167

 She never stated the actual year 

of Christ's Birth, but she did clearly say that Christ was born 7 years earlier than was generally believed. 

(Blessed Anne Catherine adds  and a portion of a year,  which is consistent with her date of November 25, 

instead of December 25, for the month and day of Christ's Birth.) 

    The phrase  according to our reckoning  refers to some date for the Birth of Christ that was generally 

accepted during Blessed Anne Catherine's lifetime (late 1700's to early 1800's), but she never states which year 

that was. Even so, there has never been a generally accepted date for the Birth of Christ in any year later than 

1 

B.C.

 Many scholars have suggested various dates for the Birth of Christ, but these dates generally range from 

12 

B.C.

 to 1 

B.C.

168

 Therefore, the generally accepted date for the Birth of Christ, (from which Blessed Anne 

Catherine counts back 7 years to the true date for the Birth of Christ), can be no later than 1 

B.C.

, and the true 

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