Discovery of an ancient princely house in Jerusalem, previously revealed to a mystic (d. 1961)

Between 1943 and 1954, the Italian Catholic mystic Maria Valtorta received more than six hundred visions of the life of Jesus in the Holy Land. It was not until the following decades that researchers were able to verify one by one the thousands of factual details they contained, and note their extraordinary accuracy. We will give here the example of the princely house owned by Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary of Bethany and Jesus' friend. Lazarus is mentioned in the New Testament when Jesus brings him back to life (cf. Jn 11:1-44). The location and description of Lazarus' palace in Jerusalem was revealed to Maria Valtorta years before it was unexpectedly discovered by archaeologists.

The Resurrection of Lazarus, by Duccio (1310-1311), Kimbell Museum of Art /© Wikimedia

Reasons to believe:

Maria Valtorta gave a very precise description of one of the estates owned by Lazarus (visions 372 and 375, received in 1946). Details of its location enabled Hans J. Hopfen (1904-1997) to situate the building in Jerusalem, not far from the western wall of the Temple.

In 1983, archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem carried out excavations in this area and discovered the remains of a "princely house" just thirty metres from the spot that had been indicated by Hans J. Hopfen ten years earlier, based on the writings of Maria Valtorta.

The building, along with many of the objects found, happens to date from Herod's time. There are a host of details that are consistent with Maria Valtorta's writings, such as the size and decoration of each room - in particular, a special room whose walls and columns are entirely red.

Summary:

Maria Valtorta was an Italian Catholic mystic who was born in 1897 and died in 1961. She joined the Third Order of Servites and led a life of prayer, withdrawn from the world, in her house in Viareggio, confined to her bed due to ongoing physical suffering. Between 1943 and 1954, she received hundreds of visions and dictations from Christ, Mary, some saints, and her guardian angel.

Her "private revelations" include a detailed account of the life of Jesus through more than six hundred immersive visions. Translated into twenty-nine languages, those visions have been published in English under the title The Gospel As Revealed to Me. At Jesus' request, Valtorta carefully described the scenes (topography, architecture, customs, fauna, flora, weather conditions, astronomical observations, etc.), portrayed the people (names, origins, functions, physiognomy, temperament, etc.), and transcribed their dialogues word for word

In fact, after Maria Valtorta's death, researchers from various countries began to go through the thousands of pages left by Maria Valtorta, line by line, to verify the details they contained.

Let's take one example: the Palace of Lazarus.

Maria Valtorta's transcriptions tell us that Lazarus (the friend whom Jesus raised from the dead four days after his death, see Jn 11:1-44) was the son and heir of Theophilus, a Syrian proselyte appointed governor of Syria by the Romans, and of Eucheria, a Judean woman descended from King David. This social position made him the richest man in Israel. In addition to his estate in Bethany, Lazarus owned several properties, including a palatial one in the center of Jerusalem. Jesus visited this palace several times during his public life. On these occasions, Maria Valtorta gave a precise description of the building and its location (cf. visions 372 and 375 received in 1946).

" The Palace of Lazarus is certainly on one of the many hills that make the streets of Jerusalem a succession of ascents and descents, especially the less beautiful ones. It stands almost in the centre of the city, but slightly to the south-west. It stands on a beautiful road that leads to the Xystus, forming a T with it, and dominates the lower town. In front of it lies Bezeta, Mount Moriah and Ophel, and behind them the chain of the Olive Grove; behind it, and already belonging to the spot where the Palace of Lazarus stands, rises Mount Zion, while on both sides the view extends southwards towards the southern hills, and to the north Bezeta hides a large part of the panorama. But beyond the valley of the Gihôn, the bald, yellowish head of Golgotha emerges in the rosy light of dawn, always gloomy, even in this joyous light. [...] There are many rooms and chambers. We will be together, following the rite. Accept, Lord! The palace has rooms that can hold at least two hundred people, divided into groups of twenty." (Maria Valtorta, The Gospel as Revealed to me, ch. 372.2 & 372.6)

In 1975, the German engineer Hans J. Hopfen (1904-1997), who had set about reproducing the map of the Holy Land and Jerusalem on the basis of the mystic's descriptions, indicated on his map the place where it would have stood two thousand years earlier.

In 1983, a team of archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem excavated the area not far from the western wall of the Temple, in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. There they discovered the remains of a "palatial residence" and numerous objects, dating from the time of Herod, thirty metres from the spot indicated by Hopfen ten years earlier (cf. Nahman Avigad , Discovering Jerusalem ed. Thomas Nelson, 1983). The palace is located on the highest point of Mount Zion, at an elevation of 757 m, the only place from which the panorama described by Maria Valtorta can be seen.

The 600 m² building and its rooms (a square white marble atrium paved with mosaics, a 64 m² paved courtyard with a central pool, an 11 × 6.5 m ceremonial room with Greco-Roman frescoes, a panoramic terrace, etc.) correspond exactly to the visions Maria Valtorta received in 1946.

Confirming Valtorta's visions, the archaeologists uncovered a single room in red marble. In vision 375, Maria Valtorta noted the singularity of one of the rooms with red walls:

"Thus, in the splendid and regal red room, whose vault is supported by two garnet porphyry columns between which the long table has been set up, are seated the peasants of Yokhanan, with Marziam, Isaac, and other disciples to reach the prescribed number" (Chapter 375.3).

Moreover, the refined Greco-Roman style found on the site excludes the possibility that the owner of the palace was a Jew by birth: this fits the status of Lazarus, whose father was a proselyte.

This archaeological site later became The Wohl Museum of Archeology.

Fabrice-Marie Gagnant