Aglae
Aglae is a provocative woman of 26 years, very beautiful, with a swaying walk and slender hands, whom Jesus meets in Hebron in the house that once belonged to John the Baptist.[1]
She is the mistress of Shammai, a Herodian, occupying the premises. The only daughter of the steward of a great Roman lord from Syracuse (Sicily), she gradually shifted from her love of dance to prostitution from the age of 14, before ending up in Hebron.
But her encounter with Jesus gives her the courage to act: she flees from Shammai’s house and radically changes her life. The valuable jewelry she gives to Jesus,[2] once sold by Judas,[3] is used to bribe the jailer of the Baptist, who was arrested for the first time and imprisoned in Machaerus.
Constantly veiled and very discreet, she follows Jesus[4] and hides to listen to his teachings at Clear Water, even sleeping in a hut made of branches in the rain and cold.[5]
At the end of a sermon on purity,[6] without naming her, Jesus addresses her directly:
"Obtain from God a new name. [Aglae means ‘radiant with brightness’] That is what matters. You are vicious. Become honest. Become the sacrifice and the martyr of your repentance. You knew how to make a martyr of your heart to give pleasure to your flesh. Now make a martyr of your flesh to give eternal peace to your heart."[7]
Wandering, she finds a home with the Virgin Mary, entrusting her with tearful confessions of her troubled past and imploring her mercy.[8] Since her house is too frequented for Aglae’s safety, Mary temporarily entrusts her to Susanna, the young married woman from Cana, one of the Women disciples.[9]
But harassed by the Pharisees, she must take refuge, at Jesus’ request, in a deserted place where she will end her short life:
"You will soon join Me where I shall be after My sacrifice and yours.» [...]
«In your solitude where Satan will attack you with livid violence the more you become worthy of Heaven, you will find an apostle of Mine, once a sinner and later redeemed.»[10]
«Not the blessed apostle who spoke to me of You?[11] He could not have been a sinner because he is too honest.»
«Not that one. Another one. He will reach you at the right moment. He will tell you what you cannot know just now. [...] »"[12]
Jesus gives her as an example to his disciples:
"«Yes. I revived her, not her womb, but her soul withered by paganism and sin, and I made her prolific of justice, freeing her from her fetters, as I was assisted by her goodwill. And I propose her to you as a model. Do not be scandalised. I solemnly tell you that she is to be held up as an example to be imitated, because few people in Israel have gone as far as the heathen and sinner to reach the sources of God.» [...] «God only knows.[13] She is certainly doing severe penance. Pray to support her…»"[14]
Her name
This name means, according to her own words, "vice". But it is actually a moral irony of its Greek etymology: "aglaïa = radiant with brightness".
Where is she mentioned in the work?
GRM 112 GRM 116 GRM 118 GRM 119 GRM 121 GRM 122 GRM 123 GRM 124 GRM 127 GRM 129 GRM 130 GRM 132 GRM 133 GRM 137 GRM 138 GRM 156 GRM 168 GRM 198
Learn more about this character
Excerpts from the Dictionary of Gospel Characters, according to Maria Valtorta (Msgr. René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Editions Salvator, 2012):
In a vision dated February 25, 1946, Aglae appears to Maria Valtorta. She informs her of the end of her life:
"'[...] with my spirit I endured the memories of the flesh, its howls of madness.... My soul was higher up and did not consent. The flesh, like a wolf, howled below. Sometimes the howling even kept me from praying. I offered the Lord the prayer of endurance. And with the eyes of my spirit I looked at the Lord and with my spirit repeated his words.'"[15]
In the same vision, Maria Valtorta’s “inner adviser” informs her that Aglae is part of the saints:
“'[...] whom you saw as a sinner and whom you would find mentioned today if you had a listing of the saints. It is just that she is not well known to the majority.' [...]"[15]
The calendar now only knows a namesake from the 4th century, celebrated on May 14.
In the article of the Osservatore Romano commenting on the Index
The anonymous author denounces:
"Some pages are rather risqué and, through some descriptions and scenes, recall modern novels; thus, to give only a few examples, the confession made to Mary by a certain Aglae, a bad-life woman."
Notes and references
- ↑ GRM 77.5-7
- ↑ GRM 79.4-5
- ↑ GRM 82.2-3
- ↑ GRM 112.1 ; GRM 116.3.
- ↑ GRM 124.2-5
- ↑ GRM 123.3-4
- ↑ GRM 123.5
- ↑ GRM 168.1-10
- ↑ GRM 168.9
- ↑ Possibly Matthew.
- ↑ Andrew.
- ↑ GRM 200.4
- ↑ If the apostle who will later visit her in her place of solitude is indeed Matthew, he evangelized Egypt among other places.
- ↑ GRM 398.1.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Notebooks 1945-1950, February 25, 1946.