(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 04.03.2025).- Here is an English translation of a press release of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith about the writings of Maria Valtorta (1897-1961), an Italian writer known for affirming that she received heavenly visions and dictates on the life of Jesus and Mary. Her most known work is “The Gospel As It Has Been Revealed to Me,” an extensive narrative that describes episodes of Jesus’ life in great detail, including dialogues and scenes that aren’t in the canonical Gospels. Valtorta spent a good part of her life in bed due to health problems, and it was during that time that she wrote the majority of her works.
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The Holy See frequently receives requests, both from the clergy as well as lay people, for clarification of the Church’s position on Maria Valtorta’s writings, such as “The Poem of the Man God,” known today with the title “The Gospel As It Was Revealed to Me,” and other publications.
Reiterated in this connection is that the alleged “visions,” “revelations,” and “communications” contained in Maria Valtorta’s writings or, in any case, attributed to her, cannot be considered of supernatural origin, but must be considered simply as literary forms that the author used to narrate, in her own way, the life of Jesus Christ.
In her long Tradition, the Church does not accept the apocryphal Gospels and other similar texts as normative, as she doesn’t recognize their divine inspiration, remitting to the safe reading of the inspired Gospels.
Vatican City, February 22, 2025
Translation of the Italian original into Spanish by ZENIT’s Editorial Director and, into English, by Virginia M. Forrester
