The Poem of the Man-God

by Maria Valtorta

The Poem of the Man God (Italian Il Poema dell'Uomo-Dio) is a multi volume book of about four thousand pages on the life of Jesus Christ written by Italian mystic Maria Valtorta. The books were first published in Italian in 1956 and has since been translated into 10 languages. The books iare based on over 15,000 handwritten pages produced by Maria Valtorta from 1943-1947. During these years she reported visions of Jesus and Mary and claimed personal conversations with Jesus. Since 1993 the Vatican has remained silent ok. Maria Valtorta was bed ridden in Viareggio Italy for most of her life due to complications from being struck in the back while walking down a street. On Good Friday 1943 she reported a vision in which Jesus appeared and spoke to her. She reported many visions and conversations with Jesus and Saint Mary and said Jesus had asked her to record her visions in writing. She continued to write her visions in her notebooks until 1947 The handwritten pages were surprising to her priest and others in that they included no overwrites, corrections or revisions and seemed like dictations. The fact that she often suffered from heart and lung ailments during the period of the visions made the natural flow of the text even more unusual. Some readers were struck by the fact that the sentences attributed to Jesus in the visions had a distinct and recognizable tone and style that was different from the rest of the text. Most of the episodes have a uniform format and structure. Valtorta first describes a scene, often with picturesque details of the background, the trees, the mountains and the weather conditions on that day in the Holy Land. For instance, her prelude to the Sermon on the Mount written on May 22, 1945 depicts the road on which Jesus is walking, states that it was a clear day on which Mount Hermon could be seen by Jesus but Lake Merom could not be seen. In some episodes she mentions the colors of the clothing worn by Jesus or the Apostles

Genres: Spirituality, Religion, Catholic

778 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Maria Valtorta was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. She was a Franciscan tertiary and a lay member of the Servants of Mary who reported reputed personal conversations with, and dictations from, Jesus Christ.

In her youth Valtorta travelled around Italy due to her father's military career. Her father eventually settled in Viareggio. In 1920, aged 23, while walking on a street with her mother, a delinquent youth struck her in the back with an iron bar for no apparent reason. In 1934 the injury eventually confined her to bed for the remaining 28 years of her life. Her spiritual life was influenced by reading the autobiography of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and, in 1925, at the age of 28, before becoming bedridden, she offered herself to God as a victim soul.

On 23 April 1943, Good Friday, Valtorta reported the voice of Jesus suddenly speaking to her and asking her to write. From then until 1951 she produced over 15,000 handwritten pages in 122 notebooks, mostly detailing the life of Jesus as an extension of the gospels. Her handwritten notebooks containing close to 700 reputed episodes in the life of Jesus were typed on separate pages by her priest and reassembled, given that they had no temporal order, and became the basis of her 5,000-page controversial book The Poem of the Man God. The Holy See placed the work on the Index of Prohibited Books and the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano accompanied publication of this decree with an article that called the book a badly fictionalized life of Jesus.

Valtorta lived most of her life bedridden in Viareggio, Italy where she died in 1961. She is buried at the grand cloister of the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata in Florence.
(source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Va...)

Fondazione Maria Valtorta CEV
http://www.fondazionemariavaltortacev...

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say enough about how wonderful this book is and how it has changed my life. I recommend it to anyone who wants a better understanding of the Bible and to delve more deeply into the life of Jesus.

[Wendy Biale · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! Best thing I ever read. Hands down. 5 volumes at about 1,000 pages each. Took me over a decade to read it as I read it in fits and spurts, but I'm ready to start all over again!

[Jam(MHlover) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maria Valtorta is a bed ridden woman who claimed one day that she could hear voices, voices that would urge her to write them down on a piece of notebook. Later she realized that these voices came from God himself. Everyday she would write them down, often she claims that she herself doesn't understand what she has written. She herself proclaimed that she has not used any human sources.

A lot of controversy surrounded around this book, for instant people would claim that she is just a sick woman who is hallucinating. But still there are still unexplained things surrounding her work on how can she be so knowledgeable when it comes to the topographic, geological and mineralogical aspect of the Holy Land is unexplainable.

Maria Valtorta's writing takes you in the world of Jesus, which such detailed and visual when it comes to the surrounding and the people involved. Unlike the Bible, that only explain the events that are happening, Maria's book will tell you far more detailed things about Jesus's life.

This book answered a lot of my questions which for some reason is very hard to find inside the Bible. For example, on why did the God put the Tree of Knowledge inside Eden in the first place? Or how come Jesus is said to be the first son and Mary the first woman, when he created Adam and Eve first.

I also learned a lot about Mary's life, on how old she was when she got engage to Joseph who is in his thirties, while Mary is only fifteen, or how she struggled on hiding the truth about her annunciation from the Angel Gabriel, from her spouse Joseph.

If your interested in reading the Bible but could not finish even a page of it because of the lack of details, and was just a really confuse read for you, then I suggest picking up this book! Once you picked it up I'm sure it will change your religious life forever! You will simply know your God and Jesus in this book, and on how much they care for you.

5/5 Stars!

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite possibly the best book I've ever read. Insightful and detailed. If you have any questions about what it means to be a "true" Christian, or simply about love in general, this book is incredibly helpful. It teaches lessons about respect, humility, and compassion through clear and practical scenarios that are uniquely written. Abstract concepts are made practical, the gospels are brought to life. I've discovered so many tools to improve my life and work towards loving others more fully through reading this book.
My only caution is that having some exposure to the stories of the Bible, and maybe Catholic doctrine as well, is helpful but not necessary. There are often references to events described in the New and Old Testaments. The book is very lengthy but is broken down into manageable segments.
Beautiful, I'm already enjoying the next book in the series.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most extraordinary books I have ever read.

I came to it after the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich which I found deeply impressive;

but Valtorta is equally impressive.

This kind of literature defies conventional analysis.
The claims it makes for itself are so far reaching that one has to make a very personal judgement as to whether the words are authentic.

There is something in the 'heart' that tells one.

Intellectually, there is nothing to suggest that there are dogmatic or historical clashes or contradictions with the Gospels.
They are entirely congruent with them.

Emotionally and spiritually, one has to make up one's own mind/heart.

I find this work wholly authentic, and deeply moving.
In fact I can't put it down!

[James Vargo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Controversial, but incredible re-telling of the Christ-story by a sickbed italian women. I think it was written in the 1950's. This is a self-revelation, and not part of Church teaching, but Maria had an incredible way of writing. Kind of like the Gospels meet Lord of the Rings.

[Raum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read and reread it. I think everyone who is interested in the subject of God (especially in the subject of Jesus Christ and Christianity) should read it. This book provides plenty of food for meditation.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, life-changing books.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life changing.

[Ce Marin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I have ever read full stop. Five volumes. You do not need to be Catholic or even Christian. Curiosity is reason enough. The richness of detail and character development is profound. it is the ultimate history book. With a lesson at the end of every chapter.

[Frank O'brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

The greatest book ever written and that's saying something. Massive but every page is a thing of beauty as we learn about the background to the Gospels. Sadly it has been dismissed by religious 'experts' and by the Catholic Church which is not surprsing given that groups history over the past 50 years. Nothing in it deviates from the New Testament. It just adds colour and personality - you see Jesus as he really was. My favourite character though is Mary of Magdala a portrait which gives hope to all us sinners.

[Allen Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 'WOW!' book. Simply beautiful and touching.

[John]

Awesome book

[Jacob pauljudy Edattukaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body Philippians 3.-21

[Aneta Jackowska-Musiol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cant say enough about this book.

[Noel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of controversy about this book, as it is with any that has something about personal visions. Anyway, I find it very poetic and profound, compare to Gospel it stays very true and consistent. It's so beautifully written, showing great love that surrounded the Holy family. It's always amazing to see what love can do to human beings, in a way that transcends them into something more divine, so that something so evanescent like a human can be eternal.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is writings of the life of Jesus by a 20th century visionary. Whether or not you think the visions are authentic, I do find them to present a great theology.

[John Geddes · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books on 16 December 1959 meaning it is not safe for Catholics to read https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/do... p.60

Even though the church was sede vacante at that time and the Anti-Pope John XXIII was in power, Vatican II did not happen yet and the Modernists were not in full control.
Still, the fact that this book is not of Christ can be seem just by a survey of the contents as showed in these articles
https://archive.ph/j52AB
https://archive.ph/h8udF
https://archive.ph/2zP6r
https://archive.ph/5JV9t
I also recommend this critique by Brother James, S.D.B from 1988
https://web.archive.org/web/200211220...

[Ghazi R · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read 60% of those volumes. They are fantastic. What a smooth and beautiful narration of Jesus's life on earth. After all, the stories of Jesus's life on earth are dictated by jesus himself to Maria Valtorta. Those volumes, once you start reading them, transport you from this routine life to the beautiful and amazing life with jesus christ, as if you are living with him day by day, moment after moment. I strongly recommend those volumes to everyone, mainly the believers.

[Chevi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I have ever read.
It comprises 10 volumes.
Not to be missed.

[Aleks Bralić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Čudno mi je da se ovako nešto uopće nudi za recenziju. Nema dovoljno zvjezdica.... Imam kući 17 (odnosno 16-jedan dupli) tomova koje sam pročitao nekoliko puta.

[Maryann Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellant accounting of the Birth of Christ thru to His ministries. As recordedby Maria Valtorta....

[Stefanus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have 5 volume of Poem of the Man-God as well as so many End Times messages; Jesus spoke to me through me feeling when I was in tranquil state: "All the books you have are from Me."

[Nathan Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book cannot be reviewed. It is divine in nature and as with all important works, requires faith. It was easy to give Maria Valtorta my faith in this epic piece because the sheer detail coupled with the alignment to the gospels being hard to fault. But the true author of this work is the one who urges your audience to His way of life, love and the burden of the cross. His teachings captured in this text were beyond the limits of human imagination... It did not feel like I was reading a bed ridden woman from the 1940s who was stuck in her sickly bed. It was God. Interestingly, I have looked into the Church's take on the work. It was immediately endorsed as a work of divine nature by the Pope at the time, Pope Pius. It remained listed as an approved publication however, Benedict then overturned that and had it black listed, which means you can no longer find it in Catholic book stores. I cannot find the reason for this except for perhaps some contradictions with an earlier publication by Anne Catherine emmerich, a similar type of work on the life of Christ which had long been approved as divine.
The Poem is not a book. It must be experienced by every person born.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 5 p.266 will turn your world upside down, especially on Good Friday of Holy Week. Lord Jesus, help "Little John" become a fool for Christ!!!

[Maureen Weir]

POWERFUL