The Essenes: Who Were There?

The forebears of St.Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, lived at Mara in the region of Mount Horeb and were connected with devout Israelites called Essenes or Essaees. They have however changed their name three times, for they were first called Eskarenes, then Chasidaees, and finally Essenes.

Their first name, Eskarenes, came from the word Eskara or Azkara, which is the name for part of the unbloody sacrifice which is offered to God by being burnt and also for the sweet-smelling frankincense at the flour offering.

The second name Chasidaees means merciful, hasid meaning the mercy of God but came to mean devout. They formed a part of the army of Jacob Maccabean that sought to eject the Greeks from the Temple (in Greek Asidaioi). They were called by Philo and Josephus Essenaioi and by Pliny Esseni, who attributed to them a lineage of thousands of years.

The way of life of these devout people is an inheritance from the time of Moses and Aaron and in particular from the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant. But it was not until the period between Isaiah and Jeremiah that their way of life was regularly established.

At the beginning there were not many of them. Later on, however, their settlements in the Promised Land occupied a space 24 hours' journey long and 36 hours' journey broad. They did not come to the region of the Jordan until later. They lived mostly on the slopes of Mount Horeb and Mount Carmel, the home of Elijah.

In the lifetime of St Anne's grandparents, the Essenes had a spiritual head who lived on Mount Horeb. He was an aged prophet called Archos or Arkas.

Their organization was like that of a religious order. All who wished to enter had to undergo a year of tests, and the length of time for which they were accepted was decided by prophetic inspirations from above.

The real members of the Order who lived in a community did not marry but lived in chastity. But there were others who had formerly been in the Order or were attached to it who married and carried out in their families and with their children and household something similar in many ways to the traditional discipline of the real Essenes. Their relationship with these was like that between the lay members of a Catholic Third Order or Tertiaries and the professed priests of the Order.

In all important matters, especially as to the marriages of their relations, these married Essenes always sought instruction and counsel from the aged prophet on Mount Horeb. St Anne's grandparents belonged to this kind of married Essenes.

The real Essenes were specially concerned with prophetic matters. Their head on Mount Horeb was often vouchsafed divine revelations in the cave of Elijah in respect of the coming of the Messiah. He had knowledge of the family from which the mother of the Messiah was to come.

At the time that he gave prophetic advice to the grandparents of St Anne in matters of marriage, he saw that the day of the Lord was approaching. He did not however know how long the birth of the Saviour's mother might still be delayed by sin, and so he was always preaching penance, mortification, prayer and inner sacrifice for this intention--pious exercise of which all Essenes had ever given the example. [In mirror image the second coming of the Messiah in justice not mercy is advanced by sin and deferred by penance]

Until Isaiah assembled these people together and gave them a more regular organization, they were scattered about the land of Israel, leading lives of piety and intent on mortification. They fought particularly against sexual immorality, and often by mutual consent lived in continence for long periods, living in huts far removed from their wives.

When they lived together as husband and wife, it was only with the intention of producing a holy offspring which might bring nearer the coming of the Saviour. I saw them eating apart from their wives, the wife came to take her meal after the husband had left the table.

There were ancestors of St Anne and of other holy people among these early Essenes. Jeremiah too was connected with them, and the men called "Sons of the Prophet" came from them. They often lived in the desert and round Mount Horeb and Carmel and later I saw many of them in Egypt.

I also saw that for a time they were driven away from Mount Horeb by war and were reassembled by new leaders. The Maccabees also belonged to them.

They had a great devotion to Moses and possessed a sacred piece of his clothing given by him to Aaron, from whom it has come down to them. This was their most precious relic, and I had a vision of some 15 of them being killed in defending it. Their prophet leaders had knowledge of the secret mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant.

The real Essenes who lived in chastity were indescribably pure and devout. They adopted children and brought them up to lead a very holy life. To be accepted as a member of the regular Order, a boy had to have reached the age of 14. Those who had been already tested had to undergo a year's novitiate, others two years.

The Essenes did not carry on any form of trade but exchanged the produce of their agriculture for whatever else they needed. If one of them had committed a grave sin, he was expelled from among them and excommunicated by their head. This excommunication had the force of that pronounced by Peter against Ananias who was struck dead by it. Their head knew by prophetic inspiration who had committed sin. I also saw some Essenes undergoing penitential punishment: they were obliged to stand in a stiff robe with their arms extended immovably in sleeves lined with thorns.

Mount Horeb was full of little caves, which formed the cells where they lived. An assembly hall of light wattlework had been built on to the mouth of one of the large caves. Here they came together at 11 o'clock in the morning and ate. Each had a small loaf of bread in front of him with a goblet. The head went from place to place and blessed each one's bread. After the meal they returned to their separate cells.

In this assembly hall there was an altar on which stood little blessed loaves covered up. They were in some way sacred and were I think distributed among the poor.

The Essenes had a great number of doves which were tame and ate out of their hands. They ate doves but also used them in the ritual ceremonies. They said something over them and let them fly away. I saw too that they released lambs in the desert after saying something over them, as if they were to take their sins on them. I saw them go three times a year to the Temple in Jerusalem. They also had priests among them whose special duty was the care of the sacred vestments; they cleaned them, contributed money for them, and also made new ones.

I saw them engaged in cattle-breeding and agriculture, but specially in gardening. Mount Horeb was full of gardens and fruit trees in the spaces between their huts. I saw many of them weaving and plaiting and also embroidering priests' vestments. I did not see them producing silk; that came in bundles to be sold to them, and they exchanged other produce for it.

In Jerusalem they had a quarter of their own to live in and a separate place in the Temple as well. The other Jews rather disliked them because of their austerity. I saw too that they sent presents to the Temple; for example great bunchs of grapes carried by two people on as pole.

I did not see the real Essenes offering bloody sacrifices in these later times.

I saw that before they journeyed to the Temple, they made a very rigorous preparation by prayer, fasting, and penance including even scourgings. If one laden with sins went to the Temple and to the Holy of Holies without having made atonement by penance, he usually died on the spot.

If on their journey or in Jerusalem itself, they found anyone who was ill or in any way helpless, they did not go to the Temple until they had given him all the aid in their power.

I saw that in general they employed themselves in healing. They gathered herbs and prepared potions. I saw also that those holy people whom I had seen some time before laying sick folk down on a bed of healing plants were Essenes. I saw too that the Essenes healed the sick by the laying-on of hands or by stretching themselves on them with arms extended to form a cross. I saw them also healing at a distance in a wonderful way, for the sick who could not come themeslves sent a representative to whom everything was done as it would have been to the sick person. The time was noted and the distant sick person was cured at that very hour.

I saw that the Essenes on Horeb had in their caves recesses in the walls where bones carefully wrapped in cotton and silk were kept as sacred relics behind gratings. They were bones of prophets who had lived here, and also of the children of Israel who had died near here. There were little pots of green plants standing beside them. The Essenes used to light lamps and pray before the bones in veneration of them.

All the unmarried Essenes who lived together in communities on Mount Horeb and elsewhere observed the greatest cleanliness.

They wore long white robes. The head of the Essenes on Horeb wore wonderfully priestly vestments during solemn religious services, after the manner of the high priest in Jerusalem, only shorter and not so magnificent. When he prayed and prophesied in the cave of Elijah on Mount Horeb, he always wore these sacred vestments, which consisted of about eight pieces. Amongst them was a very sacred relic, a sort of dalmatic or scapular, covering the breast and shoulders which Moses had worn next to his body and had given to Aaron, from whom it had later descended to the Essenes. The prophet Archos, their head on Mount Horeb, always wore this dalmatic next to his body when he was clothed in all his vestments and was praying for prophetic enlightenment...[goes into much detail about the priest's vestments ending with]A little plate of gold set with precious stones was fastened over the forehead.

The Essenes were very austere and frugal in their way of living. They generally ate only fruit, which was often cultivated in their gardens. I saw that Archos usually ate a bitter yellow fruit. He ruled over the Essenes for 90 years. I saw how St Anne's grandmother questioned him about her own marriage.

It is remarkable that it was always about female children that these prophets made predictions, and that Anna's ancestors and Anna herself had mostly daughters.

It was as if the object of all their devotions and prayers was to obatin from God a blessing on pious mothers from whose descendants the Blessed Virgin, the mother of the Saviour, should spring, as well as the family of his precursor John the Baptizer, and his servants and disciples.

ED: Many Essenes became followers of John the Baptist and from the two groups came the main influx of the first Jewish Christians.

Source: The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary as told by the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich.