Mystical Marriage…to Mary? (Alan de la Roche)
St Dominic and Bl Alan de la Roche
Apostles of the Holy Rosary
I have often read of mystical marriage in the lives of virgin female saints. Typically, our Lord Christ appears to a virgin and places ring upon her finger and takers her as His mystical bride.
Mystical marriage occurred with a number of female blesseds and saints: St. Agnes, St. Catherine of Alexandria, Blessed Angela of Foligno, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Colette, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Ricci, St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi, St. Veronica Giuliani, and Venerable Maria de Agreda.
However, I was rather surprised to read about a similar mystical marriage of a male to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Blessed Alan de la Roche, that great Apostle of the Holy Rosary (1428-1475), wrote that he experienced a mystical marriage to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Blessed Alan explains that the Virgin placed a ring upon his finger, draped a necklace made of her own hair upon him, and gave him a Rosary.
Is this the only account of a male receiving a mystical marriage to the Blessed Virgin Mary?
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