The Virgin Mary was there at Stephen's burial (I)

In these excerpts from Maria Valtorta's The Gospel as Revealed to Me (1), the author recalls the vision she received of Stephen's burial after his martyrdom in the year 32:

646.1 It is the dead of night, and a very dark night, because the moon has already set, when Mary comes out of the little house at Gethsemane with Peter, James of Alphaeus, John, Nicodemus and the Zealot.

(...) They go as far as the Kidron and proceed along it, so that they are half-hidden by the wild bushes that grow near its hanks. Also the murmur of the water serves to conceal and confuse the noise of the sandals of the wayfarers.

Going along the outer side of the walls all the time as far as the Gate closest to the Temple, and then proceeding into the barren desert area, they arrive at the place where Stephen was stoned. They direct their steps towards the pile of stones under which he is half buried, and they remove the stones until his poor body appears. It is by now deathly pale, both because of death and because of the blows it received during the lapidation, it is hard, stiff, all curled up as it was when he died.

646.2 Mary, Who has been mercifully kept away a few steps by John, frees Herself and runs towards that poor body, which is lacerated and covered with blood. Without worrying about the stains that the clotted blood leaves on Her dress, Mary, helped by James of Alphaeus and John, lays the body on a cloth stretched on the ground, in a spot devoid of stones, and with a linen cloth, that She dips in a small amphora handed to Her by the Zealot. She cleans, as best She can, the face of Stephen. She tidies his hair, trying to bring it round to his temples and wounded cheeks, in order to cover the horrible marks left by the stones. She cleans also the other parts of the body and She would also like to arrange them in a less tragic posture. But the chill of death, which had taken place many hours previously, allows that only partially.

(...) 646.3 And Nicodemus, who having been present at Stephen’s condemnation, although in a passive manner, and being one of the elders of the Judaeans, was more acquainted than the others with the decisions of the Sanhedrin, warns those present that the persecution against the Christians has been ordered and has broken-out, and that Stephen is only the first of a long list of names indicated as followers of the Christ.

The first cry of all the apostles is: “Let them do what they like! We will not change, either because of threats or out of prudence!”

Maria Valtorta

Source: https://archive.org/details/

(1) Maria Valtorta (1897-1961) was an Italian mystic and member of the Catholic Third Order of the Servites of Mary. She wrote the ten volumes of The Gospel as Revealed to Me, a true "celestial autobiography", so to speak.