Anne Catherine Emmerich was born on September 8, 1774, in a hamlet outside of Coesfeld, Germany. Her parents were peasants, and her family was very poor. Her biographer and amanuensis, the Romantic poet Clemens Brentano, tells us that she was gifted with a deep religious sensibility and heavenly apparitions marked her childhood. In 1798, she had a vision in which Christ offered her a choice between a crown of flowers or a crown of thorns. She chose the crown of thorns, and the next day began to suffer the physical marks of the passion of Christ that marked her for the rest of her life.