Death of ‘clairvoyant’ Vassula Ryden – Swiss Catholic portal

L’association True Life in God announced on October 15, 2024, the death on September 25 of Vassula Ryden, in Rhodes, at the age of 82, following an operation. The ‘clairvoyant’ Greek Orthodoxauthor of numerous books, enjoyed great notoriety in the years 1980-2000, including in Catholic circles.

Vassula Ryden became known in Switzerland, where she resided, and throughout the world, through her “messages” attributed to direct revelations from Christ, the Virgin and the saints. In addition to his written work, published under the title True Life in God and translated into 25 languages, Vassula Ryden gave numerous conferences on five continents regularly bringing together several thousand people.

Quite unexpectedly since the clairvoyant was not of the Catholic faith but Greek Orthodox, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had published a note in October 1995 denying the supernatural character of her message and inviting the bishops not to grant any place in their diocese for the dissemination of his ideas. This, however, hardly slowed his momentum.

Private mediations

As recently as 2007, the CDF recalled that “it does not seem appropriate for Catholics to participate in the prayer groups organized by Vassula Ryden.”

For the Congregation, Vassula’s “heavenly messages” are only the fruit of private meditations. Ms. Ryden’s activities “despite some positive aspects have negative repercussions.” The Congregation highlighted “the ambiguous language” of the writings and messages disseminated by Vassula Ryden in Catholic circles.

The note further criticizes Vassula for introducing ecumenical confusion. “Ms. Ryden, habitually participating in the sacraments of the Catholic Church, although being Greek Orthodox (…) seems to put herself above all ecclesiastical jurisdiction and all canonical rules and thereby creates ecumenical disorder.”

Born in Cairo in 1942

Vassula Rydén was born in 1942 into Egypt’s Greek Orthodox minority. She grew up in Heliopolis, Cairo, then Lausanne, Switzerland. She married a Swedish United Nations diplomat and led the life of a diplomat’s wife, including interests in painting and tennis. “On November 28, 1985, she received for the first time a revelation from her guardian angel, Daniel. Later, it was God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary and other angels and saints who spoke to him,” reports the True Life in God obituary. In total, she managed to write 13 volumes of revelations which have been translated into more than 40 languages. She has delivered more than 1,170 speeches in more than 85 countries.

For her biographer “Vassula was and remains (like all the prophets of history) a sign of contradiction. It was contradicted by both atheists and rationalists, and by some ecclesiastical authorities who refused to recognize that God could choose an ordinary woman to convey a message about the reality of God and his loving desires for the world. (cath.ch/mp)