Emmerick’s visions were fragmentary, and Brentano needed almost ten years to structure and integrate the material into an overarching narrative. He drew on additional sources for his work. The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, published in 1833, was highly successful. Brentano nevertheless complained that while “all pious citizens and peasants” read the book, it was ignored by the rational classes to whom he had wanted to present a paragon of naive popular piety.