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 Mary's Last Years 

The Blessed Virgin lived about fifteen years after our Lord's Ascension. Yet, there were never any wrinkles or signs of age in her lovely features, which always remained just as they were when she was in her thirty-third year. As time passed, Mary became more and more serious and recollected. No one ever saw her laugh, but she did occasionally smile with a very touching expression. She became quite thin and pale, for she slept very little, often only half an hour, and she ate only very light meals consisting usually of nothing but plain bread and sometimes a little fish. 

When she appeared among the Apostles on important occasions, she wore a large, white mantle and veil and a long sky-blue scarf ornamented with embroidery. Usually, she wore a simple, white robe. But she put a black veil whenever  she went along the sorrowful Way of the Cross in Jerusalem, for she regularly made devotion pilgrimages to all the places which her Divine Son had made holy by His suffering during His Passion. 

St. Peter insisted that Mary should attend the first meeting of the assembled Apostles and disciples, at which he announced that they would pray together to the Holy Ghost for ten days before deciding the difficult question that confronted them. On the first and last day, he celebrated Mass and distributed Holy Communion. The Blessed Virgin personally cleaned and decorated the hall of the Cenacle for the first of these ceremonies. But during the ten day, she retired to her room where she remained without eating or speaking to anyone. 

At this time, she had a mystical experience in which she was shown Lucifer and all his companions being obliged to hear the Almighty God announce to them that the Mother of the Savior would always defend His Church from their attacks. Then the Lord told her to exercise her authority and drive the demons back into the abyss, while the Holy Trinity assured her that the Church would ever be assisted by the omnipotence of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, and the love of the Holy Ghost. 

Source:  The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics 

              (from the Revelations of St, Elizabeth of Schoenau, St. Bridget of Sweden, Ven. Mother Mary of Agreda, Sister Anna Catherine Emmerich)