The Poem of the Man-God (Italian title: Il Poema dell'Uomo-Dio) is a work on the life of Jesus Christ written by Maria Valtorta.

[3][1][4] After writing her autobiography based on the advice of her priest Father Romualdo Migliorini, O.S.M., in 1943 the bedridden Valtorta began handwriting a series of what she claimed were messages from Jesus.

[1][2] Father Corrado Berti, O.S.M., professor at Marianum Pontifical Faculty of Theology at Rome, sent a preprint copy of the Poem to Pope Pius XII in 1947.

[4] Cardinal Edouard Gagnon wrote that the statement by Pius XII at the meeting with the three priests was "the type of Imprimatur granted by the Holy Father before witnesses," and that it was in complete conformity with the demands of Canon Law.

[4] Similarly, Rene Laurentin et al. maintain that Pius XII never took an official position beyond his original statement in the February 1948 private audience.

[12] The decree was published in L'Osservatore Romano on 6 January 1960,[13] accompanied by a front-page, anonymously written article under the heading "A Badly Fictionalized Life of Jesus".

Anthony Pillari noted that the L'Osservatore Romano article stated that the work was placed on the Index because it went against rule 1385 of the Code of Canon Law which required an imprimatur prior to publication.

Anthony Pillari states that this was Ratzinger's personal opinion and not that of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which had not held formal discussions on the issue, and hence had no juridic value.

[4] In May 1992, Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi wrote to Emilio Pisani, Valtorta's publisher, and requested that the Poem include a statement that specifies the material in the work does not have a supernatural origin.

[4] René Laurentin et al. state that in their opinion, Tettamanzi's letter effectively affirmed that reading the work was permitted, provided its contents were not assumed to have a supernatural origin.

They also state that other sky observations mentioned in the narrative shows that chapter 609 of the work, which describes the crucifixion of Jesus, corresponds to the date April 21, AD 34, as Van Zandt had computed.

"[21] Matricciani and De Caro also performed a deep-language mathematical analysis of the speeches attributed to Jesus Christ in Valtorta's work.

In addition to their theological and doctrinal content, they state that the speeches are so realistic in whatever mathematical parameter or setting they are studied, that Valtorta "is either a great literary author, or—as she claims—an attentive 'eyewitness' of what she reports.

"[22] Biblical scholar Gabriele Allegra, was a supporter of the writings of Maria Valtorta and in his letters from China and Hong Kong recommended the Poem to fellow Franciscans and his family members.

[7] Roschini wrote that Valtorta is "one of the greatest contemporary mystics", and that her writings "constitute the most melodious hymn rising from earth to the noble Queen of Heaven".

[28] Bouflet addressed Valtorta's statement in chapter 8 of her work that around the cube-like structure of the inner sanctuary at the Second Temple several cupolas that resembled huge half oranges could be seen.

Bouflet stated that in his opinion the excavations by Nahman Avigad and Yigael Shiloh in the 1980s coupled with his reading of Flavius Josephus indicate that the Second Temple had no such cupolas around the inner sanctuary.

[28] Bouflet states that Valtorta talks about the existence of Tiberias in her vision when Jesus Christ was 5 years old and staying in Egypt, when the city was not yet founded.

[28] However, Valtorta does not provide any descriptions of Tiberias, but only interprets the places pointed out by the child Jesus around a small broken pot filled with water representing the Sea of Galilee, as locations that she recognizes.

[28] Bouflet states that the use of the word "vanilla" by a first-century AD person in chapter 168 of the work, is linguistically anachronistic since the term was only coined in the 16th century.

However, Bouflet acknowledged that in 2018 a chemical analysis of 3600-year-old wine jars excavated in Judea suggested that vanilla existed in Palestine prior to the first-century AD.