A
Marian apparition is an event in which the
Virgin Mary is believed to
have
supernaturally appeared to one or
more persons. They are often given names based on the town in which
they were reported, or on the
sobriquet
which was given to Mary on the occasion of the apparition. They
have been interpreted in
religious terms
as
theophanies.
Marian apparitions sometimes are reported to recur at the same site
over an extended period of time. In the majority of Marian
apparitions only a few people report having witnessed the
apparition. An exception to this is at
Zeitoun, where thousands claimed to have
seen her over a period of three years.
What is an appearance?
The term "appearance" has been used in different apparitions within
a wide range of contexts and experiences. And its use has been
different with respect to Marian apparitions and
visions of Jesus Christ.
In some apparitions such as
Our Lady
of Lourdes or
Our Lady of
Fatima an actual vision is reported, fully resembling that of a
person being present. In some of these reports the viewers (at
times children) do not initially report that they saw the Virgin
Mary, but that they saw "
a Lady" (quite often dressed in
white) and had a conversation with her. In these cases the viewers
report experiences that resemble the visual and verbal interaction
with a person present at the site of the apparition. In most cases,
there are no clear indications as to the auditory nature of the
experience, i.e. whether the viewers heard the voices via airwaves
or other miraculous methods. Yet, the 1973 messages of
Our Lady of Akita, which were approved at
the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith in 1988 by Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger (later
Pope Benedict XVI) are due to Sister
Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa who
had been totally deaf before 1973 (and remained deaf until 1982
when she was cured during Sunday Mass as foretold in her messages),
suggesting means of communication beyond airwaves.
In some apparitions just an image is reported, often with no verbal
interaction, and no conversation. An example is the reported
apparitions at
Our Lady of Assiut
in which many people reported a bright image atop a building,
accompanied by photographs of the image. The photographs at times
suggest the silhouette of a statue of the Virgin Mary but the
images are usually subject to varying interpretations, and critics
suggest that they may just be due to various visual effects of
unknown origin. However, such
image-like appearances are
hardly ever reported for
visions of Jesus and Mary which in
most cases involve some form of reported communication.
And apparitions should be distinguished from
interior locutions in which no visual
contact is claimed. In some cases of reported interior locutions
such as those of Father
Stefano Gobbi
a large amount of text is produced, but no visual contact is
claimed. Interior locutions usually do not include an auditory
component, but consist of inner voices. Interior locutions are
generally not classified as apparitions.
Physical contact is hardly ever reported as part of Marian
apparitions, unlike in cases of interaction with
Jesus Christ. In rare cases a physical artifact
is reported in apparitions.
A well known example is the image of Our Lady of
Guadalupe
which is reported to have been miraculously
imprinted on the cloak of Saint Juan
Diego.
Catholic belief
According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the era of public
revelation ended with the death of the last living
Apostle. A Marian apparition, if deemed
genuine by Church authority, is treated as private revelation that
may emphasize some facet of the received public revelation for a
specific purpose, but it can never add anything new to the deposit
of faith. The Church will confirm an apparition as worthy of
belief, but belief is never required by divine faith.
The Holy See has officially confirmed the apparitions
at Guadalupe, Saint-Étienne-le-Laus
, Paris (Rue du Bac, Miraculous Medal
), La Salette, Lourdes, Fátima, Portugal, Pontmain
, Beauraing
, and Banneux
.
As a historical pattern, Vatican approval of apparitions seems to
have followed general acceptance of a vision by well over a century
in most cases. According to Father Salvatore M. Perrella of the
Marianum Pontifical Institute in Rome, of
the 295 reported apparitions studied by the
Holy See through the centuries only 12 have been
approved, the latest being in May 2008 in
Laus.
An authentic apparition is believed not to be a subjective
experience, but a real and objective intervention of divine power.
The purpose of such apparitions is to recall and emphasize some
aspect of the Christian message. The church states that cures and
other miraculous events are not the purpose of Marian apparitions,
but exist primarily to validate and draw attention to the message.
Apparitions of Mary are held to be evidence of her continuing
active presence in the life of the church, through which she "cares
for the brethren of her son who still journey on earth."
Not all claims of visitations are dealt with favourably by the
Roman Catholic Church.
For example, claimed apparitions of Our Lady,
Jesus Christ and various saints at Bayside, New York
have not been condoned or sanctioned in any way,
nor those at the Necedah
Shrine
in Necedah
, Wisconsin
. The behavior of Ms
Veronica Lueken and Mary Ann Van Hoof, who
claimed these heavenly favors, was deemed not to compare favorably
with the "quiet pragmatism" of St.
Bernadette Soubirous — Church
authorities are said to use Bernadette as a model by which to judge
all who purport to have visitations. Indeed, both women seriously
criticized the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, allegedly even
harshly, and Mrs. Van Hoof is said to have subsequently left Roman
Catholicism for an independent local
Old Catholic Church.
Possibly the best-known apparition sites are
Lourdes and
Fatima Over sixty spontaneous healings,
out of thousands reported at the Lourdes Spring, have been
classified as "inexplicable" by the
physicians of the Lourdes Bureau, a medical centre
set up by the Church in association with local medical institutes
to assess possible miracles. The
Three Secrets of Fatima received a
great deal of attention in the Catholic and secular press.
Criteria for evaluating apparitions
In 1978 the Sacred
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith (former
Holy Office) issued
"Norms of the Congregation for Proceeding in Judging Alleged
Apparitions and Revelations" containing the following provisions:
- The diocesan bishop can initiate a process on his own
initiative or at the request of the faithful to investigate the
facts of an alleged apparition. The bishop may refrain from looking
into it if he chooses, especially if he thinks that not much will
come of the event.
- The national conference of bishops may intervene if the local
diocesan bishop refers it to him or if the event becomes important
nationally or at least in more than one diocese.
- The Apostolic See (the Vatican) can
also intervene at the request of the local bishop himself, at the
request of a group of the faithful, or on its own initiative.
The steps of the investigation are mandated as follows:An initial
evaluation of the facts of the alleged event, based on both
positive and negative criteria:
- Positive Criteria
- :# moral certainty (the certainty required to act morally in a
situation of doubt) or at least great probability as to the
existence of a private revelation at the end of a serious
investigation into the case
- :# evaluation of the personal qualities of the person in
question (mental balance, honesty, moral life, sincerity, obedience
to Church authority, willingness to practice faith in the normal
way, etc.)
- :# evaluation of the content of the revelations themselves
(that they do not disagree with faith and morals of the Church,
freedom from theological errors)
- :# the revelation results in healthy devotion and spiritual
fruits in people's lives (greater prayer, greater conversion of
heart, works of charity that result, etc.)
- Negative Criteria
- :#glaring errors in regard to the facts
- :#doctrinal errors attributed to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary,
or to the Holy Spirit in how they appear
- :#any pursuit of financial gain in relation to the alleged
event
- :#gravely immoral acts committed by the person or those
associated with the person at the time of the event
- :#psychological disorders or tendencies on the part of the
person or persons associated
After this initial investigation, if the occurrence meets the
criteria, positive and negative, an initial cautionary permission
can be granted that basically states: "for the moment, there is
nothing opposed to it." This permits public participation in the
devotion in regard to the alleged apparition.
Ultimately, a final judgment and determination needs to be given,
giving approval or condemnation of the event.
Local diocese approval
An initial assessment by the local bishop that allows the devotion
to an apparition to proceed forward should not be treated as formal
approval from the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, which may follow a few centuries later.
A recent example is
Our Lady of
Laus which was recognized by the local diocese in 1665 and was
the subject of devotions, but obtained approval from the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith only in 2008.
Moreover, Marian apparitions often involve complications at the
local diocese, and a letter of approval or disapproval from a local
bishop, does not automatically signal approval or denial.
A recent
example is the apparitions of Our
Lady of Kibeho in the 1980s in Kibeho
, Rwanda
. In
1982 the teenagers who saw the visions reported truly gruesome
sights and said that the Virgin Mary asked everyone to pray to
prevent a terrible war. Some today regard the visions as an ominous
foreshadowing of the
Rwandan
Genocide of 1994, and particularly in that specific location in
1995, where some teenagers died a decade after their vision. The
apparitions were accepted by the local bishop (accused by many of
complicity in the genocide himself), but have not been given final
approval by the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.
Papal Marian apparitions
It has been claimed that apparitions were experienced by a number
of popes, including
Pope Leo XIII in
1884,
Pope Pius XII at various stages
during his papacy, and
Pope John Paul
II in 1981, while he recovered from an assassination attempt
which occurred on May 13, the anniversary of the
Fatima apparition. While he only reported
focusing on her image in order to stay conscious as per paramedic
instructions, a number of rumors have circulated about this event,
including that he actually saw her for a minute, or that he
witnessed a solar phenomenon as at Fatima; ; if so, he said nothing
on the record about it. He was quoted some time later as saying he
thought "a motherly hand guided the bullet's path" so that he would
be only injured and not killed. After this incident, he became
devoted to Our Lady of Fatima, visiting her basilica on the
anniversary of the shooting, enacting her requested
Consecration of Russia, and having
the bullet that almost killed him set in the crown of the Pilgrim
Virgin statue. John Paul II's particular devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary was indicated in his coat of Arms
(image,
right), which contains a large letter "M," representing Mary
at the foot of the Cross, as well as his motto "Totus Tuus,"
("Totally yours"), dedicated to Mary. He also visited many of the
most famous apparition sites, notably Guadalupe, Lourdes, Licheń,
and Knock, and may have experienced another visitation on his last
visit to Lourdes in 2004, when he lost his balance and said: 'I
feel with emotion that I have reached the end of my
pilgrimage'.
Apparitions and statues
Marian apparitions are sometimes reported along with
weeping statues of the
Virgin Mary. However, to date only one single
example of a combined weeping statue and apparition (namely
Our Lady of Akita) has been
approved by the
Vatican and the rest have
usually been dismissed as hoaxes.
Weeping statues are one of the rare instances where the Church
authorities and the skeptics simultaneously pursue hoaxes. The
upper levels of the Vatican have been very careful in their
approach and treatment of weeping statues, and generally set very
high barriers for their acceptance.
For instance when a statue of the popular
Saint Padre Pio in Messina
, Sicily was
found to have tears of blood one day in 2002, Church officials
quickly ordered tests that showed the blood to belong to a woman
and then dismissed the case as a hoax. Even at the local
level, Catholic priests have expelled people who claim weeping
statues with apparitions from their local Church.
In 1995,
the owner of a Madonna statue that appeared to weep blood in the
town of Civitavecchia
in Italy refused to take a DNA test and the case
was dismissed as a hoax. In 2008 church custodian Vincenzo
Di Costanzo went on trial in northern Italy for faking blood on a
statue of the Virgin Mary when his own DNA was matched to the
blood.
Impact of apparitions
While Marian apparitions may at times seem like fanciful tales told
by young children of no significant education about experiences
they say they had with a Lady on a mountain top which few people
had ever heard of before, factual analysis indicates that the
effect of apparitions on the Roman Catholic Church has been
significant. Marian apparitions have led to, or affected, the
Catholic Church,
Roman Catholic
Mariology and the lives of millions of Roman Catholics in
several ways:
- * The conversion of millions of people to Roman
Catholicism.
- * The construction of some of the largest Roman Catholic Marian
churches ever.
- * The formation of the largest Marian Movements and
Societies ever.
- * The spread of Marian devotions (such as the rosary) to millions of people.
- * The declaration of specific Marian dogmas and doctrines.
- * Hundreds of millions of Marian pilgrimages.
A few cases can illustrate these items.
Conversions and shrines
By all
accounts, when Juan Diego, age 57,
reported the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill in Mexico in
1531, he did not receive a lot of attention in Rome
, since the
Church was busy with the challenges of the Protestant Reformation of 1521 to
1579 and perhaps very few Cardinals in Rome had ever heard the
details of Mexico and its environs. Yet, just as a large
number of people were leaving the Catholic Church in Europe as a
result of the Reformation, Our Lady of Guadalupe was instrumental in adding almost 8 million people
to the ranks of Catholics in the Americas between 1532 and
1538. The number of Catholics in South America has grown
significantly over the centuries. Eventually with tens of millions
of followers, Juan Diego had an effect on
Mariology in the Americas and
beyond, and was eventually declared
venerable in 1987. Juan Diego was declared a saint
in 2002.
Furthermore, the Basilica of
Our Lady of Guadalupe
on Tepeyac hill in Mexico is
now the third largest Catholic Church in the world, after Saint Peter's
Basilica
in Rome and the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady
of Aparecida
in Brazil. Recent reported apparitions such as
Medjugorje
have also attracted a large following.
Societies and devotions
The Marian apparition of
Our
Lady of Fátima on a remote mountain top to three young
Portuguese children in 1917 also seemed fanciful and the local
administrator initially jailed the children and threatened that he
would boil them one by one in a pot of oil. However, over the years
the effect of Fátima has been undeniable. With over 25 million
registered Catholic members, the
Blue Army of Our Lady of
Fátima (which was approved by
Pope
Pius XII in 1947) is the largest
Marian Society in the world. And the message
of Fátima has inspired the spread of other devotions. An example is
Our Lady's Rosary Makers
formed by Brother
Sylvan Mattingly
in 1949 with $25 to distribute free rosaries, based on his devotion
to Fátima.
Our Lady's Rosary
Makers has since distributed hundreds of millions of free
rosaries to Catholic missions worldwide.
Mariology
Marian apparitions such as
Our Lady
of Lourdes (which promoted
Immaculate Conception) have also
influenced the direction of
Roman Catholic Mariology, as
illustrated by the
ex cathedra
exercise of
Papal infallibility
on the
dogma of
Immaculate Conception. This also
illustrated that unlike most Roman Catholic theology which
originates from the upper levels of the Church, Mariology has quite
often been driven from the ground up by the tens of millions of
Catholics with a special devotion to the
Blessed
Virgin. As Marian apparitions create strong emotions among
large numbers of Roman Catholics, they lead to
sensus fidelium. This strong response among
Catholics in turn influences the higher levels of the Roman
Catholic hierarchy as
sensus fidei
gains strength.
To this end, the official
Vatican website
Agenzia Fides stated in 2004
that:
- "The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was defined by
Pius IX not so much because of proofs in
Scripture or ancient tradition, but due to a profound sensus fidelium, a century-old sense of the
faithful, and the Magisterium".
The Vatican quotes in this context the
encyclical Fulgens
Corona, where
Pius XII supported such a
faith. In several Marian teachings, the "theology of the people"
such as the immaculate Conception, the profound and century-old
sense of the faithful has taken precedence over academic
theology.
Pilgrimages
Marian apparitions are also responsible for tens of millions of
Marian pilgrimages per year.
About 5 million pilgrims visit Lourdes
every year and within France only Paris has more
hotels than Lourdes. And about 10 million pilgrims visit Our Lady of
Guadalupe each year, where each mass can accommodate up to
40,000 people. Thus each decade, just Lourdes and Guadalupe
amount to over one hundred million Catholic pilgrimages, based on
Marian apparitions to two people on two remote hilltops.
The
Sanctuary of Our Lady of
Fátima
also attracts a large number of Roman Catholics, and every year pilgrims
fill the country road that leads to the shrine with crowds that
approach one million on May 13 and October 13, the significant
dates of Fatima apparitions. Overall, about four million
pilgrims visit the basilica every year.
Historical feasts
A number of feasts based on historical traditions involving
apparitions are celebrated in the
Roman Catholic Church. These
apparitions do not technically fall in the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith approved category, since they generally
predate the formation of the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith in 1542. They are recognized based on the
papal declaration of the feast day rather than formal analysis by
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Our Lady of the Pillar
In the
year 39 AD, according to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to
Saint James the Great, in
Zaragoza
, Spain. The vision is now called
Our Lady of the Pillar and is the
only reported Marian apparition before her Assumption.
The Basilica of
Our Lady of the Pillar
was built in Zaragoza, Spain and a key piece of
Roman Catholic Marian art,
the statue of Our Lady of the Pillar, refers to this
apparition.
Our Lady of the Snow
Our Lady of the Snow is based on a
legend that during the pontificate of Pope
Liberius, during the night of August the 5th, snow fell on the
summit of the Esquiline
Hill
in Rome. And based on a vision that same
night a basilica was built in honour of Our Lady, on the spot which
was covered with snow.
The
church built there is now the basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore
and the feast was celebrated at that church for
centuries on August 5 each year. However, there was no of
mention of this alleged miracle in historical records until a few
hundred years later, not even by Pope
Sixtus
III in his dedicatory inscription, and it may be that the
legend has no historical basis. However, in the fourteenth century
the feast was extended to all the churches of Rome and finally it
was made a universal feast by Pope
Pius
V.
Our Lady of Walsingham
According to the tradition of
Our
Lady of Walsingham, the Virgin Mary appeared in a vision to
Richeldis de Faverches, a devout Saxon noblewoman, in 1061 in
Walsingham, England, instructing her to construct a shrine
resembling the place of the
Annunciation. The shrine passed into the care
of the Canons Regular sometime between 1146 and 1174. Late in 1538,
King
Henry VIII’s soldiers
sacked the priory at
Walsingham, killed two monks and destroyed the shrine. In 1897
Pope Leo XIII re-established the
restored 14th century Slipper Chapel as a Roman Catholic shrine.
The Holy House had been rebuilt at the Catholic Church of the
Annunciation at King's Lynn (Walsingham was part of this Catholic
parish in 1897). Today there are two shrines at Walsingham: the
Roman Catholic shrine centered on the Slipper Chapel and the Holy
House maintained by the
Church of
England. There are also two separate feast days: September 24
in the Roman Catholic Church and October 15 in the
Anglican Communion.
Our Lady of the Rosary
The apparition of
Our Lady of the
Rosary is by tradition attributed to
Saint Dominic in 1208 in the church of
Prouille, in France. According to the
attribution, the Virgin Mary appeared to
Saint Dominic and introduced him to the
rosary. Some sources suggest that
Alan de Rupe (rather than Saint Dominic) was
the major influence on the rosary in the 15th century, while other
sources seek a middle ground to these two views. For centuries,
Dominicans became instrumental in
spreading the rosary and emphasizing the Catholic belief in the
power of the rosary.
In 1571
Pope Pius V instituted "Our Lady of
Victory" as an annual feast to commemorate the victory of Lepanto
, the victory being attributed to Our Lady.
In 1969,
Pope Paul VI changed the name
of the feast to
Our Lady of the
Rosary.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
The
Blessed Virgin Mary is said
to have appeared to Saint
Simon Stock,
who was Prior General of the
Carmelite
Order in the mid 13th century. The earliest reference to the
tradition of his Marian apparition, dating from the late 14th
century, states that "St. Simon was an
Englishman, a man of great holiness and
devotion, who always in his prayers asked the
Virgin to favor his Order with some
singular privilege. The Virgin appeared to him holding the
Scapular in her hand
saying, 'This is for you and yours a privilege; the one who dies in
it will be saved.'" A scapular is an apron-like garment that forms
part of the Carmelite
religious
habit, and in the original context the
Blessed Virgin Mary's promise was an
assurance that religious who persevered in their
vocation would be saved; beginning in the
latter half of the 16th century the small devotional scapular
became very popular as a
sacramental.
The historicity of Saint
Simon Stock's
vision is disputed, and as a result today neither the liturgy for
the Feast of
Our Lady of Mount
Carmel (which originally had no association with
scapular devotion, but
began to be strongly connected with Saint
Simon Stock's vision in the 17th century), nor
that of Saint
Simon Stock make any
reference to the vision of Mary or the scapular. The
Brown Scapular itself remains warmly approved
and recommended by the
Catholic
Church.
Approved apparitions
A Roman Catholic approved Marian apparition is one that has been
examined by the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith either based on the criteria listed above
(or internal procedures in place before that) and has been granted
approval either through the local Bishop based on the direction of
the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith or received a direct approval from the
Holy See.
Although a local bishop may provide a preliminary assessment (and
allow the devotion to proceed forward), formal approval can only be
provided after detailed analysis by the
Holy
See. For instance, although the apparitions at
Our Lady of Laus were recognized by the
local diocese in 1665, they received approval from the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith centuries later, in 2008.
Apparitions favored by the
Holy See
usually:
- *
Become the site of major Roman Catholic Marian
churches such as Lourdes, France or the Basilica of
Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill in
Mexico.
- *
Receive papal visits such as Pope John Paul
II's visits to Fatima, Portugal and
Beauraing, Belgium.
However, a papal visit does not amount to a formal approval. For
instance, Pope
John Paul II visited the
basilica of
Our Lady of La Vang,
but no formal approval was granted.
Some
apparitions such as in Assiut
, Egypt have
been approved by the Coptic Church and
can be called approved but not Roman Catholic
approved.
Roman Catholic approved
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe
The 1531
apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe was reported by Saint Juan
Diego. He said he saw an early morning vision of the
Virgin Mary in which he was instructed to
build an abbey on the Hill of
Tepeyac in
Mexico.
The local prelate did not believe his
account and asked for a miraculous sign, which was later provided
as an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe permanently imprinted on the saint’s cloak where he
had gathered roses. Over the years, Our Lady of Guadalupe
became a symbol of the Catholic faith in Mexico.
Our Lady of Laus
The
apparitions of Our Lady of Laus
between 1664 and 1718 in Saint-Étienne-le-Laus, France
by Benoite Rencurel, a young
shepherdess are the first Marian apparitions to be approved in the
21st century by the Roman Catholic
Church. The apparitions were recognized by the diocese
of the Roman Catholic Church on September 18, 1665. They were
approved by the Vatican on May 5, 2008. Currently, the site where
the apparitions took place receives more than 120,000 pilgrims a
year.
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
The
vision of Our Lady of the Miraculous
Medal
is said to have appeared to Saint Catherine
Labouré
in 1830 in the convent of Rue du Bac,
Paris
. She reported that one night in the chapel,
the
Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her and
asked that a medallion be made to a design that she dictated. The
lady added that, "All who wear this medal will receive great
graces." After spending two years
examining her claims, her priest eventually took the information to
his
archbishop.
The medal eventually
produced came to be referred to as the Miraculous Medal. The front of the medal displays a picture
of the virgin as she appeared to Catherine Labouré. The design on
the reverse includes the letter M and a cross.
Pope John Paul II used a slight variation
of the reverse image as his coat of arms, the
Marian Cross. This is plain cross with an M
underneath the right-hand bar, to signify the Blessed Virgin
standing at the foot of the Cross while Jesus was being
crucified).
Sister
Justine Bisqueyburu is said to have also had an apparition in 1840
within the same chapel at Rue du Bac as Saint Catherine
Labouré. These visitations instituted the "Green
Scapular" which involves a very simple devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Green
Scapular, has not, however, been approved by the
Holy See and does not have an associated
confraternity..
Our Lady of La Salette
The
apparitions of Our Lady of La Salette
were reported in La
Salette in France in 1846 by two shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, followed by numerous accounts
of miraculous healings. The
Roman Catholic Church investigated the
claims and found them to be basically credible. However, in the
late nineteenth century controversy surrounded the claims of one of
the
seers, Mélanie Calvat in a France hostile
to religion. Recent releases from the
Vatican Secret Archives may have
clarified the situation to some extent, but some controversy still
remains attached to this apparition.
Our Lady of Lourdes
In 1858
Saint Bernadette Soubirous was
a 14-year-old shepherd girl who lived near the town of Lourdes in France. One day she reported a vision of
a
miraculous Lady who identified
Herself as "the Immaculate Conception" in subsequent visions. In
the second vision she was asked to return again and she had 18
visions overall. According to Saint Bernadette, the Lady held a
string of Rosary beads and led Saint Bernadette to the discovery of
a buried spring, also requesting that the local priests build a
chapel at the site of the visions and lead holy processions there.
Eventually, a number of chapels and churches were built at Lourdes
as the
Sanctuary of Our
Lady of Lourdes - which is now a major Catholic pilgrimage
site.
One
of these churches, the Basilica of St. Pius X
can accommodate 25,000 people and was dedicated by
the future Pope John XXIII when he
was the Papal Nuncio to France.
Our Lady of Pontmain
The apparitions at
Our Lady of
Pontmain, France also called
Our
Lady of Hope were reported in 1871 by a number of young
children.
The final approval for the apparitions of
Our Lady of Hope was given in 1932 by
Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who later became
Pope Pius XII.
Our Lady of Fátima
The visions of the Virgin Mary appearing to three shepherd children
at
Our Lady of Fátima in
Portugal in 1917 were declared worthy of belief by the Catholic
Church in 1930. Four popes —
Pope Pius
XII,
Pope John XXIII,
Pope Paul VI and
Pope John Paul II — have supported the
Fatima messages as supernatural.
Pope
John Paul II was particularly attached to Fátima and credited
Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life after he was shot in Rome
on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fátima in May 1981.
He donated the bullet
that wounded him on that day to the Sanctuary of
Our Lady of Fátima.
In 1925, eight years after the Fátima events, Lúcia Santos reported
another set of apparitions, which became known as the
Pontevedra apparitions.
Our Lady of Beauraing
The 33 apparitions of
Our Lady of
Beauraing were reported in Belgium between November 1932 and
January 1933 by five local children ranging in age from 9 to 15
years.
From 1933 to World War II, pilgrims flocked
to the little village of Beauraing. The final approbation for the apparition was
granted on July 2, 1949 under the authority of the Holy Office by the decree of Andre-Marie Charue,
Bishop of Namur
,
Belgium. These apparitions are also known as the
Virgin of the Golden
Heart.
Our Lady of Banneux
The
apparitions of Our Lady of
Banneux were reported by a young child, Mariette Beco a native of Banneux, Belgium in
the 1930s. They are also known as the
Virgin of the Poor. The apparitions were
approved by the Roman Catholic Church in 1949.
Beco reported eight visions of the
Blessed Virgin Mary between January 15
and March 2, 1933. She reported seeing a Lady in White who declared
herself to be the
Virgin of the Poor and told her:
"Believe in me and I will believe in you". In one vision, the Lady
reportedly asked Mariette to drink from a small spring and later
said that the spring was for healing. Over time the site drew
pilgrims. Today, the small spring yields about 2,000 gallons of
water a day with many reports of miraculous healings.
Our Lady of Akita
The apparitions of
Our Lady of
Akita were reported in 1973 by Sister
Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in the remote
area of Yuzawadai, near the city of
Akita in Japan.
For several decades, Agnes Sasagawa had
encountered many health problems but her health reportedly improved
after drinking water from Lourdes. After going totally deaf, she went to live
with the nuns in the remoteness of Yuzawadai. In 1973 she reported
apparitions of the
Virgin Mary, as well as
stigmata and a weeping statue of the Virgin
Mary which continued to weep over the next 6 years on 101
occasions. According to
EWTN, in June 1988
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later
Pope
Benedict XVI) as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, gave definitive judgement on
Our Lady of Akita events and messages as
reliable and worthy of belief.
Coptic approved
Some apparitions taking place within the
Coptic church have been approved, but have not
been formally examined or approved by the Roman Catholic
Church.
Our Lady of Zeitoun
Our Lady of Zeitoun was a mass Marian
apparition that occurred in the Zeitoun
district of Cairo
, Egypt,
over a period of 2–3 years beginning on April 2, 1968.
It was
reportedly witnessed by many thousands of people, including
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel
Nasser, and captured by newspaper photographers and Egyptian
television. According to witnesses, the
Virgin Mary appeared in
different forms over the
Coptic
Orthodox Church of
Saint Mary at Zeitoun for a period of 2–3 years.
The apparitions lasted from a few minutes up to several hours and
were sometimes accompanied by dove-shaped luminous bodies. The sick
and blind are said to have been cured, and many people
converted to
Christianity as a result. The Coptic church
approved of these apparitions.
Our Lady of Assiut
The
apparitions of Our Lady of Assiut
were also mass apparitions in Assiut, Egypt during 2000
and 2001 and many thousands of witnesses produced photographs of
them, which were reprinted in several newspapers. Video
clips of the apparition have been posted on the internet. The
reports state that during mass, pictures hung on the wall inside
the altar, which show St Mary with a dove above her started to
illuminate first, then the light from the dove in the pictures
started to flow down. The lights thereafter appeared above the
church as well and were seen by thousands of people. The coptic
church approved of the apparitions.
Apparitions with mass appeal
A number of claimed apparitions sites which have yet to be fully
approved continue to gather pilgrims and become the site of major
Marian basilicas. The
apparitions at these sites are often the subject of legends. An
example is
Our Lady of
Walsingham where according to legend the Blessed Virgin
appeared in a vision to a noblewoman in 1061 and her son built a
simple wooden structure there which later became an abbey. No
details of the content of vision have been preserved, but pilgrims
continued to arrive at Walsingham for centuries until
1st Earl of Sussex
destroyed it in 1538.
The 1490
apparition reported by Italian peasant Benedetto Pareto regarding
Our Lady of
Guardia
is somewhat similar, but has a happier
ending. Pareto also reported that the Virgin Mary appeared
to him and asked him to build a church atop the mountain. Pareto at
first refused, saying that he was just a poor man, but he
eventually built a small wooden structure which in time gathered
many pilgrims.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guardia
is now a thriving basilica atop Mount Figogna, near
Genoa
Italy.
Some major
Marian
basilicas and traditions are based on legends that do not
involve any specific apparitions, but sacred objects that are
assumed to have been associated with apparitions.
The key example is
the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our
Lady of Aparecida in Aparecida
, Brazil
.
It is the
second-largest Catholic place of worship in the world, second only
to St. Peter's
Basilica
in Vatican
City
, and the largest Marian Church in the world, receiving over 6
million pilgrims a year. There is no specific vision or
apparition associated with
Our
Lady of Aparecida, and it is based on a simple wooden statue of
the Blessed Virgin (found by fishermen) which over the centuries
drew millions of pilgrims, based on its reported healing powers.
The festivals surrounding
Our Lady of Chiquinquirá in
Venezeula are based on a piece of wood which according to legend
grew luminous with the image of the Blessed Virgin in 1709. In the
case of
Our Lady of Kazan, legend
holds that the Blessed Virgin revealed the location of the precious
icon to a 10 year old girl in 1579.
The
Basilica of Our Lady of Good
Health
in Tamil
Nadu
in southern India does however have a legend that
involves a number of apparitions. There is no historical
record of the apparition of
Our
Lady of Good Health but the oral tradition suggests that there
was an apparition to a Hindu boy in mid sixteenth century and later
Portuguese sailors were saved by another apparition. Similarly, the
legend
Our Lady of La Vang is
based on an apparition to a group of Vietnamese Catholics in the
rain forest in 1798, and the site of a basilica.
Although
both She Shan
Basilica
in Shanghai, China and
Our Lady of China in Donglu, near Beijing, were popular pilgrimage sites
at one time, with the arrest and imprisonment of the Catholic
bishops in the 1950s by the communists and with the establishment
of the Chinese
Patriotic Catholic Association against the Vatican, these
pilgrimages have slowed down.
The
Sanctuary
of Our Lady of Lichen
, the largest church in Poland (and the 11th largest
in the world) is based on legends on the Virgin Mary appearing to
different people in the Lichen area in the early 19th
century. The Basilica of Our Lady of Knock
in Ireland is based on a reported appearance of the
Virgin Mary along with Jesus Christ and
other saints in Ireland in 1879.The Basilica of our
Our Lady of Siluva in Siluva
, Lithuania
is also based on a legand of an apparition to four
children in 1608, and houses a famous painting (perhaps based on
Salus Populi Romani) called
Our Lady of Siluva, usually considered Lithuania's
greatest treasure.
Among
recent visions, the reported apparitions of The Virgin Mary to six
children in Međugorje
in 1981 have received the widest amount of
attention. The
Our
Lady of Međugorje messages are published and distributed
worldwide and often emphasize five key elements: Daily prayer of
the
Holy Rosary, Fasting on Wednesdays
and Fridays, Daily reading of the
Bible,
Monthly Confessions and
Holy
Communion.
The Međugorje messages have a very strong following among
Catholics worldwide. The
Holy See
has never officially either approved or disapproved of the messages
of Međugorje, although both critical and supportive documents about
the messages have been published by various Catholic figures.
Notable but unapproved apparitions
A list of some of the notable reports of Marian apparitions is
provided below. The apparitions in the table below do not have
approval, and only those apparitions listed and explained in the
sections above have received either
Roman Catholic or
Coptic approval, and the others shown in the
table here are simply based on legend, reports of individuals or
are still awaiting approval. There are hundreds of other reported
apparitions around the world without major references or church
investigations and they can not be included in this section, due to
their lack of notability.
As a general pattern, in most cases, formal Vatican approval for
apparitions usually requires at least a century, even if the local
diocese issues a preliminary letter permitting devotions. For
instance,
Our Lady of Laus was
recognized by the local bishop in 1665 but was only granted
approval by the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith in 2008. As current examples,
Our Lady of Kibeho have received
recognition from the local diocese, but there has been no formal
approval from the
Holy See. However, the
1973 apparitions of
Our Lady of
Akita were approved by the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith in 1988, with a faster pace than
usual.
The
apparitions reported between 1945 and 1959 by Ida Peerdeman in
Amsterdam
as The Lady of
all Nations include a short prayer called the Amsterdam
Blessing. In May 2002, Bishop
Jozef Marianus Punt of Haarlem-Amsterdam
issued a letter that declared this apparition as having a
supernatural origin. However, this apparition has not been
officially approved by the
Holy See, and
has approval only at the local bishop level.
The reported apparitions of
Our Lady
of Kibeho in 1982 included exceptionally long and dramatic
visions lasting eight hours. According to the teenage visionaries,
in 1982 the Virgin Mary asked everyone to pray to prevent a
terrible war. A war and genocide eventually took place at the same
location in 1995 and claimed the lives of some of visionaries. The
apparitions were accepted by the local
Roman Catholic bishop, Bishop Misago, but
have not been given final approval by the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith. The bishop himself went on trial for
nine months on charges of involvement in the genocide but was not
convicted.
The reported
Garabandal
apparitions from 1961 to 1965 were examined by the local Bishop
and were declared as not having evidence of being of supernatural
origin. However the apparitions were not declared as a hoax and the
possibility of future approval was left open. At Garabandal, an
apparition by
Saint
Michael, the Archangel was reported first, announcing the
arrival of the Virgin Mary.
The reported apparitions of
Our Lady
of America in 1956 in Rome City, IN did receive a positive
response from the local bishop and have been Canonically-approved
by several Archbishops and Bishops, but no decision has been
rendered with regard to the supernatural origin and characters of
the reported apparitions. Pilgrims arrive daily to pray and offer
their devotion in the Our Lady Mother of Mercy Chapel which sits on
the grounds of what is now called Sylvan Springs.
The fact that pilgrims continue arriving at a reported apparition
site and the fact that church figures a continent away may be
sympathetic towards the apparition does not mean that approval has
been obtained.
For instance, although the Village of
Pellevoisin
in France does receive pilgrims, and there is a
small shrine of Our Lady of Pellevoisin in St. Paul's church in New
York, according to the University of Dayton Marian Library,
archbishops of Bourges
have never pronounced on the subject of Pellevoisin
and have been very reserved on the topic. However, various
independent (and colorful)
lists of apparitions websites
declare Pellevoisin as approved, with no clear reference for the
approval.
Some reported apparitions attract negative publicity at the
location of the apparition.
For instance, the latter parts of the
reported messages from Gianna Talone
were disapproved by the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Baltimore and a group of Emmitsburg,
Maryland
residents started a campaign against Talone and
accused her of running a cult. To date, the
Holy See has let the Talone matter rest at the
local level of the archdiocese.
Not all reports of visions and apparitions can be taken seriously,
even if they sound truly pious. For instance, the messages reported
byCatalina Rivas were later found to correspond to exact pages of
books written by others, and published instructional literature for
Catholic seminarians. And reported messages from
Veronica Lueken as
Our Lady of
Bayside were declared invalid by Bishop
Francis Mugavero, then Bishop of the
Roman Catholic
Diocese of Brooklyn. Similarly, reports of
Our Lady of
Surbiton claiming that the Virgin Mary appeared every day
under a pine tree in England were flatly rejected by the Vatican as
a fraud.
Several apparition related sites on the internet exist, often with
detailed messages that sound pious, accompanied by testimonies from
local witnesses, and even local priests and bishops. However, these
representations do not always amount to authenticity or Vatican
approval.
An example is the website for the
apparitions of Our Lady of the Eucharist in Rome since the
year 2000. The website for
Our Lady of the
Eucharist includes a clear letter and a photo from Bishop
Claudio Gatti who approved the apparition. Yet a more detailed
search of the same website produces a letter from the
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith reducing the said Bishop to lay rank
following a series of meetings at the Vatican on this and other
matters (e.g. the Bishop's position of marriage for priests). The
Bishop now uses the title
ordained by God rather than
Catholic Bishop.
Unapproved apparitions by Schismatic and Independent Catholic
Churches
Some purported Marian apparitions initiated events which led to
schism of
Catholics
forming their own
independent churches as a result
of Rome's disapproval of them. Notable examples include the
revelations of
Feliksa
Kozłowska between 1893 and 1918 which led to the founding of
the
Mariavite and the
Old Catholic Mariavite
churches.
Others include the Palmarian Catholic Church which
began after a series of purported apparitions in Palmar de
Troya
, while Fraternite
Notre Dame, a Traditionalist
Catholic church traces its origins to apparitions that were
reported in Frechou
, France, and is led
by Bishop Jean Marie Kozik who was consecrated by Vietnamese
Archbishop Ngo Dinh
Thuc.
Criticism
Some Protestant Christians and non-Christians regard claims of
Marian apparitions as being
hallucinations encouraged by
superstition, and occasionally simply as
deliberate
hoaxes to attract attention. Many
such apparitions are reported in economically depressed areas,
attracting many pilgrims who bring trade and money into the region.
For instance, some sources dispute the very existence of
Saint Juan Diego.
Some
spontaneous healings reported at apparition sites such as Lourdes are also disputed by some scientists . Other
scientists have claimed that a handful of unexplained cures have
occurred; the
Lourdes Medical
Bureau has recorded sixty "inexplicable" healings which match
its requirements. Critics maintain that some other healings are
incomplete, leaving the sufferer with disabilities or chronic
illness, and that other claimed healings are likely to be the
relatively rare but unmiraculous
spontaneous remission of illness or
injury. Such remissions might be expected to occur in a few of the
large numbers of ill (and perhaps credulous) people who visit such
sites. That viewpoint is debated by religious people and by some in
the medical profession. The Lourdes Medical Bureau will not review
cases of claimed healing involving illnesses known sometimes to go
into remission by themselves, or incomplete healings, or those
which take place gradually.
Further reading
See also
References
External links
Gallery of apparition-based Marian churches
Marian apparitions, and sacred objects related to them, have lead
to the construction of some of the largest
Roman Catholic Marian
churches.
Image:Piazza Esquilino, Santa Maria
Maggiore.JPG|Santa
Maria Maggiore, Rome, 5th
centuryImage:Basilica_del_Pilar_ZaragozaAragon%28Spain%29.jpg|Basilica of Our Lady of the
Pillar Zaragoza Spain, 1681Image:Nostra signora della
guardia2.jpg|Nostra Signora della Guardia
, Genoa,
1889Image:Sanctuary NDL 2.jpg|
Sanctuary of Our Lady of
Lourdes, 1864
Image:Sanctuary_NDL_3.jpg|Rosary
Basilica
in
Lourdes, 1902Image:Fatima.jpg|Our Lady of
Fatima Basilica
, Fátima, Portugal
Image:Vailankanni Basilica.JPG|Basilica of
Our Lady of Good Health, Vailankanni
, IndiaImage:Knockbasilica.JPG|Basilica of
Our Lady of Knock, Ireland
Image:Church in Međugorje, B-H, June 4th
2007 (4).jpg|Our Lady of
Međugorje, MeđugorjeImage:Santuario nacional.jpg| Basilica of
Our Lady of Aparecida, Aparecida, Brazil,
1955Image:Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe
(new).JPG|Basilica of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, Mexico
1974Image:Stary Lichen.jpg|Sanctuary of
Our Lady of Licheń
, Stary Licheń
, Poland, 2004
.JPG/270px-Basilica_of_Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe_(new).JPG)
.jpg/200px-Inmaculada_Concepcion_(La_Colosal).jpg)
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