Marian apparitions

Apparition of The Virgin to St Bernard by Filippino Lippi (1486) Oil on panel, 210 x 195 cm Church of Badia, Florence

Marian apparitions are events in which the Virgin Mary is purported to have supernaturally appeared to one or more persons, typically Catholics, in various settings. 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, or on her reported clothing and hairstyle. They have been interpreted as psychological (pareidolia), and as religious phenomena, occasionally as theophanies.

Apparitions sometimes recur at the same site over an extended period of time. In the majority of Marian apparitions only a few people can see Mary. The exception to this is at Zeitoun, where thousands claimed to have seen her over a period of three years.

Catholic belief

A photostatic copy of a page from Ilustração Portugueza, October 29, 1917, showing the crowd looking at the miracle of the sun during the Fátima apparitions (attributed to the Virgin Mary)

According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the era of public revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle and when the New Testament was finished. 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. At most the Church will confirm an apparition as worthy of belief, but belief is never required. The Holy See has officially confirmed the apparitions at Guadalupe, La Salette, Paris (Miraculous Medal), Lourdes, Fatima, Pontmain, Beauraing, Banneux, and Knock. John Delaney, A Woman Clothed with the Sun

Not all claims of visitations are dealt with favourably by the Catholic Church. For example, purported 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 Mesdames Veronica Lueken and Mary Ann Van Hoof, who claimed these heavenly favors, was deemed not to compare favorably with the "quiet pragmatism" of Bernadette Soubirous â€" Church authorities are said to use Bernadette as a model by which to judge all who purport to have visitations. Indeed, both women engaged in repeated attacks on the church hierarchy, and Mrs Van Hoof subsequently left Catholicism for an "Old Catholic" schismatic church.

Possibly the best-known apparition sites are Lourdes and Fatima. Over sixty out of thousands of reported spontaneous healings at the Lourdes Spring have been classified as "inexplicable" by the physicians of the Lourdes Bureau, a medical centre set up by the Church to assess possible miracles. The so-called Three Secrets of Fatima received a great deal of attention in the press.

Criteria for evaluating apparitions

In 1974 the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 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 in 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.

The source for the entire section above is EWTN Catholic Q&A: Apparitions

Papal Marian apparitions

John Paul II's Coat of Arms contains the letter "M" to indicate his devotion to Mary

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 the anniversary of the Fatima apparition. John Paul II's particular devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary was indicated in his coat of Arms (image, left), 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 alleged apparition sites, notably Fatima, Lourdes, and Knock, and according to some reports may have experienced another visitation on his last visit to Lourdes in 2003.

Criticism

Many Christians, including Catholics, as well as nonbelievers, regard claims of Marian apparitions as being hallucinations encouraged by superstition, and occasionally simply as lies and 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.

Supposedly spontaneous healings reported at apparition sites such as Lourdes are also disputed by some scientists. Most such healings are reportedly far from spontaneous, often taking place some time after the visit or over a period of weeks or months (rather than being instantaneous, as required by the Lourdes Bureau for a miraculous healing). Other scientists have claimed that a handful of unexplained cures have occurred; the Lourdes Bureau has recorded sixty "inexplicable" (not "miraculous") healings which match its exceedingly stringent requirements. Critics maintain that some healings are incomplete, leaving the sufferer with disabilities or chronic illness, and that other claimed healings are likely to be the relatively rare but entirely unmiraculous spontaneous remission of illness or injury. Such remissions would 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 Bureau will not review cases of claimed healing involving illnesses known sometimes to go into remission by themselves, such as multiple sclerosis or cancer, or incomplete healings, or those which take place gradually. In fact, the rate of "spontaneous healing" at Lourdes is far lower than the remission rate for modern medicine.

Many skeptics, including Carl Sagan, point out similarities between Marian apparitions and alien abduction stories. They also point out that the material "proofs" provided by witnesses of claimed apparitions such as Medjugorje are usually common items. Catholic critics dismiss the idea of unverifiable material "proof" â€" for example, claims that silver rosary chains turned to gold. Official church investigators into Marian apparitions do not look for material evidence, but for lasting spiritual change in people's lives, considering this the most valuable clue.

List of Marian apparitions

This is a list of some of the more publicized Marian apparitions. Only those marked with a * have been fully approved by the Catholic Church.

Date	Location	To whom	Reference
39 (before her Assumption)	Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza), Hispania Tarraconensis	Saint James the Greater	Our Lady of the Pillar
352	Rome, Italy	Pope Liberius	Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
1061	Walsingham, England	Richeldis de Faverche	Our Lady of Walsingham
1214		Saint Dominic, recommending the Rosary	Our Lady of the Rosary
1251	England	Saint Simon Stock, instituting the Brown Scapular	Our Lady of Mount Carmel
1531	* Villa Guadalupe, Mexico	Juan Diego, an indigenous farmer	Our Lady of Guadalupe
1579	* Kazan, Russia	10-year old Matrona	Our Lady of Kazan
1586	Chiquinquirá, Colombia	María Ramos, a Spanish maid	Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, see also Our Lady of Rosario of Chiquinquirá
1600	Vailankanni, India	milkman and sailors, three events	Our Lady of Good Health, Vailankanni
1634	Quito, Ecuador		Our Lady of Good Success
1717	Aparecida, Brazil	A group of fishermen	Our Lady of Aparecida (Appeared)
1798	La Vang, Vietnam	A group of persecuted Catholics	Our Lady of La Vang
1830	Paris, France	St. Catherine Labouré, a nun of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul convent	Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
1846	* La Salette, France	two cowherder children	Our Lady of La Salette
1858	* Lourdes, France	Bigourdane peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous	Our Lady of Lourdes
1871	Pontmain, France	Eugene and Joseph Barbedette, Jeanne-Marie Lebosse, Francoise Richer and a two year old child, Augustine	Our Lady of Hope
1876	Marpingen, Germany	three eight-year-old girls
1879	* Knock, Ireland	numerous witnesses, along with Saint Joseph and Saint John the Evangelist	Our Lady, Queen of Ireland
1900	China		Our Lady of China
1917	* Fatima, Portugal	Lucia dos Santos & Bl Jacinta and Francisco Marto	Our Lady of Fatima
1931	Ezquioga, Spain	first children, then hundreds over two years
1933	* Beauraing, Belgium	five schoolchildren	Our Lady of Beauraing
1933	* Banneux, Belgium	schoolgirl Mariette Beco	Virgin of the Poor
-	1947	Rome, Italy	Bruno Cornacchiola	Holy Mary of Third Millennium at Three Fountains
1955	Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico	three children	Our Lady of the Well (Virgen del Pozo)
1961â€"1965	Garabandal, Spain	four country girls
1968â€"1971	* Zeitoun, Egypt	thousands of people, on a church roof	Our Lady of Zeitoun
1973	* Akita, Japan	Sister Sasagawa	[1]
1968â€"1995	Bayside, New York | | Veronica Lueken	Our Lady of the Roses
1981 to present	Medjugorje, Herzegovina	to six children	Our Lady of Medjugorje or Our Lady, Queen of Peace
1987	Hrushiv, Ukraine	Josyp Terelya, Maria Kizyn and thousands of others
1990â€"1995	* Litmanová, Slovakia	Katka Ceselkova & Ivetka Korcakova	Our Lady of Immaculate Purity
1996-present	Clearwater, Florida	to countless people
2000â€"2001	Assiut, Egypt	to millions of people, approved by Coptic Orthodox Church	Our Lady of Assiut
November 2004	Accra, Ghana		[2]
1998-present	Montreal, Canada	Apparitions to a Montreal Carmelite lay sister.	[3]
1998-present	Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA)	Apparitions received by local mystic and visionary revealing prophetic messages relating to global events and end times	[4]
1997-present	Platina, Brazil	Apparitions received by Francisco Ovídio da Silva	Our Lady of Platina (in Portuguese)|-

Notes

Further reading

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