Four girls in the town of San Sebastian, Garabandal, Spain – a town of only 300 people – first saw the Blessed Virgin on June 18, 1961.
Who were the Visionaries?
All the girls were unrelated despite some similar names, around the ages of eleven and twelve and all from profoundly poor families: Conchita Gonzalez, Maria Dolores Mazon, Jacinta Gonzalez and Maria Cruz Gonzalez.
The Manifestations of Our Lady of Garabandal
Playing on the outskirts of town, the girls heard a sudden loud sound, like that of thunder. Before they could discern what was happening, the Archangel Michael appeared to them in a luminous form.
The following day, the Archangel Michael appeared to them again and told them they would meet the Blessed Virgin Mary on July 2, 1961.
Because so many had heard of the upcoming apparition, many had come to witness the event. Even cameras caught the event on film, and you can see many miraculous manifestations in these films.
For instance, the girls all fell into an ecstasy and when the girls receive the Holy Communion from St. Michael the Archangel, you can see a host miraculous appear on their tongues as they receive it.
The girls described what they had seen thus: "She is dressed in a white robe with a blue mantle and a crown of golden stars. Her hands are slender. There is a brown scapular on her right arm, except when she carried the Child Jesus in her arms.
"Her hair, deep nut-brown, is parted in the center. Her face is long, with a fine nose. Her mouth is very pretty with lips a bit thin. She looks like a girl of eighteen. She is rather tall. There is no voice like hers. No woman is just like her, either in the voice or the face or anything else. Our Lady Manifested herself as Our Lady of Carmel."
The Message of Our Lady of Garabandal
The warnings our Blessed Virgin had for the girls at Garabandal were frightening to say the least. They spoke of a chastisement to come upon all mankind, but before this something of a graver nature. A sign would appear in the sky, the visionaries said, which would somehow reveal to every human being their own sinfulness.
Conchita wrote about this miracle; “It will be a 'correction' of our conscience. It will cause great fear and will make us reflect within ourselves on the consequences of our own personal sins.”
The Blessed Lady was disappointed in the little attention given to her words of warning at Garabandal, and in her final messages rebuked Catholics and Priests who did not properly honor the Holy Eucharist in the Holy Mass.
The girls were given a vision of great horror where they saw the potential chastisements to come upon the world if people did not begin to pray, fast and do penance for their sins and the sins of the world.
The message of Our Lady of Garabandal was similar in many respects to Our Lady of Fatima, but a little different than another apparition known as Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Sources:
- Those who Saw Her: Apparitions of Mary, by Catherine M. Odell.
- Catherine Laboure and the Modern Apparitions of Our Lady, by Abbe Omer Englebert.
- Miraculous Images: Photographs Containing God's Fingerprints, by Marilynn Hughes.
- Medjugorje: Light for the World, by Pietro Jacopini.
- Our Lady Comes to Garabandal, by Joseph A. Pelletier, A.A.
- The Wonder of Guadalupe, by Francis Johnston.
- The Glories of Czestochowa and Jasna, To the Priests Our Lady's Beloved Sons, by Marian Movement of Priests.
- Our Lady of America, by Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil.
- The Thunder of Justice, by Ted and Maureen Flynn.
