Marian apparitions

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Marian apparitions are events in which the Virgin Mary is purported to have supernaturally appeared to one or more persons, typically but not always Christians, often 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.

1 Catholic belief
- 1.1 Papal Marian apparitions
2 Criticism
3 List of Marian apparitions
4 References
5 Further reading
6 See also
7 External links

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Catholic belief

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 genuine, 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 declare 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.Template:Citation needed

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 the women who claimed these heavenly favors was deemed not to compare favorably with the "quiet pragmatism" of Bernadette Soubirous—Church authorities are said to use Bernadette as a model by which to judge all who purport to have visitations.

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.

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Papal Marian apparitions

Image:Pope John Paul II Coat of Arms.jpg 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.

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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 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 ("spontaneous remission" is simply an expression used to describe healing with no medical explanation). 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 incomplete healings, or those which take place gradually.

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"—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.

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List of Marian apparitions

This is a list of some of the more publicized Marian apparitions. Not all have been 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	patrician and his wife	Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
1061	Walsingham, England	Richeldis de Faverche	Our Lady of Walsingham
1214		Saint Dominic, recommending the Rosary
1251	England	Saint Simon Stock, instituting the Brown Scapular	Our Lady of Mount Carmel
1382	Czestochowa, Poland		The Black Madonna
1531	Villa Guadalupe, Mexico	Juan Diego, an indigenous farmer	Our Lady of Guadalupe
1586	Chiquinquirá, Colombia	María Ramos, a Spanish maid	Our Lady 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 Barbadette & friends (five children and one baby)	Our Lady of Hope
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
1933	Banneux, Belgium	schoolgirl Mariette Beco	Virgin of the Poor
1961-1965	Garabandal, Spain	four country girls
1968-1971	Zeitoun, Egypt	thousands of people, on a church roof	Our Lady of Zeitoun
1955	Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico	three children
1973	Akita, Japan	Sister Sasagawa	[1]
1968-1995	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
1990-1995	Litmanová, Slovakia	Katka Ceselkova & Ivetka Korcakova	Our Lady of Immaculate Purity
1996-present	Clearwater, Florida	to countless people
2000-2001	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]