THE FIRST TEN YEARS
GARABANDAL 40TH ANNIVERSARY
1961 - 1971
From GARABANDAL April-June 1981
The four visionaries attracted a large crowd, including a group of priests, who studied their behaviour during an ecstasy |
1961
Why Garabandal? The question
was recently put to Fr Valentin
Marichalar, pastor of Cosio and
former pastor of Garabandal. “The Most
Holy Virgin always chooses humble
people,” came the reply.
Well, San Sebastian de Garabandal in
1961 was certainly humble. Its inhabitants
were poor farmers who knew the hard life
of tending crops and pasturing sheep and
cattle on the steep sloping foothills leading
up to the higher peaks of the Cantabrian
mountains in north-west Spain. Isolated
from the mainstream of modern life and with
little in the way of material possessions,
these hearty mountain people, nevertheless,
were well equipped with sound moral
character and deep religious faith. They accepted
their lot in this life and knew pretty
much what to expect from one day to the
next. By no stretch of the imagination could
they have anticipated the events which
were soon to overtake them — events
which would make their little village the
focus of attention for people the world over.
The anonymity of San Sebastian de
Garabandal, lost in the mountains, would
soon become a thing of the past.
Thus begins a series of events to span the next four and a half years that will go so far beyond the realm of human understanding as to defy adequate classification. When asked, Fr Marichalar, one of the primary witnesses, would only say, “It cannot be described. There are no words in the dictionary to express it.”
Over the next two weeks the angel, later learned to be St Michael the Archangel, appears nine more times to the children, smiling but silent. He announces that on the following day the Blessed Virgin will appear to the children under the title of OurLady of Mount Carmel.
JULY 2
News of the ecstasies has spread to
the surrounding villages. With the anticipated
visit from Our Lady, a sizable crowd
is in Garabandal when at about six o’clock
in approximately the same place where the
angel had been seen, the glorious Queen of
Heaven appears to the four girls with St
Michael on one side and another similar
angel on the other. A great eye in a fiery
frame, which the children think to be the
eye of God, completes the vision. On this,
the feast of the Visitation, the young visionaries
can repeat with St Elizabeth, “Who
am I that the Mother of my Lord should
come to me?” The Blessed Virgin will not
waste any time in revealing the purpose of
her visits.
July 4
Our Lady comes to deliver a Message,
an urgent Message for all her children.
However, being the gentle and loving
mother that she is, she will do it in her own
way. On the previous day, she had appeared
with her Child, and the visionaries took delight
in the smiling Infant. The Virgin also
kissed religious objects presented to her
by the girls on behalf of the people present
— a practice that would continue throughout
the apparitions.
Today she reveals the sobering text of
the Message to the young seers but obliges
them not to make it known until October 18.
She has some work to do between now and
then. Since the Message is of paramount
importance, it is necessary that the children
be believed. Therefore, Our Lady will establish
some signs of credibility, scientifically
unexplainable, to serve as evidence of
the supernatural. Tests by medical doctors
have already determined that the girls are
insensitive to pain while in ecstasy and that
they undergo such a remarkable weight
change that two grown men have great difficulty
in lifting one twelve-year-old child
off the ground. There are even more spectacular
things to come.
Last Two Weeks in July
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The duration of the ecstasies ranged anywhere from ten minutes up to as much as seven hours. |
From this point on, the visions become more numerous, even happening several times a day. The duration of the ecstasies ranges anywhere from ten minutes up to as much as seven hours. The raptures are marked with an unearthly beauty. The children’s faces become transformed to the point of becoming somewhat luminous, and some observers, filled with respectful awe, have difficulty looking at them.
But all is not bliss. The inevitable mark of any of God’s authentic works is about to become apparent. Already the children have been stung by the disbelief of some witnesses and have wept bitter tears over it. Now it will be Our Lady herself who will plant the cross squarely in the centre of the Garabandal event. She tells the seers that a time will come when they will deny their visions. In a few years this will cause great suffering for the visionaries and will expose them to a long agonizing trial. The cross will also come from another quarter — the local Church authorities.
August 2 or 3
Our Lady’s plan of establishing credibility
signs continues to unfold as a new
phenomena is introduced into the apparitions,
that of the ‘ecstatic fall’. While in
rapture, the visionaries fall to the ground in
perfect unison as if triggered by a switch
and form the most beautiful living sculptures.
Sometimes from their kneeling position
they bend straight backwards so that
their heads are almost touching their heels.
Later, when the individual ecstasies occur,
the seers will fall straight backwards from a
standing position without bending any part
of their bodies or cushioning the fall with
their hands. The sound of the loud, dull
thud when the child hits the ground (sometimes
the concrete and stone portico of the
church) alarms the people but the seers are
never hurt.
August 5 or 8
The first ‘ambulatory
ecstasies’ take place when the
visionaries start moving
about. With their heads
thrown back and not looking
where they are going, the girls
walk frontwards or backwards
throughout the village.
At times the walks become ‘flights’ where they
travel so fast that no one, not
even the young men of the
village running at full speed,
can keep up with them. At the end they are
neither tired nor perspiring and their pulse
rates are normal. During these ecstatic ‘flights’ they are able to come to a dead
stop whereas those trying to keep up, carried
by momentum, go running right past
them.
August 8
Today Our Lady irrevocably links the
priesthood to her apparitions at Garabandal.
A young Jesuit theology professor on his
second visit to the village becomes the “fifth
visionary of Garabandal.” During the final
stages of an ecstasy which starts in the
village church and ends at a group of pine
trees on a bluff overlooking the village, Fr
Luis Maria Andreu cries out, “Miracle!” four
times. Spectators note the profound expression
on his face. During the drive home with
friends late that night and into the early
hours of the next morning, Fr Luis exclaims,
“What a favour the Virgin has given me.
How lucky we are to have a mother like that
in heaven… This is the happiest day of my
life.” With that he makes a slight coughing
sound, lowers his head to his chest and
quietly passes from this life to the next. The
death of the thirty-six-year-old priest can
be attributed to nothing but joy. The children
state positively that during the ecstasy,
the Virgin told them that Fr Luis was also
seeing her and that he also saw a preview
of the great Miracle to come. This is the
first time that the visionaries mention the
great prophesied Miracle to take place at
the pines on a future date.
Throughout the apparitions, Our Lady will, by word and example, substantiate the truths of our Catholic faith. Today, we are The duration of the ecstasies ranged anywhere from ten minutes up to as much as seven hours 9 reminded of the hereafter as the children in ecstasy speak with Fr Luis who died seven days before, on the ninth. They do not see him but only hear his voice emanating from a great light. He speaks to them in Spanish and teaches them words in foreign languages. Eighteen years later, Conchita will know how to recite the Hail Mary in Greek.
The Commission
By now, news of the “alleged” apparitions
occurring in the high Nansa area of
the diocese had reached the Bishop’s
house in Santander some thirty-five miles
north-east of Garabandal. A Commission of
six men had been formed to study the
events. This is not a canonical commission
but a “special” commission which in its first
report declares that everything taking place
in Garabandal has a natural explanation although
it fails to state what those natural
explanations are. Eminent neuropsychiatrist
Dr Ricardo Puncernau from Barcelona,
whose status as an expert in the field of
parapsychological phenomena far surpassed
that of any member of the Commission,
does independent studies of his own
of the visionaries in ecstasy, more extensive
than those of the Commission. He concluded
quite emphatically that no natural
explanation can be given for the events.
In 1977, Dr Luis Morales, the psychiatrist
member of the Commission and the man
who greatly influenced the negative verdict,
will call Dr Puncernau to tell him that
he has changed his mind about Garabandal.
This complete reversal on the part of Dr
Morales will be confirmed in 1978 in a recorded
interview with Fr Francis Benac, S.J.,
when the former Commission member states
that he believes the supernatural was
present in Garabandal and places it in importance
beside Lourdes and Fatima.
Holy pictures, wedding
rings, rosaries, medals and
chains, all tangled together,
get separated into proper order
between their fingers,
without groping or hesitation,
without effort and without
looking. They put tight
wedding rings on fingers and
effortlessly put on chains too
small to go over the head,
without opening the clasp
and always without looking.
Their voices take on an entirely
different quality while
they pray and sing in ecstasy.
They recite modern litanies
that they have not learned
and sing beautiful, improvised canticles.
When they laugh in ecstasy it is filled with
a felicity not of this world.
October 18
The time has come for the promulgation
of Our Lady’s urgent Message. Having
been alerted beforehand by the visionaries’
announcement, some 5,000 people are
in the village this rain-swept day to hear
the following:
We must make many sacrifices,
perform much penance and visit the
Blessed Sacrament frequently. But
first, we must lead good lives. If we donot, a Chastisement will befall us. The
cup is already filling up and if we do not
change, a very great Chastisement will
come upon us.
The apparitions continue for the four girls even into the winter months. It appears as though Our Lady wants to emphasizethe importance of penance and sacrifice and will call the children out at all hours of the night and in the most inclement weather. The visionaries for their part are completely oblivious to the elements. Conchita, in ecstasy during a heavy snow storm, is unaware of the ridges of snow forming on her outstretched arms as she stares at her vision. Another time, the hailstones bouncing off her eyeballs register no response.
Witnesses can’t understand why the Virgin calls them at such late hours of the night. They question the seers about it and the children in turn ask Our Lady. She responds, “Because most sins are committed at night.”
May 1
For the first time, the visionaries admit that they have been receiving Communion from the hands of St Michael the Archangel. The Hosts that he gives them are taken from the tabernacles of the earth.
June 19 and 20
On two successive nights the children are heard screaming in terror. The veil is lifted and they are given a glimpse of future events. They see the Church undergoing a great trial in a world dominated by communism as well as horrifying scenes of the future prophesied Chastisement. The villagers present, although some distance from the visionaries, are visibly shaken by the girls’ cries. The great majority of them go to confession and Communion the following day.
June 22
For quite some time the visionaries have prevailed upon the Virgin and St Michael to perform a miracle in order that the people might believe. So today St Michael tells Conchita that when he gives her Communion on a certain date to be revealed by the Virgin and announced publicly fifteen days in advance, the Host will become visible on her tongue. Conchita who along with the other girls always sees the Host, considers this — un milagrucu — a small miracle.
JULY 18
Thousands of people are at the village
to witness the miracle of the Visible Host
but the wait is long and tiresome. Many get
discouraged and leave. Finally at about 1:30
on the morning of the nineteenth, Conchita
comes out of her house in ecstasy, turns a
corner, and as the crowd presses round her,
drops to her knees in an adjacent street.
She then puts out her tongue and stays
that way for a short while. Witnesses just
inches away look inside her mouth and see
that it is empty. Then suddenly a brilliant
white Host appears on the girl’s tongue.
An amateur with a borrowed movie camera
is able to take some pictures of It. There
can be no mistaking the authenticity of the
miracle performed in the midst of reliable
witnesses and recorded on film. Conchita
then swallows the Host, gets up and continues
in ecstasy to walk towards the
church.
Many have difficulty reconciling why
the miracle occurred on the nineteenth
when the Virgin said it would take place on
the eighteenth. Authors of books on
Garabandal will go to great lengths trying
to explain that according to the sun it was
still the eighteenth or that the miracle actually
began with the first call which came on
the eighteenth. Discerning
minds are not fully convinced
and it is only some
time later that the truth is
made known. Conchita unwittingly
had received Communion
from a priest in the village
on the morning of the
eighteenth and therefore according
to the Church law in
effect at the time, could not
receive again the same day.
When Fr Alfred Combe of
Lozanne, France, was told
about it he remarked, “Conchita did not know the Church law but
St Michael did.”
September 12
Mari Cruz means ‘Mary of the Cross’ and the youngest of the Garabandal visionaries
is living up to her name. Already she
has suffered from having fewer apparitions
than the other girls and today she becomes
the first to stop seeing the Virgin altogether.
Deeply hurt, she tries to simulate some ecstasies
hoping perhaps in that way to induce
the authentic trance. But her efforts
are to no avail. Afterwards, she will assume
an attitude of denial and retraction and continue
to remain a mystery throughout the
ensuing years.
Neuropsychiatrist and witness, Dr Ricardo Puncernau, who examined all four girls, was asked in 1980 to reflect on the strange case of Mari Cruz. He pointed out that her parents, who did not look favourably on all that was happening, were somewhat strict with her and would not let her go out to pray at the pines or in the calleja with the other girls. Now the Virgin always respected the authority of the girls’ parents and in the case of Mari Cruz, since her parents forbade her to go out, it is quite possible, reasons the doctor, that this is why the Virgin stopped appearing to her.
October 11
Nine hundred miles from Garabandal
another event is unfolding which will cause
reverberations within the Church unprecedented
in modern history. Pope John XXIII
had just convened the Second Vatican
Council. A natural question arises. Is there
any correlation between this monumental
ecclesiastical event and the phenomena taking
place in the tiny mountain village of
north-west Spain aside from the fact that
they coincide almost exactly
in terms of time (1961-1965,
1962-1966)? The answer is an
unqualified “yes.”
At Garabandal, Our
Lady will do two things in
reference to the Council.
First of all, she will give a
heavenly endorsement to
Pope John’s aggiornamento
(updating). In ecstasy
Conchita is heard repeating
the words of the Virgin, “The
Council will be the greatest
of all? It will be a success?
That is good … so they will know you better
and you will be more pleased…” Also,
the ecumenical quality of the Council is
favourably alluded to when the visionaries
in ecstasy offer the crucifix to be kissed by
Protestants. When questioned about it the
seers relay Our Lady’s words, “They are
all my children.” At other times, witnesses
hear the visionaries in ecstasy say that the
Catholics and Protestants will unite.
The second thing Our Lady will do concerning
the Council is issue a warning, not
so much by word as by example: that neither
the doctrine nor the rich and beautiful
devotions of the Church nurtured through
the centuries, are to be tampered with. The
Council Fathers are breaking new ground
and have no alternative but to proceed with
caution. The decision has been reached to
deliberately make the various schemas
(documents) of a general nature to be later
refined by post-Conciliar documents. Dissident
elements in the Church will seize this
opportunity to give reign to their own freewheeling
interpretations and attempt to
subvert some of the most basic tenets of
our Catholic faith. But at Garabandal, Our
Lady will firmly re-establish all that Catholics
believe and practise: devotion to the
Eucharist, devotion to Our Lady especially
through the rosary and scapular, devotion
to the Sacred Heart, devotion to the angels,
belief in the hereafter, the need for confession,
prayer for the souls in purgatory, the
sanctity of the marriage bond, and souls
consecrated to God in the religious life. Garabandal will serve as a supernatural sign
of contradiction to the abusers of Vatican
Council II.
Date Uncertain
Date Uncertain
With the announcement of the June
18, 1961, Message came Our Lady’s own
admonition, “Make my Message known.”
It is a call to action, but alas, the response
is meagre. Spaniards, on whose home soil
the apparitions take place, are handicapped
by ecclesiastical disapproval. The banner
of Our Lady will have to be taken up by
others, those outside Spain and they will
have to be determined, valiant souls. This
is no apostolate for the faint-hearted who
turn back at the first obstacle. It will require
conviction, dogged perseverance and total
confidence in Our Lady’s grace to bring a
Message already embroiled in a certain
amount of controversy to a world that has
reached the advance stages of disbelief in
anything other than its own self-sufficiency.
One of the first to step forward is an elderly
but stout-hearted Frenchman, a veteran of
two world wars with sixteen decorations
and citations for bravery, by the name of Fr
Materne Laffineur.
Fr. Laffineur has been to Garabandal
some eight or ten times, has witnessed the
girls in ecstasy, and believed! Now he is
intent on doing something about it. He returns
to his native France, has some leaflets printed and begins to give lectures. His
listeners are impressed by the sincerity and
objectivity of this eyewitness to the events
and some come to help him. One such person
is Fr Alfred Combe, a pastor of a parish
just outside of Lyon. Later he will become
Fr Laffineur’s successor as leader of the
French Garabandal movement and will play
an important part in the worldwide diffusion
of the Message.
Thus the first real Garabandal
apostolate is born and its author is a man
who knows the good fight. From across the
Atlantic will soon come another valiant
warrior accustomed to the struggle who is
destined to become the central figure in the
movement to make Our Lady’s Message of
Garabandal universally known throughout
the world. He is young, successful and
blind. His name is Joey Lomangino.
End of the Year
The Commission continues to manifest
a negative attitude towards the events taking
place in the village. A tactical move is
made. Fr Marichalar, a perennial thorn in
the Commission’s side because of his belief
in the ecstasies, is replaced by Fr
Amador. In 1980, the former pastor will recall
the incident, “I was told that a priest
was coming to study the matter, that it
would take a few months and that afterwards
I would be reinstated to my post. But
being that it was all by word of mouth and
the bishop died during this time, the promise
was not fulfilled.”
January 20, 1963
From now on the visions become infrequent
and soon cease altogether for
Jacinta and Mari-Loli. Only Conchita will
continue to have public ecstasies and they
will be few. Conchita and Mari-Loli, however,
begin to experience locutions. (A locution
is an interior voice without any accompanying
vision.)
In 1947, Joey Lomangino lost his sight
and sense of smell in a freak accident that
severed his optic and olfactory nerves. After
a long and painful period of adjustment
in impoverished family conditions, he
emerged in 1961 as a successful businessman,
but greatly tired from overwork. His
doctor suggested that he take a European
vacation so he left his home in Lindenhurst, New York, with a
friend to visit relatives
in southern Italy.
Joey was not especially
religious and
only at the insistence
of his uncle did he
consent to a long automobile
ride ending
at San Giovanni
Rotondo where lived
a humble Capuchin
priest. It proved to be
the turning point in
Joey’s life. He was
completely captivated
by the Franciscan father
who bore the
wounds of Christ in
his flesh. He would
have to come back
and see him again.
Now, two years
later Joey returns to
San Giovanni
Rotondo and is the
recipient of tremendous
graces. Inside
Padre Pio’s confessional
he experiences
a wonderful conversion. Outside the confessional,
kneeling in the sacristy with the
other men, he regains his sense of smell
after being blessed by the padre even
though the faculty for smelling remains impaired.
At long last, this oldest son of Charles
and Sophie Lomangino has found the happiness
that eluded him for so long and he
does not want to leave San Giovanni. But
then Mario, his travelling companion, reminds
him of their prearranged agreement
to spend time in a place called Garabandal.
They decide to ask Padre Pio, “Is the Virgin
appearing to four girls in Spain and should
we go there?” The saintly Capuchin answers
in the affirmative and so the two
Americans leave for the tiny Spanish mountain
hamlet.
 |
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Doctors came to examine the visionaries who were found to be insensible to physical contact, pricks with pins, burns, shocks, and bright lights flashed in their eyes while in ecstasy. |
Joey arrives in the village and is immediately
impressed by the sincerity and simplicity
of the visionaries, especially
Conchita who is to become his close friend.
He is also deeply impressed by the Message
and the need to make it known. “I camedown off that mountain and I believed! But
what could a guy like me do?” He will soon
find out.
After coming back to New York, Mario
puts together a scrapbook of Padre Pio pictures
and photos of the Garabandal visionaries
for Joey to take round and show to his
relatives and friends. Joey has no experience
in making presentations but despite
his heavy New York accent a definite charisma
shines through that hold his listeners
in rapt attention. From this small seed will
grow a worldwide apostolate.
Beginning of June
Conchita stuns her listeners with the
prophecy that after Pope John XXIII there
will be only three more popes and then it
will be the end of time (but not the end of
the world). Later she will state that one ofthe popes will have a very short reign.
July 20
Today is the feast day of Our Lady of
Kazan, patroness of Russia. In a locution
with Jesus, Conchita is told that as a result
of the great Miracle, Russia will be converted.
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