extraordinary%20encounters

164 Marian apparitions
That same day, Diego’s uncle, who was seriously
ill, had a vision of the BVM and was
cured. Meanwhile, Diego repeated the
bishop’s request to the apparition. She told
him to pick roses from the hillside (though
they should have been out of season). He was
instructed to wrap them in his long outer cape
(known as a tilma) and to take them to the
bishop. When he did so, he unrolled the tilma
and was as shocked as the bishop and his associates
when the cape turned out to contain a
full-color image of the BVM. To this day the
tilma is displayed in a Mexico City church,
where thousands of pilgrims come to see it
every year.
To skeptics, the figure gives eve ry indication
of having been painted on the cloth.
They also point out that the figure has more
to do with conventional iconography of the
period than with otherworldly manifestation.
They have also raised questions about
the provenance of Juan Di e g o’s story, suggesting
it is based on an earlier Spanish legend.
Still, whatever the truth, the story and
the image have proved equally durable and
to the faithful remain powe rful symbols of
Ma ry’s continuing interest in the Churc h
and its believe r s .
A third major BVM appearance occurred at
Knock, a small village in western Ire l a n d’s
County Ma yo, in 1879. A commission of inq
u i ry set up by John Mc Hale, the Arc h b i s h o p
of Tuam, investigated it soon afterw a rd. On
the evening of August 21, Ma ry Beirne, a middle-aged
housekeeper for the local priest, was
walking by the chapel when she was surprised
to see three “beautiful” fig u res, one re s e m b l i n g
the BVM, the other St. Joseph, the third a
b i s h o p, standing motionlessly near an altar. A
white light surrounded them. She thought
someone had put on a display of statues. Sh e
went to a friend’s house and stayed for half an
h o u r. When she and her friend Ma ry
McLoughlin we re on their way back to the
p r i e s t’s house, her friend re m a rked on the figu
res. She ran off to notify re l a t i ves. Me a nwhile,
Beirne watched the scene care f u l l y, later
p roviding this description to inve s t i g a t o r s :
I beheld . . . not only the three figures, but an
altar further on the left of the figure of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and to the left of the
bishop and above the altar a lamb about the
size of that which is five weeks old. Behind the
lamb appeared the cross; it was a bit away from
the lamb, while the latter stood in front from
it, and not resting on the wood of the cross.
Around the lamb a number of gold-like stars
appeared in the form of a halo. This altar was
placed right under the window of the gable
and more to the east of the figures, all, of
course, outside the church at Knock. (Mc-
Clure, 1983)
The other witnesses came to the scene and
o b s e rved the motionless fig u res. Though it
was raining all the while, they would re p o rt ,
the ground around the fig u res remained dry.
Yet when Ma ry Be i r n e’s mother appro a c h e d
to kiss the BV M ’s feet, she felt nothing. Sh e
could see the fig u res, but she could not touch
them. Eve n t u a l l y, the fig u res faded away. All
in all, at least fifteen persons saw them.
Knock is now a major destination for Ma r i a n
p i l g r i m s .
The tradition of Marian apparitions has
continued unabated into modern times. In
1999, on the eve of the millennium, visionaries
were encountering the BVM in Germany,
New Hampshire, Illinois, El Salvador, Ontario,
and elsewhere. Most prophecies related
with these visions asserted that nuclear warfare
would erupt before the end of the year.
During the conflict for custody of six-year-old
Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez, some of Elian’s
Miami relatives claimed to have seen the
BVM, manifesting, they asserted, to show her
support for their belief that the boy should be
kept in their custody instead of his Cuban father’s.
Secular treatments of BVM apparitions
range from conventional views—for example,
that hysteria, hoax, and hallucination underlie
the accounts—to more expansive theories.
The sightings at Fatima, for example, figure in
some UFO literature, in which they are said
to be encounters with an alien being disguised
as or mistaken for the BVM. The late D. Scott