Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part One, Post 10

3rd Diary

July 27, 1961

Summary:

Narration of one of the visions.

The four girls intervene.

Some of the sentences that they said.

Conchita in Santander.

July 27, 1961

These events that took place on July 27th are in a report that was given to me by the Marquis of Santa María. It was given directly to him by R.P. Lucio Rodrigo, S.J. That report was written by a priest, an old student, who was in the Seminary in Comillas and who went up to San Sebastián de Garabandal when Fr. Rodrigo told him it was worthwhile to see what was happening.

The title of the three hurried folios that were typewritten, which I have, said this:

“Facts observed on July 27, 1961 in San Sebastián de Garabandal (Santander).”

I put down the text and added some notes that could indicate relationships between these events and the ones that occurred on other days.

“An ‘apparition’ had already taken place in the morning. The girls had announced another for around 8 at night. ‘Today is before,’ they had said. A multitude of more than 500 people (there are some who say it was 1000), waited for the ‘seers’ in the place the previous apparition had occurred.”

“Among the people there were seven priests, and among the priests were the pastor of the village, a relative of one of the girls (Conchita) and a young Dominican priest (from the Laboreal University of Córdoba) who had arrived rather early and had given a rosary to the girls for them to present to the ‘apparition.’”

“At eight, almost on the dot, the multitude that was waiting made a clamor because they had distinguished the four girls walking on the poorly paved road above, toward the place of the previous ‘apparition.’ But upon arriving in the middle of the road, the girls fell on their knees, and stayed there, two in front, and two in the back, (about fifty centimeters behind) almost in the same line. The order of their placement from left to right was: Jacinta, Mari Cruz, Conchita, and Loli. Conchita was looking up for almost the whole time; the other three looked in front of them, with their eyes looking upward a little.

“Mari Cruz had her arms crossed almost the whole time, and with her hands interlaced she held onto several rosaries people had given her. For the majority of the time, Conchita’s left arm was down, and her right arm was bent, pinching a sweater on her left to the height of her elbow.

“Mari Cruz shed some tears that fell from the exterior part of her eye (not from the tear canal) and they coursed down her cheeks. All of them had moist eyes.”

“The expression on their faces was generally one of peace; sometimes they smiled and they laughed sincerely. In these cases, a grimace wrinkled Conchita’s nose and arched her upper lip on the left side. In these moments she seemed to be yearning.

“On occasion they went forward simultaneously, with their arms in an attitude of reaching for something. Other times they presented the rosaries as though for someone to touch.

“On a certain occasion they all took out medals at the same time which they carried around their necks and gave them to be kissed or blessed: ‘this is from a man who told me you should kiss it very hard,’ Conchita said.

Note: It doesn’t seem that the Vision had blessed the medals, at least the sense of making the sign of the cross in the form that the priests were accustomed to doing it. She did kiss them. When, on some occasions, they have presented objects that don’t have any religious meaning, or that are only meaningful as adornment, like rings, the Vision has not kissed them. When this happens in particular cases, I give the date. The wedding rings have been kissed many times and returned to their owner’s hands, on the finger and in the manner that they wear them, if there is more than one ring on a particular finger.

“They looked at one another, expressing fear that one of the girls was going to fall. (The two smallest girls were on the ends). Oh! Jacinta is going to go badly—‘We hope that Jacinta doesn’t fall,” Mari Cruz said and reached to hold her so she wouldn’t fall. Then on another occasion she reclined lightly, staying half lying down on the floor—then, “Should I bring a chair tomorrow?”

Note: Since I still hadn’t gone on this day, I couldn’t observe the phenomenon of the oscillation that is alluded to here. I did observe it on August 1st and after that on many other occasions. This oscillation ended in a fall. The sentence ‘she goes badly’ had already been spoken by them days after when a girl who was in a trance began to oscillate. The other girls said it while they were also having a trance about the girl who was oscillating. Upon asking them after why they said that she was going badly, they responded to me: “It’s because she gave it badly.” The idea that I took away from this is that they were made dizzy or fainted, or something like that.

“Several times they made the Sign of the Cross at the same time that they were expressing their desire to do so: We are going to make the Sign of the Cross,” all of this unanimously.

Note: The manner of making the Sign of the Cross at the same time expressed that they knew their intention was to make it correctly when they were in the state of a trance. Sometimes she corrected the manner in which their index fingers and thumbs joined to make a cross. They made this correcting after ‘seeing’ the hand gesture that the Vision made. In the film from August 1st we see two of the girls in ecstasy making the Sign of the Cross. We can see how they do it together simultaneously. We can see how they direct it so they can see and how the rest of the people bless themselves next to the girls without the same rhythm. This film was recorded by Mr. Eugenio Fontaneda Pérez.

The sentence: “We’re going to make the Sign of the Cross,” could be a question or a response, or simply a comment. The person who wrote this document that we are transcribing and commenting upon, could indicate to us the impression that he obtained from what he remembers.

“In some moment one of the girls (maybe all of them) lifted a hand as though giving it to be kissed. One of the girls said: “What more if it is the left.” Then she said something that also expressed a desire that the ‘apparition’ would kiss it.”

“Two or three times, at least two of the girls reached to take the crown from someone who was situated much higher than them. Conchita said when she took it off: “A star hit this ear.”

Note: In the drawing that one of the girls made in a very elementary way, reproducing the colors of the mantle, the outfit, the hair, and the scapular, she laughed because of the way she painted the crown, in an open hoop with brilliant stars, and with the point of one of the star near the opening where it could hurt Conchita’s ear when she removed the crown. (This drawing is with the Marquis of Santa María because Conchita gave it to him as a gift).

“While they made the crown stay around their heads, they all smiled in a satisfied way as they saw how it was placed. They never did it two at the same time: when one of the girls took it off, another would put it on. This lasted a little while.

Note: Sometimes they have made comments about the crown. They say that it is small on them or large on them, etc. I have never seen them put the same crown on at the same time. If two girls have put the crown on at the same time, it has been two different crowns. One belonged to the Virgin and the other to the Child. We know that they tried different crowns because of the size. We noted this in the gestures they make and the comments they say and also because in the end they switch crowns.