Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part One, Post 6

In another interview with the girls they also asked some questions with the desire to obtain descriptive facts about what they saw. This time there were also three girls: Mari Cruz, Mari Loli, and Jacinta. It was July 31st or August 1st.

P—“And how does she appear?”

R—“She appears on her feet, on a wreath or in the air. Always on her feet, like this, near.” (Makes a gesture).

P—“Había muchos ángeles?”

R—“Había cinco ángeles con San Miguel.”

P—“Are there many angels?”

R—“There are five angels including St. Michael.”

P—“Como lo sabéis?”

R—“Ella nos dijo que era la Virgen (Reina) de los Angeles.”

P—“How do you know?”

R—“She told us that she was the Virgin (Queen) of the Angels.”

From these questions, as from other questions that they asked the girls on different occasions, we can obtain an approximate description of the Virgin that they see, as with the Angel or the Child. I put in summary the facts that they make concrete and I have to combine:

The Archangel

It is the first of the figures that they see. He appears to be about nine years old. He doesn’t carry weapons. They can’t see his feet because they are covered by a robe. He has wings that fall to the ground. The wings are a rosy color. The robe is blue and so is the mantle. The hair is long, and grows from the top like a mane. The Angel’s hair is different from the Virgin’s.

Generally, he smiles and puts his hand on the girls’ heads with a certain frequency and shook it a little in an affectionate salute.

The Virgin

The description that the girls made of the Virgin is one of great beauty. She is about 18 years old, and very tall. She is always standing. She held her hands in different positions, according to whether she brought the Child. Frequently, she held her hands with her palms toward the girls. Her hair was black and long, and fell in waves almost to her waist. Her eyebrows were the same color. Her dress is white with white flowers. It seems that she has something like a sash on her side. The mantle is blue. The adornment of her head is complete with a crown that is secured to her head like a diadem. Sometimes she gives this crown to the girls; it has small, brilliant stars.

The girls see the Virgin from the front, like other people. If they move from one place to another, they ordinarily do it without moving their feet, and the Virgin stays in front of the girls. The Virgin turned around on one occasion to show the girls her dress. The wind moved her hair sometimes.

The Child

He is so small that he isn’t even a year old. He doesn’t speak but he does laugh. His robe covers his feet. On occasion, he is given to the girls to hold. The Virgin, the Archangel, and the Child have all kissed the girls and have received kisses from them.

They Offer Stones

Almost from the beginning of this month of July it has been observed how the girls take little stones from the ground and lift them up so that the vision will kiss them. After this they hide them in their sleeves, their pockets, or place them in groups on the ground. These stones, upon being offered to be kissed, are dedicated to certain people. The girls say this when they offer them. “This is for Andrés—this one is for Milán.” After they return them to the person they are meant for, the trance ends.

The Tablets

Two tablets exist in two boxes on which the girls write their names and add some sign. They correspond to this month of July. Upon seeing the girls, the Virgin stood up on a stone and they wanted to have a weaker pedestal. They brought two boxes that Mr. Ceferino had in his house. On these two boxes the girls wrote their names in small letters in red. They also wrote the name “Carmel” alluding to what the Virgin had said, that she was Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. They added a picture of a rosary and some knives that they joined.

Kisses

It’s normal upon finishing the trance that the girls say goodbye by giving kisses on the cheeks and that they offer their own cheeks to be kissed. It frequently happens that they add a hand gesture to say goodbye then bless themselves or make the sign of the cross.

Medals

From the first days they came together, the pious and the curious, and they gave holy objects to the girls for the Virgin to kiss. The girls did this, admitting a number of rosaries that didn’t surpass the limit that the pastor put up on some occasions. With the motive of giving these religious objects to be kissed like this, also when they made it with stones, we observed that they frequently recognized objects that had already been kissed. The people made some tests in which they gave a medal or a rosary to one of the girls so she would give it to the vision to kiss. Days later they would give the same object to another girl and when she would offer it to be kissed we would hear her say, as a response to something the Virgin said: “Oh! It has already been kissed! Well, kiss it again.”