Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part Two, Post 9

August 3rd

I’m taking the report of this day from Fr. Valentín Marichalar’s diary. I’ve added some clarifications. I was in Valladolid where the Religious Adoration Exercises were taking place and I received a telephone call from my brother Fr. Luís, informing me of an event that had occurred for the first time: the ecstatic fall. Fr. Valentín’s diary explains it like this:

“At 1:07 Jacinta and Loli went up to the Pines. They began to pray a Station with the Virgin in front of them. They gave rosaries to be kissed. They tried on the crowns, gave kisses, and gave the rosaries to be kissed. They kissed St. Michael. “Return soon—at what time? When you call us?” It ended at 1:17.

“In the afternoon it began at 9:05. They prayed the Rosary, and at the first Our Father they fell into ecstasy and stayed like that for awhile, saying things that we didn’t understand. “Oh, come on!”—They sang to St. Michael.

“Today a strange thing happened. The girls fell backwards; Jacinta held onto her mother and Loli held onto the General Director of Security. They were like this for 10 minutes, and when they left the ecstasy they asked who had fallen. It ended at 9:40.

Note: This is the first moment in which the fall appears. The oscillations preceded it by days. Initially, the attitude of the girls was calmer. Little by little—as the days passed—the oscillations began. On this day, August 3rd, the ecstatic fall took place. The girls were unaware of their fall and position.

At this time I observed the same thing I’d observed before during the different falls and walks I’ve seen. Their posture was never incorrect nor was it immoral. It was just the opposite: on all occasions there was an extraordinary beauty and detail. Their skirts always fell in a correct position. Sometimes their parents, or the girls themselves, would pull their skirts down, but it was almost always an unnecessary precaution.

What is said about these falls can be extended to include the marches and the different meanings, which I will indicate in each case.

“They say that they have to go to pray in the Church. During the first Our Father they fall backwards on the wooden flooring of the Church. They were on their knees on the first level of the altar. They were like this for about 12 minutes, questioned by Conchita.

“Oh, she’s in her house.” (She had arrived then).

Note: In the notes written in my notebook, I have this sentence that was transmitted to me by telephone: “The day that Conchita arrived, they said during the Vision: ‘Oh, good, Conchita is coming’—By the time the Vision had ended, Conchita had arrived.

This sentence is in my notes and has an autonomous origin that agrees with the reference made by Fr. Valentín in his diary. Since I can’t take more notes from the sentences that the girls said in ecstasy, it seems that the two pieces of news refer to the same theme even though the telephone record is at the beginning and Fr. Valentín’s diary is at the end. Fr. Valentín already indicated in his diary: “They remained like this (fallen on the floorboards) for 12 minutes, questioned by Conchita.” The paragraph ends like this. In the beginning of the next one it says: “Oh, she’s in her house,” etc.

In this posture it seems that they woke up, according to the inference made in Fr. Valentín’s diary. They correspond to these two sentences like this: “Then they had arrived” and “They were arriving.”

Comments from before this had confirmed for me the impressions of those present in this moment of ecstasy, during which the girls commented on Conchita’s arrival in the minutes during which she was arriving.

“Oh, she’s in her house” (she had arrived then), after they finished saying that they had fallen. Jacinta had a small bruise on her arm.” (Elbow).

Note: Again, this lack of realization with regard to the fall. This small bruise on her arm or elbow could have come from an ecstatic fall, but it could also have come from another blow that she had received in the normal state. I make this clarification because I have seen them give enormous blows while in a trance without having a single mark. I will make mention of this another time. “After they prayed the rosary.”

Note: This rosary was prayed by the girls in the normal state and as a result Fr. Valentín could talk to them. When the girls were in a trance, they were isolated from other people in the sense that they could not establish contact with others. The only possibility that existed in this case was that the other seers who were not in ecstasy could communicate with those seeing the vision mentally, but not orally.

“I ordered them to pray as they always did on the carpet. The girls laughed and then I asked them why they were not on the carpet and they told me that the Virgin had told them that that place was Fr. Valentín’s, and that they should be on either side of him.”

Note: This carpet is one that is in the presbytery, in front of the altar, and it is not very large. When Fr. Valentín told them to go on the carpet, it was to help them stay warm in spite of the cold floor of stone and tile.

“Mari Cruz didn’t go to Mass and in the afternoon she didn’t see anything; it is the first time that this has happened. This occurred even though the night before she said that she would have one. Today Conchita comes from Santander.”

Note: It isn’t clear what is referred to with the sentence: “It’s the first time that this has happened.” It could refer to that Mari Cruz did not go to Mass, or that she didn’t see anything, or the connection between not going to Mass and not seeing anything, or it could also refer to that she’d said the night before that she’d have an apparition but didn’t have one. The hypothesis that she had an ecstasy in secret, without anyone knowing, also fits, since sometimes the girls were surprised by ecstasies when they were completely alone, and when this happened they didn’t say anything. I remember that this very thing happened to Mari Cruz. A family member surprised her when she was in a trance, completely alone in a room. She didn’t say anything about it.

Sometimes the girls’ family members and those near to them worried when they heard an announcement about the next Vision. When the girls said: “We’re going to see the Virgin today,” or also, “Tomorrow we’re going to see the Virgin,” they didn’t always have the same value. Sometimes they said it because the Virgin had said goodbye saying, “Until tomorrow,” or “until later.” Other times it was because they were accustomed to seeing her daily, so they supposed they would see her. Other times it was because they’d had the first “call.” It seldom happened that the girls had the persuasion that they were going to see the Virgin. It was seldom that they stopped seeing her after they’d had the first call. It never failed when the Virgin told them as a sure thing that she would come, but sometimes she said it as though it was probable, saying: “I’ll probably come.”