From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsoYnwV6qpQ&feature=player_detailpage
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
New Garabandal Book
I just about finished reading this wonderful book (I'm a slow reader with not much time for reading). I think it is a great book that should be read by all Catholics. I especially liked the first half where it details all the different apparitions of Our Lady over the years. I learned alot from those pages. Of course the Garabandal writings were from many sources that I already have read over the last 50 years with a few quotes that were new to me. All in all, I enjoyed the book and do recommend it to everyone.
Deacon John
Product Description
Of Queen and Prophets - The Garabandal Events and The End of The Times presents Mary as a prophetic voice in the contemporary Church, fulfilling her role, as did the prophets of the Old Testament, in the “spirit and power” of Elijah. She comes directly to a confused and persecuted Church in our day, offering us a “way out” of the present quagmire. And that “way out,” of course, is reminding us that it is only through Her Son. The author also discusses Mary’s place in Catholic eschatology. Several recognized Marian visitations from the 17th through the 20th centuries prior to 1960 are also examined, which then brings us to the alleged presence of Our Lady at San Sebastian de Garabandal, Spain, 1961-1965, a small village in which she visited over two thousand times in the course of four years. It is not an exaggeration to say that Mary ‘lived’ in Garabandal for that length of time. Through the seers, she visited every home and family at one time or another including the church and cemetery. If what was revealed at Garabandal proves true, the following events will soon shake the world: a worldwide tribulation caused by Communism resulting in a great trial for the Church; a Divine Warning that will bring the tribulation to an end and that will be experienced by every living person in the world where we shall be shown all of the wrongs we have committed; a Great Miracle worked at Garabandal for the conversion of the world out of God’s Mercy and Love for us, and a conditional Chastisement if humanity does not change. It is a clarion call to prayer and penance for the good of our souls and our eternal destiny in Christ.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
A Letter from Thomas Fahy, President of the Center for the Divine Will
Image via Wikipedia1. Today, June 18, 2011, marks the 50th Anniversary of the Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel at the village of San Sebastian de Garabandal. He appeared to the four young girls 10 times to prepare the way for the visitation of the Queen of Heaven on July 2, 1961, which at that time the Church celebrated the Feast of the Visitation. She came dressed as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, holding the Baby Jesus in her arms. She would make another 2000 visits until November 13, 1965. I have written about this very great drama and the mission of Our Lady to spare the souls of so many of her very wayward children, who are running rapidly along the road to eternal perdition. But She has also obtained the permission of God to remind us of the means to save ourselves and for Him to give us extraordinary, divine interventions, when things have arrived at their worst. These interventions will dispose many, many of those living at that time to welcome the knowledge of the Kingdom of the Divine Will, so that those fortunate souls in all parts of the earth will beg for the Father's Will to reign in their souls, thus fulfilling the Prayer that Jesus taught us, which is to fulfill God's purpose in the creation of mankind. This will bring a marvelous and most happy new era into the history of mankind—an era void of all evil as we ask in the last petition of the Lord's Prayer.
2. "But at that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince,
who standeth for the children of thy people: and a time
shall come such as never was from the time that nations
began even until that time. And at that time shall thy
people be saved, every one that shall be found written in
the book." (Prophecy of Daniel, Chapter 12, verse 1)
who standeth for the children of thy people: and a time
shall come such as never was from the time that nations
began even until that time. And at that time shall thy
people be saved, every one that shall be found written in
the book." (Prophecy of Daniel, Chapter 12, verse 1)
In honor of St. Michael, who appeared at San Sebastian de Garabandal, some missionary Priests who study Luisa's writings and are stationed in Korea, have asked me to share with you a simple Novena beginning on June 23, 2011 and ending on July 1, 2011, in preparation for making a consecration to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel de Garabandal on the 50th anniversary of her first appearance there on July 2.
The simple novena is to say the "Holy Holy Queen" prayer which people usually say at the end of the Rosary. This lovely prayer is to be said on the days of June 23 -July 1. The Priests gave no instructions for making the consecration to Our Lady on July 2, but left that up to our own discretion. They mentioned that the idea of consecrating ourselves to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel de Garabandal came from St. Padre Pio, when he was still alive.
3. I want to thank those of you who responded to our request for some economic support in the last Letters of Gold.
4. We had a very good, nine-day Divine Will retreat at the House of Sanctification at Garabandal in the latter part of April this year, with some beautiful graces that Our Lady dispensed during that retreat. After the retreat, Ann Ellison and Felicia Murray stayed for several weeks accomplishing many chores and seeing to the maintenance of the House, including hiring a painter to paint the considerable woodwork, and another contractor to renew the general landscape. They also had our little car, which we obtained in 2002, repaired, given maintenance and inspected by the Cantabrian authorities. Plus a whole lot more. The painting, landscaping renewal, car expenses, insurance on the car and the House amount to a few thousand dollars in expenses.
The House of Sanctification opened in 2000 and has been a place of great diffusion of the knowledge of the Kingdom of the Divine Will, and it is our purpose that it will be a place of extraordinary diffusion of this knowledge in the future, after the Warning and the Great Miracle in which we will see the Glory of God, followed by the conversion of Russia and many other nations. Our Lady at Garabandal also said that there will come the much longed-for Unification of the Churches and various non-Catholic Confessions into the Catholic Church. So you can see that following the Great Miracle of Garabandal there will be a tremendous evangelization on behalf of Church and the Gospel, and also a tremendous evangelization for the Reign of the Divine Will on earth as in Heaven.
Therefore, it is reasonable for us to keep up the maintainence of the House of Sanctification and pay the necessary taxes and other expenses for that coming Glorious time with God Himself intervenes is such an extraordinary way to redirect the present ways mankind in preparation for the Glorious Reign of the Divine Will.
5. People are already contacting us about attending a retreat at the House of Sanctification next year. We really don't know for sure if there will be one next year. We can only tentatively make plans due to the rapidly changing world conditions. We probably won't be able to commit to a retreat there until next January-February time period. Tentatively, we are considering mid-March 2012, but as I said, such plans are only tentative at this time.
6. We have also has inquiries as to whether or not we will have our regular, annual Divine Will Conference this year. for a variety of reasons we have not commited to such a Conference yet. It seems that we will know by July 15, if we will. In my last Letters of Gold, I brought up the idea that it would be good if some of the Readers of Letters of Gold might be willing to undertake the general responsibility for such a Conference this year and we would provide the speakers.
7. The Center for the Divine Will will be closed from June 23 - June 30. I ask your prayers for me during that time, as I have something to do, which requires the spiritual support of our brothers and sisters in the Divine Will.
May God draw all of us more rapidly and deeply into the Divine Life of the Father's Will,
Thomas Fahy, President
The Luisa Picarreta Center for the Divine Will, Inc.
Note: Correspondence to our tax-exempt organization can be addressed simply to:
Center for the Divine Will
P.O. Box 340
Caryville, TN 37714
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Marian Apparitions in Garabandal, Spain [Video]
Taken from the amazing video "Marian Apparitions of the 20th Century"
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Fifty Years of Garabandal: The Angel Appears
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| P.O. Box 606, Lindenhurst, NY 11757-0606 Garabandal |
Monday, June 13, 2011
CONCHITA'S DIARY-6
1961-1963The Most Holy Virgin announces the miracle to me
The Most Holy Virgen has foretold to me a great miracle that God Our Lord is going to perform through her intercession.
Since the chastisement is very great, as we merit, the Miracle is also immeasurably great, as the world needs.
The Virgin has told me the date of the Miracle and what it will be. I should tell people eight days before it happens so that they will come. The Pope will see it from where he is, and so will Padre Pío. The sick who attend the Miracle will be cured and the sinners will be converted. Those who see this great Miracle that God Our Lord will perform through the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin will not doubt. And now, all will await this great day of the Miracle to see if the world will change and the chastisement will not come.
At the beginning of it all, the Virgin told the four of us—Loli, Jacinta, Mari Cruz, and I—that we would contradict each other, that our families wouldn’t get along well, and even that we would deny that we had seen the Virgin and the Angel. [About this announcement, which refers to the denials and the manner in which they happened, we will say much more later, taking into account other documents in this book.] Obviously, we were very surprised that she told us these things. And everything that the Virgin told us at the beginning happened during the month of January, 1963. [In order to understand Conchita’s statement, we have to take into account the date on which this was written, which is late in the year 1963. What she says is only a part of what was announced.].
We came to contradict each other and we even denied that we had seen the Virgin.
We even went one day to confess it. But we felt inside that the Angel and the Most Holy Virgin had appeared to us, since they had brought a peace and internal joy to our souls, and a great desire to love them with our whole hearts. For their smiles and their speech and what they told us made us love them, love them very much, and give ourselves completely to them. [In these paragraphs written by Conchita, we see the psychological analysis that she makes interiorly, incomprehensible for her youth and lack of education. At the same time she shows us some key elements that correspond to the discernment of spirits. She does this in a descriptive form, that is to say, she describes her interior life of which she has been an object. Because of this we do it with such security and accuracy].
When we went to confession, it was without thinking about it, without believing that it was a sin. We went because the parish priest told us that we should go to confession.
We doubted a little, but a doubt of a type that seems from the devil, who wants us to deny the Virgin.
And afterwards, we told our parents that we hadn’t seen the Virgin; but that the calls and the Miracle of the Sacred Host were true.
In my heart, I was surprised to say these things when my conscience was completely calm about having seen the Most Holy Virgin.
The parish priest, Fr. Valentín Marichalar, gave us ten rosaries and five Our Fathers for penance.
And after we had said this, in a few days the Virgin appeared to us again.
Ceferino, Loli’s father, had told a commission of doctors to come; their names were Alejandro Gasca, Félix Gallego, and Celestino Ortiz [Dr. Alejandro Gasca was the senior doctor in Penilla and the director of the center in Reinosa. Dr. Félix Gallego was the doctor in Requedjada-Polance. Dr. Celestino Ortiz Pérez was the doctor in Santander.]. And on the night that they came, they began to question Mari Cruz, Jacinta, Loli, and their parents about the reason that they were saying that they weren’t seeing the Virgin. I don’t know what they thought. What I do know is that they said that I performed the Miracle of the Host, and they explained it in their way. Obviously, they didn’t know what they were saying at the time. And they allowed themselves to be controlled by the devil.
And after that day, they didn’t have any more apparitions. I had apparitions on the same night, and until January 20th. [This refers to the year 1963] After that I didn’t see her again. [Conchita talks from the perspective of the date on which she writes. In reality a greater crisis of doubts and denials would take place in the summer of 1966, as she will tell later].
Now Loli and Jacinta have come back to reality, to believing that they have seen the Most Holy Virgin. Really, how could they not believe?
Mari Cruz still continues saying that she hasn’t seen the Most Holy Virgin [Mari Cruz was the first to stop having the ecstasies. She has also stayed in a state of doubt and denial the longest. For this purpose, we will quote a letter from Mari Cruz in which she confides her feelings about having a different schedule for visions than the other girls, and also her reaction to the comments made by the people:
“The people don’t like me because I see the Virgin less, but I want what She wants. It has been 18 days since I’ve seen her, but I love her as I do when I see her.” This letter was written September 19, 1962.].I also doubted a little that the Miracle would come. And one day, while in my room doubting if the Miracle would really come, I heard a voice that said:
─ “Conchita, do not doubt that my Son will perform a Miracle.” I felt this inside, but as clear as if I had heard through my ears; or even clearer. It was without words. It left me a peace… a joy! More than when I see Her.
The first person to whom I told this was Plácido. Later, he told it to the others. [Plácido Ruiloba is a gentleman from Santander who followed the events that happened in Garabandal from the beginning with great interest.]. They are called “locutions” [Among the phenomena that take place in Garabandal we have to distinguish between the “calls,” the “apparitions,” and the “locutions.” Conchita distinguishes between them as we have seen up until this point, and she herself described what the calls are. She has also explained what an apparition is. Now she makes a marvelous description of what a locution is. To understand better, we will say that the Vision has the same effect for the girls as something entering the eye. The color, size, etc. can be described like this. The words that they hear during the ecstasies proceed from the Virgin, and are concrete words. They can be found in the dictionary.
In a locution there are no words in the grammatical sense. It cannot be said that the Virgin or Our Lord employs Spanish or French words, or words from any other language. They arrive directly at the faculty of understanding and feeling. As a result, it is more profound, more certain, and less subject to error. Yet it is problematic for the child to translate into words what has been communicated without them. As a result, in different instances she uses different words to describe what happened.
At the same time she explains something that happened without words, she gives very valid notes for the discernment of spirits, for example: peace, security, fullness, increasing love, etc.]. They could be called a voice of joy, a voice of happiness, a voice of peace. And then, I didn’t doubt anything again. [Conchita speaks in 1963. She would not mention the doubts that would come in the summer of 1966.].
But the days passed. And the voice didn’t return. That made me suffer. But I understand: how could God go on giving me such happiness so often, without meriting it?
The locutions did me much good. Because it was as if the Most Holy Virgin were within me. What happiness!...
At the end of the month, again I heard that voice of interior happiness without words, in the Church.
I prefer the locution more than the apparitions, since during the locution I have her in my very self.
Oh, what happiness with the Most Holy Virgin within me! And what shame, to be so bad! But that is the world.
But I like even more to have Jesus within me... Jesus, who gives me the cross to purify me, and also to see if I can do something for the world with my crosses.
With the help of God, since alone I am nothing.
A prayer that I say to Jesus is:
Oh, My Jesus!!!
[This diary is unfinished. It is absolutely certain that Conchita wrote more, but her discretion as well as her mother’s have made the rest a permanent secret, at least for the moment. We don’t want to force this delicate matter and so we are limited to discussing other more interesting things that have taken place from this date until the time this book was published.]
Thursday, June 9, 2011
CONCHITA'S DIARY-5
1961-1963
The next day, at almost the same time, the Most Holy Virgin appeared to us again and told us to pray the Rosary [The girls have prayed the Rosary in Garabandal many times during their ecstasies. On some occasions it was simply prayed. Other times it was sung. Sometimes during their ecstatic marches they would stop in front of the doors of different houses in the village. Sometimes they went up to the room of a sick person during an ecstatic march. These Hail Marys that the girls prayed have been recorded on tapes, and so have some of the songs that they sang that invited the people to prayer and penance. When they pray the Hail Mary in ecstasy it is extremely slow and with a slight trembling in their voices. In the recordings that exist, we can hear the noise of the footsteps of those who accompanied the girls through the village while they prayed the rosaries.]
We said this as though no one told us, but she said to us:
─I’ll lead and you answer.
She prayed very slowly, saying:
─ Holy Mary.
We also said:
─ Holy Mary.
Then we prayed:
─ God has blessed you, Mary, the same as when we pray the Rosary, but very slowly.
When we reached the Salve, she asked us to sing it, so we sang it. When we finished praying the Rosary, she gave us a kiss and before she left she said to us:
─ I’ll return tomorrow.
As she had said, she came. And she told us the same thing as on the previous day:
─ Recite the rosary.
And we began the rosary.
That night we went to the places where the Virgin had appeared to us at the beginning. After our ecstasy, the people said that we had gone up to the Pines, and that we had gone from pine to pine praying on our knees…
Until this time, the four of us had been together in the ecstasies: Jacinta, Loli, María Cruz, and I. But now we had begun to have ecstasies by ourselves in our houses. The Most Holy Virgin called us whether we were together or separated. But we always saw the Most Holy Virgin while we were in ecstasy.
As Mari Cruz already had an apparition earlier and had gone to bed, we asked the Virgin to teach us some songs to sing to Mari Cruz. We would compose a word, and then the Virgin would aid us with the others in the following way:
Get up Mari Cruz,
The good Virgin comes
With a basket of flowers
For the little girl.
Mari Cruz, Mari Cruz,
How sad you make us.
Pray very much to the Virgin
So that she will return to you.
Mari Cruz, Mari Cruz,
Don’t you smell the lilies?
The Virgin brings them for you
So that you will be good.
That night the Virgin stayed with us from 9 at night until 7 in the morning. That night we played ‘los tios’ (hide-and-go-seek) with the Virgin. Two of us hid and the other two searched for us.During one of our apparitions, Loli and I came down from the Pines with many people. And we saw something like fire in the clouds. It was seen by the people who were with us and also by those who were not. When it was over, the Virgin appeared to us and we asked her what that thing was.
She told us:
─ I came in it.
It was the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar during another day of our apparitions, at which Loli and I were present. While we were looking at the Virgin, a star with a very long tail was seen beneath the Virgin’s feet. Several people saw this. We asked the Virgin what it meant, but she didn’t answer.
At times the three of us wanted to be together. As our parents didn’t allow us be out of our homes at night, sometimes when we went outside after the rosary—after already having had two calls—we looked upwards like we were seeing the Virgin. [Conchita’s explanation is clear. When the girls were asked why they pretended before actually falling into ecstasy, they invariably responded: “It is because we wanted to be together. Sometimes the Virgin scolds us for doing this.”], And so we went together down the street. Then our parents and the people followed us. And later the Virgin came, and we were together. We never faked the entire ecstasy.
When we were together, when one of us lost her shoe, the Virgin would say to the other:
─ Put her shoe on.
And one of us would put the shoe on the other.
And when we were alone, if we lost our shoe, we went the whole apparition without it. And at the end, the Virgin would ask us where our shoes were.
In our apparitions, we would ask the Virgin to perform a miracle. She didn’t say anything to us; she smiled. We told her:
─ Perform a miracle so that the people will believe, since no one believes.
But She continued to smile.
The Angel, St. Michael, gave us unconsecrated hosts from the beginning of the apparitions. We had eaten at the time, [Conchitawas referring to the Eucharist fast, which was then three hours] but he gave them to us all the same. This was to teach us how to receive Communion properly.
One day he told us that we were to come to the Pines on the next morning—without eating anything—and that there should be a young girl with us [This was done from the very beginning. In some of the apparitions the Virgin only permitted one girl to go with them. The people in the village called these girls child witnesses because they were the only ones who could closely witness the apparition and hear what the girls were saying. They were very small, about six years old, when the apparitions began. The two girls who were preferred and almost always went were Sari and Mari Carmen, Jacinta and Loli’s sisters.]. And we brought the girl. And we did as he told us. When we came to the Pines, the Angel appeared to us with a golden chalice. And he told us:
─ I am going to give you Communion, but today these are consecrated Sacred Hosts. Say the “I Confess…”
We prayed it, and afterwards he gave us Communion. And after receiving Communion, he told us to make our thanksgiving to God… And after we making our thanksgiving, he told us to pray the “Soul of Christ” with him. We prayed it. He said to us:
─ I will give you Communion tomorrow too. Then he left.
When we told this to the people, some of them did not believe—especially the priests, since they said that an Angel could not consecrate.
When we saw the Angel again, we told him what the people had said. And he told us that he had taken the Hosts from the tabernacles on the Earth, and they were already consecrated.
Afterwards, we told this to the people. But some of them still doubted.
He gave us Communion for a long time.
The Most Holy Virgin told the four of us, Loli, Jacinta, Mari Cruz and I, to go pray the rosary in the Cuadro.
Some days we went at 6 o’clock and other days we went later. Jacinta and Mari Cruz went at 7 in the morning and Loli did not have a definite time. Later, since it was not convenient for Mari Cruz to get up so early, she went at 8 o’clock. And at 6 o’clock like us, Jacinta continued alone, with her mother and people of the village. During Holy Week, the Virgin told me to go at 5 o’clock in the morning. And so I went, since the Virgin always wanted us to do penance.
June 22nd
As we had so often insisted that the Virgin and the Angel perform a miracle, on June 22nd, when I was receiving Holy Communion from the hands of the Angel, he told me:
─ I am going to perform a miracle. Not I: God, through my intercession and yours.
And I asked him:
─ And what is it going to be?
And he told me:
─ When I give you Holy Communion, the Sacred Host will be seen on your tongue.
I thought it over and asked:
─ Surely when I receive Communion from you, the Host is seen on my tongue!
And he told me that it wasn’t so, that the people around me didn’t see It; but that on the day when he would perform the miracle, It would be seen.
And I said to him:
─ But that’s very small! And he smiled. After telling me this, he left.
On the following day, as there wasn’t a mass in the village, after reciting a rosary in the cuadro, I went to pray a Station at the church. And before I went inside, the Angel appeared to me, smiling very much, and he spoke to me as usual:
─ Pray the “I Confess” and consider that you are about to receive God.
Then he gave me Communion and he told me to say the “Soul of Christ” with him. I did it.
When I had made my thanksgiving, I asked the Angel:
─ When is the miracle going to be?
He told me:
─ The Virgin will tell you that.
June 19th
After that, he left. This apparition took place on June 19th. After the Angel told me that he was going to perform a miracle, I told it to the other girls: Loli, Jacinta, and Mari Cruz. I told them that the Angel was going to perform a miracle for us.
At night on that date, when asking the Angel when miracle would be, the Virgin came. She came smiling very much as usual. And I said to her:
The Angel St. Michael told me that through his intercession and mine, God Our Lord is going to perform a miracle…
She didn’t say anything to me and I said:
─ When is the miracle?
─ On Friday the 29th you will hear a voice that will tell you. And I said to her:
Whose voice will this be?
But she didn’t say anything to me.
The first person I told that the Angel was going to perform a miracle was a priest: Fr. José Ramón García de la Riva [This priest is the pastor of Barro, near Llanes, in the Archdiocese of Asturias, which is not far from Garabandal. From the beginning of these apparitions he witnessed many ecstasies and he took photographs of them].
That same day, I also communicated this to Loli, Mari Cruz, and Jacinta.
July 18th
Friday came, and as the Virgin had told me, I felt a voice while I was at the Pines which told me:
─ July 18th will be when the miracle or “little miracle” as you call it, will occur [A “little miracle.” This is a diminutive expression used in the region where Conchita lives.].
After the voice told me the date, I went and told my mother and my Aunt Maximina. I told them that the Angel was going to perform a little miracle, and I told them what it would be. They responded:
─ If this miracle really happens, then everyone will believe…
I make this explanation, but from then on I did not tell anyone else outside of the people I have already mentioned.
On one day on which the Angel brought me Communion I used the occasion to ask him:
─ When will I be able to tell the people that the miracle is going to happen and of what it will consist?
─ Two weeks before, he responded.
When the apparition ended, the people from the village asked me if the Angel had told me anything about the miracle (since I had already told the people in the village that the Angel was going to perform a miracle), but they didn’t believe.
July 6, 1962
When the day arrived in which I had to announce the date, I told the people of the village and I wrote letters [We will put a part of one of these letters here from July 6, 1962. It says this: “Only two words to tell you great news for me and for you also, I believe. The Angel told me that he was going to perform a miracle, and this miracle is that when I am receiving the sacrament, the Form will be visible. It will happen soon, this month, on the 18. To me, of course, this does not seem like a miracle, since I always thought they could see it. Will they believe then?] Fr. Valentín, who doubted that the miracle would happen, told me not to write anymore letters:
─ It probably won’t happen!... ─ he told me ─.
A man named Eustaquio Cuenca was in the village and told me the same thing as Fr. Valentín: not to write any more letters. And I said to them that the Virgin and the Angel had told me to announce the miracle. But in spite of that, the people of the village didn’t believe it.
When July 18th arrived, the village was full of people. Everyone wanted to see the miracle. There was a festival in the village, and next to my house there was a dance. There were two things together: some were praying the rosary, and others were dancing. Some of these people wanted to stop the dancing, since they were afraid that if there was a dance, there wouldn’t be a miracle. And at one time, a man among those who wanted to stop the dancing, Ignacio Rubio, [Conchita refers to a gentleman from Andalucía, born in Córdoba; he came to Garabandal frequently, especially at the beginning.] asked me if I wanted the dancing to stop. I answered:
─ Dance or no dance, the miracle will happen…
And then they didn’t argue about the dancing anymore.
When night came the people were upset. But since the Virgin and the Angel had told me that the miracle would come, I had no fear, since neither the Virgin nor the Angel had ever told me a thing would happen without it happening.
At 10 at night, I had a call, and at 12, another. At 2 o’clock, the Angel appeared to me in my room while my mother Aniceta, my brother Aniceto, my uncle Elias, and my cousin Luciuca were with me, as well as a young woman from Aguilar del Campo, Marí del Carmen Fontaneda. The Angel was with me for awhile. And he told me, as on other days:
─ Pray the “I Confess” and think of Whom you are going to receive.
I did this. And afterwards he gave me Communion. And after giving me Communion, he told me to say the “Soul of Christ,” and to make my thanksgiving, and told me to hold out my tongue with the Sacred Host until he left and the Virgin came. And I did this. When the Virgin came she told me:
─ They all still do not believe. [We can consider this fact as one of the most important among the events that have taken place in Garabandal. It was July 18, 1962. It was announced by the girl in many letters 15 days before. The number of people who came up to Garabandal that day might have been between one thousand and three thousand. Judging by the calendar, the event took place on the 19th and it was exactly two in the morning on the 19th when it happened.
The people who are quoted as saying that Conchita was in her house when the Angel appeared are: her mother, her brother, Cetuco (Aniceto), and her cousin Luciuca, daughter of Antonia and Tomás. Antonia is Aniceta’s sister. They live in Cabezón de la Sal. Luciuca was about 11 years old when the miracle of the Communion occured. María del Carmen Fontaneda is also cited as a witness.
There were many witnesses present that day. Because of them, we have a definite report of the event.
Conchita fell into ecstasy in the upper bedroom of her house. She descended the stairs in this state and went out into the street. She turned to the left until she came to a small road where she fell on her knees. In this state and with her hands extended downward she put out her tongue, which had nothing on it. Suddenly, in a fraction of a second, the Form appeared. It was similar to those that are given in Church, but it seemed thicker. It was white. All who looked saw it, and the girl remained with her tongue out for two minutes or more.
Mr. Alejandro Damians y Damians is one of the principal witnesses of this event. He is Catalán, and he had the good fortune of taking the most interesting photograph that has been made of these events. He told us himself how this took place.
He left Barcelona with his family and passed through Zaragosa, where he purchased a reel to film in an 8mm camera. He confesses that he had never filmed before. The camera he carried was not his, but rather belonged to a friend who had given it to him as he was leaving.
He tells how he filmed it:
“I held the handle firmly, trying with all of my might not to displace that privileged location in which I was situated, and I succeeded.
“The pushing finally decreased and then stayed relatively calm.
“A little before midnight the clouds that obscured the sky dissipated and the blue sky was adorned with stars that shone around the moon.
“With this light and the large number of lanterns that lit the road, we could clearly distinguish that Conchita had her mouth open and her tongue out, in the classic attitude of receiving Communion. It was more beautiful than anything. Her expression and her gestures, far from provoking laughter as the most trifling sign of ridiculousness would, displayed a mysticism that was impressive and moving.
“Suddenly, without knowing how, without realizing it and without Conchita changing her expression in the least, the Sacred Form suddenly appeared on her tongue. It was totally unexpected. It did not seem that it had been desposited there, but you might say that it appeared there with a greater velocity than the human glance can perceive.
“I carried the camera on my wrist. Without paying attention to the protests and without remembering my cousin’s instructions, I pushed the record button and I filmed the last instants of Conchita’s Communion.
Mr. Damians tells how he was pushed and fell to the ground.
When he developed the film, he found about 70 photographs of 8mm in black and white, very bad technically, but sufficiently clear to see the presence of a host on the child’s tongue.
One of these photographs is the one that is so frequently exhibited in almost all of the publications about Garabandal.
The Bishop of Santander, Fr. Eugenio Beitia Aldazabal, was interested in this film and wrote to Mr. Alejandro Damians asking for a copy of it and saying that “it could be of great interest and do a great service for the Church.”
This film proved that what those present saw was not a hallucination, and that what they saw in the child’s mouth was real.
One of the other witnesses is Benjamín Gómez, who lives in Pesues. He says that he is a man not given to insolence toward the Church and that he had the luck to see this event very closely.
We have some facts from an interview in Burgos that was recorded on a magnetic tape.
Question: Did you see the child well?
Response: Perfectly. She was very close to me.
Question: Were you about a meter away?
Response: No, much less. About a palm’s width.
Question: Did you see how she stuck out her tongue?
Response: Yes. I saw how she arrived, and how she knelt with her hands extended downward. I saw how she stuck out her tongue. I want to say something here. Her tongue was clean, empty. I was surprised and I looked. I could see very well because as I said, I was very close, less than a palm’s width away. I looked at her tongue tranquilly; it was not hurried. I looked up and saw nothing. A cousin of mine who was behind me touched my shoulder so that I would change places with her so that she could see. I turned my head for a moment, and when I turned back, the Form was on her tongue.
Question: And what did the Form look like?
Response: Oh! That…is very difficult to say. It was white, but a white that is not of this world. Sometimes I have looked for a comparison but I haven’t found anything that resembles it, except from far away. It is like when it snows. When it snows and the sun comes out and reflects on the snow. But when that happens it hurts your eyes, and this kind of white did not hurt the eyes.
Question: What size was it?
Response: I want to say something here: to make a comparison it was about two 25 peseta coins, one on top of the other.
Question: Do you believe that the girl could have placed it in her mouth with her hand?
Response: Not at all. We would have seen. That girl didn’t move.
Question: Do you believe that she hid it in her mouth and then put it over her tongue?
Response: She couldn’t have done that. I looked inside of her mouth and there was nothing there.
Another witness of this event is the stone mason of Garabandal, named José Luís Diez. The principal difficulty of this event was given by Conchita, according to what Dr. Bonance made evident. All who saw the Form on the girl’s tongue said that it was a little thicker than normal. Only Conchita said that it was the same as in all of the Churches, like the other times the Angel had given her communion, and the times Fr. Valentín had given her Communion. If the girl had wanted to conceal a trick she had done, it does not seem logical that she would say that she had received a host that was different from how the others had described it. Conchita acted according to the truth.
In another point in her diary, the girl makes an allusion to this miracle and the explanations that the people gave. When the Virgin arrived after the girl received Communion she said: “Everyone still does not believe.” The girl wrote a comment about this in her diary.]
Afterward, she told me to pray a rosary, and I did.
Some saw this miracle that God Our Lord did through the intercession of the Angel St. Michael completely, but others only saw the Form on my tongue. In that moment, they believed firmly in what they had seen, and those who did not see it believed because of the reports from those who had seen it.
After a few days had passed, the people began to doubt and everyone said that I had put the Form on my tongue; there were other similar comments.
A Franciscan priest, Fr. Justo, didn’t believe what he had seen. And he said to the people that he hadn’t seen it, that it was a lie, that it was I who had done this. After two or three days, a letter arrived for me from this same priest, asking my forgiveness for thinking badly of me. He told me that it was the devil who had tempted him.
A few days after this letter arrived, three priests came from Fr. Justo. He had explained to them the things that had happened here regarding the Most Holy Virgin. These priests told me that this Franciscan priest had passed many sleepless days and nights thinking about the Sacred Form, but finally he had reacted well and he accepted what happened; he believed everything.
Monday, June 6, 2011
CONCHITA'S DIARY-4
Fr. Luís María Andreu & Fr. Ramón María Andreu
The burial of Fr. Luís María Andreu1961-1963
October
The four of us went up to the Pines at 9:55 [As the explanations are sometimes mixed up by Conchita, we cannot complete the recommendations of the Apparition. The Commission to which Conchita alludes prefered that the reading of the message not take place at the door of the Church, as the Virgin had asked.
It is interesting to see that the girls scrupulously obeyed the orders of the Commission. The Vision had frequently repeated that the most important thing was to obey. They accepted simply to read the message at the Pines]. When we arrived at the Pines, Fr. Valentín was already there. He read it for himself and afterward he gave it to us so that we could read the Message to everyone. The four of us read it together. The people couldn’t hear us well, so a man read it also.
After reading it, we went down to the village, and when we had reached the place called the Cuadro, the Virgin appeared to us.
She said to me:
─ Fr. Ramón María Andreu has doubts now.
This made me wonder very much [Conchita explains what is unclear. Fr. Ramón María Andreu, S.J. came to Garabandal with his brother, Fr. Luís María, who was also a Jesuit, in the last days of July in 1961. They had returned several times during the summer of 1961. As a result, on the date that Conchita’s narration was written, Fr. Ramón María Andreu has been a witness and has sometimes admitted that many extraordinary phenomena occur at Garabandal. The doubts that this priest had that day made Conchita wonder.
We have had the opportunity to converse with Fr. Ramón María Andreu at length about what Conchita tells here. We will annex a conversation with this Priest. We give his version over that which Conchita tells because with his there is the guarantee of a secure analysis, serene in its judgment, clear and respective to ecclesiastical authority.] The Virgin told me where he had begun to doubt, what he had been thinking and everything.
August
Two months before the message [As has already been noted now, Conchita prefers to follow the chain of events rather than being strictly chronological in her narration.], they took me to Santander by means of a priest named Fr. Luís. [The person who is mentioned here is a priest who is a relative of Conchita’s; he served as an intermediary in organizing Conchita’s trip to Santander].
The night before going to Santander, there were many people and among them there was a priest with a white habit. And it surprised me very much that he came with a habit of this color. I had never seen anything like it.
On that day, my mother had told me to ask the Virgin if she should let me go to Santander. I told her that I would ask her. [The fact that Aniceta asked the Vision through Conchita indicates a certain faith in the apparitions since they had started before this].
It was six o’clock in the evening when the four of us had already received two calls. At that time, a priest had brought us a box of caramels; his name was Fr. Alfonso Cobián. He had brought the candy for the four of us. And when we were eating them, the third call came. And we dropped the caramels on the road. How we would have liked to eat them! But we liked more, much more to see the Virgin! And besides, the third call is a thing that takes us, and we don’t know how we went to the place called the Cuadro. [“Cuadro”: a place enclosed by some timbers positioned there to protect the girls from the enthusiasm of curious onlookers during their ecstasies. The Cuadro is in the Calleja.]
We did not have time to get to the place mentioned, and she appeared to us before we arrived.
Since we wanted so much to know who was the priest who had come in the white habit [When referring to priests, the girls question the Apparition in an intense way; there is nothing that seems to concern them more.], we asked the Virgin. And the Virgin said nothing; she only smiled. But we insisted again, and after a long time she said:
─ He is a Dominican. Then I said:
─ A Dominican?
And she said:
─ Yes.
That same day, I asked the Virgin if she would let me go to Santander. And she didn’t tell me no.
That day, the apparition lasted an hour, but it seemed like a minute to us. She told us herself that she had been there an hour.
They wanted to take me to Santander because they said that I was the one who was influencing the other girls [Different theories have been proposed as solutions to the phenomena at Garabandal. They spoke of auto-suggestion by Conchita to the other girls. They also thought of hysteria, of hypnotism, etc. but some of the solutions undid the others, so the questions about Garabandal were always left open.]. Then they brought me to do a test.
The first day I was there, I had an apparition near a church named Our Lady of Consolation [The ecstasy that Conchita refers to here took place on July 27, 1961. On the same day, at the same time, the other three girls had an apparition in the Pines. During this apparition in the Pines, the Virgin told the other three girls that Conchita was seeing her in Santander.
This was confirmed by telephone from Cossío, by the brigadeer of the Civil Guard; the three girls in the Pines knew what was happening 90 kilometers away at the same moment.]. And there were many people there; so many people were there that the armed police had to intervene. That day they made various tests on me. [Conchita calls the multiple examinations that so many doctors and priests performed on her “tests”; they did it to find a solution to the phenomena.]
And when the apparition was finished, they took me to an office [She is referring to the Sacristy in the Church of the Consolation. Without a doubt Conchita called it an office because she didn’t have any concept of a Sacristy other than the small one in the Church in San Sebastián de Garabandal.] for a priest and a medical doctor to question me. The priest was named Fr. Francisco Odriozola and the doctor was Dr. Piñal. They said to me:
─ How do you do these things? Are you crazy? How do you deceive people in this way?
And then he said me:
─ Straighten up. Look at my nose. I am going to hypnotize you!
When he said to me, look at my nose, I laughed. And he said to me:
─ Don’t you laugh, this is not a laughing matter!
And that day they didn’t do anything more to me.
The next day they took me to some doctors to see if I was ill. They took me to one whose name was Morales and several others. And they all told me that I was well and that these apparitions were a dream. And they said that I should stay there in Santander to amuse myself, so that I could forget everything that had happened to me, and not go back to have more apparitions.
Then my mother, as she was so convinced that there was nothing wrong with me because of everything that the doctors told her, left me and went to Garabandal.
Some nieces and a sister of Fr. Odriozola came every day to pick me up at the house in order to go to the beach and the fairs, which until then I had never seen.
Since I went to the beach every day, the Virgin did not appear to me.
At the end of eight days, a man intervened to take me to the village and my mother came to find me. This man was Mr. Emilio del Valle Egocheaga. I will remember him all my life.
On the day that they took me back, I went to Dr. Piñal to tell him that I was going. He became very angry and said to me… well, many things… so that I would not go. I told him that I was not seeing the Virgin; but that the others were, it seemed to me. And that the Message seemed to me to be true. Then he told me to sign a statement. I signed it. Afterwards, he told me that I should go talk to Bishop Doroteo, and I did it. They all acted very nice to me, after all of this.
When I arrived at the village on returning from Santander, several priests and many people came to meet me, because Loli and Jacinta had said in their apparition that I was coming on the road, as I really was. The Virgin had told this to them while they were in the church. Mari Cruz was waiting for the Virgin on her balcony that night, together with a crowd of people [Mari Cruz’s house is the first one in the village. It has a balcony made out of wood, where the girl frequently waits for the apparitions.].
The following day, when coming down from the pastures, my mother and I met my aunt, Maximina González, who was very excited and told us:
Do you know that the Virgin’s voice has been heard on a tape recorder?
Then I asked her:
─ What did she say?
My godmother answered:
Loli and Jacinta told her:
─ Speak!... Go, speak!
Then we heard on the tape:
─ “No, I won’t speak.”
The people ─ my godmother told us ─ began to cry and were very emotional because they had heard the Virgin’s voice.[Conchita says this took place on August 5, 1961. We have seen the testimony which was written and signed by several witnesses.The summary of what happened in these testimonies is the following:
Some strangers had brought a tape recorder powered by batteries. They showed Loli and Jacinta how it worked. The two girls marveled at it because they had never seen anything similar.
During one of the ecstasies they could record some of the words that Loli and Jacinta said. Afterward, they played it so the girls could hear.
Suddenly, the girls fell into ecstasy again. One of them still had the microphone in her hand. Holding it toward the vision during a moment of ecstasy, she said:
─ “A man has come with a thing that records. Why… why don’t you speak so that they can hear you? It isn’t for us, it’s so that they will believe. Speak, say something so that they will believe…”
When the ecstasy ended they played the recorder so that the girls could hear what they had said to the Vision. When the moment arrived that the girls had said the quoted words: “Speak, say something so they will believe…” The tape on the recorder ended. In that moment, a voice came from the apparatus that can only be described as “sweet” and it said:
─ No, I won’t speak.
Loli and Jacinta exclaimed at the same time:
─ Oh! It is the Virgin’s voice!
As you might suppose, the impression produced by the witnesses was very great. One of them said as he went back to Garabandal:
─ I will go to the grave with the conviction that I have heard the Virgin’s voice!
We say as a conclusion to this anecdote that when the tape was played later, the Virgin’s voice was not heard. Whatever interpretation you want to make of this, what is certain is that we have signed testimonies from 12 witnesses. Conchita makes reference to this in her diary as heard from the lips of her Aunt Maximina.]
In those days while I was in Santander, two Jesuit priests had been in the village: Fr. Ramón María Andreu and Fr. Luís María Andreu had come, like many others, without believing. [At the beginning of the apparitions the majority of the people who went up to Garabandal came because they were prompted by curiosity rather than faith. The event that Conchita relates here took place in the last days of July, around the 28th. The girl was not a witness of this. She didn’t do anything but tell what she had heard.]
Then one day Loli and Jacinta had an apparition at the Pines. This was during the day. These two priests were there and when they saw the girls in ecstasy, they believed. When a short time had passed with the two girls in ecstasy, Fr. Ramón María Andreu thought:
─ If this is true, let one of the girls stop having the vision.
Immediately, Loli’s vision left her. After a few minutes, the Virgin appeared to her again.
The priests admitted that this was a test [We have spoken about this with Fr. Ramón María Andreu. We will reproduce part of that dialogue here:
Question: When Conchita says in her diary that you considered this ecstasy that Loli and Jacinta experienced a test, is that true?
Father: Yes, it’s true. But all of this is a little longer that what Conchita quotes in her diary.
Question: Could you give us some idea of your attitude and disposition on the day you went up to Garabandal for the first time?
Father: As you might suppose, when I went up to Garabandal that day, I didn’t think that there could be phenomena that had any value. When they invited me to go up for the first time, I responded that I didn’t have time to lose on apparitions. Generally, I am very busy. Finally, I accepted the invitation to go up to Garabandal, but it was only to be polite to the friends who had invited me, and also because it would be a day to rest after many days of continuous (spiritual) exercises that I had preached before.
Question: And did your brother, Fr. Luís María, believe?
Father: No, not at all. There was no proof at that moment. I don’t think any intelligent person would believe without some proof.
Question: Could you tell us exactly what Conchita describes took place?
Father: With pleasure. It was, as I said, the first time that I went up to Garabandal. We had already seen some ecstasies that day before the one that Conchita describes. In the late afternoon, we found ourselves in the Pines. Loli and Jacinta were in ecstasy.There were very few people near the girls. I was very close to them. I heard them speak with the Vision in a low voice, as though trying to be quiet, which is characteristic of ecstasies. I understood some of these sentences.
After eight or ten minutes, I thought it might be a case of hypnotism. I realized that this was a vulgar thought, with no originality, but it was like that. I looked around me to discover the author of the hypnotism. I saw the faces of Fr. Valentín, Ceferino, Julia, and others who were present… and I didn’t find the solution there. All of them wore expressions of admiring surprise. The hypnotist wasn’t there...
Then I had saw the two girls enter and leave the ecstasy. They did it at the same time. It gave the impression that they only had one soul. At this moment I thought that this did not have much sense. But I thought like this: If one of the girls returned to the normal state, and the other stayed in ecstasy…
At this same moment, Loli, who was closest to me, lifted her head slowly and looked at me, smiing. I asked her:
─ You don’t see the Virgin?
She responded to me:
─ No, Sir.
─ And why not? I insisted.
─ She has gone away.
Jacinta was still in ecstasy. I said to Loli:
─ Look at Jacinta.
The girl looked at her and smiled when she saw that Jacinta was in ecstasy. It was the first time she had seen one of her companions in ecstasy while in the normal state herself.
I asked her:
─ And what does the Virgin tell you?
She was about to respond when she fell into ecstasy again. Her head was facing upwards. I heard the following dialogue between the girls and the Vision.
Jacinta: Loli, why did you leave?
Loli: (Asking the Vision) Why did you leave me?
There was a pause.
The two: (At the same time) Oh, that is why. Then it was so he would believe!
When I heard this I turned to my brother Fr. Luís María and I said to him:
─ Be careful what you think, because the thought transmission is instantaneous.
My brother said to me:
─ Has something happened to you?
─ Yes, I responded… I will tell you later.
Question: Father, after this moment, did you believe?
Father: Undoubtedly this caught my attention and made me think. I understood that it was not a comedy or simulation, and I thought that it was a very interesting topic for more profound study. We were standing before phenomena that were as exciting for doctors as they were for theologians.
From this point to believing, there was a step that was not easy to make. One thing, nevertheless, is certain: taken in conjunction with all of the happenings I have seen, including the one that I have emphasized, although I looked on it with a certain skepticism and reserve, I can affirm again that it is not a comedy or simulation by the four girls. Of course, saying this is almost saying nothing. To establish a problem is still not resolving it. The question is always the same: What is the cause of these phenomena that I have seen and witnessed? And are those that I have spoken of just a small part? I have asked this question to many people, and all of the times I have asked it, I have not had an answer.]
One day, the four of us: Loli, Jacinta, Mari Cruz, and I, had a vision. Many people were there and among them were Fr. Luís María Andreu and a seminarian, Andrés Pardo, and Fr. Royo Marín, a Dominican. It was already nighttime when the Virgin appeared to us that day. At the end of the rosary, the four of us were in ecstasy. And we began to walk toward the Pines. When we arrived there, Fr. Luís María said: Miracle! Miracle! And he was looking upwards. We saw him ourselves. And in our ecstasies we have never seen anyone except the Virgin. [In what we can call the “terminology of Garabandal” we will say something about what we call “the fields of vision.”
In their ecstasies the girls did not see anyone but the Apparition and the other girls who were also experiencing the Apparition. If one girl was in ecstasy and the other was not, the one in the ecstasy would not see the other. The same happens with relation to those who witness the ecstasy.
Nevertheless, an exception exists, the only one of which we know. This exception took place on August 8, 1961 when Fr. Luís María Andreu witnessed an ecstasy and pronounced the world “miracle” four times. Conchita and the other three girls assured us that the Virgin told them that Fr. Luís María had seen the Virgin and the anticipated miracle announced by Conchita. From here it can be deduced that Fr. Luís María formed part of the girls’ phenomena.
What we have said about the “field of vision” can also be applied to the girls’ sense of touch. During the ecstasies, the anesthesia to the pain caused out of their field of vision was complete. The girls did not feel the scratches or the pinches that caused them.They didn’t feel burns either. Nevertheless, they were very sensitive to all that happened within their field of vision. As an example, I can cite a day on which the Virgin handed down her crown with “golden stars” for the girls, and they passed it from one to another. When one of the girls received the crown from another she said:
─ Oh! You hurt me with one of the stars!
On another occasion in which Loli and Jacinta were in ecstasy, one of them took a stone from the ground and scraped the other girl’s hand with it. That girl reacted by saying:
Oh! You have hurt me with the stone!] On that occasion we saw Fr. Luís. And the Virgin told us that he was seeing her and the Miracle. [The Great Miracle that we alluded to when we referred to Fr. Luís María Andreu, saying that he had seen it as it was announced by Conchita for the Vision. The obligations that accompany this announcement are numerous. But before this, we have to say something about the Warning.
THE WARNING: We quote part of a letter from Conchita dated June 2, 1965:
On January1st the Virgin told me that there will be a warning before the miracle so that the world will change. And this warning is like a punishment. It is very frightening, for the good and the bad. It will bring the good closer to God. It will warn the bad that the end of the times comes. These are the last warnings. It is very long, and I can’t explain it by letter. It will come to everyone. It is certain. I don’t know the day or the date.”
The whole world will feel it. It will come before the Miracle, but she doesn’t know when. It will be evident that it comes from God.The child does not know how long it will last. Conchita adds that in the Warning, we will see all we have done to offend God with our sins and how our sins have contributed to the Passion of Our Lord.
The Great Miracle: After the Warning, the Miracle that is discussed in the diary will come. I have the details that Conchita gave.She knows the exact date. Her mother, Aniceta, also knows, and two other persons in Rome, who know it in secret. Conchita will announce this date eight days ahead of time. The miracle will be so great that it will demand our time and it will be greater than the one that took place in Fatima. It will be visible from Garabandal and in the surrounding mountains. It will happen on a Thursday that coincides with the feast day of a saint martyred for the Eucharist. It will also coincide with a great event in the Church. This event has already taken place sometimes in the Church, but not in Conchita’s lifetime. It will take place at eighty thirty at night, the same time as the first apparition. It will last ten or fifteen minutes. It will leave an impression that will be a miracle in itself. It will not be necessary for Conchita or one of the other three girls to be present for the miracle; God will perform it through the Virgin Mary’s intercession. The sick who are present will be cured, and the unbelievers will regain their faith. Padre Pio will see the miracle from wherever he is and so will the Pope. The Pope will see the miracle from wherever he is.
After the miracle, if the world does not convert, then God will send the punishment.]
The people said that we prayed a Creed at the Pines (that was the first day the Virgin taught us to pray) and that afterwards we went down to the village in the same state. When we arrived at the Church, the Virgin left our view. As the Virgin had not appeared to Mari Cruz for several days, she stayed in ecstasy with the Virgin. She went into the Church. And before the altar of the Virgin of the Rosary and St. Michael the Archangel, and she began to pray the Creed very slowly with the Virgin. Mari Cruz said that the Virgin said the prayer ahead of her to teach her how to pray slowly. After the Creed, Mari Cruz prayed a Salve and then she made the sign of the cross very slowly and very well. She talked with the Virgin and said:
─ Oh how good that the Infant Jesus comes! How long it has been since he has come! Why do you wait so long to come to me and come to the other girls more often?
Various people who were near her heard this, and Fr. Luís María Andreu and a seminarian, and Fr. Royo Marín were among them.
The following day the four of us went to sweep the Church. While we were sweeping, Jacinta’s mother came, very upset, and said to us:
─ Fr. Luís María Andreu has died!
We didn’t believe her since we had seen him the day before. We left the Church half-swept and went to find out more. They said that when he was about to die, his last words were:
─ Today is the happiest day of my life! What a wonderful Mother we have in Heaven!
After that, he died.
This happened on the road to Reinosa. [The death of Fr. Luís María Andreu, forms an important part of the events of Garabandal, as is evident by Conchita’s diary. This priest was a professor of theology on the faculty that the Society of Jesus maintained in Oña, a province of Burgos. He had studied in Oña, Innsbruck, and Rome. When he died he was 36 years old.
He had come to Garabandal for the first time in the last days of July. He went up again on August 8, 1961. That day, Fr. Valentín gave him the keys to the Church because he had to go away from the parish. Fr. Luís said his last mass in Garabandal. In the afternoon on August 8th, the four girls had an ecstasy that began in the Church. After that, the girls left on an ecstatic march that lasted a long time. They stopped at all of the places where they had previously had apparitions and prayed there. Fr. Luís María followed the entire ecstasy. The girls went up to the Pines. Fr. Luís María went up to the Pines as well. When they had reached the Pines, Fr. Luís María entered into their field of vision and pronounced the word “miracle” four times. He pronounced these words with a slightly subdued voice, like the tone the girls used in ecstasy. The girls have described how they saw him: “He was on his knees, sweat running down his face, and the Virgin looked at him as though to say: ‘you will be with me very soon.’”
Fr. Luís María had left a rosary with Loli so that the Virgin would kiss it, but he lost it on the mountain. The ecstasy ended in the Church. Going out of it, Loli said to the priest:
─ I have lost your rosary, but the Virgin told me where it is. We are going to look for it. It was past 10 at night. Julia, Loli’s mother, said:
─ Not now. You can go tomorrow when there is light.
Fr. Luís María said:
─ Yes, it will be better tomorrow during the day. If you find it, don’t give it to anyone except my brother; although I won’t return, my brother will.
This is what Loli did the next day, and she found the Rosary in exactly the same place that the Virgin had said.
That night, Fr. Luís María Andreu left Garabandal in a Jeep and went toward Cossío. There, he awaited the others who were walking down. He was inside the car, waiting until one in the morning when Fr. Valentín arrived. He went to the car to ask something and Fr. Luís said:
─ Fr. Valentín, what the girls say is true, but don’t say so yet; prudence on the Church’s part is necessary in these things.
Fr. Valentín wrote this sentence in his diary that night after he heard the news of Fr. Luís’s death.
A caravan of four cars was traveling on the road to Aguilar de Campoo, and Fr. Luís María was riding in one of them. There were three other people in this car with him. Fr. Luís María slept for a while, and when he awoke he said:
─ I have had the most wonderful sleep. I’m not even a little bit tired.
They arrived at Reinosa at around four in the morning. All of the cars stopped there at a fountain near the entrance of the village.They left the cars to get water, but Fr. Luís stayed inside with the door open, surrounded by people who questioned him about what he had seen.
When they left, the car in which Fr. Luís was traveling was the last car. While they were still in Reinosa, Fr. Luís said:
─ “I am full of joy. What a gift the Virgin has given me. We are very fortunate to have a Mother like her in heaven. There is no need to be afraid of the supernatural life. The children have taught us how to act toward the Virgin. I cannot have any more doubts. Why has the Virgin chosen us? Today is the happiest day of my life.”
When he said this, he lifted his head. Since he’d stopped speaking, they asked him:
─ Father, has something happened to you?—and he responded:
─ No, nothing, I’m just tired.
And upon saying this, he bowed his head.
The mechanic returned and when he saw Fr. Luís, he said:
─ Oh, the priest is very sick. His eyes are rolling.
There was a clinic there. They could not do anything but verify his death.
We didn’t know about any sickness he may have had. We can say that he died without pain. He had a smile of happiness on his face.
The history of this priest and Garabandal does not end with his death. The girls have frequently spoken with him, as Conchita tells us in her diary.
The most astounding thing is that the Virgin told Conchita that on the day after the miracle, the priest’s tomb would be exhumed and his body would be found incorrupt ,just as it was on the day he was buried.
Conchita says this in a letter:
“On July 18th I had a locution and in it I was told that on the day after the miracle, they will take your brother from the tomb and his body will be incorrupt.”]
When he left San Sebastián de Garabandal, he went in a car with Carmen Fontaneda and her husband Faito Fontaneda and several others [Conchita quotes here from witnesses who describe how Fr. Luís María died. Faito Fontaneda is the diminutive of Rafael Fontaneda. His wife is Carmen Fontaneda. Their daugher was with them, and she was about six years old when the priest died. The mechanic was named José Salceda.]
Fr. Luís María Andreu’s mother became a cloistered nun 48 hours after her son’s death [There is an error in Conchita’s estimation. When asked why she had written that within 48 hours the mother had become a cloistered nun, she said that it was because that was how she’d heard it in the village.
It is true that Fr. Luís María’s mother became a cloistered religious in the Order of Visitation in San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa). But it wasn’t after 48 hours, but in the month of October. That is, it was over a month after the death of her son.
The Andreu family is composed of six brothers, four of whom became Jesuits and were ordained priests.
The oldest is José María. He is married and lives in Madrid. The next is Fr. Alejandro María, who is a missionary in Venezuela.Next is Fr. Ramón María, of whom Conchita speaks in her diary. He lives in Spain. Fr. Luís María is next. After him comes Fr. Marcelino María, who has been a missionary in Formosa for years. The youngest is Rafael, who is married.
Mrs. Andreu, who gave four of her sons to God, became a religious in the month of October 1961. She took the habit on March 19, 1962. She made her perpetual vows on March 19, 1965. On this occasion, His Holiness Paul VI asked all of her sons to come from their mission lands in order to participate in the solemn occasion. The Pope himself payed the travel expenses for Fr. Marcelino to come from Formosa. He sent Sr. Luisa María a special blessing and congratulations, alluding to the priestly soul that mothers can transmit to their sons.]
Several days after the death of Fr. Luís María Andreu, the Virgin told us that we were going to speak with him[We have questioned Fr. Ramón María regarding these conversations that the girls had with Fr. Luís María after his death:
Question: Father, were you present during any of these conversations?
Response: Yes, I attended the first ones.
Question: What effect did they have on you?
Response: When they told me, I was disconcerted. The first news of this was given to me by a gentleman from Burgos named Santiago Gredilla. It was around August 14. I had just finished burying my brother and so I had just arrived at Garabandal also. This gentleman told me that in their ecstasies the girls said:
─ Oh, good. Then, we are going to speak with Fr. Luís?
This completely confused me and I thought that it was a simple case of suggestion with the girls. In this moment, I thought of leaving Garabandal.
Question: Why did you stay?
Response: Because some of the people I had come with wanted to stay.
Question: And what happened then?
Response: I was stupefied when I heard some of these conversations. In one of them, the girls repeated everything that Fr. Luís María had told them about his death and his burial. For example: when they described the way he had been shrouded, they repeated the names of the attending priests and what they had placed on him. They knew some of the variations. They didn’t put a cap on him, and he held a crucifix in his hands instead of a chalice. They also knew the correct reason why they did this.
In another of these conversations I also heard them talking about how my brother had died without making his final profession. At the same time, they talked about when I did it, of the place and the other companion who did it with me.This was a subject that I had not thought about and as a result it was truly astonishing for me to hear it exactly as it had happened. I also witnessed and heard the children say sentences in other languages, like the Hail Mary in Greek, as Conchita writes in her diary.
Question: And what do you think of all of this?
Response: That it continued to be a very extraordinary thing. I have limited myself to reporting the things I saw myself. If you refer to proof of the facts, I have to say that within the Church there are those who have the obligation of studying them and verifying them, and I am only waiting for this to happen.
We have a letter that the Father gave us to read and photocopy that refers to something we have asked about.
“Only two words to tell you that I have spoken with Fr. Luís and he told me to tell you that you are acting very well and that he wants you to come here but that you should continue to obey the Bishop.
He also told me how to say Jacinta and Cruz in French. He told me how to write them. It is like this:
Loli—MARIE DES DOULEURS; Cruz—MARIE-CROIX
Jacinta—JACINTHE; MARIE-CONCEPTION. Well, I won’t write anymore because J’AI UN APPEL. Conchita González sends her love. Goodbye. He taught me this song in French:
Espoir, Espoir. Au ciel estoilé,
Parait et sourit Notre Mére.
Espoir, Espoir. Marie a parlé.
Son FILS entend notre priére.
If you don’t understand it in French, Fr. Luís told me what it says. It begins: Hope. Translator’s note: We will write down the translation of these songs:
Hope, Hope. In the starry sky
Our Mother appears and smiles,
Hope, Hope. Mary has spoken.
Her Son listens to our prayers.]
On August 15th, the Feast of Our Lady, there were many tourists who had come to amuse themselves and they were causing scandal. That was the day that the Virgin told us we would talk with Fr. Luís María Andreu. But since there was a scandal, he didn’t come. At 4 in the morning on the next day, at the same time that Fr. Luís had died, the Virgin appeared to me in my kitchen and said to me:
“Father will not come today, but he will come tomorrow.”
On the next day between 8 and 9 at night, the Virgin appeared to us, smiling very much as usual, and she said to the four of us:
─ “Fr. Luís will come now and speak to you.”
After a while he came and called us one after the other. But we didn’t see him; we only heard his voice. It was exactly the same as when he spoke on Earth when he would give us advice.
He also told us something for his brother Fr. Ramón María Andreu. He taught us words in French and how to pray in Greek. He also taught us words in English and German.
After a while, we didn’t hear his voice anymore. Then the Virgin spoke to us and stayed with us for a moment before leaving.
The Virgin told us that day:
─ Tomorrow you will here a voice, do not be afraid, but follow it.
On the next day, and at the same time as on the previous day, the Most Holy Virgin appeared to the four of us. For several minutes she was smiling very much. But she didn’t say anything to us. After a few minutes, darkness came upon us, and we heard a voice call us. Then Mari Cruz said:
─ Tell us who you are; if you don’t, we will go home!
While we were hearing the voice, it was very dark. [We can’t give any precise details about this voice. Its meaning is unclear to us. In any case, this voice represented something that frightened the girls.] We didn’t see the Virgin. But afterwards she came and she said to us:
─ Don’t be afraid.
And she spoke to us for awhile. That night was the first night she kissed us [Conchita remembers this with a feeling of happiness.During the ecstasies, it was very usual to see the girls placing their faces to receive kisses from the Vision, then to see them kissing the Vision. This generally happened when the Vision was about to end, and they were saying goodbye. It was very frequent that the ecstasies would end with the girls blessing themselves at the same time with the kiss.] one by one. And then she left.