Memoirs of a Spanish Country Priest (Chapter X)

CHAPTER X

The Angels at Garabandal

We find the first mention of an angel at Garabandal is Conchita’s diary when she tells it to us with a marvelous description: (June 18, 1961)
Suddenly a very beautiful figure appeared to me, shining brilliantly, without hurting my eyes.

Concerning June 24, 1961, Conchita wrote:
We never heard him speak.
That day we saw a banner underneath him. On the first line was written:
— It is necessary etc . . . And on the last line there were Roman numerals.

Then on July 1:
I come to announce to you a visit by the Virgin under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, who will appear to you tomorrow, Sunday.
Very happy, we told him, “Let her come right away!”
He smiled, and we said to him, “What is the meaning of the inscription?”
“The Virgin will tell you.”
That day he talked to us about many things.
He recalled that on the first day Jacinta, Loli and Mari Cruz were about to call my mother, thinking I was having an attack . . .
He stayed two hours with us, and to us that seemed two seconds.
Then he told us, “I will return tomorrow with the Virgin.” And he left . . .

Here is the description that Conchita made of the Angel:
He was dressed in a long flowing tunic without a belt. His wings were rather long, very lovely, pink in color. His face was neither long nor round; his nose was handsome; his eyes dark; and the face tan. His hands were fine with short nails: his feet weren’t seen.

On July 2, a new mention of an angel. Another angel accompanies the Virgin, but the girls did not know who it was.
Sunday, July 2nd came. It was 6 o’clock in the evening. We were going to the Calleja to recite the rosary.
We had not arrived when the Virgin appeared to us.
Two Angels accompanied her. One was St. Michael; the other we did not know. He was dressed like St. Michael. They looked like twins.
On the right side of the Angel, at the same height as the Virgin, there was an eye of great size; it looked like the Eye of God.
We know very little about the second Angel. He only appeared one time during the first visit of the Virgin; no other mention was to be made. (In the summer of 1976 Jacinta told Father Eusebio García de Pesquera that the second angel was St. Gabriel.)
We know from Conchita herself, that the other angel was St. Michael. He appeared as an ambassador for the Virgin and later as a catechist for the visionaries, particularly for those things that related to the reception of Holy Communion, as we shall see later.