“When is the miracle?”BOOK THREE
CHAPTER ONE
EUCHARISTIC MIRACLE
or SACRILEGIOUS
FRAUD?
About the same time as the feast of Corpus Christi on June 22nd, 1962, began an event that has, more than anything else about Garabandal, aroused discussion and doubt; an event that would be named the Miracle of the Host.
Returning to Conchita's diary:
As we had so often insisted that the Virgin and the Angel perform a miracle, on June 22nd,(1) when I was receiving Holy Communion from the Angel, he told me:
I am going to perform a miracle. Not I: God, through my intercession and yours.(2)
And I said:
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.
And I thought it over(3) and said:
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!(4)
And he laughed. And that day, 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,(5) 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 going to receive God.
And then he gave me Communion.
And he told me to say the "Soul of Christ" with him. And I did it.
When I had made my thanksgiving, I asked the Angel:
And when is the miracle going to be?
And he told me:
The Virgin will tell you that.
And then he left. This apparition was on June 29th.
Conchita, who frequently confuses dates in her diary,(6) seems to incur here an obvious contradiction. She has just told us that the meeting with the Angel was on the following day after June 22nd. For this reason, it would not have been June 29th, but June 23rd, which in that year fell on Saturday. This confusion must have been due to the fact that the following Friday, June 29th (feast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul), was the day on which she learned the date of the little miracle.
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 with us.
At night on that date, while asking the Angel when the 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,(7) God, Our Lord, was going to perform a miracle.
She didn't say anything to me and I said,
When is the miracle?
And she told me:
On Friday, the 29th,(8) you will hear a voice that will tell you.
And I said to her:
Whose voice will this be?
And she didn't say anything to me . . .
Friday came, and as the Virgin had told me, I felt a voice while at the Pines which told me:
July 18th would be when the miracle would occur.
The voice that I felt said to me:
The little miracle, as you say.
But let us not go too fast. June 29th, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, has always been held in Spain with great festivities. Falling that year on Friday, as has been indicated, it gave the occasion for a holiday weekend, leaving three days free for vacation, as the people were off work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A good occasion for people from the various distant provinces to meet in Garabandal. And actually that is what happened.
Returning to Conchita's diary:
As we had so often insisted that the Virgin and the Angel perform a miracle, on June 22nd,(1) when I was receiving Holy Communion from the Angel, he told me:
I am going to perform a miracle. Not I: God, through my intercession and yours.(2)
And I said:
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.
And I thought it over(3) and said:
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!(4)
And he laughed. And that day, 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,(5) 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 going to receive God.
And then he gave me Communion.
And he told me to say the "Soul of Christ" with him. And I did it.
When I had made my thanksgiving, I asked the Angel:
And when is the miracle going to be?
And he told me:
The Virgin will tell you that.
And then he left. This apparition was on June 29th.
Conchita, who frequently confuses dates in her diary,(6) seems to incur here an obvious contradiction. She has just told us that the meeting with the Angel was on the following day after June 22nd. For this reason, it would not have been June 29th, but June 23rd, which in that year fell on Saturday. This confusion must have been due to the fact that the following Friday, June 29th (feast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul), was the day on which she learned the date of the little miracle.
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 with us.
At night on that date, while asking the Angel when the 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,(7) God, Our Lord, was going to perform a miracle.
She didn't say anything to me and I said,
When is the miracle?
And she told me:
On Friday, the 29th,(8) you will hear a voice that will tell you.
And I said to her:
Whose voice will this be?
And she didn't say anything to me . . .
Friday came, and as the Virgin had told me, I felt a voice while at the Pines which told me:
July 18th would be when the miracle would occur.
The voice that I felt said to me:
The little miracle, as you say.
But let us not go too fast. June 29th, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, has always been held in Spain with great festivities. Falling that year on Friday, as has been indicated, it gave the occasion for a holiday weekend, leaving three days free for vacation, as the people were off work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A good occasion for people from the various distant provinces to meet in Garabandal. And actually that is what happened.
7. Here should be repeated what was said in footnote 2.1. We have seen that Fr. Valentín noted on June 22, following the feastday of Corpus Christi: «There were no apparitions.» Was Conchita mistaken then as to the date? Or was this an error of the pastor who at times made his notes from what others told him? Conchita's short ecstasy to receive Communion could have occurred unnoticed by everyone or almost everyone since the ecstasies for the Mystical Communions were brief and frequently without witnesses.
2. One of Conchita's maladroit expressions. She should have said by means of us. The Angel told her that she and he would serve as instruments for the accomplishment of a prodigy. Conchita has often improperly used the word intercession.
3. The girl was very surprised by what she had just heard the Angel say. It had never occurred to her that the Sacred Host, so visible to them during their ecstasies, could remain completely invisible to the spectators.
4. The miracle announced by the Angel seemed very small to Conchita; she doubted that it would make an impression. She used the term milagrucu which signifies a very small miracle in the idiom of her country.
5. Since the preceding winter, on the Virgin's request, the girls had to go every morning to pray the rosary at the Cuadro, each one at her own time; the time for Conchita was 8 o'clock in the morning.
6. It should be taken into account that she wrote the diary many months after the episode that she is here relating.
8. In the original, crossed out and erased, there perhaps could be read 30, rather than 29; but there is no doubt that Friday was the 29th.
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