Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part One, Post 4

June 22-23, 1961

These two days correspond to Thursday and Friday. Ceferino’s paper says: “June 22—there was no vision. June 23—Vision, cuadro and Angel.”

During the first two weeks after June 18th, only the Angel appeared to the four girls. The description that the girls make of the Angel is like this: He is nine years old, does not carry a sword, he ordinarily smiles, and you can’t see his feet because they are covered by a long white tunic. His wings are a pink color, and you always see them from the front. As they appear they almost disappear from the front. The Angel revealed his age and identity when he said that he was the Archangel St. Michael.

June 24-July 1, 1961

These days go from Saturday to Saturday. Ceferino’s paper reads like this:

“June 24th—There was no vision.”

“June 25th—Vision—an Angel.”

“June 26th—Vision—an Angel.”

“June 27th—Vision—an Angel.”

“June 28th—Vision—an Angel.”

“June 29th—Vision—an Angel.”

“June 30th—Vision—an Angel.”

“July 1st—Vision—an Angel.”

The apparition took place in the same site on these first days; it seems it was in the road. It was there that a little before an apparition happened, the people from the village would make a ring in the shape of a square to defend the girls from the groups of people who began to come up to witness the phenomenon.

Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part One, Post 3

June 19-20, 1961

I have a summary from these days that includes the sentences that appeared in the paper that Ceferino, María Dolores’ father, wrote:

June 19th—There was no vision.

June 20th—They didn’t go.

These two days correspond to Monday and Tuesday. These two days are when the news that the girls had allegedly seen the Angel reached the girls.

In Fr. Luís’s 2nd notebook, Fr. Valentín said this:

“On Tuesday I went up and saw them while in a vision. I went to where the Bishop was; he told me to go up and control the situation a little.”

It’s not clear if Fr. Valentín saw them while they had the vision on the same Tuesday that he went up, or whether he saw them on Wednesday.

Mrs. Fania is one of the first to understand this. The sentence: “Are you of the Angel?” spread through the village, with which they wanted to express whether people took the girls seriously. Little by little the places where the apparitions took place extended including people who came from far away because of their curiosity about the girls when they were in a trance.

June 21, 1961

The sentence that appears on Ceferino’s paper is this one: “June 21st—Vision—Luminous Cuadro.”

In these first days the Vision stayed silent. His communication with the seers happened through images. The news that I’ve gathered about the “luminous cuadro” is very imprecise;” the girls don’t talk about it, nor does Fr. Valentín.

It has to do with red light or fire that forms a square inside of which there is a triangle, an eye, and a sign. The letters are unfamiliar and in the eastern or Arabic style. Fr. Valentín told me that he tried to reproduce them and told another priest the correct letters and sentences. The translation was: “I need you in October.” I repeat that the news I have about this luminous cuadro was very imprecise and that I am limited to reviewing the various conversations that I have obtained, without any guarantee. What seems clear is that they had a vision that day and that they saw it for the first time in the cuadro.

Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part One, Post 2

Conchita’s autograph:

“—We are girls from San Sebastián; we see the Angel St. Michael.”

(Notebooks, etc.)

These autographed writings are written by the girls on July 31st and August 1st of 1961.

As a summary of the previous facts and from subsequent conversations with the parish priests and with the girls we reconstructed the pertinent information from this day June 18, 1961.

The parish priest talked to the girls about the promises of the Sacred Heart on June 18, 1961. The children finally prayed an Our Father to the Guardian Angel as they were accustomed to doing. Then one of the girls said: “I don’t have a Guardian Angel.” Fr. Valentín said: “Don’t say foolish things, everyone has a Guardian Angel,” and they prayed an Our Father.

At six the children left and the four girls went to take apples. They didn’t go alone at the beginning but they stayed alone when they took the apples. According to the explanations that the girls gave, not all of them took apples. One of them said: “The good Angel is on the right and the bad is on the left.”

The apparition of the Angel was preceded by a light that always accompanied him. At the beginning they were afraid. The Angel didn’t speak. After a time he disappeared.

It’s possible that the girls believed that it was the Guardian Angel. But there were four girls and one Angel. The girls limited themselves to saying that they saw an Angel. The idea that they have about the Angel and what Fr. Valentín had said, goes with this sentence that one of the girls spoke.” The good Angel at the right and the bad Angel at the left, it seemed to be related to the Guardian Angel. As a result, it was surprising when he revealed the identity of this Angel, who did not carry a sword, but said that he was St. Michael the Archangel.

Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notebooks - Part One

Starting today I will be posting Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes! They are quite important and historical in regard to the truths of Garabandal! May he rest in peace!

Roman Deacon

Note: Since these notes could arrive in so many hands as others have before without my knowledge and to unknown people through unknown ways, I want to begin this writing with the following declarations:

1st—With special authorization from Fr. Doroteo Fernández, A.A. from Santander, on these dates and with approval from my Superiors, as well as the vice provincial from Western Castilla, as my rector, I was in San Sebastián de Garabandal several times.

2nd—I am writing about what I believed and heard to the cited Superiors.

3rd—I never gave an interpretation of the happenings that took place there.

4th—I recounted the historical facts and commented on others.

5th—The language used in these writings is used to bring memories of the facts, but that is not to say that it is taken for granted that these interpretations are accepted.

6th—The words, language, and figures of speech like Virgin, Vision, Child, etc.—serve to express determined facts, happenings, etc.—and because in some way we understand them to be the names spoken, so that is how we write them.

7th—The motive in compiling these facts and narrations is to have the memory of some facts lived by many people and in case one day they can be collectively useful, they should not be lost. For me, they will always be so, although they are a familiar aspect of interest, since they were left in my brother’s life, doubly my brother, and today, doubly loved, Fr. Luís María S.J., who I always admired and whose advice and conduct have served as an example for me many times, and who I had an advantage over in age only.

Ramón M. Andreu, S.J.

1st Diary

Month of June 1961

Summary:

June 18, 1961—the visions begin.

June 19-20.

June 21—in the Luminous cuadro.

June 22-23.

June 24-July 1.

June 18, 1961.

In order to reconstruct the scene and the other details of this day, June 18, 1961, in which the first apparition took place, it is necessary to refer to questions made to the girls, since they are the only witnesses of the vision.

To have some versions of what happened that give a first impression, it is worthwhile to question the girls’ first confidantes. The questions were made on dates closer to June 18th, that is to say, when the least time had passed from the facts to the narration of them; this is a less elaborate version that is more original.

The attached tries to reconstruct what refers to us regarding the girls. I cite some documents that I possess from a series of apparitions that took place from this date on.

In Fr. Luís María Andreu S.J.’s 2nd notebook, which corresponds to August 29th and later August 31st, there is the summary of a conversation with Fr. Valentín Marichalar Torre, parish priest from Cossío and San Sebastián de Garabandal, which says this: “Fr. Valentín says: June 18th, I am accustomed to asking people about the Commandments—it was the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; we asked the girls what the promises of the Sacred Heart were. It was to wear the scapular. They said: They already know that we have a Guardian Angel. Nothing more.

They marched at 6. That day I stayed here. On the following day they told me that they went to pick apples. We thought: “Can our Guardian Angel see us? They saw. Fr. Valentín said so. Fr. Valentín said that he didn’t want to know our foolishness. On Monday, when a mother went down to Cossío, she said that several girls had seen a Guardian Angel.

On Tuesday I went up and saw them while they were having a vision. I went to the Bishop, who told me to go up and control the situation a little.

As one can see in these lines there are sentences in a direct style, while others represent a summary or an idea we have talked about.

On July 29th, upon going up to San Sebastián de Garabandal, I received information from two women from the village who had stayed there; I have it like this in the notes I took in my notebook: “Narration of the two women: ‘the girls went to steal fruit and they saw an Angel. They interpreted this to mean that they shouldn’t steal, because of the good Angel on the right and the bad Angel on the left.’”

There is a paper on which Ceferino, father of María Dolores, made a chronology of the first days, beginning like this: “The Apparition began on June 18th.”

In concordance with what Fr. Cipriano Abad, Andrés Pardo, and Fr. Luís María did, and with the notes they took, it says this in the beginning of the second folio.

Responses from the girls

We wanted to ask the group of three girls questions to clarify some of the things they said. Loli’s father brought the three girls to his house. In one of the rooms, with Loli’s father in attendance, and with the girls in the company of Fr. Cipriano Abad and Fr. Ramón Andreu (who came at the end), the girls gave these responses to questions asked by Fr. Luís Andreu.

1st─“Did you see the Virgin from the first vision?”

R—“It was a few days before we saw the Virgin. We saw the Angel first.”

What I have in signed writing by the girls regarding the beginning of the apparitions is the following:

“Jacinta González González. Some girls see Our Lady of Mount Carmel who brings the Child. We also saw St. Michael; we are Conchita, Jacinta, Loli, Mari Cruz, and we were going to take some apples but we didn’t take them and then we sat down in a road and the Virgin smiled a lot and we remembered a priest who said that his name was Andreu and it is true that his brother who is very tall has the same name.”

(Notebook #3—Fr. Luís M. Andreu)

Autographed by María Dolores:

“—and we went to steal apples and we took them but I took a branch and Jacinta took them and then she jumped onto the road and we sat down. Suddenly we saw the Angel and he didn’t speak to us nicely.”

María Dolores Mazón González

(Fr. Andreu’s notebooks)

Memoirs of a Spanish Country Priest (Chapter XXVII)

CHAPTER XXVII

Locution of Conchita at Pamplona

(February 13, 1966)

(Six days after entry into the convent of the Discalced Carmelites)

On Sunday, February 13^th, at the time of thanksgiving to God after having received Communion, I received at the same time a great joy and an even greater sorrow and a disillusion.

I heard the voice of Christ, Who said this to me:

— Conchita, you have come here to the convent to prepare yourself to be My spouse and you say you want to follow Me.

— Do you not say, Conchita, that you want to accomplish My will?

— Although now you want to accomplish your own.

— Will it be that way all your life?

— I have chosen you in the world, so that you stay there, facing the numerous difficulties you will have because of Me.

— All this I want for your own sanctification and that you offer it for the salvation of the world.

— You should speak to the world about Mary.

— Do you remember what I told you? That wherever you are, you will find the cross and suffering. Now I am telling you this again.

— Conchita, did you feel the call to be My spouse? No, because I have not called you.

I asked Him, “How does one feel Your call to be a religious?”

He told me, “Do not concern yourself about that; you will never feel it.”

I asked him, “Then, Jesus, do You not love me?”

He answered, “Conchita you ask Me that? Who has redeemed you? Fulfill My will and you will find My love.”

— Look at yourself closely.

— Think more of others.

— Do not be disturbed by temptation. If you are faithful, with My love you will conquer many temptations.

— Be intelligent with what I tell you. Intelligent spiritually. Do not close the eyes of your soul. Do not let anyone deceive you. Love humility, simplicity.

— Never think what you have done is much. Think of what you have to do and what you ought to do, not to gain heaven, but that the world may accomplish my Divine Will, that all souls prepare themselves.

— Whoever holds his soul disposed to hear Me will know what My Will is.

— I want to tell you, Conchita, that before the miracle you will suffer much. Few will believe you. Your own family will think that you have deceived them. All this I want for you — I’ve already said it — for your sanctification, and that the world accomplish the message.

— I want to warn you that the rest of your life will be a continual suffering.

— Do not be disturbed. In suffering am I and Mary, whom you love so much.

— I asked Him if Rome also would not believe me. He did not answer, but He said to me, “Don’t worry if they believe or if they don’t believe.”

— I will do everything, but I will also give you suffering. Whoever suffers for Me, I am with him.

Conchita González

Memoirs of a Spanish Country Priest (Chapter XXVI)

CHAPTER XXVI

Conchita’s Locution on July 20, 1963

I was making my thanksgiving and praying for things. He answered me . . .

I asked Him to give me a cross since I was living without suffering — except the suffering of not having a cross.

And He answered: Yes, I will give it to you.

And with much feeling, I went on praying . . .

And I said to Him, Why is the Miracle coming? . . . To convert many people?

He answered: To convert the whole world.

— Will Russia be converted?

— It also will be converted; and so everyone will love Our Hearts.

— Will the Chastisement come afterwards?

(He didn’t answer me.)

— Why do you come to my poor heart, without my meriting it?

— I certainly do not come for you; I come for all.

— When the Miracle comes, will it be as if I were the only one who had seen the Virgin?

— He answered me: By your sacrifices, your patience, I will allow you to intercede for the accomplishment of the miracle.

And I said to Him: Wouldn’t it be better for me to be with all the others; or if not, that You don’t use any of us to intercede?

— No.

— Will I go to Heaven?

— You should love much and pray to Our Hearts.

— When will You give me a cross?

(He didn’t answer me.)

— What will I be?

(He didn’t answer me. He only told me that everywhere that I would be, I would have much to suffer.)

— Am I going to die soon?

— You have to stay on the earth to help the world.

— I am very small. I couldn’t help in anything.

— With your prayers and sufferings, you will help the world.

— When does one go to heaven? . . . When one dies?

— One never dies.

(I thought that we didn’t go to heaven until we were resurrected.)

I asked Him if St. Peter was at the gate of heaven to receive us; and He told me No.

While I was in this conversation, in this prayer with God, I felt myself out of the world.

Jesus also told me that now His Heart should be loved.

Concerning priests, He told me that I must pray much:

— So that they would be holy and fulfill their duties;

— So that they would make others better;

— So that they would make Me known to those who do not know Me;

— So that they would make Me loved by those who know Me and do not love Me.

CONCHITA’S DIARY- 12

DOCUMENTS

Testimony of the Reverend Fr. Ramón María Andreu.

Regarding his visit to Garabandal on October 18, 1961.

Question: On October 18, 1961 you were in Garabandal. Could you tell us what happened during this visit and the circumstances accompanying it?

Father: I would be happy to do so. I arrived in Garabandal on October 17th. During that day and October 18th, I saw an immense multitude of people arrive in the village. This presented much taking into account the difficulty of the way and that the day was an actual deluge. The distance from Cossío, which I traveled on foot, is about six kilometers.

That day I was happy and tranquil. I didn’t have any reason to be any other way. During the months of August and September, and including what had happened in October, I had been a witness to many events in the mountain village. I had many happy memories from those months. Everything seemed good to me.

Question: How were your relations with the Bishop of Santander?

Father: My relations with the diocesan authority was excellent. Fr. Doroteo Fernández, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese, had authorized me to go up to Garabandal to say mass, to preach, and to hear confession as well. I had the opportunity to visit the Bishop on various occasions. On these visits I could disclose my personal opinions. The same thing as it refers to me, happened also with Fr. Eugenio Beitia Aldazabal to my brothers, Fr. Alejandro and Fr. Marcelino.

Question: What was the most pressing motive for your visit to Garabandal on October 18, 1961?

Father: You know that the girls had announced that the proclamation of the message would be on this day. I supposed that this would be important. Many people must have thought this because in spite of the difficulties of this day of deluge, there were about five thousand people who assembled in the village that day.

Question: Conchita says in her diary that this immense multitude went up to the Pines around 10 o’clock at night to hear the message. Did you ascend also?

Father: Yes, I ascended; I was among the last making this laborious ascent. It was necessary to travel 500 meters up the mountain, and on this day it was wet and muddy. After awhile, I was covered in mud. Some flashlights made light in front and on the sides. The water ran down every part of the mountain.

During the ascent, I slipped continually, and I fell several times. This happened to almost everyone.

I was halfway there when I suddenly felt a brutal, intense inner bitterness. It was a mixture of these sad feelings that was difficult to define. In that moment, everything seemed to crumble away for me. It was an extreme impression of intense loneliness. The four girls were nothing more than sick children. I asked myself: Why am I here? My brother had died, and that was all that was definitively true. This painful internal state worsened for a few moments. I can say truthfully that never in my whole life had I felt such intense desolation.

I thought about abandoning that which had not yet happened; I felt like it was nothing more than a sad village joke.

I was still for a little while. Sometimes I looked at the sky. I know that at that moment I would have liked for the miracle that the girls had announced to happen. My deception was absolute.

I changed places and stayed there for awhile; I cannot say how long it was that I was alone, feeling people pass me going up to the Pines in the darkness. It was dark and silent. I have never felt more alone.

Suddenly, a lantern shone in my direction. A friend who was descending from the Pines recognized me. He came to where I was.

─ This is marvelous, he said to me.

I let him say this while I thought to myself that tomorrow he would understand how absurd all of this was.

I descended to the village with him, without showing anything of what I was thinking. We entered a house where they were already waiting for us. After a little while, Amaliuca, Loli’s sister, entered. She came towards me and two others and said to us:

─ Loli says that you, you, and you should come.

I heard her, but I didn’t want to go. Finally, I said: I will do a work of mercy; I’ll visit the sick. And I decided to say goodbye definitively.

Question: And did you go to Loli’s house?

Father: Yes. I went up to the attic of Ceferino’s house. There were a number of people there, it was a group of 12 or 14, and Loli was with them. The girl seemed content, even happy. I was thinking about the thoughtlessness of this girl and the others when Loli smiled and said to me:

─ Sit down.

There was no chair. But there was a type of cot in the corner. I sat automatically on the end of it. Loli sat next to me. She was 12 years old but she led the conversation, which will live in my memory forever.

─ Among the three of you, there is one who does not believe. She said: Do you know who it is?

─ Yes, I told her. Do you?

─ Yes, I know, she answered me. The Virgin told me.

─ When?

─ Just now, when I was coming down from the Pines.

─ Tell me who it is, I insisted.

─ I don’t dare, was her response. If it was one of the other two…

─ Yes, it’s me, I affirmed. I don’t believe any of it.

A smile of intelligence appeared on Loli’s childlike face and she added:

─ The Virgin told us: The Priest is doubting everything and is suffering very much. Call him and tell him not to doubt, that it is true and it is I, the Virgin, who is appearing. And so that he will believe you, tell him: “When you went up you were happy, when you came down you were sad.”

I was stupefied; I looked at Loli, unsure of what to say. And she added:

─ She talked a lot about you to Conchita.

In that moment I got up; I was confused, but I understood then that I had not arrived at my final goodbye.

I took my two friends who were looking fixedly at my face while they said to me:

─ What did she say to you? What happened?

Without responding to these questions, I pushed them saying:

─ Let’s go to Conchita’s house.

Aniceta opened the door. My greeting was this question:

─ Can I see Conchita?

She is already in bed, Aniceta said, but you can go up.

There were no doors to open. I went up the few stairs and I arrived at her room and called to her there, where Conchita was in bed with her cousin Luciuca. Conchita was 12 and her cousin was 11.

As soon as she saw me she said before I could open my mouth:

─ Father, are you happy, or are you still sad?

─ I didn’t know how to respond. I answered, Loli told me that the Virgin spoke about me to you.

─ For at least fifteen minutes, she answered.

─ And what has she told you?

─ I can’t say, was her response.

─ Then I will remain the same as before, I commented in a loud voice.

Conchita smiled and said to me:

─ There is something that I can tell you: “When you ascended, you were happy, and when you descended, you were sad. The Virgin told me everything you were thinking and when you were thinking it. You thought, now I’m going to America. And in another place, now I don’t want to know anything about so-and-so and so-and-so. And that you suffered a lot. She told me to say this and also to warn you that all of this has happened now so that you will not doubt again.

I was left without words. The next day Conchita showed with her finger on a photograph the exact spots on the mountain where I had been thinking each one of these things. It was something important for me. All that Conchita had said was true. She told me for the Virgin: “All of this has happened in advance so that you will not doubt again.”

I have experienced other moments of doubt, but none has been as anguished as the one on October 18th. Frequently, I have been given the news—including official decisions—which have ended the matter. But I have seen time and time again the same questioner stay open to it.

The experience of October 18, 1961 has served me in many ways: to question how the girls, especially Conchita, could know so much detail about an internal experience of mine, and then tell it to me with such clarity and sureness.