Loli & Jacinta
Mari Cruz
Seeing us picking the apples, Jacinta shouted out, Hey, Conchita, you are picking the apples.
Shut up, I told her, The school teacher’s wife will hear you, and will tell my mother.(11)
11. Aniceta González, whom we have already mentioned, was an old-fashioned Christian who brought up her children very strictly. Her first offspring were boys: Serafin, who knew the hard toil of the coal mines at Santa Lucía (León); Aniceto, nicknamed Cetuco, who would die at an early age in 1965; and Miguel. It was natural that Aniceta concentrated her care on the youngest of them all, her only daughter! And that she would try to protect her from harm because of her Christian faith and her obligation as a mother.
Then I hid among the potato plants and Mari Cruz started to run through the field.
Loli shouted out, Mari Cruz, stop running. We see you. We will tell this to the owner.
Then Mari Cruz returned and we left our hiding place so that we could all be together.(12)
While we were talking, someone called the little girl who had come with Jacinta and Loli, and she left.
The four of us remained alone; and giving it more thought, the four of us returned to pick the apples . . .
While we were having a good time, we heard the voice of the schoolteacher,(13) who on seeing the branches moving so much, thought it was the sheep, and said to his wife, Concesa, go to the garden. The sheep are wandering near the apple tree.
Hearing this, we burst out laughing.
When we had filled up our pockets, we hurried off to eat the apples more at peace in the street, that is in the calleja.(14)
Those apples in Garabandal certainly could not have been as enticing as the apples in the Garden of Eden. In places as high above sea level as Garabandal, apples in the month of June, even in years of an early spring, could not be anything more than half-ripe fruit, bitter, without juice, hard—suited to cause a toothache. But still they had an incredible power of seduction for the girls of the village who hardly ever saw any fruit other than that which the summers brought to the garden trees. Almost entirely deprived—at least during those years—of imported fruit, they eagerly went after the fruit from the village while it was still green.(15)
12. According to confidential statements Loli made to Father Manuel Antón, the pastor of San Claudio in the city of León, the four girls of our story were not always on the best terms with each other. They had recently quarreled among themselves, as happens frequently with children; and for some time had kept a certain coolness toward each other. They were accustomed to walk in pairs: Loli and Jacinta side by side, and Conchita side by side with Mari Cruz.
————
I finally had the chance to question Jacinta:
—For the Angel’s first visit, did all four of you girls find yourselves together by chance? Since it is certain that you didn’t get along very well, especially you and Conchita.
—Well, we were like children who quarrel as soon as they get together. We had certainly fought several days before the apparition.
13. Francisco Gómez, who was partially lame.
14. The Calleja is a steep, winding, unpaved trail, which goes from the back of the village to a hill where the Pines are situated.
15. The land containing the garden where the apple tree was growing, at the left of the unpaved Calleja that led to the Pines, was later purchased by the husband of Mrs. García Llorente-Gil Delgado from Seville. The garden was in bad condition. Her husband, believing in Garabandal, in 1968 built a beautiful stone house there that is the largest in the village. From the beginning of construction he took the greatest care to preserve the tree of our story, something which he could only do half-way, since of the two limbs coming from the trunk, one was already dying and withered, which he trimmed to save the other. And so the tree was there, sheltered by the new house, until the winter of 1975, when a strong wind knocked it down. Now there only remains a small dead tree stump which can be seen at the right of the entrance to the house. The García Llorentes told me that the last apple picking in September, 1974 was of magnificent quality, very delicious.
Conchita at 12 years old
The Apple Tree
Others wander down the paths to their homes chatting with one another, or sit down with their neighbors to pass the time on the stone seats next to the house doorways. The children, as usual, play . . . where they can and how they can. To get away from the calm silence and solitude, most of the boys and girls walk to the square. In this group the games and amusements must not have been very entertaining since one of them—a personable young brunette with braids—to escape the boredom ending the evening that Sunday like any other, suddenly got an idea which she swiftly whispered in the ear of the girl next to her . She herself would confess it months later.(6)
Temptation at Dusk
It was a Sunday evening, and we were with all the young girls playing in the plaza.(7)
Suddenly Mari Cruz(8) and I thought of going to pick apples.
6. Conchita González was her name. She was the last child, the only girl among the offspring of Aniceta González, a woman from the village who had lost her husband prematurely.
At the beginning of our story Conchita was twelve years old; she was a gracious young girl, very observant, with a quick mind. However in education she was backward like all the young girls in Garabandal. Her culture could not advance much beyond what she learned at the school in her secluded little village.
On someone’s recommendation, Conchita started writing her diary in 1962. In it, in the language of a child, short and to the point, she would tell things that she could not blot out from her memory. I have in my hands photocopies of the original. The pages are large, on a school notebook, written down in wobbly penmanship, with many faults in spelling; but truly charming in what they say.
Her diary begins like this:
I am going to tell in this book about my apparitions and my daily life.
The most important happening in my life occurred on June 18, 1961, in San Sebastián . . .
It happened in the following way . . .
····················································· Note: All excerpts from Conchita’s Diary will be recognizable in this book by the usage of this extra-bold type. ·····················································
And we set off straight to the place where they were, without telling anyone that we were going to pick the apples.
The idea of picking apples was a real temptation. The apples did not belong either to Mari Cruz or to Conchita; so that this was an actual theft, that is to say, the sin of stealing. During those evening hours, the devil was in action among the inhabitants of Garabandal. He was luring two young adolescent girls to the tree of forbidden fruit—almost as in the beginning of time. We do not know if they, like Eve in the beginning, showed resistance to the tempter’s suggestions; if there was any resistance, it had to be very weak.
The girls, seeing that the two of us were going away alone, asked us, Where are you going?
And we answered, Over there . . .
And we continued on our way, thinking about how we were going to manage to pick them.
Once there,(9) we started to pick the apples.
And while we were having a good time, we saw Loli, Jacinta,(10) and another young girl coming to see if they could find us.
7. The Plaza is the name given to this place in the center of the village, since it is an open area from which many streets and alleys take their origin. But it should not be imagined that it is the same type of plaza as in a big city; the ground is unpaved and uncared for, dusty or muddy when it rains, full of loose stones, and covered with debris from the constant passage of men, wagons and animals. 8. Mari Cruz González was the daughter of Escolástico and Pilar. She was 11 years old at the time, thin and dark-skinned and wore her hair very short. 9. This place was a small garden leading out from the village in the direction of the Pines. Apparently the garden was not the property of the teacher, but of a woman called Pilar Cuenca. 10. Loli (María Dolores Mazón) was the second daughter of Ceferino and Julia, who had a large family. Ceferino was the mayor of the village, and besides having pastures for farming like everyone else in Garabandal, also owned a little store or tavern. Jacinta had the last name of González too, just like Conchita and Mari Cruz. Jacinta’s parents were María and Simón, two Christians of strong faith who bore with dignity the life of sacrifice imposed on them by an existence deprived of material possessions. Loli and Jacinta were 12 years old, and were likable children. The girl who came with them was Virginia, whom everyone called Ginia.
In times past over the trails that wind around Garabandal, many a time the country song had rung out, I don’t know what holds me to my village, nor why it delights me so, nor why it attracts me. But today the young people were feeling different attractions, wanting to get away from this place where they saw no future, and to get out into the outside world that could offer opportunities. The old people still remained attached to the village, sometimes by affection and sometimes by necessity; with a desire to persevere, or a noble resignation to maintaining the inheritance of their fathers. As for the young children, they amused themselves as children do all over the world, exchanging gifts or playing games like hide and seek.
In the days when our story starts, the chief of police in the district of Rio Nansa was Juan Alvarez Seco. This is his description:
«Garabandal is a little mountain town made up of about seventy families. The customs of its inhabitants are primarily religious. For example they never forget to recite the Angelus as soon as the clock shows twelve noon. In the evening they always recite the holy rosary in the church. This is led by the parish priest if he is present; if not, the schoolteacher or another villager leads it. As night falls, Jacinta’s mother, the wife of Simón, goes around the village with a lantern and bell to call the people to pray for the dead and say the last prayers of the day. On Sundays after assisting at Holy Mass in the ancient simple church, the people take a little recreation. In the evening the young people gather under the porch roofs or the open sky and sing or amuse themselves to the sound of a tambourine.»
SundayJune 18, 1961
The day starts very early as there are many daylight hours at the start of summer. The early June mornings radiate enchantment. The climate is caressing, the air pure, with light softly shining through the clouds, awakening the birds, brightly outlining things with an array of colors. Dawn is known only too well by the inhabitants of Garabandal due to the demand of their work as cattle raisers and farmers; so they do not get up early to enjoy the Sunday mornings. Most of them arise later than usual, since the Lord’s Day was made for rest. The men wash and shave, something they do not do everyday. The women bustle around, busier than on other mornings, arranging their family’s clothes, since no one is going to go to Sunday Mass without their dress being cleaned or their suit pressed. When the bells peal out from the massive church tower to awaken the village, the sounds of a festival day fill the air. The harsh music from the bells bounces off the tile roofs, reverberating through the narrow streets to be lost far away in the fields and prairies, in the streams and riverbeds, finally absorbed in the trees and shrubs dotting the hills surrounding the village. The bells ring out first for the Mass, later for the rosary. Without a Mass or a rosary crowded with participants, how could one picture a feast day in Garabandal?
Father Valentín Marichalar, the pastor from Cossío, who is also in charge of the parish of San Sebastián, arrives for Mass after traveling up six kilometers of bad road. The rosary is led by any one of the faithful who can say it without making mistakes in the mysteries or the litany that follows. The Mass can take place at any time according to the disposition of the pastor. But the rosary is said a little after dinner, since everyone is free at that hour, and there will be time left over for the people to relax and amuse themselves. On this evening the young people are organizing a little dance on Caballera Street, although some of them are talking about going down to Cossío or Puente Nansa. (There was no movie theater, television set, or town hall in Garabandal.) Some of the men cluster together to talk; others dispute loudly in the tavern. Some women, many of whom wear the black widow’s dress, remain in the church.
·····················································
Note: A large part of this book is direct testimony from eye-witnesses. European quotation marks « » and this slightly bolder type have been used to aid the reader in separating this testimony from the general text. ·····················································
Though mankind is struck with amazement by its own discoveries and power, it often raises anxious questions about the present evolution of the world, about the purpose and mission of man himself in the universe, about the meaning of his individual and collective efforts, and about the final fate of existence and humanity. History itself is undergoing such a process of acceleration that it is hardly possible for man to follow it. We all pursue the same fate, and we are not able to disassociate ourselves into individual cases. Such a rapid change, realized in the upset, gives birth to or increases the contradictions and disorder. So the modern world appears at the same time both powerful and weak, capable of the best and the worst, for there is a choice between the road to liberty and that to slavery, toward progress or toward decay, toward love or toward hate. These disorders are related to another disorder, truly fundamental, which finds its roots in the very heart of each man . . . A weak and sinful creature who often does what he does not wish to do and neglects what he ought to do and ought to accomplish.(4)
4. Catechism of Modern Man.
In that grave hour of history when so many things were happening or were about to happen in the world, it would never have occurred to anyone that something important could take place at San Sebastián de Garabandal. This village seemed buried in oblivion, lost in the distance. Life there was continuing the same as it had for years, perhaps for centuries. Today, like yesterday; tomorrow, like today. And always the same. A gray sky.(5) Of course the sky in San Sebastián was not always gray, even though it is near to the rainy Cantabrian Mountains; but the life of its inhabitants was certainly gray and monotonous. Always the same cows and stables, the same fields and harvests, with nothing changing except the seasons. Here the people still gathered in the homes and assembled as Christians in the house of God, the main building in the village, linked closely to it. Here the latest news involved everyone: Carmen had a baby, Pili is going to get married, Juan’s son is returning from the military, the bells will soon sound the death of Uncle Gervasio.
5. Poem of Gustavo Bécquer, a Spanish poet (1836-1870).
· · · · · · · · · · · ·
In the little mountain village of San Sebastián de Garabandal,(1) century after century had passed without history; then one day . . .
1. There are approximately sixty houses built of stone in the village, and arranged in typical rural style. They are grouped together on top of a narrow plain, irregular in outline, about 2000 feet above sea level, giving the appearance of a wide open Y.
The entrance to the village is from the bottom of this Y, that points downward to a river below flowing into the Cantabrian Sea. An extremely bad road comes up from Cossío some six
kilometers away.
A Sunday Like Any Other
The calendars in the kitchens were turned to the page for June, 1961, showing: Sunday, the 18th. St. Ephrem, Doctor of the Church, Sts. Mark and Marcellian, martyrs. So what? It was just one more among the countless days that passed without event in the little world of Garabandal.
Nothing ever happened there worth telling.
It was in the great world on the other side of the mountains where things were happening. Most of these were disturbing: men and nations stirred up with unrest, greed, anxiety, revolts; concerned about the future with cold wars and real ones on all fronts. What did the coming days hold?
As a ray of hope in the face of all these problems that appeared to have no human solution, within the walls of the Catholic Church in Rome plans were underway, with great anticipation to prepare a new council: Vatican II. It would be convened by John XXIII, Good Pope John, as many called him affectionately. Even with his eighty years, this man spoke with inspiration and hope in his heart like the blossoming of flowers in springtime.(2) Through his efforts and by his decree, hundreds of eminent scholars set out to sound out the world, seeking to assist it.(3) As a result of their search, things like these were soon to be proclaimed to the council assembly:
The upper part of the Y opens toward the south-southwest to a magnificent display of mountain peaks ending on the one side with the Peña Sagra chain (2,016 meters) and on the other side, farther away and more to the south, with the Peña Labra chain (2,010 meters) that overlooks vast sections of the provinces of Palencia and Santander. From here rivers flow toward these bodies of water: the Cantabrian Sea, the Mediterranean (by way of the Ebro River), and the Atlantic Ocean (by way of the Pisuerga River).
In this region, Garabandal is the last village before those imposing mountain tops from which it is separated by miles of silence and solitude amid terrain of savage beauty.
2. On January 25th, 1959, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, in the famous Basilica St. Paul Outside the Walls, the Pope publicly announced his proposal to convoke a new council.
3. On June 18th of that year, Cardinal Tardini, president of the Preparatory Commission, wrote to the cardinals, bishops, and the heads of the religious orders, Catholic universities and
seminaries requesting suggestions and topics for the council.
[To be continued]
IMPORTANT
WARNINGS
1. This book is not presented under any pretense of pronouncing a final judgment on the nature—natural or supernatural—of these events that do not fall in the normal range of affairs. An attempt is being made simply to present an objective reporting of the facts; but always through the eyes of faith, without which there is no way of understanding them.
2. Regardless of what some may say and others think, the Church has never made a decision on the things that happened at San Sebastián de Garabandal. Rome, the highest ecclesiastical authority, has persistently refused to give its opinion despite heavy pressures from both sides, and perhaps especially from the side of those who are opposed. And if the diocesan chancery has not proceeded in the same way, these things should be pointed out:
A) The negative pronouncements made by the bishop of Santander have always been informative remarks or opinions (notas), without ever being an official “documento” with the canonical formalities required to make the cause “judged”.
B) The diocesan chancery, when pronouncing a judgement on things related to its authority, is able to err; and falling into error, can lead others into the same; demonstrations of this sort are not rare in the history of the Church.
C) In the same way diocesan chancery could act inadroitly and show bias in handling the affair.
3) Nothing then prevents a Christian from believing in his heart the truth about Garabandal, if there are good reasons for believing.
4) Whoever takes this book into his hands should take care to begin the reading with a pure heart, for it is promised to the pure of heart that “they will see God”; and without impatience, so as not to miss any important matters. Interrupting the reading with pauses for thought is the best way to proceed.
[To be continued]
She Went in Haste to the Mountain by Eusebio García de Pesquera O.F.M.
The monumental classic trilogy known as the "Bible of Garabandal".
Translated from the Spanish
Prologue
Se Fue con Prisas a la Montaña. (She Went in Haste to the Mountain.)
The author begins this book with the same words that St. Luke (1:39) used to begin his Gospel account of the Visitation of the Blessed virgin to St. Elizabeth.
Nineteen centuries ago Mary journied to visit Elizabeth in a place that the original Vulgate Bible called the Montaña. Now in the 20th century the province of Santander, also named the Montaña, is the site of another visitation. Mary had previously come to the Montaña on September 15, 1605, appearing with the infant Jesus to shepherd children in the presence of a beautiful statue.
From this appearance came the offical title La Bien Apparecida, Reina Y Madre de la Montaña (The True Apparition, Queen Mother of the Mountain) by which she has since been venerated as Patronnes of la Montaña.
In the year 1961, on July 2nd, the feastday of the Visitation, the Virgin came once more to the Montaña—to Garabandal. With St. Michael, the Angel of the Apocalypse, she came to visit mankind through four young girls. On her arm she carried a scapular sacerdotal maniple with a mountain on it to show that this was Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Mount Carmel, shrouded in unfathomable secrets related to the Mother of God, has apocalyptic significance as the mountain of the prophet Elias who is to return at the end of the world. Described in this book are an astonishing prophecy about the present Pope John Paul II, enigmatic allusions to the end of the times, and many other cryptic eschatological episodes related to the final book of the Bible and Christ’s prophecy of the final times of the world. The intriguing elements, together with the Virgin’s appearance under the Mount Carmel title,
give these apparitions exceptional importance.
This book concisely presents the history of the most unusual supernatural event of modern times. Seen by hundreds of thousands of people, with thousands of testimonies, and thousands of ecstasies, it still remains largely unexplained, a secret and mysterious preternatural marvel, unlike anything that has ever happened before or will happen again. This book is the astounding true story of Mary’s coming in haste to the mountain.
In the beginning God created heaven and earth.
· · · · · · · · · · · ·
And He said, “Let the earth bring forth green foliage and plants that produce seed, and the
fruit tree yielding fruit on the earth according to its kind, having seed within itself.” And it
was so done . . . And God saw that it was good.
· · · · · · · · · · · ·
And God said, (to the man) “Behold I have given you every seed bearing plant upon the
earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your food.”
(Genesis 1: 1, 11, 29)
· · · · · · · · · · · ·
And the serpent said to the woman, “No you shall not die the death . . . On whatever day you
shall eat from it . . .” And the woman saw the tree was good to eat and delightful to behold,
with a delicious appearance. And she took the fruit and ate.
(Genesis 3: 4-6)
Thus the Bible tells us about the beginning of things: the commencement of man’s history. Appearing on the first and most decisive scene of our destiny: God, the evil spirit, a woman, and the mysterious apple tree. And so were enacted the world’s first sin, the Creator’s first pardon, the beginning of an existence marked by labor and pain, but not without hope.
What took place at the beginning of history—mankind’s great adventure—also transpired at
the beginning of another adventure—the epic of Garabandal.
· · · · · · · · · · · ·
[I will try to post a page of this great work each day, God willing! Please keep me in your prayers!
Deacon John ]
Loli & Jacinta
Mari Cruz
