First Manifestation
This atmosphere of expectation lasted several long minutes until, suddenly, the commotion of the public that inundated the narrow streets of the village indicated that the girls were moving toward the fence or hoop that was in the road. The gesture of so many arms moving in the air indicated for us the direction of the place where the girls had begun the trance.
We ran through the road, jumping over the stones, and when we arrived there was a great group encircling the girls.
With difficulty, the priests attained an open road until they arrived next to Jacinta and Loli, who were the two that were thrust into the stony ground.
The aspect of the girls was the following: the head slightly raised. The eyes open. The glance of both fixed in front of them. Their faces were natural. The hands varied in attitude according to the different movements they made. The lips moved, pronouncing words. In front of one of the girls was a man with a knife, a doctor by profession, and it seemed that when he took the girls’ pulses he said this word: “Normal.”
A priest who was unknown to me took notes while kneeling next to the girls. During a few minutes he tried to understand what the girls said, but the noise that the people produced while pushing in a violent manner impeded hearing what the girls were saying in a low voice.
The noise made the falling of some stones that formed a little wall louder, where the public was trying to ascend.
The brigadeer of the Civil Guard and a number of other Civil Guards tried to impose silence. In the middle of the confusion Lolita’s father, always nervous, indicated that they shouldn’t go so near the girls and suddenly, exasperated, with a great voice he said: “Be quiet, please, but what is this?” “It cannot be like this, we don’t know what this is, or where we are.”
The reaction was that the silence was extended, even though it was still incomplete. In the middle of all of this tumult, the girls were completely away from it and they acted normally like a person talking alone with another person.
The sentences that those of us who were closer could match were small words and made almost no sense since we didn’t hear everything. It was more or less the following: “I already know—yes—no—I remember about the doctor. He wore a brown habit like the other day—no—yes—why? Yes—I don’t know anything—let’s go—yes—why are you smiling? Don’t go—huh? You haven’t been here any—yes—I didn’t know—you tell us so we know and so we don’t forget—I don’t know—what a shame! We do it worse—don’t go—wait a little.”
These sentences are incomplete because we can’t understand the majority of the things they said. Accompanied by the sentences, there were gestures: among the others they offered to kiss the rosaries that they had been given.
Suddenly, they returned to the normal state without a transition and getting up tranquilly, the two girls said at the same time that the Virgin had told them to go to the Pines. They said their parents, the priests, the religious, and the guards could go as well. They said that they could be in the Pines but far away. Everyone else had to be far away, very far away.
The movement to the Pines took place, during which the normality and tranquility of the girls was absolutely synchronized with their security in indicating the site where they should put the public, as well as the guards, priests, religious, and their parents.
When María Dolores was done going up the hillside where the Pines are, she returned and signalled with an arm gesture toward a trail on the hillside. She said: “Put them here.” The guards contained the multitude in a way that obeyed orders without exceptions.
Upon arriving at the Pines, the girls explained more clearly what they were going to do, and responded to our questions. We should put ourselves in the (?). In reality we were 20 or 30 meters away from the girls. The children had told the girls that we could see, but not hear. The same girls, Jacinta and Loli, looked absolutely natural and simple. There was no one there who formed a group of people that attended. Those who could witness the revelation were the parents of the girls, the priests, the guards, and the religious.
The Witnesses
Jacinta and Loli said in the moment that they returned to the normal state that they should be situated next to two girls, Mari Carmen and Sari. These two girls appeared to be 6 years old. The people of the village and the pastor said that they were “witnesses.” This wasn’t the first time that this happened. The “witnesses” were playing with Jacinta and Loli while they waited for the manifestation. The game was to run a little in an infantile manner, as if they were watching to see if one of the people who were not supposed to do so would come near. In reality the impression was that they had taken a pledge to complete an order that they had received. They controlled everything with their looks, collected small stones and put them on the ground next to the place where they should be displayed.
The seers demanded the presence of the child witnesses several times in the first weeks. It was always María del Carmen and Sari, two 6 year olds. On one occasion they wanted to switch these girls for older ones, 12 year olds, and the Vision said no, that she had said the younger ones should come.
We asked the “witnesses” what the “seers” had said and they repeated some words that they had heard, but they couldn’t understand the complete meaning of the conversation. This corresponded to the days on which the Virgin manifested the secret to the girls.
The interpretation is that it seems that Fr. Valentín could have some remote control over what happened in the trance, but without knowing what the girls were talking about. He knew that the conversation was about good things, but secret things. It seems that this corresponded to days and occasions on which the Vision was manifested to the girls in an oral manner as well appearing visually. The girls should make the message public on October 18, 1961.
