Reconstructing Reality
​Marco Corvaglia's website
Detail of a fresco circa 200 (Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome): the oldest visual depiction of Mary (nursing the Christ Child).
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Catholic scholars place the earliest material evidence for the existence of the veneration of Our Lady at the end of the 2nd century, but when was the first mention of a Marian apparition?
As Catholic writer Yves Chiron rightly points out, “The great historian of the early Church, Eusebius of Caesarea, compiled a Church History in the fourth century. In this work, he reports numerous miracles as well as several apparitions of angels, of the dead and of Christ, but there's no mention of any apparitions of Our Lady” [Y. Chiron, Enquête sur les apparitions de la Vierge, Perrin, 2007, pp. 58-59].
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We can therefore infer that, at the beginning of the fourth century, when the work was conducted, there were no known accounts of Marian apparitions.
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In fact, the earliest writing referring to someone claiming to have had an apparition from Our Lady is from a hagiography dating back to the late fourth century (c. 380), relative to a saint who lived, however, more than a century earlier in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey): The Life of Saint Gregory the Thaumaturge by Gregory of Nyssa.
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As such, we can conclude that “the belief in Marian apparitions originated in 380 in Constantinople” [R. Laurentin, P. Sbalchiero, Dizionario delle "apparizioni" della Vergine Maria, Art, 2010, p. 773]
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Almost no accounts are given from sources prior to the 11th century.
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For all intents and purposes, regarding accounts of apparitions placed in the first millennium of Christian history, it's impossible to say how much is original and how much is subsequently reworked (or invented), particularly during the late Medieval period.
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Additionally, for several centuries, accounts of Marian apparitions remained in the minority.
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An examination of 575 accounts of “visions” reported in 11th- and 12th-century French religious documents was conducted by Professor Pierre-André Sigal of the University of Montpellier. Only 5.5% had to do with Our Lady. The others had to do with the dead, the devil, angels, beatified souls, the saints and Jesus [cf. P. A. Sigal, L'homme et le miracle dans la France médiévale, Cerf-CNRS, 2012, pp. 283-286].
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Reality or Legend?
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Encyclopedic dictionaries of Marian apparitions acknowledge the edifying, and at least semi-legendary, character of most accounts until the end of the Middle Ages (the richest repertoire is found in the Dizionario delle "apparizioni" della Vergine Maria ["Dictionary of 'Apparitions' of the Virgin Mary"], edited by Father René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero, containing references to over 2,400 “apparitions”).
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One example: In the mid-4th century, Our Lady, appearing in a dream to Pope Liberius, reportedly asked for the construction of a shrine in her honor on a site that was miraculously covered in snow the next day (in the middle of summer, August 5). According to another version, a miraculously appearing deer traced the building's floor plan with its antlers. This event would be the origin of the construction of the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
History and archaeology belie the narrative:
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The oldest part of the present basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore dates back to the first half of the fifth century (during the papacy of Sixtus III, from 432 to 440). Until 1187, no pontifical document mentions the shrine's alleged miraculous origin. The oldest manuscript mentioning these legendary origins dates to the 13th century.
[Laurentin, Sbalchiero, pp. 656-657]
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This legend regarding the largest basilica dedicated to Our Lady likely gave rise to the fanciful idea, later popularized by the Medjugorje “visionaries" that August 5 is also Our Lady's birthday.
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From 1400-1500 to 1700, the average quality of sources gradually improves, but it's not always easy to tell which stories have real people behind them. The analysis is complicated by the fact that even real people can be influenced by established narrative models.
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Surely, in fact, the centuries in which the accounts were legendary or semi-legendary were also important for the modern development of the phenomenon, since they determined and handed down some characterizing elements.
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Springs, Trees and Rocks
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Springs, trees, rocks and caves were objects of veneration in ancient religions outside the Judeo-Christian tradition.
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However, beginning in the 5th century, these forms of idolatry began to spread even among the Christian population, despite the Church's (in vain) attempts to eradicate them.
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The Council of Tours in 567 (in Canon XXII) mandates that anyone who practices rites near “stones, trees or fountains, places chosen by pagans,” should be expelled from churches.
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One cannot fail to notice that in a large number of apparition accounts, ranging from the Middle Ages to contemporary times, Our Lady appears near a spring (sometimes already existing, sometimes miraculously appearing) or another body of water, a rock, in a grotto (Lourdes, in 1858, is the best known case, among many) or on a tree (as is also the case with Fatima on a Holm Oak in 1917).
Sometimes several of these natural elements are co-present.
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Near these same elements, numerous narratives also place the miraculous discovery of images of Our Lady, which often according to legend - emit light and, if moved from the place of discovery, return to it on their own.
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Countless shrines in existence today preserve memories of these stories in their names.
The subject of Marian manifestations in caves was especially popular in Spain since the Middle Ages, and as a result, the name of Our Lady of the Caves (Virgen de las Cuevas) is very much present there [cf. P.-R. Ambrogi, D. Le Tourneau, Dictionnaire encyclopédique de Marie, Desclée De Brouwer, 2015, p. 1426].
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The list of shrines named after trees is especially long: Our Lady of the Tree, Our Lady of the Cherry Tree, Our Lady of the Beech Tree, Our Lady of the Chestnut Tree, Our Lady of the Ash Tree, Our Lady of the Larch Tree, Our Lady of the Fig Tree, Our Lady of the Laurel Tree, Our Lady of the Elm Tree, Our Lady of the Olive Tree, Our Lady of the Oak Tree, Our Lady of the Sycamore Tree, Our Lady of the Myrtle Tree, Our Lady of the Bramble Tree, Our Lady of the Palm Tree and Our Lady of the Pine Tree [cf. Titres marials, ibid., p. 1347].
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A Catholic encyclopedic directory notes that “in Germanic countries, Madonna oaks are often originally oaks consecrated to the god Donar" [Arbres et Marie, ibid., p. 135].
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In the Dictionary of “Apparitions” of the Virgin Mary, edited by Mariologist Father René Laurentin, we read about “apparitions” near springs, generally believed to be curative:
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Since the 12th century, numerous accounts mention a spring or fountain near the apparition. [...] Pagan antiquity already knew of and celebrated these medical virtues. ​
[Laurentin, Sbalchiero, pp. 302-303]
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Other Recurring Elements
To reconstruct the history of the phenomenon of “apparitions,” in addition to Laurentin and Sbalchiero's dictionary, the following repertories exist:
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Joachim Bouflet, Dictionnaire des apparitions de la Vierge Marie. Entre légende(s) et histoire, Cerf, 2020
Marino Gamba, Apparizioni mariane nel corso di due millenni, Segno, 1999
Gottfried Hierzenberger, Otto Nedomansky, Tutte le apparizioni della Madonna in 2000 anni di storia, Piemme, 1996.
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Essentially, we can say that Our Lady, in the long historical era from the origins of the phenomenon until 1800, addresses the recipient of the alleged visions by comforting him, rescuing him, converting him and healing him.
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When the message reaches the community, the apparition most often requires erecting a chapel or performing certain religious practices.
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Between the 15th and 17th centuries, tales of apparitions threatening catastrophes presented as divine chastisements for sinners began and proliferated (this wave would regain strength in the 19th century, following the revival of apocalypticism).
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Souvenir print for the fifth centenary of the alleged Spanish apparition of Agres (1484-1984). In accordance with a recurring theme, Our Lady is said to have appeared on a tree to a one-armed shepherd (whose arm would later grow back).
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From approximately 1000 to 1600-1700, accounts of apparitions to people who were deaf and mute from birth (and less often, only mute or occasionally with only one arm or maimed in some other way) recur in abundance. They were often shepherds or shepherdesses, who, according to the accounts, are healed (or have missing parts regrown) instantly [regarding this, see the aforementioned Dictionnaire encyclopédique de Marie, by Ambrogi and Father Le Tourneau]. Some elements are inspired by the Bible (recall the healing of the deaf and mute person in Mark 7:31-37), and clearly serve to make the story more “believable".
Sometimes shepherds are led to the place of the apparition (or, more often, the discovery of the icon) by their animals.
Regarding the social class of the alleged visionaries, only from approximately 1000 do the marginalized assume an ever-increasing role, and this becomes predominant from the 1400s onward. Until that time, the visionaries had mostly been religious persons, mystics and hermits (and not infrequently, adult nobles).
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In the collective conscious, the typical visionary is a child (of humble circumstances), and theological justifications are given for this (“The Lord chooses the simple”).
In fact, as Mariologist Father René Laurentin writes:
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Why does the Virgin generally appear to children? This is a false question, we say, since statistically speaking, apparitions happen more often to adults.
[Laurentin, Sbalchiero, p. 103]
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Why, then, is it commonly thought that the typical “visionary” is a child?
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For a simple error in perspective.
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In fact, until the 17th century, the idea of a child visionary was rare (child visionaries accounted for 4% of all visionaries until the 13th century, then 14% from the 14th to 17th centuries [cf. G. Hierzenberger, O. Nedomansky, Tutte le apparizioni della Madonna in 2000 anni di storia, Piemme, 1996, p. 34]).
Then there was a relative increase which became a surge after La Salette (1846) that ended in the first half of the twentieth century.
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As an example, let's narrow the field to only those “apparitions” expressly judged “worthy of credibility” by the Church by special decree of the local bishop, and consider only those that occurred from 1846 to 1933.
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Almost all of them actually had children or pre-teens (maximum age 15 years) as protagonists. More precisely, there were seven out of a total of eight: La Salette (year: 1846; visionaries' ages: 11, 14), Lourdes (year: 1858; visionary's age: 14), Pontmain (year: 1871; visionaries' ages: 9, 11, 11, 13), Gietrzwałd (year: 1877; visionaries' ages: 12, 13), Fatima (year: 1917; visionaries' ages: 7, 9, 10), Beauraing (year: 1932; visionaries' ages: 9, 11, 13, 14, 15), Banneux (year: 1933; visionary's age: 12).
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Among them, as we can see, are all the most famous apparitions. This explains the misperception that “visionaries” are typically children (or pre-teens).
Marco Corvaglia
Legally deposited at Copyright.eu.
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