Monday, February 27, 2012

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

6th Diary

August 1st—1st and 2nd Visions.

Summary:

Schedule. First Vision. Second Vision. The tendency of the priests. She formulates a Hail Mary. We have St. Michael. Does the Virgin pray the Hail Mary? They give medals to be kissed. They give stones to be kissed. To go to the field or to see the Virgin? There is the sensation that time passes quickly. They sing the Hail Mary. The scapular. Black eyebrows and long hair. The student’s stone. You don’t tire of kissing?


August 1, 1961

Combining Fr. Luís María’s notes, Fr. Andrés Pardo’s notes, and my own notes, as well as Fr. Valentín Marichalar’s personal diary, we obtain the following vision from August 1, 1961.


First Vision: Time: 10:44am

Place: the Pines

Seers: Jacinta and Loli

Source: Fr. Valentín Marichalar’s diary

Finished: 11:15am


Second Vision: Time: 12:14pm

Place: the Pines

Seers: Jacinta and Loli

Source: combined document

Finished: 1:10pm


Third Vision: Time: 3:45pm

Place: the Pines

Seers: Jacinta and Loli

Source: combined document

Finished: 4:04pm


According to Fr. Valentín’s diary, Mari Cruz had an ecstasy in the balcony of her house that lasted 20 minutes.


First Vision

According to Fr. Valentín’s diary, the ecstasy began at 10:44am and lasted until 11:15am. I don’t have any references other than the diary. I will cite it, what it refers to.


August 1st

Loli and Jacinta went to the Pines after Mass. They received Communion at Mass and the apparition began at 10:44 and ended at 11:15.


They prayed a Station with the Virgin in front of them. They gave stones to be kissed. It seemed like the Virgin said that they’d given her enough and Jacinta said: “Look, only this one.” She had already given six to be kissed. She put on the crown, gave medals to be kissed, and Loli stayed a few minutes longer. It ended at 11:15.

(This is all I have that makes reference to the Vision).

 

Saturday, February 25, 2012

From Mark Mallett: Pentecost and the Illumination

 

 

IN early 2007, a powerful image came to me one day during prayer. I recount it again here (from The Smoldering Candle):

I saw the world gathered as though in a dark room. In the center is a burning candle. It is very short, the wax nearly all melted. The Flame represents the light of Christ: Truth. <a href="http://www.markmallett.com/blog/2012/02/pentecost-and-the-illumination/

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

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


Vision in the Afternoon

As a result of this dialog that Ceferino, María Dolores’ father, helped us to obtain with the three girls, we stayed until the afternoon. We were passing through different roads for a little while until I arrived and sat down on a rock near Mari Cruz’s house. It was about 8 at night.


Jacinta and Loli were on the balcony for more than an hour—it was a balcony in Loli’s grandmother’s house. A similar thing happened in Mari Cruz’s house, where they found the girl after some time had passed.


Around 8 Fr. Valentín passed next to me and said to me: “Let’s go and ask Mari Cruz if she is going to see the Virgin.”


We entered the house and I recorded the questions and answers in my notebook that day:


P. “Is the Virgin coming?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where is she going to appear?”

“Wherever I am.”


Fr. Valentín commented to me: “If the child says that she will see the Virgin, it is because she will, you can be sure.”


At this, at 8:30pm Fr. Rafael Fontaneda Pérez came to me and said: “Father, the children who are upstairs (Jacinta and Loli) have already had two calls, that’s what a woman who was with them said.”


As he was telling me this, Mari Cruz passed in front of us with her mother on the road where the other girls were within a house. Her mother said: “But, if no one is there,” and she answered: “Yes, the two girls are playing on the balcony.”


At about four meters from the door of the house, they fell to the ground on their knees and went into ecstasy. The vision began like this. I describe it according to Fr. Luís’ narration, who combined his observations with those of Fr. Cipriano Abad and Fr. Andrés Pardo. I will add clarifying notes to the events I witnessed, and also in the first line of this trance.


July 31st. “8:55 in the afternoon. They fell to their knees at three, their vision fixed. Mari Cruz was hurt. They murmured something. Loli had tension in her neck, she murmured words. Mari Cruz laughed. Jacinta, immobile, began to blink. It ended.”


“They offered the rosaries, took out the medals, and offered them. They offered them one by one. Mari Cruz did it insistently. Mari Cruz spoke, but indistinguishably. Tears. Jacinta blessed herself. Mari Cruz swallowed saliva with difficulty. (It seemed to be because she had gum in her mouth when the Vision surprised her). Loli almost fell. Jacinta took great breaths and Loli almost fell.”


M. Cruz—“Yes.”

(Jacinta laughed and kissed. Loli kissed something. Mari Cruz kissed also. Jacinta lifted her hand).


L. “What?”—she said—“Yes, good.”

They blessed themselves. They prayed the Act of Contrition, beating their chests. They prayed the Hail Mary, mumbling it. They said: “Yes.” (laughing).


“Huh?”

“I’m going already (they blessed themselves, first Loli who was in the back and then the others).”

M.C.: “For the glory of the good adventuress, the Virgin Mary.”


“Yes, the Catechism.”

“10 or 11.”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t know.” (Loli’s eyes were completely filled with tears, then fell to her chin. Jacinta didn’t cry. Mari Cruz recited the Our Father and laughed).



“Ask for a stone.” (They offer crosses and rosaries).

“You kissed the rosary before, now it’s…”

“You have kissed it?” (They offer the rosaries again, Jacinta prays a Hail Mary).


Note: “What happened here, I have witnessed many times. After the girls offer the Virgin something to kiss, I frequently hear the girls say that it’s already been kissed. They say it in conversation with the Vision. The Vision tells the girls this, and then they repeat it like a question, or half-question, half admiration, as if they leave it: “Then, you’ve already kissed it? Oh! This as well? Well, kiss it again.”


J: “Where is Loli? Loli, Loli, are you sick?” [Jacinta puts her arm on Loli’s neck (which is behind her). After, Mari Cruz does this. Loli seems immobile. After putting her arm on the neck, none of these three girls put their gaze back to where they’d had it. They formed a triangle. They talked to Loli. They laughed].


“Did I pray in a hurry before?” (They made the sign of the cross).

J. “Throw it.” (She said this when Mari Cruz put her arm on the shoulder. Mari Cruz laughed. They talked: Loli cried with her face like stone while Jacinta said: “Pity, pity”).


Note: In this trance, Loli stayed for a long time, around 20 minutes, separated from everyone, like two of her companions. Her face was like stone in its immobility and pallor, but it wasn’t rigid, like a statue. The other two, although still in the trance, indicated that they were worried about Loli, who was behind them, where they couldn’t see her. Suddenly, they guessed the oscillations were coming from her body, like any other movement. The impression was Loli that was abstracted and elevated in these long minutes. She followed a more elevated rhythm.


“One.”

“Yes.”

“Oh, what a thing, it gives me pain!”

“Why are you telling us?”

“Why?”

M.C.: “I should throw it away?” (She throws a piece of gum away).


“Why? Eat it, no, I’ve never eaten it.”

J. “Is gum bad? This is why Mari Cruz threw it away.”


Note: All that refers to the gum in this scene had a previous explanation for me when I asked what the Virgin told them. It was like this: in a particular moment during the ecstasy the Virgin told them to throw away their gum. The girls chew gum when someone from the village or one of the people who comes up to the village gives it to them. The reason the Vision asked them to throw away the gum was not because it was bad, but because it might choke them, like on this occasion. When I asked the girls whether the Virgin had told them not to eat anymore gum, they responded no.


“Don’t go, wait a little.”

“Many, four. I don’t know, I don’t remember, but about four (we conjectured that this could refer to the four priests who spoke with Mari Cruz in her house).


“We have to ask forgiveness, yes.”

J. “The priests told me that they were going to America to see if many people would convert.”

Note: This refers to Fr. Cipriano Abad who went to Venezuela, and Fr. Ramón Andreu who was going to go to Nicaragua).


“She has to kiss one.”

“We were in Ceferino’s house the whole afternoon.”

Note: This allusion is to the interview we had in Ceferino’s house, who was Loli’s father. It lasted quite a while.


(They took stones after feeling for them. They offered them to the Virgin).

“See, I found stones.”

M.C.: “It’s large! Look how large it is! (M.C. put the stone in her pocket).


“Should we pray the Litany?”

(Loli tries the crown on. She offers it, then does not move. M.C. prays Hail Marys. They’re illuminated by the lanterns, but remain impassive. They hit their chests).

M.C.: “Nobody, you already know. Well, as it is called without.”


“Oh, of course! Her name is Amalia.” (She waves goodbye).

“It’s just that I like to see them.” (They are immobile for a time).

“Yes, you have to be there a lot.”

“Little one, little one,” (She gives kisses).


“Don’t go yet, wait a little while, just a little while.”

“It seems that you’ve been—but it couldn’t be a lie.”

“You’re—a total of 42.”

“Yes, stay to complete the 42.”


“The Station, a rosary (they tell them). (Loli offers something. The three girls offer it. They bless themselves. Mari Cruz and Jacinta finish having the Vision. It’s 9:27 in the afternoon. Loli continues, and it seems that she is praying with great fervor. The others are not worried about her, they look at her smiling. All of them pray a Station in a loud voice at Mari Cruz’s and Jacinta’s prompting. There were hundreds of people there. Loli didn’t hear, and remained impassive).


L. “Why—I don’t know.”


(9:40pm—Jacinta has another Vision. Mari Cruz leads the Station alone. Loli blesses herself. Mari Cruz is not having a Vision. The village prays the Creed in a loud voice. The girls do not hear it, nor do they accompany the village, except for Mari Cruz, who leads an Our Father to the Guardian Angel after the Creed. Mari Cruz says that the girls have to go to the Church: it seems that she was indicating that they should go alone even though it is difficult when the village wants to accompany them to pray the rosary in the Church. Mari Cruz also indicates that she will wait for the others. Jacinta shows the rosary. Loli makes the sign of the cross. Loli shows a cross. Jacinta raises her hand toward the Vision. Loli offers the rosary and medals; she gives them one by one. Jacinta offers the rosary).


J. “Why? Mari Cruz doesn’t have it?” (Jacinta blesses herself. Kisses. She places her cheeks to be kissed).


J: “Yes, where? Why? No. Yes, yes. Why not? I want you to see (maybe the sentence was: and I think that you laugh). Mari Cruz, why not? I don’t want to.”



Jacinta blesses herself. Jacinta, without seeing Loli who was behind her, puts her arm on her shoulder when Loli looked like she might fall. Loli had an impressive aspect; she seemed like an alabaster statue. Jacinta grabbed Loli and held onto her tightly. Loli cried, and her tears fell, reaching her chin. Loli was shaken from the fall. Jacinta held her again. Loli’s mother sat in front of her and dried the tears on her daughter’s chin. The two girls breathed and Jacinta says: “She fell.” Loli shook again after another fall and Jacinta held her and exclaimed again.


J: “Loli, Loli.” (They talk, but we didn’t understand what they said). “Yes” (she offers the rosary). “Yes, she fell. Loli, is it over already. I’m going to fall. Oh! I’m afraid! Loli, Loli, Loli.”

L: “What?”


J: “Has it left you already? It’s left you already? Loli, Loli, has it passed?” (At 10:03 Jacinta jumps toward Loli. Together, they continue in the same attitude toward the Vision. Loli wavered, almost losing her balance.

J: “You, Loli. Has it passed? (Loli is impassive, she doesn’t blink. At 10:06 Loli breathes).


J: “Loli, come here, didn’t you tell me that it had passed?” (Loli cries, the tears falling to her chin. She breathes deeply).

J: “Why did you give Loli something so bad?” (At 10:08 Loli wavered, almost falling).


J: “Loli, has it passed? Huh? Loli, why are you feeling bad? Did you fall?”

L: “No.” (She stands up).


Note: The shakes, or oscillations that Loli experienced, worried Jacinta. Jacinta, though she was behind Loli and had her back to her friend, came next to Loli a little after she took note of the oscillations. She could put her arm on Loli’s shoulder even though it made her fall forwards. She called Loli several times and asked her if it had passed, looking at the Vision the whole time.


(At 10:10, they attempted to fall. They breathed deeply together three times. Jacinta placed her cheeks, kissed, and they breathed).


“Don’t go.”

In all this time Mari Cruz, who was sitting on the ground when she awoke, was in wonderment at the state of the other two girls. At 10:11, Loli moved her head. At 10:12 her head began to shake, but she controlled the trembling.

L: “Already.”

“Don’t go.”


At 10:13 the girls stopped having the vision at the same time. They went toward the Church and they all prayed the Rosary there. The girls led it, making mistakes that were typical of their age. Fr. Luís’ document was used until this point, completed by him with the records of Fr. Cipriano Abad and Fr. Andrés Pardo.


In Fr. Luís’ notebook #2, you’ll find a brief description of the state of the girls after the facts about this vision.


“Loli’s face lit up, and it contrasted with the dark street. Jacinta and Mari Cruz seem normal, but their faces have a lot of color. The people make them sit during the rosary. They say it with pronunciation mistakes typical for their age. At the end of the mysteries they kneel. They begin the Litanies. They join hands. They pray in Castellano, and when they finish the Litanies they cross their arms. They finish the rosary at 10:38.

 

Saturday, February 11, 2012

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


July 31, 1961

For a description of the different happenings that took place on July 31st, I will use Fr. Luís’ notes, combined with notes from Fr. Cipriano Abad and Fr. Andrés Pardo. I will put these notes together with personal explanations taken from my own notes and my memory.



Responses of the girls:

On July 31st we made time to interrogate the three girls who were in San Sebastián de Garabandal. Conchita was still in Santander. I cite the document:



“We wanted to ask the girls a few questions to clarify some of the things that they’d said.
Loli’s father brought the three girls to his house. In one of the rooms, the father was with Fr. Cipriano Abad, Fr. Ramón Andreu. The three girls gave responses to the questions that Fr. Luís Andreu asked them. The responses are the following:


1st: “Did you see the Virgin from the time of the first apparition?”

R: “We had to wait a few days to see the Virgin. We saw the Angel first.”


2nd: “Do you always see the same Virgin?”

R: “The first time it was Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Another time it was Our Lady of Mt. Carmel with a scapular here (they signal with their hands). She wore a thing like this (they made a gesture of a cinched cord that fell almost to her feet). The Child carried the scapular.”


Note: The identity of the Vision that appeared as one Virgin one day and another on a different day was indicated not by a change in the face, but by a change in the clothing she wore. The girls asked the vision before who all of the Virgins were. She responded to the girls that there was only one Virgin, which was her, María. The Virgin and the Child both carried scapulars.


3rd: “Did the Child say the same things as the Virgin?”

R. “The Child did not speak. He laughed. The Virgin kissed us and we kissed her.”


4th: “I heard that sometimes you have seen different angels.”

R. “The Virgin of the Angels also appeared to us.”


5th: “They say that the Virgin changed the secret that she had told the Angel, because she added some things.”

R. “First the Angel spoke of the secret and then the Virgin. But there are two secrets: the Angel’s secret and the Virgin’s secret. We never talk amongst ourselves about the secret because once the people heard us. On October 18th we have to tell the Virgin’s secret. We can tell the Angel’s secret already.” (To an insinuation of what we said to them then, even though it was private, they responded, “On October 18th we will tell the Virgin’s secret and ‘if we want’ we can tell the Angel’s secret as well that day, but only if we want to”).


Note: When October 18th arrived the girls didn’t tell the Angel’s secret. On the next day, October 19th, I asked them if they wanted to tell me the Angel’s secret. The girl I said this to was Conchita, and I said it in the sacristy of the Church. She told me that since the 18th had passed, and she hadn’t told it, she didn’t know if she was allowed to say. She didn’t tell me. The impression that I took away from this encounter, as from others, is that when an infantile reaction is about to occur, there is also a manner of behaving that is like a transmission between the Virgin and the girls, not quite transcendent, nor is there the feeling that the words have been transmitted. This manner of acting gives the girls authenticity.


6th: “When the Virgin appears to you, do you laugh to each other?”

R. “No, we laugh when one is in ecstasy and the other isn’t.”


7th: “Does the Virgin frighten you?”

R. “No. One day we were frightened when we saw a glow and we didn’t see the ground.”


8th: “What is the Virgin’s voice like?”

R. “There isn’t any voice like hers.”


9th: “And the Virgin, how is she when she appears?”

R. “She appears on her feet, on a wreath or in the air. Always standing, like this, near (she makes a gesture).”


10th: “Are there many angels?”

R. “There are five angels, including St. Michael.”

“How do you know?”

“She told us that she was the Virgin (Queen) of the Angels.”


Note: The Queen of the Angels, the Queen of the Rosary, the Virgin of Perpetual Help, etc. These titles correspond to the same person in the minds of the girls, who is the Virgin, María. The Virgin herself explained it like this. When coming with angels, normally she would come with St. Michael. The girls would ask: “Why do you come with angels today?” And the response was like this: “It’s because I am the Queen of the Angels.” Something of an analogy would occur then with the scapular, and with the other titles that the Vision received.


11th: “Do you have to ask for a miracle or a sign from the Virgin.”

R. “She becomes very serious when we ask her for a miracle.”


This dialog that is summarized in eleven questions, didn’t seem like an interrogation, but rather a simple conversation in which they spoke of non-transcendent things, like what games they wanted to play, names of family members, etc. In this way they tried to create a climate of cordiality that made this easier. This was the first time that we’d talked with the girls in such an extensive manner. The questions corresponded with the points of view and problems that we planted in the first impression that we received. The people also tried to confuse them with capricious questions, but they couldn’t. This dialog took place in the afternoon according to what I can remember now.

 

Monday, February 6, 2012

Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part Two, Post 1

5th Diary

July 30, and 31, 1961

Summary:

To ask for a test to prove what the girls see or feel. “You come where no one laughs at us.” They marched in ecstasy on their knees. Loli’s father and the pastor were very nervous. The Virgin told them when it was time for the “Gloria.” July 31st: The girls answered about the identity of the Vision, and her voice, etc. They said something about the secret. They stayed where the vision happened when they were in ecstasy and when they left the ecstasy. They gave many titles for the vision. There was a vision in the afternoon. Mari Cruz was certain. The Calls coincided. At 8:55pm the vision began, and they offered it objects and they cried. They recognized a rosary that had already been kissed. “Mercy, mercy.” The crown. The child. It was 9:27pm. The two girls left the vision and Loli followed. It was 9:50pm. Jacinta entered into ecstasy, but Mari Cruz did not. Loli was still, then she cried absentmindedly. Jacinta was worried about Loli. They prayed the rosary in the Church.


July 30, 1961

I ascended for the second time on July 31st, the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the company of members of the Fontaneda family and Fr. Andrés Pardo, who was a seminarian at that time. My brother Fr. Luís and I signed at Mari Cruz’s house and we tried to understand what had happened the day before, on July 30th. What I wrote down in my notebook says:


“On the 30th they revealed it in the Church and also in the grandmother’s house.” I find more detail in Fr. Luís’ second notebook. There is a reference made to Loli’s mother: “At 9:30, upon leaving Mass, near the street, next to the school, they revealed it. They had received communion. When they don’t receive communion, St. Michael comes to give it to them. Mari Cruz stopped during the revelation.”


“They asked for a test: ‘Make it rain, make it snow.’ The seer says: ‘It has already rained enough.’ Upon waking they say that they have to go to the Church to pray the Rosary.”


Note: In asking for a test or a sign, things like that it would rain, or that it would become night, it is a reference to the state that the girls are in, where it isn’t night, it doesn’t rain, and it doesn’t get cold. As a result, sometimes we hear them ask as a sign: “Make it like night all of a sudden,” and they say this in the middle of the night. It is light where the girls are.


“Fr. Valentín asked for an explanation and they said that the Virgin and St. Michael were there. Then at five, in her mother’s house she said: “How do you come here without anyone seeing you?” “They come from so far away.”


Note: This “is her mother’s house” refers to Loli’s grandmother, who is the mother of the one who is telling this, that is, Loli’s mother. This whole passage from the 30thh is below the epigraph, “Loli’s mother says.”


The sentence “how do you come here where nobody sees” corresponds with the general idea that it is better if they see in ecstasy because they believe better there. At the same time, it is supposed that they are victims of a phenomenon that they cannot control. There have been completely private ecstasies. They are surprised by them: Mari Cruz was alone, behind a wardrobe in her house when she went into ecstasy. For her to be surprised like this was a true coincidence. She was standing, and she believed that the ecstasies had taken place on other occasions when no one had witnessed them. At any rate, the girls are extremely reserved in talking about the number of times the ecstasies have happened as well as the topics of conversation during the visions.


“Oh, oh! You’re leaving,” she says, walking back on her knees from the balcony.


Note: I heard the people in the village talk about the 31st. They said that the girls went walking on their knees for a few meters from the bedroom where the Virgin appeared to near the railing of the balcony. The girls felt that the Virgin was drawing them away a little bit. It seems that this was the first time in which the people observed that the girls moved from one place to another while still in ecstasy.


“After this revelation they prayed a Station on the balcony, while still seeing the Virgin.”



Note: The praying of the Station to Jesús in the Sacrament was very frequent from the beginning. There was an agreement about this practice of praying to the Most Holy, which was one of the signs given on October 18th in the girls’ message: “Visit the Most Holy often.”


“Upon finishing they said that they were going to pray a Rosary in the Church. It was full of people. There were doctors there who took their pulses. Loli’s father was angry, and wanted them to leave her alone.”


Note: It is understandable that the parents of the girls would feel nervous, and the pastor as well. The visions had been going on for almost a month and a half. Up to this moment, no one had spoken with clarity about these occurrences. Spontaneous doctors and others who passed for doctors though they weren’t, came near the girls and pinched and squeezed them, etc. At the end, it was evident that the girls were anesthetized to a degree because of the reactions of their reflexes that we observed. All of these tests, done without control by anonymous people, who disappeared without us knowing anything about them, annoyed the parents of the girls and made them nervous. Also, the journalists had already begun to give reports in various newspapers. They changed the news and distorted some ideas about the religiousness of the father of one of the girls.


“Then the girls went to the Church where they prayed the rosary without counting on their fingers. They didn’t make any mistakes. At night she told me: ‘The Virgin told us when to pray the ‘gloria’ and Jacinta prayed with the Virgin.’”


Note: All that the people have been able to obtain regarding the manner in which the girls pray the rosary with the Virgin is this: Sometimes the Virgin is with one of the girls, and sometimes they pray alone. The Virgin explains the fact that she prays the Hail Mary by telling the girls that she is teaching them how to pray. She told them when it was time for the ‘gloria’ and so they didn’t make any mistakes even though they didn’t count. They did not count the prayers when they prayed in ecstasy. We observed them many times. The observation in Fr. Luís’ 2nd notebook, together with the reference from July 30th, is valid for the 31st; she will see then and also on August 1st.


I took note of the summary of the 30th from a conversation I had on the 31st with Fr. Valentín. What we had said before this proceeds from the conversation we’d had with Loli’s parents. The summary of this conversation with Fr. Valentín is this:


“They were in ecstasy talking next to the school. The three girls were there, Mari Cruz had returned earlier. They asked for a miracle. Mari Cruz, who was in the normal state, laughed when she saw the other girls in ecstasy. The girls who were in ecstasy said: “Why did Mari Cruz leave?” Later, they prayed the rosary in the normal state. Mari Cruz had an ecstasy before this. The priest asked them for an explanation, and they all gave the same response.


That same day, in one of their grandmother’s house they said: “Why have you come here? Oh! How far you’re going,” and the girls left, moving until they reached the balcony.

 

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part One, Post 19


Fourth Manifestation

At a distance that the girls said, they called the guards who were containing the multitude first, and then everyone, in a massive form, went up the hillside. They made a circle with the girls in the middle, and with the priests next to them. Then they led the Rosary.


Jacinta and Loli led the Rosary. Their manner of doing it was so simple, as they would do it in school, with defects and mistakes. There was a moment in which Jacinta yawned and Loli was praying alone. They made mistakes several times. They moved and looked at the ground, then at their hands, then at other places, but they were always kneeling, and they didn’t give the sensation that they were leaning on anyone, in spite of the large crowd that was around them and answered them. The attitudes of the surrounding people varied. Some were sitting on the ground, others were on their knees, and others were standing.


They began the third mystery normally as they had the others. On a Hail Mary, I believe on the fifth, suddenly, when they arrived at the words: “The Lord is with you,” the following happened: the girls pronounced “the Lord is with” normally, but before saying the syllable “you,” the two girls fell into the same state as before as though someone had called them. They directed their glances toward the same point, in front of them, and a little elevated. A swift rumor circulated among the people. The priests went near the girls. This is the beginning of the fourth revelation which lasted near an hour and during which we were able to take notes for most of the time, which corresponded to what the girls said, asked, or responded. The part that corresponds to what the person with them said is missing.


I reproduce this vision according to Fr. Luís’s notes, which he himself combined with those belonging to Fr. Cipriano Abad and Andrés Pardo. To these, I added the ones that I took. Generally, each one dealt with a special part or something that one of the girls said. The literal parts are in quotes. I added some clarifications so that it would make better sense since I was present for this trance and I kept my notes about it:


“After the vision at 8:18pm the people went up and began to pray the Rosary, led by the girls. The girls were kneeling in front of the Pines and the people of the village were around them in a circle several meters away. The priests were near the girls.


“In the fifth Hail Mary of the third mystery and after pronouncing the second syllable of the words “with you” and without finishing saying this, they had the vision. I couldn’t hear what the said. Here, there is something I could transcribe. We can’t match each sentence with the girl who said it.


“Why did you come?”


Note: The sentence was pronounced with happiness from seeing once again and with surprise for this unexpected vision. The Virgin had told them, it seems, that she was not going to come again that day. But now, upon coming, she told them that it was a double motive: so that they would believe, and to award the obedience of the people for not going up to the Pines when the second and third manifestations took place. From there the sentence that the girls said right away was: “If the people had come, you wouldn’t have come?”

“Why do they believe?” (They offered something. They gave a kiss).

“Oh, You’re so beautiful!” (They didn’t blink).


Note: The difference between the first two visions of this afternoon of July 29th were: now the Virgin brought the Child, as she had done in the previous vision. The gesture of “offering something,” probably refers to extending the arms to receive the Child or to touch the person they kissed. It’s difficult to know exactly what the gestures mean, because we only see what they do and say without knowing what they see. Therefore, we don’t understand how their gestures correspond to what the girls do.

“Oh, how beautiful! Take him!” (They smile, give kisses, and then smile again).

“You are very good.”

“Tomorrow we will come having fasted, without eating anything, nothing.”

“If the people had come, would you have come?”

“Do you know who came? It was—from the village.”

“Will you kiss the scapular?”

Note: Frequently, the Vision brings a scapular that she hangs from her arm, on the wrist, near the hand. Before this, we asked the children what the scapular was like and what it was there.


“Can I kiss it?” (She shows the scapular, and they are quiet).


Note: This scapular is one that, with medals and rosaries, the people gave to the girls so that the Virgin will kiss them. When they see it, there is a gesture indicating the scapular belonged to a determined person that the girl carried, and so they ask her to kiss it.


“Today some Carmelite priests came. The others were priests.”


Note: Some Carmelite priests were there this afternoon who were unknown to me, but I spoke with them for awhile and they were very interested in the phenomena that have taken place here and that the girls say that they see Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The allusion to the other priests refers to Fr. Cipriano Abad, Fr. Rufino, the pastor from San Salvador del Valle (Vizcaya), and to my brother Fr. Luís María, and to me.


“I thought one of them was Mr. Severino, but it was a priest.” (They laugh).

Note: This day was the first time that I went up, and the first time the girls saw me. When they saw me with black sunglasses, they thought that I was Mr. Severino and they were a little frightened, but Fr. Valentín calmed them.


“I remember the Dominican.”

Note: This refers to a Dominican priest that had been there days before. He seemed like a drawing in his habit, and from what I could observe later, he had spoken with the girls and left an agreeable impression. It wasn’t Fr. Royo Marín O.P., who went up for the first time on August 8th.

“Who is like God, no one is like God. We sing badly. We sing to you.” (They blessed themselves, and made the sign of the cross, imitating the Virgin).


Note: It was frequent—at least—on these days at the end of July and the beginning of August, the girls sang a song to St. Michael. The way that they made the sign of the cross is always correct and when they did something incorrectly, the same Vision corrected them and indicated how to do it correctly.

“We’ll explain the dress again. It’s white with flowers.”

“How beautiful!” (They smiled).


Note: The girls said that they always see the Virgin and the Archangel from the front, except in cases when they turn to show their clothes. They leave isn’t by walking: “It’s as though they dissolve.”


“Give me your crown! How big!” (They give kisses, laughs of happiness).

Note: The crown, which is a diadem, maintains its exact size, it’s the same when it’s in the girls’ hands as when it’s in the Virgin’s hands. When they put it on their heads, various spectators have observed that it’s bigger on the youngest girl than it is on the head of the oldest girl.

“Are you seeing Conchita?—Oh, good!” (It’s 8:52pm).

“I went through them, I fell.”

“How do you put it on later.”

“She has a seat that she puts like this.”

(They make a gesture of putting their hands on the arms of the chair).


Note: This entire passage is the result of difficult understanding. The most probable is that is corresponds with the notes I took, and those that refer to the Bishop. “I have them like this.” Commentary from the Bishop. Conchita sees, we don’t know whom. A chair with arms. The Bishop will say: “Go, go, go—what—what does the Bishop say now? He says that Santander is returning—what fell? Well, what does the Bishop say?” In any event, it isn’t clear what Conchita was referring to, what is in Santander, what is there to see. To whom? To the Bishop, to some priest, or a doctor? Who is it that fell?


I remember the chair with arms that refers to the Bishop. This is how we understand it then. Fr. Valentín said that they said that the Bishop had a chair with arms and that he said: “Go, go, go.”

“Don’t go.”

Note: This expression repeats intermittently. Sometimes they say: “Don’t go” and other times they say: “Don’t go, ma’am.” They say it as a supplication that manifests their desire to prolong the presence of the Vision.

“Today the people obeyed.”

Note: This alludes to standing on the hillside without going to the Pines until she told them that they could come up to pray the Rosary.

“Do you know that she told me one?”

“A guard said that no one could speak or anything. They promised—cure her!”

“—very small. Very serious. Cure her!” (They smiled).

“Well like this.”

“Don’t go, ok?”

“Wait a little.”

“Like this.” (She made a gesture).

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes.”

“You are very tall!”

“Don’t go.” (She made a gesture to say goodbye).

“Don’t go.”

“You ordered us to say goodbye and that you wouldn’t go.”

“Don’t go.”


“You have to give me a kiss and I have to hold the Child and kiss his face.” (One of them takes the Child and then she passes him to the other).

(One says this to the other). “Don’t let him fall, catch him by his feet!”

Note : We saw this scene of passing the Child clearly and in detail in the way their hands changed in order to rectify the defective manner of taking the Child that one of the girls had.

“Give me a kiss.”


“Give me a kiss.” (They took the Child. One girl gives it to another and that one gives it to the Virgin. The first takes him from the Virgin again. They take him several times).

“Who is like God, nobody is like God.”

“I’m going to kiss St. Michael.” (They smile, murmuring words).

“Why do you do it like that?” (She makes a gesture as though she’s keeping time to music).

Note: This gesture of keeping time to music corresponds to singing “Who is like God.”

“Don’t go, give me a kiss.” (She received two and gave two).

“Why are you going?”

Note: I have the scene that followed drawn in my notes and my memory for the reader to see. This was the first day that I went up to San Sebastián de Garabandal. A thought process developed within me that was still first in the hypothesis that I formulated. In those moments, I thought that it could well be a case of suggestion or hypnosis and I looked around me to see if someone could have caused the girls’ actions. It called my attention that the girls were within the same scene and that they sang and blessed themselves at the same time. It seems, in some moments, that they have one soul. Their reactions were identical. According to this interior formulation through my thoughts, one of the girls, María Dolores, returned while Jacinta continued in the same position, still in ecstasy. When María Dolores returned, she turned her head toward me a little and I asked her if she was in the normal state.

“You don’t see the Virgin?” And she responded to me: “No, sir.”

“Why?” Her response was this: “She left.”


I said to her: “Look at Jacinta.” Loli looked at Jacinta, who was still in ecstasy, and smiled a little when she saw the gestures the other girl was making. It was the first time—or maybe one of the first times—that I saw one of the girls in ecstasy while another was in the normal state. After a few seconds of contemplating Jacinta I asked Loli: “What did the Virgin tell you?”

When she was going to respond, she went into ecstasy once again with a light snap of her head upward, characteristic of that world. Then this dialogue took place:

J—“Oh, Loli has come already. Where have you been, Loli? Why did you go?”

L—(To the Vision). “Why did you leave?”

The two: “Then, because of this?”

L—“Then it’s so he’ll believe.”

The sentence “so he’ll believe” I believe refers to me, since it corresponds perfectly to the discourse of my thoughts and breaks the unanimity of the way the girls act. I also observed when one of the girls was having a vision, she’d stop seeing the other girls. They are two different camps. One is expectant. Once a seer isn’t having a vision, she forms part of the expectant camp, in which she refers to seeing. The other camp is that of the ecstasy, in which they stay isolated from the impressions of outside and what they refer to as pain and seeing. An intermediate zone exists. I observed this weeks later. They expose it in their place. Here I have to add that although the girls don’t feel pain from the hits or tests that the people perform on them while in ecstasy, they can feel it, as we observed in this same vision, if the pain is produced before: a hit that takes place within the camp or theme of the ecstasy.

“Can I give you a stone to kiss? There isn’t one?” (She draws near a very large one. She smiles).

“How big. If Sari were here…”

“If you hear us, then we go.”


Note: In the first week it frequently happened that they gave small stones to be kissed, about the size of a large caramel in various shapes to the Virgin and then gave them to people as remembrances. When they were kissed, they almost always said who they were for. This large stone was a big as a medium sized bar of soap. All of the time they looked upward and handled the stones, as though feeling for them.

“Sari, Sari, we don’t see you. Or they’re deaf and we don’t hear you.” (They look for stones, find them, and offer them).

“I can’t find more.” (She offers two leaves from a Pine tree).

“Where is a stone that we found here?”

“If it’s on the ground the wind…”

“I should put it over a stone.”


“Look, what is this? I found it, I found it.” (They put it over their heads. They touched it. They said: “Mari Carmen and Sari”). (They call: “Sari, Sari—don’t bring me stones”). (They come and say: “Here”). They don’t hear.

“Mari Carmen and Sari don’t answer us.” (They touch stones, looking at the Vision).

Note: Mari Carmen and Sari, the six year old child witnesses, responded to the calls of the two seers, but they didn’t hear their responses).

“That one, for Fr. Valentín, is very good, very good.”

“Look, I carried all of them!” (They found them and offered them).

“We’re going to see if we divide them (they hit). Don’t divide them.” (In all of this action they don’t stop looking at the Vision)—(One is hit on the finger. Jacinta notes the pain).


Note: In reality Jacinta said a sentence to Loli, something like this: “Oh, you’ve hit me on the finger, you’ve hurt me!” Jacinta spoke this sentence, or one similar to it when she felt the little hit that Loli gave because she wanted to divide the stones. In this same ecstasy and one near it, this expression of pain was heard again when one of the girls was hit on the toe by a rather large stone because one of the expectant girls wanted to come near and threw it off without much caution. This hit was greater than the one Loli gave Jacinta on the finger, but there was no reaction. Jacinta stayed silent and continued with the rhythm of her conversation with the Vision.

“We can’t divide it. I’m going to throw it on the ground if you divide it.”

“Oh, mother, almost an hour.”

“You’ve been here almost an hour.”

“I want you to kiss the Rosary again.”

“And the scapular. Why haven’t you kissed me.”

“And why do you shake your head?”

“This morning you jumped from branch to branch. But we have to say so they don’t cut it.”


Note: According to what we were informed about this jump from branch to branch, it refers to the branches of this same pine. The reiteration of wanting to kiss the Rosary and the scapular again, seems to mean, as has been observed other times, that they didn’t want her to go. They try to prolong her presence with these ingenious methods. One of the girls said to the other once: “Tell her a joke, you know, so she won’t go.”

“Cure someone so the people will see.”


Note: The interest that we see on all of the days in the girls asking for healings or miracles is the result of two main causes. One is the order transmitted by Fr. Valentín and in general by the priests, of asking for a clear sign to help the judgment about the purpose of the visions. Another reason seems to be the interest in letting someone or his parents suffer patiently to change the manner in which the petition is made.

“Will you give me a little?” (They take something and give kisses. One of them is immobile, ecstatic. They take the Child).

“How beautiful! How small!” (They give a lot of kisses).

“Do you want me to pass him again?”

“Let’s see, come, St. Michael. Kiss me.” (They kiss).

“I hadn’t taken him before. Furthermore, it’s ok to give him to me. She’s already coming.”

“Give me the crown.” (She takes it).

“Saint Michael the Archangel,

Great warrior,

Who in a fiery battle

Conquered Lucifer.

Who is like God?

No one is like God!”

(They made the sign of the cross rhythmically and in a loud voice).

“Corpus Christi (don) nostrum. Amen.”


“You put it like this with two hands.” (Gesture of a priest in the Altar at Mass and also the gesture of the priest when giving Communion).


Note: In these sentences there is a clear allusion to the reception of communion. What is not as clear is whether the sentence said before come “without eating anything, nothing,” is an allusion to the Communion that they would receive from the Angel on the following day. Before this, the Archangel had given it on the days that Fr. Valentín didn’t say mass in San Sebastián de Garabandal.

“Don’t go.”

“The Rosary, should we pray it here or in the Church? It’s late? It’s six—it’s nine?”


Note: The time was approximately nine when the girls said this just before the Vision ended. Once, back in the vision, they said: “Oh, she left.” The return to normality lasted a fraction of a second.


This is how everything regarding the girls of Garabandal and their visions ended on July 29, 1961. We spoke with the pastor, with various people from the town, and with the girls. Amid thoughts and comments, we descended the six or seven kilometers while driving down to Cossío.