To know the Virgin Mary is to love her. One way we can get to know her better is through her visits from Heaven to Earth. Marian apparitions are simply “private revelations” illuminating aspects of faith but not revealing new ones since, according to Catholic doctrine, the age of public revelation ended with John, the last apostle.
These messages that are in union with the Church, increase our love of the Blessed Mother who she leads us closer to Jesus, and call us to pray more and offer repentance for our sins.
St. Catherine Labouré, a nun in France, woke up on July 19, 1930, to the voice of the Blessed Mother, calling her to the chapel to pray. She instructed St. Catherine to have a medal made that would rain down graces on those that wore them. Inscribed on the medal is: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” St. Catherine was canonized in 1947. Her body, now encased in glass in Paris, was discovered to be incorrupt. Learn more here.
Between May 13 to October 13, 1917, ‘a lady more brilliant than the sun’ appeared six times to three Portuguese shepherd children. Our Lady of Fatima asked them to devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to pray the Rosary every day to end World War I which was raging at the time. She also showed them a vision of hell and entrusted them with three secrets.
On February 11, 1858, 14-year-old Saint Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto of Massabielle about a mile from the southern French town of Lourdes saw a beautiful lady that would ultimately appear 17 times in all. She identified herself as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and asked that a chapel be built on that spot. She also revealed to Bernadette a place where a spring came up. The Lourdes Bureau Médical has documented around 70 miraculous healings at the site and there are countless more claims of miracles that have not been investigated. Learn more here.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego and instructed him to pick Castilian roses on top of the usually barren Tepeyac Hill to confirm the apparition to the Bishop. When Juan brought the roses to the bishop, they discovered an image of the Virgin on his cloak. A few days later, the cloak was displayed in a hastily erected chapel. Miracles started occurring almost immediately.
