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Our Lady of Knock
by John O’Connell
The Irish people since their conversion to Christianity
have possessed a particularly strong devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary—a devotion they received from St. Patrick.
Through many centuries of persecution the Mother of God’s
intercession has assisted and comforted the Catholic people
of Ireland. The Irish suffered greatly for the one, true
Catholic Faith, but in the 19th century they encountered
especially bleak times.
True, in 1829 the Catholic Emancipation Act officially
ended persecution against Catholics, but persecution against
Catholics in Ireland persisted. In the 19th century, Ireland
experienced potato crop failures several times, including
the great potato famine, along with a deadly epidemic of
typhoid fever. While the Irish and their children were
starving, Catholics were bribed with the promise of food or
money if they would apostatize from the ancient faith. With
great heroism, most of the Irish Catholics kept the faith.
Mary Immaculate, Cause of our Hope, helped to sustain the
persecuted Church in Ireland.
On the rainy evening of August 21, 1879 in the west of
Ireland, in Cnoc Mhuire (Knock in English), located in
County Mayo, a tremendous prodigy occurred. Several people
noticed that a bright light shone over the church of St.
John the Baptist and that three figures appeared near the
south gable of the church. Fourteen witnesses from
six-year-old John Curry to seventy-five-year-old Bridget
Trench, saw the apparition. Another person observed the
bright light over the church from half a mile away, but did
not come to the church to investigate the light.
Whom did the witnesses see? They saw the Blessed Virgin
Mary wearing white garments and a brilliant golden crown
with a rose under the crown on the forehead. She was
prayerfully raising her hands and eyes to heaven. St. Joseph
was at Mary’s right with his head respectively inclined
toward Mary. St. John the Evangelist was to the left of
Mary, vested as a bishop, his left hand holding an open book
and his right hand raised as in preaching. To the left of
St. John, a cross and a lamb were on top of an altar.
The figures were bathed in light and “stood” about two
feet above the ground. They sometimes receded toward the
gable and would then come back again.
The witnesses watched the apparition in the pouring rain
for approximately two hours while reciting the Rosary.
Though it continued to rain heavily all during this time, no
rain fell towards the gable, on the figures, or on the
ground beneath the figures.
Shortly after the apparition occurred at Knock, both
pilgrimages and miracles began. Ten days after the
apparition, a small girl received the cure of a painful ear
condition that had left her deaf, when her parents made a
pilgrimage to Knock with her. In 1979 (the centennial year
of the apparition), His Holiness John Paul II made a
pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock.
There are at least two unusual features of the apparition at
Knock. Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. John kept silent. Mary
delivered no verbal message: no reproof, no warning, no
request, nor even a word of comfort. But her silence spoke
eloquently enough. Mary stood in silent solidarity with the
greatly oppressed and suffering Irish people. Further, the
celestial figures’ silence in the presence of the
Eucharistic Lamb indicates the kind of reverence that the
faithful should render the Eucharistic Lord. The other
distinctive feature of this apparition is that so many
people, and of all ages, witnessed it.
Mary appeared at Knock on the vigil of the feast of her
Immaculate Heart to remind the Irish that they were close to
her Heart and to encourage them to persevere in the faith.
She came as the Queen of Heaven and Ireland to remind the
faithful of the grace and hope which comes from her Son and
the perpetual Sacrifice of the Mass.
Our Lady of Knock came with St. Joseph and St. John to
teach all of the faithful the importance of reverential
prayer and of sacrifice, especially when united to the
Eucharistic Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
John O’Connell is the Editor of The Catholic Faith
source:
http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Faith/Jul-Aug99/Mary.html
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