Argentina (1998)
"Only a miracle could make me recover the sense of smell I lost after a tumour operation in the brain," stated Rosa de Quinteros, one of the 3,000 people who have visited Gabriel Moyano, a child of five who reportedly acquired healing powers after a visitation from the Madonna.

"Particularly I smell a scent of roses," said Quinteros, who was not aware of the fact that this is precisely the scent the child smells at home when the Madonna is present.

It all began in March 1998, when the people of Villa Libertad, in the western Argentinian village of Pocito (San Juan province), witnessed an image of the Madonna appearing on a repair-garage wall. They were sure was something supernatural, and it quickly drew the attention of the province and then the whole country. A group of children, Gabriel among them, were the first to notice it. They were playing in the garage backyard when they saw some strange lights forming a shape.

From then on, Gabriel says, the Madonna appears in his room every night telling him to heal the people who come to Pocito, as well as an image of Jesus the Merciful. "He puts on my chest a blue ray and a red ray, and he tells me to give them back to the people I have to heal the next day," explains Gabriel, who can also tell in detail the messages he receives and the work he has to do: "The Madonna and Jesus are the ones who heal. They tell me what to do, and I do it with the ill people who come here. If they cannot be healed, I also tell them so.

"Many are healed and others go with God, and I know this because the Madonna explains it to me." Gabriel does not charge for his healing, and takes all of this as something he has to do "at the request of the Madonna and Jesus", as he puts it.

Little Gabriel heals not only at home, but also travels to places the Madonna shows him the night before. "She tells me that in a hospital or house there is somebody very ill, or burnt, or whatever. Then, with her mantle, and as if we were flying, she brings me to that place so I can see what's going on. The next day I go there and heal the person, if God is not going to take the person with Him." Gabriel's mother, Dora Pizarro, reports that when the child has these visions at night, the next day he goes to the place in question as if he had been there before.

"What he sees at night happens then 'to the letter': the description of the venue, the face of the patient, his illness ... as if he had indeed visited him before." Gabriel's parents say the Madonna's appearances have completely changed their lives, and they have tried to persuade their son to give up the whole thing. Gabriel refused, saying he would not disobey the Madonna. (Source: Diario de Cuyo, Argentina)

 

 
Australia ( 1996 )
" 'An image of the Virgin Mary on a wall of the Anglican church at Yankalilla is another sign pointing to the coming of a Christ-like teacher to unite all religions', a scholar of religious phenomena said yesterday."

Thus begins a news story in the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper in South Australia. The scholar mentioned is a member of a Transmission Meditation group in Adelaide.

According to the Reuters news agency: "Pilgrims and sightseers are flocking by the thousands to a small country church in South Australia after its priest described an image of the Virgin Mary and child on the altar wall."

Parish priest Andrew Nutter said that the image has grown stronger since he first noticed it in late 1994. " ... now everybody's coming in. Sceptics, secular humanists, atheists, doubters, people who have no time for the church, and people who are faithful, see it.... This has become a people's shrine,'' he said. According to Nutter, the image shows a woman looking toward the part of the church where consecrated bread is kept. The phenomenon received little attention outside the parish until Reverend Nutterís article in a church newspaper attracted the mainstream media. The large number of visitors has prompted the church to schedule a weekly pilgrim service to celebrate the vision.

The Anglican diocesan bishop Graham Walden said the vision did not seem to have been caused by anything such as salt damp or mould and he believed the church could be hosting something genuine. "If people receive something as being of God, then it is of God, they don't have some sort of mechanism for accreditation," he said.

It has also been reported that a stream of water has sprung up under the church since the image formed. (Sources: Reuters; Adelaide Advertiser, Australia)

"Image of Madonna and Child leads to discovery of Healing Water"
by Pasquo Cassetta

 
Cameroon (1986)
The Tablet, an international weekly Catholic magazine, of 21 September 1996 carries an article which alleges that in May 1986 the Virgin Mary appeared in the small village of Nsimalen near Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. She was seen by seven teenagers over a period of nine days. Belinga Luc Marc, a pupil at the local primary school at the time, was one of them: "It was about 1pm and there was no sunshine and little wind," she said. "We could see her on the tree tops dressed in pure white. She was accompanied by men also dressed in white. They appeared to be floating in the air. At this time, only the children could see her." Many thousands of people from all over the country flocked to the site which is now a shrine and still attracts many visitors.

The tree on which the Virgin Mary is said to have perched before she disappeared again -now known as the tree of peace - has apparently great healing powers. Its bark is boiled with water from one of the many holy pools below the sanctuary and taken by the sick. Miracles and miracle cures have been reported: a little dumb girl could speak again after seeing the Virgin Mary; a blind man regained his sight; a cripple threw away her crutches and walked; the sun and the moon were shining at 9am.

 

 
Canada (1997)
Five years ago, apparitions of the Virgin Mary began being seen on a farm owned by John and Shelagh Greensides in Marmora, about 200 kilometres northeast of Toronto, Canada. The Greensides had set up Stations of the Cross on their land and invited groups of friends to pray with them. It was their way of thanking the Virgin Mary for a trip they had taken to Medjugorje, Bosnia, where apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been reported since 1981.

"In Marmora, all kinds of people see our Blessed Mother from all parts of the world," according to Alice Johnson, a Sister for Christian Community in Peterborough, Ontario, who has written two books on the phenomenon. On 8 December 1996, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, 2,000 people from throughout Canada and the US travelled to the Greensides' farm to witness the apparitions.

"While messages attributed to Mary contain common themes such as return to God, go to church and pray the rosary, they also warn people about the so-called 'end of times,'" according to the article. "While neither priests nor visionaries totally agree on what that phrase means, they think it signifies the end of an age rather than the end of the world."

And, the article states: "Some believe Mary is the harbinger of the second coming of Jesus." (Source: Toronto Globe and Mail, Canada)

 
Costa Rica (1996)
On the first Tuesday of every month, crowding the highways by bus and car, people travel to Sara Piqui in Costa Rica to witness the appearance of the Virgin Mary in the sky. As well as this miraculous vision, sometimes glitter has suddenly manifested on the arms of the people present. They say it is very real -- that they can pick it up with their fingers.

 

 
Croatia (1997)
Croatian school children playing football said that they saw the Virgin Mary. According to the children Mary appeared three to four metres above the football field in the North Croatian village of Gradina. Some saw her holding a cross; others saw her weeping. The local priest, Stjepan Biber, announced that the Virgin had appeared earlier in Gradina in 1950. That information was suppressed by the then ruling communist regime. (Source: Algemeen Dagblad, the Netherlands)

 
Egypt (1968)
While all in America were watching the the Chicago riots at the Democratic Convention, or viewing live war zone broadcasts from Vietnam or were being mesmerized by the Watergate hearings on television, the Mother of God was appearing for tens of thousands to see in the land of the pyramids at a Coptic church constructed to commemorate the area in Egypt where she had come with Joseph and Jesus when they all fled from Herod.

Starting in April, 1968, her apparitions of light changed the lives of thousands. Her appearances at Zeitun were astounding. She was seen by more than a million people. The apparitions were broadcast by Egyptian TV, photographed by hundreds of professional photographers and personally witnessed by Egyptian President Abdul Nasser, an avowed Marxist. The apparitions lasted for three years with numerous unaccountable healings recorded by various medical professionals. The local police, who initially thought the apparitions were an elaborate hoax, searched a 15-mile radius surrounding the site to uncover any type of device that could be used to project such images. They were completely unsuccessful.

Mary on TV (webpage)

The Holy Bible Web Site on Zeitun

Egypt (1987)
An old Coptic church in a slum suburb of northern Cairo has become a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Egyptians. The magnet is the Virgin Mary; numerous visions of the Virgin have been reported. Mary has been seen not only by devout Christians but by Muslims too, who are said to leave the church amazed and overjoyed at their experiences and visions. The Coptic church is in a poor, predominantly Christian neighbourhood of Cairo. Miracles of healing are reported to take place in the church which is never empty now.

Egypt (1997)
Thousands of Coptic Christians have visited the village of Shentena al-Hagar north of Cairo to see images of the Virgin Mary hovering at night over a church.

"I saw the Virgin Mary with my own eyes on Friday and Saturday night," said Mervat Nabil, 42, a teacher. "Her glowing white silhouette has appeared three times. She circled around the church tower and nodded to her followers below," said Nabil.

Residents of the village say the image was first seen by a Muslim caretaker at the church on the night of 6 August. Coptic Christians have since come from throughout Egypt to see the Virgin Mary and camp next to the church overnight. The sitings started a day before the Copts observe the Feast of the Assumption, which according to Christian tradition is when Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken to heaven on the wings of angels. (Source: Agence France-Presse)

 

England (1998)
A seaside gif shop in Boscombe, Bournemouth, south England, has been attracting pilgrims hoping to witness a 14-inch plastic figure of a nun weep real tears. The owner, Michael Maclaire Hillier, bought the figure from Italy, and placed it in a plastic-display case in hiw window. Within hours a shopper told him that she could see tears on the doll's face and habit. Michale Maclaire Hillier said; "It's in a completely sealed cabinet, so there is no way water or condensation could get in. I went home to get my video camera, and I'm keeping my eye on her."
(Source: Daily Mail, UK)

 
France (1988)
A devout member of a Greek Orthodox Church in Paris has reported several miraculous experiences with an apparition of the Virgin Mary which occurred in the church's private chapel. During the second of these experiences, oil began flowing from his hands. Hundreds of people have since witnessed this phenomenon, and extraordinary healings have been associated with the oil. It is reported that the oil smells of olives and some undefinable perfume. Word of the events spread so quickly that the French national news agency, AFP, conducted interviews with the man in question and photographed the phenomenon inside the chapel.
(From: The Independent, 10 September, 1988 )

France (1993)
A man paralysed by multiple sclerosis since 1977 says he started walking after visiting the sanctuary in Lourdes, France. Jean Salaun said he had a vision of the Virgin Mary during his pilgrimage to the shrine in southwest France where Mary is said to have appeared in 1858 to a young girl named Bernadette. "Like everyone at Lourdes, I said my prayers, my eyes open," Salaun said. "I then saw the Virgin before me, in white, brown, barefoot, and she said to me: "Stand up." Salaun said that the following morning he felt an icy cold cover his body, from the end of the spinal cord to the top of this head, followed by a burning heat. "I looked at my hands and I started to move," he said. Salaun started walking a day later, after returning to his home in Chartres. Lourdes' Medical Bureau, which tries to verify reports of cures, issued a rare statement, calling the case a "rather remarkable observation." Any official church declaration that a 'miracle' has occurred may take years. (Source: Associated Press; Stars and Stripes Newspaper, Germany)

 
Georgia (1998)
Many inhabitants of Georgia's capital Tbilisi claim to have witnessed miracles. Thousands of people have been lining up to see what they say is an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the spire of Tbilisi's ancient blue monastery. The Virgin first made her appearance at Christmas ó a sign, the Georgians are saying, that God has bestowed His blessing on their troubled land. Others claimed they had spotted her inside, gazing on them while they prayed. (Source: BBC)

 

Holland (1992)
From the Share International letters column :

Dear Editor,
A report of an apparition of the Virgin Mary in Geulle, South Limburg (Holland), has recently appeared on local cable TV.

A member of a Transmission Group in Heerlen contacted the family who had seen the Virgin Mary in the sky above their house and sent them Share International (November 1992 colour issue). The description of their vision matches the photograph of Mary as shown in Share International. Later a further report appeared on local TV referring to Share International and its Chief Editor, Benjamin Creme, who has been talking about such visions and phenomena for some time now. A photograph of the Madonna taken from Share International (November 1992) was also shown on TV.

An interesting feature of the events in southern Holland is that a spring of water has appeared under the family's house in Geulle. It is not clear yet whether the water has been "charged", and if it has healing properties, but already the area is being referred to as "The Lourdes of the Low-lands".
(Name and address known to the editors)
(published September, 1993 )

Holland (1996)
From the Share International letters column :

Dear Editors,
In February 1996, my 76 year old mother felt somewhat depressed and was muttering away while she was doing her household duties of the day. Suddenly she saw a little light next to a white porcelain statue of the Madonna in one of the bedrooms of the house. At first, she muttered to that as well, but then approached the light which started to flicker. As she touched it with her hand, she suddenly was holding a flat, metal little angel in her hand. She is still flabbergasted about this event and has been wondering whose grace this was?

R.L., Amsterdam, Holland.
( published July-August 1996 )

 
Ireland (1982 )
For the past six years, three women have been receiving visions of the Virgin in a humble shrine in Ireland. Every Friday evening they gather at a tiny grotto near Blackwatertown village on the Tyrone/Armagh border to pray and witness the visions which began on 31 May 1982 - significantly, some might think, the date of Maitreya's intended emergence. The Virgin appears dressed in blue and calls for peace, prayer, fasting and confession. Patrinne McConville, one of the women, relays the messages she receives in a matter-of-fact way: they stress the need for prayer and ask all who witness the miracle to go and set up "strong centres of prayer". The Virgin makes clear that the shrine is for Catholic and Protestant; she is critical of the situation in Ireland but promises there will be no civil war.

As at Medjugorje, people's lives, including alcoholics and former non-believers, have been transformed for the good as a result of visiting the shrine. Predictably, the Catholic Church, and the local priest, have ignored the visions. Meanwhile Eileen McPhillips, Patrinne McConville and 17-year-old Maria McClements plan to build facilities for visitors when the funds become available. ( Source: Sean O'Neil in the Irish News, 1988 )
 

Ireland (1985)
Thousands of people in the little Irish village of Ballinspittle, west of Cork, have seen a statue of the Virgin Mary move. Since this phenomenon was first seen in July, hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to the grotto where the statue stands. According to witnesses it moves after sunset and consequently hundreds of people have begun keeping night vigils near the 153 kilo concrete statue.

A 17 year old schoolgirl, Claire Mahony, was the first to report seeing the statue move. Later, hundreds of villagers and visitors confirmed that they had seen the statue suddenly start to rock forward and moving either one, or both arms. The church so far has no comment on the phenomenon. Psychologists maintain that it is not the statue that moves, but the crowds around it.
 

Ireland 1986
The statue of the Virgin Mary at Ballinspittle, Co Cork is moving again according to recent reports from Ireland. After vandals attacked it with a sledgehammer last winter, sculptor Maurice O'Donnell created a new head and hands and reinforced the statue with three hundredweight of concrete. Much to his amazement (she never moved while he was repairing her, he said), the Virgin's head has been seen to move again. The statue is now back in the grotto and the village, so quickly deserted after the attack, is preparing for another flood of visitors.
(reported in Share International July-August, 1986 )

Ireland 1997
On a summer evening in July 1985, an Irish girl named Clare Mahoney strolled home at dusk through the pastures and farmlands of County Cork, past a shrine to the Virgin Mary that she had passed hundreds of times before. But on that July evening in the village of Ballinspittle, when Clare Mahoney glanced up at the statue, she saw it move. The Madonna swayed back and forth. Word spread quickly, and soon thousands of people gathered to see the phenomenon. ( see story above ) But the sighting generated controversy. The faithful held masses near the shrine, but scientists said the motion was merely an optical illusion. Eventually, the scientists and sceptics won out, and the public attention died down. Some 10 years after Clare Mahoney's discovery, a writer for FATE magazine visited the statue with her family. Janet Brennan wrote of her experience: "We knelt down at the railing that separates the grotto from the gravel parking lot and looked up at the Madonna. To our amazement, she was moving. Slowly, almost eerily, she swayed back and forth a few inches. The movement was so smooth it seemed as if the statue were floating." Upon closer inspection, her son saw that the statue was held in cement, with no apparatus to make it move. Brennan concluded: "Pilgrims by the thousands still pour into Fatima and Lourdes, seeking physical cures and spiritual comfort and creating thriving tourist industries. But in a quiet corner of Ireland ... the Madonna of Ballinspittle rocks on in solitude." (Source: FATE magazine; reported in Share International, April 1997 )

Ireland (1990)
The tiny village of Fahy in County Galway, Ireland, has become the focal point for pilgrims from North and South since apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been seen inside the Church of Our Lady.

On 2 June two girls from Cork first saw the Virgin on the wall at the side of the altar. A series of light blue patches have since appeared on the wall. Father Cathal Stanley, who believes that God is sending out warnings to mankind and that the world is on the brink of climatic disaster, has been told to take a rest by his local bishop and not talk to the media. Meanwhile, coachloads continue to descend on this latest sighting of the Virgin in Ireland. (Source: The Sunday Correspondent)

 
Italy (1987)
The Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf, in a full page article, recently reported that throughout the world, but particularly in Italy, there is an enormous increase in reports of visions of the Virgin Mary.

One is about the 'inexplicable case' of the-75-year-old, almost illiterate farmer, Domenico Masselli, who communicates with the 'Madonna of Storarella'. He receives letters from people who ask the Madonna questions and puts them, unopened, on the altar of the church of Storarella. "Without hesitation they are answered by him in the Virgin Mary's name, completely accurately. His explanation is simple: "I am the postman for the Madonna", the newspaper quotes him.

Professor Maria Macioti, lecturer in sociology at the University of Rome, has made a special study of visions of the Madonna over a period of many years. She told De Telegraaf that there have been three cycles of such appearances in recent history: the first during the period 1947-1949, the second in the 70s and the third cycle during the past two years.

Perhaps one of the most convincing testimonies to the authenticity of such appearances is from the now 74 year old Bruno Cornacchiola who in the late 1940s saw the Virgin Mary appear to him. Cornacchiola was a dyed-in-the-wool communist, not of the casual Italian sort who profess communism during the week and go to church on Sunday, but an extremely principled one who fought against General Franco in the Spanish civil war.

"Having come from a very poor family I was filled with hatred for the Church," he told the Dutch newspaper. "I even considered assassinating the Pope in the belief that it would be a service to humanity." In 1947 Bruno went out for a day in the country with his wife and children, planning quietly to prepare a lecture in which he would criticise the Church's teaching about the Virgin Mary. Not a likely candidate, therefore, for seeing visions. Suddenly, he saw the "bella signorina" standing before him, as did his children. On this occasion he was given the first of a series of messages.

A more recent case reported in De Telegraaf is that of Renato Baron, secretary of the Christian-Democratic Party in San Martino di Schio. "One day he came face to face with the Madonna. She was dressed all in white with a blue cloak. He was intelligent enough, before telling the outside world, to go quickly to a psychiatrist for a certificate to prove that he was completely sane. Today, tens of thousands of believers come every week from all over Europe to see the miracle of San Martino: a crucifix in the place where the Madonna first appeared which miraculously gives out a strong scent of roses."

 
Mexico (1992)
Thousands of people are flocking to a remote Mexican village to receive healings from a weeping statue of the Madonna. The healing powers of the three-foot Madonna statue in San Tomas were discovered this summer by a 12-year-old girl praying for her mother who was dying of cancer. The girl discovered tears flowing down the statue's cheeks. "I thought it was the morning dew, so I touched the droplet," said Ana Avila, a sixth-grader. "It tasted salty, like a real tear." When Ana returned home, she found her mother in the kitchen preparing dinner and singing. The woman had not been able to get out of bed for three months. Word quickly spread throughout the town, and other healings were reported. The story of the Miraculous Madonna was published in the Mexico City daily newspapers, and elsewhere throughout the world. "People have come from South and North America, from Europe and from Asia," says Father Amoros, the local priest. "And all have been healed." He says, "People arrive on stretchers and crutches, then walk away under their own power after praying to the Madonna and touching her tears. No one can explain the tears or the miracles. They've sent scientists from Mexico City and from the US. All say the tears are real, but no one knows where they come from or how they heal." (Source: The Sun, USA)

Mexico (1997)
Nearly 2,000 people an hour are flocking to see an image of the so-called "Subway Virgin" formed in a puddle of water in a Mexico City metro station. The image, now a stain left by the dried-up puddle, is about 10 inches long, and bears a resemblance to the image of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe, a manifestation of the Virgin Mary. The Mexican archbishop's office expressed doubt that the image was a true miracle, saying it failed to rank with divine appearances such as Guadalupe in 1531, Lourdes in France in 1854, and Fatima in Portugal in 1917. "There are no theological elements that lead us to consider this a divine presence through these lines that have formed due to a water leak," the church office said in a state ment.

The image first appeared at the Hidalgo metro station in downtown Mexico City. The Mexico City metro system, one of the busiest underground railway systems in the world, transports more than one million people a day. Police officers guarding the site said as many as 1,800 people per hour were lining up to see the image. Many people laid candles, flowers and coins near the site. ( Source: Reuters )

CNN..com report June 22, 1997 (includes QuickTime movie)

 
Netherlands (1993)
From the Share International letters column :

Dear Editors,
The Limburgs Dagblad of 23 October 1993 carried a report about visions of the Virgin Mary in the Flemish town of Lede. The article, entitled "The Miracle of Lede" tells how a 60-year old woman, Marie-Jeanne Vanlonderzele, began praying for healing for her dying husband. Her prayers were answered, he recovered; but during his healing Marie-Jeanne was visited by the Blessed Virgin, who requested that a chapel be built. This was done and the chapel is now visited monthly by the Virgin Mary (and sometimes also by Jesus) to give a message to those who gather there.

Visitors from all over Europe come to hear these messages and to visit the chapel. Many take photographs (of the sky above the chapel) which when developed show images of a white dove or a consecrated candle. "Everyone gets some sign," says Marie-Jeanne. She refuses all money, saying that the Virgin Mary comes not for the rich but for the ordinary people. Marie-Jeanne helps people in whatever way she believes the Blessed Virgin requires - through prayers, healing and counselling.

The messages exhort people to pray, go to Mass and confession, and to live good lives; they also warn of war, etc; in brief, difficult times ahead. Marie-Jeanne also has special messages for the local parish priest who, so far, has not commented publicly on the events in the town of Lede.
(Name and address supplied.)

(published March 1994)

 

 
New Zealand (1993)
In early March, during an open air meeting at the Medjugorje Peace Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, at which a representative from Medjugorje was one of the speakers, a band of colours appeared in the sky, though not in rainbow formation. Later, outside the nearby Cathedral, members of the congregation noticed that the sun appeared to be changing colour, to be spinning and "jumping". These phenomena were also accompanied by a vision of the Virgin Mary in the sky.

New Zealand (1995)
A vision of the Madonna is said to have appeared to more than 200 people at Manu Ariki Marae, near Taumaranui, in the North Island of New Zealand. ( A marae is an indigenous community centre ). It was a Sunday evening, at about 8:30 and most of the people who live on the marae were inside their cabins preparing for bed. What they say they saw is a vision of the Madonna, or as they call it The Mother. Word spread quickly and the initial crowd of thirty swelled to more than 200.

 Witnesses talked to television news about what they desribe as a miracle : "One of the women came rushing in breathless. Get up! Get up! There's a vision. There's a vision you must come," recalled one of the residents. "We had people on the phone ringing people saying 'Get here quick! Run. Come up here now'. People were arriving in cars. As I was running up the road there were other people bolting up the road. We were all running." Another added, "She was standing as high as the building. Dressed in a white robe, wearing a shoulder length veil."

 The vision stayed for nearly three hours, fading slowly away around 11pm. Since the appearance, the commune has become the talk of the town. There are plenty of sceptics but those who were there are convinced that it was a miracle. Established in the 1960's the commune is a religious centre, its philosophy loosely based on Christianity but with an emphasis on the female side of God. When they pray they speak of "Father, Mother, Son and Holy Spirit" Similar groups overseas see this place as their spiritual headquarters. ( Source : TV3 Nightline, New Zealand, September 10 )

 

 
Philippines (1982)
From the Share International letters column :

Dear Editor,
Five hundred children of Emilia Auginaldo elementary school on the island of Luson witnessed a vision (the paper called it an apparition) in the sky, of Mother Mary and baby Jesus. About four thirty in the afternoon of November 19, 1982, a ten year old 4th grader was sitting on the playground of the school. When she looked up in the sky, she saw three angels, Mother Mary with a baby in her arms and an old man standing next to her. They were coming out of a golden palace in a carriage pulled by winged horses. The girl, Janet Holly, an orphan, started to cry because she thought angels were coming to take her. She ran into the classroom and called her teacher who came out but did not see anything. Other children came running out of the buildings and saw the same vision in the sky.

They described the vision to a reporter in great detail: Mary was wearing ... gown and a gold crown on her head; the angels had golden hair and more long flaming gowns; one of them had a key in her hand; and so on. One teacher who had seen the vision told the reporter that she felt an awesome force making her kneel down.

A week later, the children still told the same story about the vision. When they waved their hands, they said, Mary waved at them and the vision disappeared.

The Philippines is a predominantly catholic country and St. Mary is a most important figure in their beliefs. This is one of many stories about visions or apparitions that people have seen all over the world. In the United States those visions often include figures of Jesus Christ; in Japan, they are images of Maitreya Boddhisatva!

What is unique about this story is that 500 children saw the vision together.
(Name and address with-held)
(published September 1983)

Philippines (1993)
An estimated one million people gathered in a small Philippine town north of Manila on 6 March to witness a visitation of the Virgin Mary. Many people in the crowd, including top Philippine government officials, journalists, and the local Catholic bishop - acting as a representative of the Pope - attested to seeing a silhouette resembling the Virgin Mary appear above a guava tree for approximately five seconds. ( Source : Manila Bulletin, Associated Press )

Report from Share International, May 1993

 

 
Western Samoa (1997)
About 100 people on the South Pacific island of Western Samoa said they saw an image of the Virgin Mary surrounded by bright colours in the early morning sky near the horizon. Witnesses said they also saw images of the Eucharist and the Holy Grail. "The Virgin Mary remained there for about five minutes before merging into the clouds," said one witness. (Source: Reuters)