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The apparitions of

GARABANDAL

BY
F. SANCHEZ-VENTURA Y PASCUAL

Chapter Eleven

CHANCERY OF SANTANDER

Page 150

"What is happening at San Sebastian de Garabandal?"

67.—A few months after the last note from the Chancery of Santander, an unsigned article appeared under this title. It think it deserves to be quoted here, for it is a perfect, objective summary of all the events we have covered. It reads as follows:

   "For many months now, a great number of people have been asking themselves: 'What is happening at San Sebastian de Garabandal?' "

   The four little girls who see the Virgin, and who have had no rest for the last eleven months, make the most amazing statements in all simplicity, and set an example of penance and charity.

   Mary Cruz, Jacinta, Maria Dolores and Maria Concepcion claim that they see the Virgin. The children are certainly not lying. If they say that they see the Virgin, then they see her. The questions which we all ask ourselves on arriving at Garabandal are: How and why do they see her? Why don't other children see her? Why, when at certain times they want to see her, do they not succeed in seeing her? Why do all four children see her together? Why do they see her separately? Why are the apparitions announced to them in advance? Why do days at a time go by without any of them seeing her, until the foretold date arrives? Why do such amazing and profoundly sublime things happen here, in such simple surroundings?

   Legend and truth have mingled to become almost inseparable one from the other. Rumors, lies, distortions of the truth have been mixed up with the real facts. This is only natural; but to get to know the facts properly, one has to resort to firsthand experience.

   The solutions that have been put forward by members of the medical profession have been refuted one after the other, and there always remains an element of doubt about any medical explanation. The four girls are normal; they have been the witnesses of countless extraordinary happenings, and they are not lying. Clairvoyance, metempsychosis, hysteria, suggestion, auto-suggestion and many other words defining pathological and neurotic states, etc., have all in turn been invoked.

   Meanwhile, the four girls go on seeing the same personages, hearing them, receiving lessons in obedience and humility; they are docile and humble. The Virgin has invited them to be charitable, to be well-behaved, and to do penance for the sins of mankind.

   Both their simplicity and their spirit of penance are astonishing As if it were the most natural thing in the world to do, they have risen at five or six o'clock in the morning throughout the winter to

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