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The apparitions of

GARABANDAL

BY
F. SANCHEZ-VENTURA Y PASCUAL

APPENDIX B

Page 193

THE BEHAVIOR OF THE VISIONS

6.—"It is curious," says Monroy, "to note the nature of the instruments employed by the visions to achieve their ends. These instruments are invariably children between five and twelve years old." He adds: "Mary visited Bernadette at Lourdes and gave the Miraculous Medal to a charming little girl in Paris."

   Before writing about apparitions, the first thing to do is to read up the case history of each one. If Monroy had taken the trouble to digest a little information, he would have seen that he was skating on very thin ice, because the "charming little girl" of Miraculous Medal fame was neither charming, in the ordinary sense of the word, nor a little girl. She was Sister Catherine Labouré, a Daughter of Charity aged twenty-one. Her vision took place in the chapel of the Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul in Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris. In this case, the visionary was a physically and spiritually healthy nun with a normally developed intellect, and she was unlikely to fall into errors arising out of childish inexperience or, for that matter, out of hallucinations due to old age.

   With a few exceptions, however, the fact is that the best known apparitions have been seen by young children. Why? Far be it from me to explain why Our Blessed Lady more often than not prefers children to adults when she wishes to give a message to mankind. In principle, I can see nothing contradictory in this fact. Nor do I find her choice in any way inappropriate.

   In the first place, children have the advantage of their innocence, which makes them better prepared to receive so singular a grace. What is more, they transmit her message more accurately because, in their ignorance, they act automatically without their own intellect leading them to add or omit any detail of what they have seen or heard. Fr. Peyramale, the parish priest at Lourdes, did not believe in Bernadette's visions until, at his bidding, the child asked the Vision's identity. Bernadette came back with the answer: "She told me she was the Immaculate Conception". The young girl had never heard this expression in her life before, and, so that she should not forget it, she repeated it to herself over and over again, all the way back from the grotto at Massabielle to the parish priest's home.

   On the other hand, adults sense the outcome of these events better, and realize the comment that they are bound to arouse. Experience has shown that adults are more cowardly when it comes to accomplishing the mission entrusted to them, afraid as they are of laying themselves open to public ridicule and scorn.

   This is confirmed by the forerunner of the Marian apparitions. It took place on May 3rd, 1491, when the Blessed Virgin appeared to Thierry Schoere, a blacksmith at Orbey. Enveloped in a brilliant light. Our Lady held in her right hand three ears of wheat proceeding from a single stalk, while in her left hand there was an icicle.

   The next few paragraphs are taken from "Estigmatizados y Apariciones". Here, before Monroy even took up his pen, was the reason why Mary's visionaries are generally children.

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