Visions of Jesus and Mary
Encyclopedia
Since the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
on Calvary
until today, a number of people have claimed to have had visions of Christ and personal conversations with him. Some people make similar claims regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary. Discussions about the authenticity of these visions have often invited controversy. The Catholic Church endorses a fraction of these claims, and various visionaries it accepts have achieved beatification
, or even sainthood.
The very first reported visions of Christ, and personal conversations with him, after his resurrection
and prior to his ascension are found in the New Testament
. One of the most widely recalled Resurrection appearances of Jesus
is the doubting Thomas
conversation (John 20:24-29) between him and Thomas the Apostle
after his death. The last book of the Bible
itself is simply based on a series of visions. In the Book of Revelation
, the author, often identified as John of Patmos
, recorded visions that became part of the New Testament
.
, yet among Christian denominations, the Catholic Church has made more formal comments on visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and Roman Catholic
s have, in general, paid more attention to visions.
Author Michael Freze argues that Catholic practices such as Eucharistic adoration
, rosary devotions
and contemplative meditation
with a focus on interior life
facilitate visions and apparitions.
For instance, the first step in the mysticism of Saint Teresa of Avila
, a Doctor of the Church
who reported extensive visions, was "mental prayer", i.e. devout contemplation or concentration, the withdrawal of the soul from without and specially the devout observance of the passion of Christ and penitence (Autobiography 11.20).
Yet, in recent centuries, people reporting visions of Jesus have been of diverse backgrounds: laity and clergy, young and old, Catholics and Protestants, devout or casual believers.
at the Vatican has a published and detailed set of steps for "Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations" that claim supernatural origin. These criteria may be used to declare a vision as invalid, or they may declare that the vision does not, for the moment, seem contrary to the doctrines of the Church, allowing Catholics to follow a devotion to the vision, without providing an official endorsement from the Vatican.
After some time and detailed examinations, the Holy See
has, however, recognized a few post-Ascension conversations with Jesus as valid. For example, in his 1928 encyclical
Miserentissimus Redemptor
Pope Pius XI
stated that Jesus Christ had "manifested Himself" to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th Century. The encyclical refers to the conversation between Jesus and Saint Margaret several times. The Vatican biography of Saint Teresa of Avila
clearly refers to her gift of interior locution
and her conversations with Jesus. The Vatican biography of Saint Juan Diego discusses his conversation with the Virgin Mary. The Vatican biography of Saint Faustina Kowalska
goes further in that it not only refers to her conversations with Jesus, but quotes some of these conversations.
As a historical pattern, Vatican approval seems to have followed general acceptance of a vision by well over a century in most cases. For instance, the reported visions of Jesus and Mary by Benoite Rencurel in Saint-Étienne-le-Laus
in France from 1664 to 1718 were only recognized by the Holy See
in May 2008, making them the first Marian apparitions and visions of Jesus to be approved in the 21st century. According to Father Salvatore M. Perrella of the Mariunum Pontifical Institute
in Rome, this is the 12th Marian apparition approved by the Holy See
from a total of 295 that have been studied through the centuries.
who often claimed to receive messages from God to heal people on stage. Popoff was debunked in 1987 when intercepted messages from his wife to a small radio receiver hidden in his ear were replayed on the Johnny Carson
national television show.
Another example is messages from Jesus reported by Catalina Rivas, which have been exposed in a number of cases as less than truthful. A number of messages which Rivas reported as having been received from God were later found to correspond to exact pages of books previously written by other authors (e.g. José Prado Flores), and published instructional literature for Catholic seminarians.
Some reported messages from the Virgin Mary have also involved controversy. For instance, reported Marian messages from Veronica Lueken
were declared invalid by Bishop Francis Mugavero
of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
and reports of Our Lady of Surbiton claiming that the Virgin Mary appeared every day under a pine tree in England were flatly rejected by the Vatican as a fraud.
The Catholic Church has, at times, taken a harsh view of some people who have claimed religious visions. In December 1906, during the reign of Pope Pius X
the former Polish nun Feliksa Kozlowska
became the first woman in history to be excommunicated by name as a heretic. Some visions of Jesus have simply been classified as hallucinations by the Church, while in a few cases the Church has chosen to remain silent on the authenticity of claimed visions.
order and the devotions to the Holy Rosary
, the Holy Face of Jesus
and the Sacred Heart
of Jesus. The feast of Corpus Christi, the first papally sanctioned universal feast in the Latin Rite, was established due to visions of Jesus reported by Saint Juliana of Liege, an Augustinian nun. Key elements of modern Roman Catholic Mariology have been influenced by visions reported by young children on remote hilltops such as Lourdes
and Fatima
.
Reported messages from Jesus have also influenced papal actions and encyclicals. For instance, the 1899 consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Pope Leo XIII
in the encyclical Annum Sacrum
(which entered new theological territory by consecrating non-Christians) was due to the messages from Jesus reported by a nun, Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart
. Pope Leo XIII performed the requested consecration a few days after the death of Sister Mary and called it "the greatest act of my pontificate".
Some visions have helped maintain the strength of the Catholic Church through the centuries before being accepted by the Vatican. For instance, Saint Juan Diego's reported vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe
in Mexico in 1531 was instrumental in adding almost 8 million people to the ranks of Catholics between 1532 and 1538, right in the midst of the Protestant Reformation
of 1521 to 1579 which saw a large number of people leave the Catholic Church in Europe. The fact that Juan Diego was declared venerable
only in 1987 is an example of how some visions strengthen the Church long before the Vatican takes a position on their authenticity.
in Mexico City was the most visited Catholic shrine in the world, followed by San Giovanni Rotondo
in Italy and Our Lady of Aparecida
in Brazil, each with about 6 to 7 million pilgrims per year. Given about 5 million visitors per year to Our Lady of Lourdes
and 4 million to Our Lady of Fátima
, as well as other shrines such as Medjugorje, the major vision based churches receive over 30 million pilgrims per year.
The visual effect of these pilgrimages can be striking, for instance, every year on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of Fatima apparitions, pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima
with crowds that approach one million on each day.
Messages from Jesus reported by John Leary in Rochester New York in 1999 had predicted that Pope John Paul II would be forced out of Rome and sent into exile amid chaos. Bishop Mathew Clark of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester
disallowed these messages at the time, but with the election of Pope Benedict XVI
the debate about the validity of these messages seems to have simply ended.
The visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
, written by Klemens Brentano in 1852, led a French priest Abbé Julien Gouyet to discover a house near Ephesus
in Turkey
in 1881. This house is assumed by some Catholics and some Muslims to be the House of the Virgin Mary
. Since Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
had never been to Ephesus
some people view this discovery as a prediction. The Holy See
has taken no official position on the authenticity of the discovery yet, but in 1896 Pope Leo XIII
visited it and in 1951 Pope Pius XII
initially declared the house a Holy Place. Pope John XXIII
later made the declaration permanent. Pope Paul VI
in 1967, Pope John Paul II
in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI
in 2006 visited the house and treated it as a shrine.
On August 19, 1982, some teenagers in Kibeho
, Rwanda
reported visions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, as Our Lady of Kibeho
. The teenagers reported truly gruesome sights such as rivers of blood and the visions were accompanied by intense reactions: crying, tremors, and comas. Some today regard the visions as an ominous prediction of the Rwandan Genocide
of 1994, and particularly in that specific location in 1995 in which some of the teenagers died a decade after their vision. The apparitions were accepted by the local Roman Catholic bishop (accused by many of complicity in the genocide himself), but have not been given final approval by the Holy Office.
On September 11, 1991, ten years to the day before the famous event, the visionary Vassula Ryden
wrote in her notebook a message that she attributed to Jesus: "the earth will shiver and shake - and every evil built into Towers will collapse into a heap of rubble and be buried in the dust of sin! above, the Heavens will shake and the foundations of the earth will rock!" Some of Vassula's followers view this sentence as a prediction. Her notebooks were published as a series of books “True Life in God” in the 1990s and have a strong following worldwide.
The Bible
includes primarily pre-Ascension visions of Jesus, except for
the vision of Christ by Saint Stephen
just before his death (Acts 7:55),
the road to Damascus voice
heard by Saint Paul and the conversation between Jesus and Saint Ananias
in Damascus
in which Saint Ananias is ordered to heal Saint Paul (Acts 9:10-18). The Damascus appearance is the last reported vision of Jesus in the Bible until the Book of Revelation
was written. However, in the following centuries, many saints reported visions of both Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 1205, while praying in the Church of San Damiano just outside Assisi
, Saint Francis of Assisi
reported a vision in which an image of Jesus came alive and told him: "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." This vision lead Saint Francis to renounce the outlook of his merchant family, embrace poverty and form the Franciscan
order. For several centuries thereafter, the Franciscans became a key force in the renewal of the reach of Christianity. During another vision in 1224 Saint Francis reportedly received the very first recorded case of stigmata
.
Starting in 1208, Saint Juliana of Liege had visions of Christ which she kept a secret for almost 20 years. In these visions she was reportedly told to institute a solemn feast for the Blessed Sacrament
as the Body of Christ
. When she eventually reported her visions to her confessor, the information was relayed to the bishop. Years later, in 1264, Pope Urban IV
(who was formerly the Archdeacon of Liege) formally declared the feast of Corpus Christi for the whole Latin Rite, as the first papally sanctioned universal feast for the Latin Rite.
In 1251 the English Carmelite priest Saint Simon Stock
reported a vision of the Virgin Mary at Cambridge
England. According to Saint Simon, in this vision the Virgin Mary had a scapular
in her hand and told him: "whoever dies in this garment, will not suffer everlasting fire.” Saint Simon instituted the confraternity of the Brown Scapular. Also known as the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the brown scapular is perhaps the best known, and most widespread of all small scapulars.
In her early life, Saint Catherine of Siena
was a withdrawn Dominican
tertiary who lived, fasted and prayed at home in Siena
Italy. In 1366, when she was 19 years old she reported her first vision of Jesus after which she started to tend to the sick and the poor. In 1370 she reported a vision in which she was commanded to abandon her life of solitude and to make an impact on the world. She corresponded with Pope Gregory XI
and other people in authority, begging for peace and for the reformation of the clergy, writing over 300 letters. Her arguments, and her trip to Avignon, eventually became instrumental in the decision of Pope Gregory XI to return the Avignon Papacy
to Rome where she was summoned to live until her death. She is one of only three female Doctors of the Church.
In 1372 Saint Julian of Norwich
was on her deathbed and had been given her last rites when she reported a series of visions of Jesus, followed by a sudden recovery. Almost twenty years later she wrote about these visions in her book “Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love
” perhaps the first book in the English language written by a woman, presumably because she was unfamiliar with Latin. Her book mentions her illness and her recovery as she saw the shining image of Christ. The sixteen revelations start with the crown of thorns and proceed through the death of Jesus, ending with his resurrection and how Christ still dwells in the souls of those who love him. She is also celebrated in the Anglican Church.
In 1531, Saint Juan Diego reported an early morning vision of the Virgin Mary in which he was instructed to build an abbey on the Hill of Tepeyac
in Mexico. The local prelate did not believe his account and asked for a miraculous sign, which was later provided as an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe
permanently imprinted on the saint’s cloak where he had gathered roses. Over the years, Our Lady of Guadalupe became a symbol of the Catholic faith in Mexico. By 1820 when the Mexican War of Independence
from Spanish colonial rule ended Our Lady of Guadalupe had come to symbolize the Mexican nation. Today it remains a strong national and religious symbol in Mexico.
On St. Peter's Day in 1559, Saint Teresa of Avila
(Teresa de Jesús) reported a vision of Jesus present to her in bodily form. For almost two years thereafter she reported similar visions. In some visions she suffered bodily pain which led to the motto often associated with her: "Lord, either let me suffer or let me die." Saint Teresa’s visions transformed her life and she became a key figure in the Catholic Church eventually being recognized as one of only three female Doctors of the Church. One of her visions is the subject of Bernini's famous work The Ecstasy of St Theresa
in the basilica
of Santa Maria della Vittoria
in Rome
.
In the early 17th century, Venerable María de Jesús de Ágreda
reported a number of mystical experiences, visions and conversations with the Blessed Virgin Mary. She stated that the Blessed Virgin had inspired and dictated
passages in the book Mystical City of God
as a biography of the Virgin Mary. The book Mystical City of God is still frequently studied in college and university programs of Spanish language and culture. However, the book (which makes a number of somewhat unusual claims) has remained controversial within the Roman Catholic church
, having been banned and restored a number of times, and her process of beatification (started in 1673) has not been completed.
From 1673 to 1675, Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque
recalled a series of visions of Christ speaking to her. In December 1673 she reported that Jesus permitted her to rest her head upon his heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of his love. This led her to the founding of the Devotion of the Sacred Heart
. Initially, her life, actions, beliefs and writings became the subject of extreme scrutiny by the Catholic Church. However, she was eventually declared a saint in1920 and the Feast of the Sacred Heart is now officially celebrated 19 days after Pentecost
.
At her profession as a Capuchin
Poor Clare nun in 1678, Saint Veronica Giuliani
expressed a great desire to suffer in union with the crucified Jesus
for the conversion of sinners. Shortly after that time she reported a series of vision of Jesus and the Virgin Mary that lasted a number of years. She reported a vision of Christ bearing his cross and of a the chalice symbolizing the Passion of Christ. On Good Friday 1697 she received the five wounds of Christ as stigmata
.
Anne Catherine Emmerich
was an Augustinian nun who lived from 1774 to 1824 in Germany. She was bedridden as of 1813 and had visible stigmata
which would reopen on Good Friday
. She reported that since childhood she had visions in which she talked with Jesus and the Holy See
later came to accept her claims. In 1819 the poet Klemens Brentano, was inspired to visit her and began to write her visions in his words, with her approval. In 1833, after her death, the book “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ” was released by Brentano and was used in part by Mel Gibson
for his movie The Passion of the Christ
in 2003. In 1852 the book “The Life of The Blessed Virgin Mary” was published. Anne Catherine’s visions allegedly led to the discovery of the house in which the Virgin Mary lived in Ephesus
Turkey prior to the Assumption of Mary
. She also had visions of the future Catholic Church being undermined by political forces and Freemasonry
from within the Catholic Church's own hierarchy. The remedies she saw for the protection of the Catholic Church were the Holy Rosary
and Eucharistic Adoration
.
In 1843 Sister Marie of St Peter
, a Carmelite nun in Tours
France reported visions of conversations with Jesus and the Virgin Mary in which she was urged to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus
, in reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in his Passion. This resulted in the Golden Arrow Prayer
. The devotion was further spread from Tours partly by the efforts of the Venerable
Leo Dupont
(also called the Apostle of the Holy Face) and influenced Saint Therese of Lisieux.
In 1858 Saint Bernadette Soubirous
was a 14 year old shepherd girl who lived near the town of Lourdes
in France. One day she reported a vision of a miraculous Lady who identified Herself as the Virgin Mary in subsequent visions. In the first vision she was asked to return again and she had 18 visions overall. According to Saint Bernadette, the Lady held a string of Rosary beads and asked Saint Bernadette to drink water from the spring nearby and to request that the local priests build a chapel at that site of the visions. Eventually, a number of chapels and churches were built at Lourdes as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes
- which is now a major Catholic pilgrimage site. One of these churches, the Basilica of St. Pius X
can accommodate 25 thousand people and was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII
when he was the Papal Nuncio to France.
In 1866 Venerable Marie Martha Chambon
began to report visions of Jesus telling her to contemplate the Holy Wounds
, although it is said that she had received her first vision when only five years old.. She was a member of the Monastery of the Visitation Order
who lived in Chambéry
, France
, and is in the process of canonization
by the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1899 Saint Gemma Galgani
reported a vision of Jesus after which she experienced recurring stigmata
. She reported the vision as follows: “At that moment Jesus appeared with all his wounds open, but from these wounds there no longer came forth blood, but flames of fire. In an instant these flames came to touch my hands, my feet and my heart.” Thereafter she reported receiving the stigmata every week from Thursday night to Saturday morning, during which time she also reported further conversations with Jesus. The Congregation of Rites has yet refrained from making a decision on her stigmata.
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The Franciscan
Italian
priest Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
reported visions of both Jesus and Mary as early as 1910. For a number of years he claimed to have experienced deep ecstasy along with his visions. In 1918, while praying in the Church of Our Lady of Grace he reported ecstasy and visions which this time left him with permanent and visible stigmata
, the five wounds of Christ. The stigmata remained visible on his hands and feet for the next fifty years. Padre Pio was examined by many physicians, none of whom could offer an explanation for the fact that his bleeding wounds were never subject to infection.
The visions of the Virgin Mary appearing to three shepherd children at Our Lady of Fátima
in Portugal in 1917 were declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church in 1930 but Catholics at large are not formally required to believe them. However, four popes, i.e. Pope Pius XII
, Pope John XXIII
, Pope Paul VI
and Pope John Paul II
have supported the Fatima messages as supernatural. Pope John Paul II
was particularly attached to Fátima
and credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life after he was shot in Rome on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fátima in May 1981. He donated the bullet that wounded him on that day to the Roman Catholic sanctuary at Fátima
, in Portugal
.
The Holy See
has, at times, reversed its position on some visions. In 1931 Saint Faustina Kowalska
reported visions of a conversation with Jesus when she was a simple Polish nun. This resulted in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy
as a prayer and later an institution which was condemned by the Holy See in 1958. However, further investigation resulted in her beatification in 1993 and canonization in 2000. Her conversations with Jesus are recorded in her diary, published as "Divine Mercy in My Soul" - passages from which are at times quoted by the Vatican. Divine Mercy Sunday
is now officially celebrated as the first Sunday after Easter.
On the first Friday in Lent 1936, Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli
, a nun born near Milan
in Italy, reported a vision in which Jesus told her: “I will that My Face, which reflects the intimate pains of My Spirit, the suffering and the love of My Heart, be more honored. He who meditates upon Me, consoles Me”. Further visions reportedly urged her to make a medal with the Holy Face. In 1958, Pope Pius XII
confirmed the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus
as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics. Maria Pierina was beatified
by Benedict XVI in 2009.
From 1944 to 1947 the bed ridden Italian writer and mystic Maria Valtorta
produced 15,000 handwritten pages of text that she said recorded the visions of her conversations with Jesus about his life and the early church. These handwritten pages were characterized by the fact that they included no overwrites, corrections or revisions and seemed somewhat like dictations. The fact that she often suffered from heart and lung ailments during the period of the visions made the natural flow of the text even more unusual. These pages became the basis of her book The Poem of the Man God
. The position of the Catholic Church with respect to her book is unclear and subject to varying interpretations. The Holy See does not endorse the book, but no longer forbids it. Since 1992 the Holy See has chosen to remain silent on its position with respect to the work.
Some people who are said to have received interior locution
s or messages from Jesus prefer not to discuss them in detail. For instance, while the Vatican biography of Mother Teresa
of Calcutta refers to her interior locution
s and messages from Jesus, she often referred to them in terms of a “call within a call” and seemed to wish to remain private about them.
Among recent visions, the reported apparitions of The Virgin Mary to six children in Međugorje in 1981 have received the widest amount of attention. These messages are published and distributed worldwide and often emphasize five key elements: Daily prayer of the Holy Rosary
, Fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, Daily reading of the Bible
, Monthly Confessions and Holy Communion. The messages of Our Lady of Međugorje have a very strong following among Catholics worldwide. The Holy See
has never officially either approved or disapproved of the messages of Međugorje, although both critical and supportive documents about the messages have been published by various Catholic figures.
The visions and conversations with the Virgin Mary reported in 1973 in Japan by Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa as Our Lady of Akita
were approved in an unusually rapid form by the Vatican. For several decades, Agnes Sasagawa had encountered many health problems but her health reportedly improved after drinking water from Lourdes
. After going totally deaf, she went to live with the nuns in the remote area of Yuzawadai, near the city of Akita
. In 1973 she reported messages from the Virgin Mary, as well as stigmata
. According to EWTN, in June 1988 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI
) as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave definitive judgement on Our Lady of Akita
events and messages as reliable and worthy of belief.
As recently as 1985 other people such as Vassula Ryden
have recorded their conversations with Jesus in their books, resulting in interest, discussion and controversy. Ryden’s reported conversations with Jesus are published in a series of books called “True Life in God” and have been translated to over 40 languages by volunteers worldwide. The discussion on Vassula Ryden within the Holy See
seems to be oscillating back and forth. Ryden’s notebooks were initially criticized by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
in a 1995 notification. In July 2004 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI
) wrote a letter that effectively reversed that situation. Yet a new letter written on January 25, 2007 by Cardinal William Levada
advised against her prayer groups and stated that the writings of Ryden were neither private revelation, nor of divine origin but only personal reflections of Ryden. Ryden’s supporters and detractors seem to selectively read the Vatican letter that suits them best.
In the book Visions of Jesus Phillip Wiebe chronicled the stories of 30 people from truly diverse backgrounds who claim to have had recent conversations with Jesus. Wiebe analyzed these claims from multiple perspectives, including hallucinations, dreams and real visions.
and Vassula Ryden
each produced thousand of pages of text that they directly attribute to Jesus. Maria Valtorta
and Vassula Ryden
both reported their writings as the dictations of Jesus, and not their own words. On the other hand, while Saint Julian of Norwich
wrote a book based on her reported visions, the book was written twenty years after her first vision and she did not declare it to be a dictation. At the other end of the spectrum is the case of Blessed
Anne Catherine Emmerich
who narrated her messages to Klemens Brentano, who later used his words to write them. Another case was that of Sister Consolata Betrone
who would repeat her reported conversations with Jesus to her confessor Father Lorenzo Sales
. After her death, Father Sales wrote the book "Jesus Appeals to the World" based on her reported messages.
Visions should also be differentiated from interior locution
s in which inner voices are reported, but no visual or physical contact is claimed. For instance, the messages written by Father Stefano Gobbi
for the Marian Movement of Priests
are reported as interior locution
s rather than visions. The same happened with the messages received by Mother Carmela Carabelli
.
There have been other mystics who have produced large volumes of text, but considered them meditations rather than visions or interior locution
s. For instance, the Venerable
Concepcion Cabrera de Armida
's over 60,000 pages of text were never represented as visions, but as her own meditations, often in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament
, during Eucharistic Adoration
.
Some visionaries report receiving physical signs on their bodies as they experience visions. Saint Francis of Assisi was one of the first reported cases of stigmata
, but the best known recent example is another Franciscan
(in fact a Capuchin
) Saint Padre Pio. He is one of several Franciscan
s in history with reported stigmata.
Padre Pio's stigmata persisted for over fifty years and he was examined by numerous physicians in the 20th century, who confirmed the existence of the wounds, but none of whom could produce a medical explanation for the fact that his bleeding wounds would never get infected. His wounds healed once, but reappeared. The wounds were examined by Luigi Romanelli, chief physician of the City Hospital of Barletta, for about one year. Dr. Giorgio Festa, a private practitioner also examined them in 1920 and 1925. Professor Giuseppe Bastianelli
, physician to Pope Benedict XV agreed that the wounds existed but made no other comment. Pathologist Dr. Amico Bignami
of the University of Rome also observed the wounds, but could make no diagnosis. Both Bignami and Dr. Giuseppe Sala commented on the unusually smooth edges of the wounds and lack of edema
. Dr. Alberto Caserta took X-ray
s of the hands in 1954 and found no abnormality in the bone structure.
(yet pre-Ascension) physical contact with Jesus is possible, for in John 21:17 Jesus told Saint Mary Magdalene
: ”Don’t touch Me for I have not yet ascended to the Father”. In John 20:27 Jesus ordered Saint Thomas the Apostle
: “Put your hand into My side”. But the Bible does not mention if Saint Thomas followed that command. Interestingly, in a reported “vision of a vision” on August 9, 1944 the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta
wrote in her notebook that Saint Thomas did obey Jesus that day and that in her reported vision of that incident physical contact took place. Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque reported putting her head on the heart of Jesus, while Maria Valtorta
wrote that she had put her head on his shoulder.
which is reported to have been miraculously imprinted on the cloak of Saint Juan Diego.
Transiturus de hoc mundo which established the feast of Corpus Christi. However, in the meantime, due to a conflict with a local church official, she was driven out of Liege and lived in seclusion at Fosses-la-Ville
until she died. On her deathbed she asked for her confessor, supposedly to reveal to him some secrets regarding her visions. But neither he nor any of her friends from Liege arrived and other secrets regarding her visions remain unknown.
's vision in 1858. Both saints reported a miraculous Lady on a hill who asked them to request that the local priests build a chapel at the site of the vision. Both visions included a reference to roses and led to large churches being built at the sites. Like Our Lady of Guadalupe
in Mexico, Our Lady of Lourdes
is a major Catholic symbol in France.
Some of the visions of Jesus and Mary are related among visionaries in different ages. For instance, in the 1980s Vicka Ivankovic
and Marija Pavlovic two of the visionaries in Međugorje both stated that the Virgin Mary told them that the visions reported in the 1940s by the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta
of her conversations with Jesus are authentic. Hence if and when the Holy See
selects a position on Medjugorje, it may also be viewed as having selected a position on the work of Maria Valtorta
.
Crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
on Calvary
Calvary
Calvary or Golgotha was the site, outside of ancient Jerusalem’s early first century walls, at which the crucifixion of Jesus is said to have occurred. Calvary and Golgotha are the English names for the site used in Western Christianity...
until today, a number of people have claimed to have had visions of Christ and personal conversations with him. Some people make similar claims regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary. Discussions about the authenticity of these visions have often invited controversy. The Catholic Church endorses a fraction of these claims, and various visionaries it accepts have achieved beatification
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
, or even sainthood.
The very first reported visions of Christ, and personal conversations with him, after his resurrection
Resurrection appearances of Jesus
The major Resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Canonical gospels are reported to have occurred after his death, burial and resurrection, but prior to his Ascension. Among these primary sources, most scholars believe First Corinthians was written first, authored by Paul of Tarsus along with...
and prior to his ascension are found in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. One of the most widely recalled Resurrection appearances of Jesus
Resurrection appearances of Jesus
The major Resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Canonical gospels are reported to have occurred after his death, burial and resurrection, but prior to his Ascension. Among these primary sources, most scholars believe First Corinthians was written first, authored by Paul of Tarsus along with...
is the doubting Thomas
Doubting Thomas
A Doubting Thomas is someone who will refuse to believe something without direct, physical, personal evidence; a skeptic.-Origin:The term is based on the Biblical account of Thomas the Apostle, a disciple of Jesus who doubted Jesus' resurrection and demanded to feel Jesus' wounds before being...
conversation (John 20:24-29) between him and Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...
after his death. The last book of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
itself is simply based on a series of visions. In the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
, the author, often identified as John of Patmos
John of Patmos
John of Patmos is the name given, in the Book of Revelation, as the author of the apocalyptic text that is traditionally cannonized in the New Testament...
, recorded visions that became part of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
.
Acceptance and impact
Some visions predate the Protestant ReformationProtestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, yet among Christian denominations, the Catholic Church has made more formal comments on visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic (term)
The term Roman Catholic appeared in the English language at the beginning of the 17th century, to differentiate specific groups of Christians in communion with the Pope from others; comparable terms in other languages already existed...
s have, in general, paid more attention to visions.
Eucharistic adoration
Eucharistic adoration is a practice in the Roman Catholic Church, and in a few Anglican and Lutheran churches, in which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed to and adored by the faithful....
, rosary devotions
Rosary devotions and spirituality
Devotion to the rosary is one of the most notable features of popular Catholic spirituality. Pope John Paul II placed rosary devotions at the very center of Christian spirituality and called them "among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation."From a historical...
and contemplative meditation
Christian meditation
Christian meditation is a form of prayer in which a structured attempt is made to get in touch with and deliberately reflect upon the revelations of God. The word meditation comes from the Latin word meditārī, which has a range of meanings including to reflect on, to study and to practice...
with a focus on interior life
Interior life (Catholic theology)
Interior life is a life which seeks God in everything, a life of prayer and the practice of living in the presence of God. It connotes intimate, friendly conversation with Him, and a determined focus on internal prayer versus external actions, while these latter are transformed into means of...
facilitate visions and apparitions.
For instance, the first step in the mysticism of Saint Teresa of Avila
Teresa of Ávila
Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer...
, a Doctor of the Church
Doctor of the Church
Doctor of the Church is a title given by a variety of Christian churches to individuals whom they recognize as having been of particular importance, particularly regarding their contribution to theology or doctrine.-Catholic Church:In the Catholic Church, this name is given to a saint from whose...
who reported extensive visions, was "mental prayer", i.e. devout contemplation or concentration, the withdrawal of the soul from without and specially the devout observance of the passion of Christ and penitence (Autobiography 11.20).
Yet, in recent centuries, people reporting visions of Jesus have been of diverse backgrounds: laity and clergy, young and old, Catholics and Protestants, devout or casual believers.
Vatican guidelines
The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the FaithCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...
at the Vatican has a published and detailed set of steps for "Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations" that claim supernatural origin. These criteria may be used to declare a vision as invalid, or they may declare that the vision does not, for the moment, seem contrary to the doctrines of the Church, allowing Catholics to follow a devotion to the vision, without providing an official endorsement from the Vatican.
After some time and detailed examinations, the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
has, however, recognized a few post-Ascension conversations with Jesus as valid. For example, in his 1928 encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
Miserentissimus Redemptor
Miserentissimus Redemptor
Miserentissimus Redemptor is the title of an encyclical by Pope Pius XI, issued on May 8, 1928. This encyclical deals with the concepts of Acts of Reparation and atonement...
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
stated that Jesus Christ had "manifested Himself" to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th Century. The encyclical refers to the conversation between Jesus and Saint Margaret several times. The Vatican biography of Saint Teresa of Avila
Teresa of Ávila
Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer...
clearly refers to her gift of interior locution
Interior locution
An interior locution is a mystical concept used by various religions, including the Roman Catholic Church. In an interior locution, a person reportedly receives a set of ideas, thoughts, or imaginations from an outside spiritual source. Interior locutions are most often reported during prayers...
and her conversations with Jesus. The Vatican biography of Saint Juan Diego discusses his conversation with the Virgin Mary. The Vatican biography of Saint Faustina Kowalska
Mary Faustina Kowalska
Maria Faustina Kowalska, commonly known as Saint Faustina, born Helenka Kowalska was a Polish nun, mystic and visionary...
goes further in that it not only refers to her conversations with Jesus, but quotes some of these conversations.
As a historical pattern, Vatican approval seems to have followed general acceptance of a vision by well over a century in most cases. For instance, the reported visions of Jesus and Mary by Benoite Rencurel in Saint-Étienne-le-Laus
Saint-Étienne-le-Laus
Saint-Étienne-le-Laus is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France.Besides being a popular vacation spot, the region is probably best known for the lengthy series of Marian apparitions which are said to have occurred there between 1664 and 1718, reported by shepherd Benoite...
in France from 1664 to 1718 were only recognized by the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
in May 2008, making them the first Marian apparitions and visions of Jesus to be approved in the 21st century. According to Father Salvatore M. Perrella of the Mariunum Pontifical Institute
Marianum
The Marianum is both the name of a Pontifical institute for the study of Mariology and the name of the prestigious journal of Marian theology. The school and the journal share the same name since their formation was based on the work of Father Gabriel Roschini, who founded both the journal and the...
in Rome, this is the 12th Marian apparition approved by the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
from a total of 295 that have been studied through the centuries.
Controversies
Many visions of Jesus following his ascension have been reported after the Book of Revelation was written. But the Book of Revelation itself specifically mentions the case of “false prophets” (Rev 19:20) and undoubtedly not everyone claiming to converse with Jesus can be believed. Over the years, a number of people claiming to converse with Jesus for the sake of monetary gain have been exposed. A well-known example was the Charismatic Protestant televangelist Peter PopoffPeter Popoff
Peter Popoff is a German-born American faith healer and the president of Peter Popoff Ministries. He conducts revival meetings and has a national television program...
who often claimed to receive messages from God to heal people on stage. Popoff was debunked in 1987 when intercepted messages from his wife to a small radio receiver hidden in his ear were replayed on the Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
national television show.
Another example is messages from Jesus reported by Catalina Rivas, which have been exposed in a number of cases as less than truthful. A number of messages which Rivas reported as having been received from God were later found to correspond to exact pages of books previously written by other authors (e.g. José Prado Flores), and published instructional literature for Catholic seminarians.
Some reported messages from the Virgin Mary have also involved controversy. For instance, reported Marian messages from Veronica Lueken
Veronica Lueken
Veronica Lueken was a Roman Catholic housewife who lived in Bayside, New York. From 1970 until her death, she reported to experience apparitions of the Virgin Mary and numerous Catholic saints...
were declared invalid by Bishop Francis Mugavero
Francis Mugavero
Francis John Mugavero was the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn...
of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, which includes territory that was previously part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, was established as a separate diocese in 1853 when the City of Brooklyn was separate from New York City....
and reports of Our Lady of Surbiton claiming that the Virgin Mary appeared every day under a pine tree in England were flatly rejected by the Vatican as a fraud.
The Catholic Church has, at times, taken a harsh view of some people who have claimed religious visions. In December 1906, during the reign of Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
the former Polish nun Feliksa Kozlowska
Feliksa Kozlowska
Feliksa Kozlowska was a Polish religious mystic and visionary who founded what eventually became the Old Catholic Mariavite Church, and, by implication, a dissident group which split from it in 1935, the Catholic Mariavite Church...
became the first woman in history to be excommunicated by name as a heretic. Some visions of Jesus have simply been classified as hallucinations by the Church, while in a few cases the Church has chosen to remain silent on the authenticity of claimed visions.
Impact
Despite the expected controversies (and the somewhat regularly appearing imposters), the post-Ascension visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary have, in fact, played a key role in the direction of the Catholic Church, e.g. the formation of the FranciscanFranciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
order and the devotions to the Holy Rosary
Rosary
The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...
, the Holy Face of Jesus
Holy Face of Jesus
The Holy Face of Jesus is a title for specific images which some Catholics believe to have been miraculously formed representations of the face of Jesus Christ...
and the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....
of Jesus. The feast of Corpus Christi, the first papally sanctioned universal feast in the Latin Rite, was established due to visions of Jesus reported by Saint Juliana of Liege, an Augustinian nun. Key elements of modern Roman Catholic Mariology have been influenced by visions reported by young children on remote hilltops such as Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...
and Fatima
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
.
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
in the encyclical Annum Sacrum
Annum Sacrum
Annum Sacrum is an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII on the consecration of the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was delivered in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome on the 25th day of May, 1899, the twenty-second year of his pontificate....
(which entered new theological territory by consecrating non-Christians) was due to the messages from Jesus reported by a nun, Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart
Mary of the Divine Heart
Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart , born Maria Droste zu Vischering, was a German Roman Catholic nun best known for influencing Pope Leo XIII's consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus...
. Pope Leo XIII performed the requested consecration a few days after the death of Sister Mary and called it "the greatest act of my pontificate".
Some visions have helped maintain the strength of the Catholic Church through the centuries before being accepted by the Vatican. For instance, Saint Juan Diego's reported vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
in Mexico in 1531 was instrumental in adding almost 8 million people to the ranks of Catholics between 1532 and 1538, right in the midst of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
of 1521 to 1579 which saw a large number of people leave the Catholic Church in Europe. The fact that Juan Diego was declared venerable
Venerable
The Venerable is used as a style or epithet in several Christian churches. It is also the common English-language translation of a number of Buddhist titles.-Roman Catholic:...
only in 1987 is an example of how some visions strengthen the Church long before the Vatican takes a position on their authenticity.
Pilgrimages
Churches built based on reported visions of Jesus and Mary attract many millions of pilgrims each year. According to Bishop Francesco Giogia the majority of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world are vision based, in that with about 10 million pilgrims, in 1999 the Basilica of Our Lady of GuadalupeBasilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a Roman Catholic church, minor basilica and National Shrine of Mexico in the north of Mexico City. The shrine was built nearby the place where Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin...
in Mexico City was the most visited Catholic shrine in the world, followed by San Giovanni Rotondo
San Giovanni Rotondo
San Giovanni Rotondo is the name of a city and comune in the province of Foggia, Puglia region, southern Italy. As of 2006 it had a population of 26,442....
in Italy and Our Lady of Aparecida
Our Lady of Aparecida
Our Lady of Aparecida is the patron saint of Brazil, venerated in the Catholic Church. A dark-skinned Marian image, Our Lady of Aparecida is represented by a short, clay statue of the Virgin Mary, currently housed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, in the town of...
in Brazil, each with about 6 to 7 million pilgrims per year. Given about 5 million visitors per year to Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...
and 4 million to Our Lady of Fátima
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
, as well as other shrines such as Medjugorje, the major vision based churches receive over 30 million pilgrims per year.
The visual effect of these pilgrimages can be striking, for instance, every year on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of Fatima apparitions, pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima is a Roman Catholic Marian basilica in Fátima, Portugal...
with crowds that approach one million on each day.
Predictions
Some of the reported visions of Jesus simply fade away by virtue of predictions that fail to materialize. On the other hand, some predictions based on visions continue to gather interest decades after they were made.Messages from Jesus reported by John Leary in Rochester New York in 1999 had predicted that Pope John Paul II would be forced out of Rome and sent into exile amid chaos. Bishop Mathew Clark of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester
Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester is a diocese of the Catholic Church in the Greater Rochester region of New York State in the United States. The region that the Diocese comprises extends from its northern border on the south shore of Lake Ontario through the Finger Lakes region to its...
disallowed these messages at the time, but with the election of Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
the debate about the validity of these messages seems to have simply ended.
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Roman Catholic Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary and ecstatic....
, written by Klemens Brentano in 1852, led a French priest Abbé Julien Gouyet to discover a house near Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in 1881. This house is assumed by some Catholics and some Muslims to be the House of the Virgin Mary
House of the Virgin Mary
The House of the Virgin Mary is a Christian and Muslim shrine located on Mt...
. Since Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Roman Catholic Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary and ecstatic....
had never been to Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
some people view this discovery as a prediction. The Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
has taken no official position on the authenticity of the discovery yet, but in 1896 Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
visited it and in 1951 Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
initially declared the house a Holy Place. Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
later made the declaration permanent. Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
in 1967, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
in 2006 visited the house and treated it as a shrine.
On August 19, 1982, some teenagers in Kibeho
Kibeho
Kibeho is a small town in south Rwanda, which became known outside of that country because of reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ occurring between 1981 and 1989.- Visions :...
, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
reported visions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, as Our Lady of Kibeho
Our Lady of Kibeho
Our Lady of Kibeho is a title of Marian apparitions which appeared to several adolescents, in the 1980s in Kibeho, in south-western Rwanda. The apparitions communicated various messages to the schoolchildren, including an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred, foretelling...
. The teenagers reported truly gruesome sights such as rivers of blood and the visions were accompanied by intense reactions: crying, tremors, and comas. Some today regard the visions as an ominous prediction of the Rwandan Genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
of 1994, and particularly in that specific location in 1995 in which some of the teenagers died a decade after their vision. The apparitions were accepted by the local Roman Catholic bishop (accused by many of complicity in the genocide himself), but have not been given final approval by the Holy Office.
On September 11, 1991, ten years to the day before the famous event, the visionary Vassula Ryden
Vassula Ryden
Vassula Rydén was born in Egypt on January 18, 1942 into a Greek Orthodox family. She has composed messages she claims to have received from the Christian God in a series of books called True Life In God. There are currently over 107 Notebooks compiled in 12 Volumes of the True Life in God...
wrote in her notebook a message that she attributed to Jesus: "the earth will shiver and shake - and every evil built into Towers will collapse into a heap of rubble and be buried in the dust of sin! above, the Heavens will shake and the foundations of the earth will rock!" Some of Vassula's followers view this sentence as a prediction. Her notebooks were published as a series of books “True Life in God” in the 1990s and have a strong following worldwide.
Visions by the early saints
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
includes primarily pre-Ascension visions of Jesus, except for
the vision of Christ by Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....
just before his death (Acts 7:55),
the road to Damascus voice
Conversion of Paul
The Conversion of Paul the Apostle, as depicted in the Christian Bible, refers to an event reported to have taken place in the life of Paul of Tarsus which led him to cease persecuting early Christians and to himself become a follower of Jesus; it is normally dated by researchers to AD 33–36...
heard by Saint Paul and the conversation between Jesus and Saint Ananias
Ananias of Damascus
Ananias , was a disciple of Jesus at Damascus mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, which describes how he was sent by Jesus to restore the sight of "Saul, of Tarsus" and provide him with additional instruction in the way of the...
in Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
in which Saint Ananias is ordered to heal Saint Paul (Acts 9:10-18). The Damascus appearance is the last reported vision of Jesus in the Bible until the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
was written. However, in the following centuries, many saints reported visions of both Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 1205, while praying in the Church of San Damiano just outside Assisi
Assisi
- Churches :* The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253...
, Saint Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...
reported a vision in which an image of Jesus came alive and told him: "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." This vision lead Saint Francis to renounce the outlook of his merchant family, embrace poverty and form the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
order. For several centuries thereafter, the Franciscans became a key force in the renewal of the reach of Christianity. During another vision in 1224 Saint Francis reportedly received the very first recorded case of stigmata
Stigmata
Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet...
.
Starting in 1208, Saint Juliana of Liege had visions of Christ which she kept a secret for almost 20 years. In these visions she was reportedly told to institute a solemn feast for the Blessed Sacrament
Blessed Sacrament
The Blessed Sacrament, or the Body and Blood of Christ, is a devotional name used in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Old Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, to refer to the Host after it has been consecrated in the sacrament of the Eucharist...
as the Body of Christ
Body of Christ
In Christian theology, the term Body of Christ has two separate connotations: it may refer to Jesus's statement about the Eucharist at the Last Supper that "This is my body" in , or the explicit usage of the term by the Apostle Paul in to refer to the Christian Church.Although in general usage the...
. When she eventually reported her visions to her confessor, the information was relayed to the bishop. Years later, in 1264, Pope Urban IV
Pope Urban IV
Pope Urban IV , born Jacques Pantaléon, was Pope, from 1261 to 1264. He was not a cardinal, and there have been several Popes since him who have not been Cardinals, including Urban V and Urban VI.-Biography:...
(who was formerly the Archdeacon of Liege) formally declared the feast of Corpus Christi for the whole Latin Rite, as the first papally sanctioned universal feast for the Latin Rite.
In 1251 the English Carmelite priest Saint Simon Stock
Simon Stock
Saint Simon Stock, an Englishman who lived in the 13th century, was an early prior general of the Carmelite religious order. Little is known about his life with any historical certainty. The Blessed Virgin Mary is traditionally said to have appeared to him and given him the Carmelite habit, the...
reported a vision of the Virgin Mary at Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
England. According to Saint Simon, in this vision the Virgin Mary had a scapular
Scapular
The term scapular as used today refers to two specific, yet related, Christian Sacramentals, namely the monastic and devotional scapulars, although both forms may simply be referred to as "scapular"....
in her hand and told him: "whoever dies in this garment, will not suffer everlasting fire.” Saint Simon instituted the confraternity of the Brown Scapular. Also known as the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the brown scapular is perhaps the best known, and most widespread of all small scapulars.
Catherine of Siena
Saint Catherine of Siena, T.O.S.D, was a tertiary of the Dominican Order, and a Scholastic philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the papacy of Gregory XI back to Rome from its displacement in France, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states. She was proclaimed a Doctor...
was a withdrawn Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
tertiary who lived, fasted and prayed at home in Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
Italy. In 1366, when she was 19 years old she reported her first vision of Jesus after which she started to tend to the sick and the poor. In 1370 she reported a vision in which she was commanded to abandon her life of solitude and to make an impact on the world. She corresponded with Pope Gregory XI
Pope Gregory XI
Gregory XI was pope from 1370 until his death.-Biography:He was born Pierre Roger de Beaufort, in Maumont, in the modern commune of Rosiers-d'Égletons, Limousin around 1336. He succeeded Pope Urban V in 1370, and was pope until 1378...
and other people in authority, begging for peace and for the reformation of the clergy, writing over 300 letters. Her arguments, and her trip to Avignon, eventually became instrumental in the decision of Pope Gregory XI to return the Avignon Papacy
Avignon Papacy
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day France. This arose from the conflict between the Papacy and the French crown....
to Rome where she was summoned to live until her death. She is one of only three female Doctors of the Church.
In 1372 Saint Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich is regarded as one of the most important English mystics. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, but has never been canonized, or officially beatified, by the Catholic Church, probably because so little is known of her life aside from her writings, including the...
was on her deathbed and had been given her last rites when she reported a series of visions of Jesus, followed by a sudden recovery. Almost twenty years later she wrote about these visions in her book “Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love
Revelations of Divine Love
The Revelations of Divine Love is a book of Christian mystical devotions written by Julian of Norwich. It is believed to be the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman. At the age of thirty, 13 May 1373, Julian was struck with a serious illness...
” perhaps the first book in the English language written by a woman, presumably because she was unfamiliar with Latin. Her book mentions her illness and her recovery as she saw the shining image of Christ. The sixteen revelations start with the crown of thorns and proceed through the death of Jesus, ending with his resurrection and how Christ still dwells in the souls of those who love him. She is also celebrated in the Anglican Church.
Tepeyac
Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names "Tepeyacac" and "Tepeaquilla", is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost delegación or borough of the Mexican Federal District. It is the site where Saint Juan Diego met the Virgin of Guadalupe in December of 1531, and...
in Mexico. The local prelate did not believe his account and asked for a miraculous sign, which was later provided as an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
permanently imprinted on the saint’s cloak where he had gathered roses. Over the years, Our Lady of Guadalupe became a symbol of the Catholic faith in Mexico. By 1820 when the Mexican War of Independence
Mexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The movement, which became known as the Mexican War of Independence, was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought...
from Spanish colonial rule ended Our Lady of Guadalupe had come to symbolize the Mexican nation. Today it remains a strong national and religious symbol in Mexico.
On St. Peter's Day in 1559, Saint Teresa of Avila
Teresa of Ávila
Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer...
(Teresa de Jesús) reported a vision of Jesus present to her in bodily form. For almost two years thereafter she reported similar visions. In some visions she suffered bodily pain which led to the motto often associated with her: "Lord, either let me suffer or let me die." Saint Teresa’s visions transformed her life and she became a key figure in the Catholic Church eventually being recognized as one of only three female Doctors of the Church. One of her visions is the subject of Bernini's famous work The Ecstasy of St Theresa
Ecstasy of St Theresa
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is the central sculptural group in white marble set in an elevated aedicule in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome...
in the basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
of Santa Maria della Vittoria
Santa Maria della Vittoria
Santa Maria della Vittoria is a roman catholic titular church and minor basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary located in Rome, Italy. The church is known for the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Cornaro Chapel, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa....
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
In the early 17th century, Venerable María de Jesús de Ágreda
Maria de Agreda
María Fernández Coronel y Arana, Abbess of Ágreda or, known in religion as Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda , also known as the Lady in Blue and the Blue Nun, was born, and died, in Ágreda, a town located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain...
reported a number of mystical experiences, visions and conversations with the Blessed Virgin Mary. She stated that the Blessed Virgin had inspired and dictated
Dictation (exercise)
Dictation is the transcription of spoken text: one person who is "dictating" speaks and another who is "taking dictation" writes down the words as they are spoken.-La dictée:...
passages in the book Mystical City of God
Mystical City of God
The Mystical City of God is a book written in the 17th century by the Franciscan nun, Venerable Mary of Jesus of Ágreda or María de Ágreda.According to María de Ágreda, the book was, to a considerable extent, dictated to her by the Blessed Virgin Mary herself as the title suggests; Also, the book...
as a biography of the Virgin Mary. The book Mystical City of God is still frequently studied in college and university programs of Spanish language and culture. However, the book (which makes a number of somewhat unusual claims) has remained controversial within the Roman Catholic church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, having been banned and restored a number of times, and her process of beatification (started in 1673) has not been completed.
From 1673 to 1675, Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque
Marguerite Marie Alacoque
Marguerite Marie Alacoque or Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque was a French Roman Catholic nun and mystic, who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form.-Early life:...
recalled a series of visions of Christ speaking to her. In December 1673 she reported that Jesus permitted her to rest her head upon his heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of his love. This led her to the founding of the Devotion of the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....
. Initially, her life, actions, beliefs and writings became the subject of extreme scrutiny by the Catholic Church. However, she was eventually declared a saint in1920 and the Feast of the Sacred Heart is now officially celebrated 19 days after Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
.
At her profession as a Capuchin
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...
Poor Clare nun in 1678, Saint Veronica Giuliani
Veronica Giuliani
Saint Veronica Giuliani, O.S.C. Cap., was an Italian Capuchin nun and mystic. She was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839.-Early life:...
expressed a great desire to suffer in union with the crucified Jesus
Crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
for the conversion of sinners. Shortly after that time she reported a series of vision of Jesus and the Virgin Mary that lasted a number of years. She reported a vision of Christ bearing his cross and of a the chalice symbolizing the Passion of Christ. On Good Friday 1697 she received the five wounds of Christ as stigmata
Stigmata
Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet...
.
19th Century visions
BlessedBeatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Roman Catholic Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary and ecstatic....
was an Augustinian nun who lived from 1774 to 1824 in Germany. She was bedridden as of 1813 and had visible stigmata
Stigmata
Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet...
which would reopen on Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
. She reported that since childhood she had visions in which she talked with Jesus and the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
later came to accept her claims. In 1819 the poet Klemens Brentano, was inspired to visit her and began to write her visions in his words, with her approval. In 1833, after her death, the book “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ” was released by Brentano and was used in part by Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
for his movie The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 American drama film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It depicts the Passion of Jesus largely according to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John...
in 2003. In 1852 the book “The Life of The Blessed Virgin Mary” was published. Anne Catherine’s visions allegedly led to the discovery of the house in which the Virgin Mary lived in Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
Turkey prior to the Assumption of Mary
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
. She also had visions of the future Catholic Church being undermined by political forces and Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
from within the Catholic Church's own hierarchy. The remedies she saw for the protection of the Catholic Church were the Holy Rosary
Rosary
The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...
and Eucharistic Adoration
Eucharistic adoration
Eucharistic adoration is a practice in the Roman Catholic Church, and in a few Anglican and Lutheran churches, in which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed to and adored by the faithful....
.
In 1843 Sister Marie of St Peter
Marie of St Peter
Sister Marie of St Peter was a Carmelite nun who lived in Tours, France. She is best known for starting the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus which is now one of the approved Catholic devotions and for the Golden Arrow Prayer....
, a Carmelite nun in Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
France reported visions of conversations with Jesus and the Virgin Mary in which she was urged to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus
Holy Face of Jesus
The Holy Face of Jesus is a title for specific images which some Catholics believe to have been miraculously formed representations of the face of Jesus Christ...
, in reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in his Passion. This resulted in the Golden Arrow Prayer
The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer)
The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion is a prayer in the Roman Catholic Church which is believed to have been dictated by Jesus to Sr. Marie of St Peter and of the Holy Family, a Carmelite nun of Tours, in 1843. It is an Act of Praise and Reparation for Blasphemy...
. The devotion was further spread from Tours partly by the efforts of the Venerable
Venerable
The Venerable is used as a style or epithet in several Christian churches. It is also the common English-language translation of a number of Buddhist titles.-Roman Catholic:...
Leo Dupont
Leo Dupont
Venerable Leo Dupont , also known as "The Holy Man of Tours," or the "Apostle of the Holy Face", was a religious figure in the Roman Catholic faith who helped spread various Catholic devotions such as the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and nightly Eucharistic Adoration...
(also called the Apostle of the Holy Face) and influenced Saint Therese of Lisieux.
Bernadette Soubirous
Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was a miller's daughter born in Lourdes. From 11 February to 16 July 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at that site at Lourdes....
was a 14 year old shepherd girl who lived near the town of Lourdes
Lourdes
Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...
in France. One day she reported a vision of a miraculous Lady who identified Herself as the Virgin Mary in subsequent visions. In the first vision she was asked to return again and she had 18 visions overall. According to Saint Bernadette, the Lady held a string of Rosary beads and asked Saint Bernadette to drink water from the spring nearby and to request that the local priests build a chapel at that site of the visions. Eventually, a number of chapels and churches were built at Lourdes as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes or the Domain is an area of ground surrounding the shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes in the town of Lourdes, France...
- which is now a major Catholic pilgrimage site. One of these churches, the Basilica of St. Pius X
Basilica of St. Pius X
The Basilica of St. Pius X, known as the Underground Basilica, is a large Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, located in the town of Lourdes, France. It is part of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes is a major Catholic pilgrimage site and the Catholic Church endorses the belief...
can accommodate 25 thousand people and was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
when he was the Papal Nuncio to France.
In 1866 Venerable Marie Martha Chambon
Marie Martha Chambon
Marie Martha Chambon was a lay Roman Catholic nun known for introducing the Rosary of the Holy Wounds.- Biography :She was a member of the Monastery of the Visitation Order who lived in Chambéry, France...
began to report visions of Jesus telling her to contemplate the Holy Wounds
Holy Wounds
The Five Holy Wounds or Five Sacred Wounds refer to what are believed to be the five piercing wounds that was suffered during the crucifixion of Jesus....
, although it is said that she had received her first vision when only five years old.. She was a member of the Monastery of the Visitation Order
Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary
The Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary or the Visitation Order is a Roman Catholic religious order for women. Members of the order are also known as Filles de Sainte-Marie, Visitandines, Salesian Sisters and, more commonly, Visitationists.- History of the order :The Order was founded in 1610 by...
who lived in Chambéry
Chambéry
Chambéry is a city in the department of Savoie, located in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France.It is the capital of the department and has been the historical capital of the Savoy region since the 13th century, when Amadeus V of Savoy made the city his seat of power.-Geography:Chambéry...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and is in the process of canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
by the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1899 Saint Gemma Galgani
Gemma Galgani
Maria Gemma Umberta Pia Galgani was an Italian mystic, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church since 1940...
reported a vision of Jesus after which she experienced recurring stigmata
Stigmata
Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet...
. She reported the vision as follows: “At that moment Jesus appeared with all his wounds open, but from these wounds there no longer came forth blood, but flames of fire. In an instant these flames came to touch my hands, my feet and my heart.” Thereafter she reported receiving the stigmata every week from Thursday night to Saturday morning, during which time she also reported further conversations with Jesus. The Congregation of Rites has yet refrained from making a decision on her stigmata.
20th Century visions
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
priest Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
Pio of Pietrelcina
Saint Pio of Pietrelcina was a Capuchin priest from Italy who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. He was born Francesco Forgione, and given the name Pio when he joined the Capuchins; he was popularly known as Padre Pio after his ordination to the priesthood. He became famous for his ...
reported visions of both Jesus and Mary as early as 1910. For a number of years he claimed to have experienced deep ecstasy along with his visions. In 1918, while praying in the Church of Our Lady of Grace he reported ecstasy and visions which this time left him with permanent and visible stigmata
Stigmata
Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet...
, the five wounds of Christ. The stigmata remained visible on his hands and feet for the next fifty years. Padre Pio was examined by many physicians, none of whom could offer an explanation for the fact that his bleeding wounds were never subject to infection.
The visions of the Virgin Mary appearing to three shepherd children at Our Lady of Fátima
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
in Portugal in 1917 were declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church in 1930 but Catholics at large are not formally required to believe them. However, four popes, i.e. Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
, Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
, Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
and Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
have supported the Fatima messages as supernatural. Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
was particularly attached to Fátima
Fátima, Portugal
Fátima is a city in Portugal famous for the Marian apparitions, recognized by the Catholic Church, that took place there in 1917. The town itself has a population of 7,756 and is located in the municipality of Ourém, in the Centro Region and Médio Tejo Subregion...
and credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life after he was shot in Rome on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fátima in May 1981. He donated the bullet that wounded him on that day to the Roman Catholic sanctuary at Fátima
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima is a Roman Catholic Marian basilica in Fátima, Portugal...
, in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
.
The Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
has, at times, reversed its position on some visions. In 1931 Saint Faustina Kowalska
Mary Faustina Kowalska
Maria Faustina Kowalska, commonly known as Saint Faustina, born Helenka Kowalska was a Polish nun, mystic and visionary...
reported visions of a conversation with Jesus when she was a simple Polish nun. This resulted in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy
Divine Mercy
The Divine Mercy is a Roman Catholic devotion to the merciful love of God and the desire to let that love and mercy flow through one's own heart towards those in need of it...
as a prayer and later an institution which was condemned by the Holy See in 1958. However, further investigation resulted in her beatification in 1993 and canonization in 2000. Her conversations with Jesus are recorded in her diary, published as "Divine Mercy in My Soul" - passages from which are at times quoted by the Vatican. Divine Mercy Sunday
Divine Mercy Sunday
Divine Mercy Sunday is a Roman Catholic solemnity celebrated the Sunday after Easter. It is based on the Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy due to Saint Faustina Kowalska, and is associated with specific indulgences.-Background:...
is now officially celebrated as the first Sunday after Easter.
On the first Friday in Lent 1936, Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli
Maria Pierina
Blessed Maria Pierina De Micheli was a Roman Catholic religious Sister who was born near Milan in Italy. She is best known for her association with the Holy Face of Jesus and for introducing a medal bearing an image from the Shroud of Turin as part of this devotion.In April 2009 Pope Benedict XVI...
, a nun born near Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in Italy, reported a vision in which Jesus told her: “I will that My Face, which reflects the intimate pains of My Spirit, the suffering and the love of My Heart, be more honored. He who meditates upon Me, consoles Me”. Further visions reportedly urged her to make a medal with the Holy Face. In 1958, Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
confirmed the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus
Holy Face of Jesus
The Holy Face of Jesus is a title for specific images which some Catholics believe to have been miraculously formed representations of the face of Jesus Christ...
as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics. Maria Pierina was beatified
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
by Benedict XVI in 2009.
From 1944 to 1947 the bed ridden Italian writer and mystic Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. Her work centers on Catholic Christian themes...
produced 15,000 handwritten pages of text that she said recorded the visions of her conversations with Jesus about his life and the early church. These handwritten pages were characterized by the fact that they included no overwrites, corrections or revisions and seemed somewhat like dictations. The fact that she often suffered from heart and lung ailments during the period of the visions made the natural flow of the text even more unusual. These pages became the basis of her book The Poem of the Man God
Poem of the Man God
The Poem of the Man God is a multi volume book of about four thousand pages on the life of Jesus Christ written by the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta...
. The position of the Catholic Church with respect to her book is unclear and subject to varying interpretations. The Holy See does not endorse the book, but no longer forbids it. Since 1992 the Holy See has chosen to remain silent on its position with respect to the work.
Some people who are said to have received interior locution
Interior locution
An interior locution is a mystical concept used by various religions, including the Roman Catholic Church. In an interior locution, a person reportedly receives a set of ideas, thoughts, or imaginations from an outside spiritual source. Interior locutions are most often reported during prayers...
s or messages from Jesus prefer not to discuss them in detail. For instance, while the Vatican biography of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
of Calcutta refers to her interior locution
Interior locution
An interior locution is a mystical concept used by various religions, including the Roman Catholic Church. In an interior locution, a person reportedly receives a set of ideas, thoughts, or imaginations from an outside spiritual source. Interior locutions are most often reported during prayers...
s and messages from Jesus, she often referred to them in terms of a “call within a call” and seemed to wish to remain private about them.
Living visionaries
Holy Rosary
Holy Rosary may refer to:*Rosary, a set of prayer beads used in a traditional Roman Catholic devotion*The Holy Rosary, a prayer based on the rosary-See also:*Holy Rosary Academy , one of several Roman Catholic schools with this name...
, Fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, Daily reading of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, Monthly Confessions and Holy Communion. The messages of Our Lady of Međugorje have a very strong following among Catholics worldwide. The Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
has never officially either approved or disapproved of the messages of Međugorje, although both critical and supportive documents about the messages have been published by various Catholic figures.
The visions and conversations with the Virgin Mary reported in 1973 in Japan by Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa as Our Lady of Akita
Our Lady of Akita
Our Lady of Akita is the title of Marian apparitions reported in 1973 bySister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in the remote area of Yuzawadai, near the city of Akita in Japan. The messages emphasize prayer and penance. Sister Sasagawa stated that the Virgin Mary told her: "Pray very much the prayers of the...
were approved in an unusually rapid form by the Vatican. For several decades, Agnes Sasagawa had encountered many health problems but her health reportedly improved after drinking water from Lourdes
Lourdes
Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...
. After going totally deaf, she went to live with the nuns in the remote area of Yuzawadai, near the city of Akita
Akita, Akita
is the capital city of Akita Prefecture in the Tohoku region of Japan.As of June 11, 2005, with the merger of the former Kawabe District , the city has an estimated population of 323,310 and density of...
. In 1973 she reported messages from the Virgin Mary, as well as stigmata
Stigmata
Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet...
. According to EWTN, in June 1988 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
) as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave definitive judgement on Our Lady of Akita
Our Lady of Akita
Our Lady of Akita is the title of Marian apparitions reported in 1973 bySister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in the remote area of Yuzawadai, near the city of Akita in Japan. The messages emphasize prayer and penance. Sister Sasagawa stated that the Virgin Mary told her: "Pray very much the prayers of the...
events and messages as reliable and worthy of belief.
As recently as 1985 other people such as Vassula Ryden
Vassula Ryden
Vassula Rydén was born in Egypt on January 18, 1942 into a Greek Orthodox family. She has composed messages she claims to have received from the Christian God in a series of books called True Life In God. There are currently over 107 Notebooks compiled in 12 Volumes of the True Life in God...
have recorded their conversations with Jesus in their books, resulting in interest, discussion and controversy. Ryden’s reported conversations with Jesus are published in a series of books called “True Life in God” and have been translated to over 40 languages by volunteers worldwide. The discussion on Vassula Ryden within the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
seems to be oscillating back and forth. Ryden’s notebooks were initially criticized by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...
in a 1995 notification. In July 2004 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
) wrote a letter that effectively reversed that situation. Yet a new letter written on January 25, 2007 by Cardinal William Levada
William Levada
William Joseph Levada is an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Since 2005, he has served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making him the highest ranking American in the Roman Curia. He was previously the Archbishop of Portland from 1986 to 1995 and...
advised against her prayer groups and stated that the writings of Ryden were neither private revelation, nor of divine origin but only personal reflections of Ryden. Ryden’s supporters and detractors seem to selectively read the Vatican letter that suits them best.
In the book Visions of Jesus Phillip Wiebe chronicled the stories of 30 people from truly diverse backgrounds who claim to have had recent conversations with Jesus. Wiebe analyzed these claims from multiple perspectives, including hallucinations, dreams and real visions.
Categories of visions
Visions of Jesus and Mary may be categorized based on their similarities and differences with respect to specific criteria.Visions vs dictations
Some visionaries merely report conversations and images while others also produce large amounts of handwritten notes that seem like dictations. Maria ValtortaMaria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. Her work centers on Catholic Christian themes...
and Vassula Ryden
Vassula Ryden
Vassula Rydén was born in Egypt on January 18, 1942 into a Greek Orthodox family. She has composed messages she claims to have received from the Christian God in a series of books called True Life In God. There are currently over 107 Notebooks compiled in 12 Volumes of the True Life in God...
each produced thousand of pages of text that they directly attribute to Jesus. Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. Her work centers on Catholic Christian themes...
and Vassula Ryden
Vassula Ryden
Vassula Rydén was born in Egypt on January 18, 1942 into a Greek Orthodox family. She has composed messages she claims to have received from the Christian God in a series of books called True Life In God. There are currently over 107 Notebooks compiled in 12 Volumes of the True Life in God...
both reported their writings as the dictations of Jesus, and not their own words. On the other hand, while Saint Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich is regarded as one of the most important English mystics. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, but has never been canonized, or officially beatified, by the Catholic Church, probably because so little is known of her life aside from her writings, including the...
wrote a book based on her reported visions, the book was written twenty years after her first vision and she did not declare it to be a dictation. At the other end of the spectrum is the case of Blessed
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Roman Catholic Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary and ecstatic....
who narrated her messages to Klemens Brentano, who later used his words to write them. Another case was that of Sister Consolata Betrone
Consolata Betrone
Consolata Betrone , mystic and nun of the Franciscan Capuchine order, was born in Saluzzo, Piedmont, Italy, on 6 April 1903, and died in the convent of Moriondo, Testona, on 18 July 1946....
who would repeat her reported conversations with Jesus to her confessor Father Lorenzo Sales
Lorenzo Sales
Father Lorenzo Sales was a Roman Catholic priest, author and a missionary, born in Italy. As a missionary he worked in Africa as a chaplain and also as a priest in Kenya....
. After her death, Father Sales wrote the book "Jesus Appeals to the World" based on her reported messages.
Visions should also be differentiated from interior locution
Interior locution
An interior locution is a mystical concept used by various religions, including the Roman Catholic Church. In an interior locution, a person reportedly receives a set of ideas, thoughts, or imaginations from an outside spiritual source. Interior locutions are most often reported during prayers...
s in which inner voices are reported, but no visual or physical contact is claimed. For instance, the messages written by Father Stefano Gobbi
Stefano Gobbi
Father Stefano Gobbi was an Italian Roman Catholic priest. He was born in the Province of Como, Italy and was ordained as a priest in 1964. He later obtained a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University in Rome...
for the Marian Movement of Priests
Marian Movement of Priests
The Marian Movement of Priests is a Roman Catholic movement founded by Father Stefano Gobbi on October 13, 1972, the 55th anniversary of Our Lady of Fátima....
are reported as interior locution
Interior locution
An interior locution is a mystical concept used by various religions, including the Roman Catholic Church. In an interior locution, a person reportedly receives a set of ideas, thoughts, or imaginations from an outside spiritual source. Interior locutions are most often reported during prayers...
s rather than visions. The same happened with the messages received by Mother Carmela Carabelli
Carmela Carabelli
Carmela Carabelli, born Carmelina Negri , better known as Mamma Carmela , was a spiritual daughter of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina and famous Italian mystic...
.
There have been other mystics who have produced large volumes of text, but considered them meditations rather than visions or interior locution
Interior locution
An interior locution is a mystical concept used by various religions, including the Roman Catholic Church. In an interior locution, a person reportedly receives a set of ideas, thoughts, or imaginations from an outside spiritual source. Interior locutions are most often reported during prayers...
s. For instance, the Venerable
Venerable
The Venerable is used as a style or epithet in several Christian churches. It is also the common English-language translation of a number of Buddhist titles.-Roman Catholic:...
Concepcion Cabrera de Armida
Concepcion Cabrera de Armida
The Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida was a Mexican Roman Catholic mystic and writer....
's over 60,000 pages of text were never represented as visions, but as her own meditations, often in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament
Blessed Sacrament
The Blessed Sacrament, or the Body and Blood of Christ, is a devotional name used in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Old Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches, to refer to the Host after it has been consecrated in the sacrament of the Eucharist...
, during Eucharistic Adoration
Eucharistic adoration
Eucharistic adoration is a practice in the Roman Catholic Church, and in a few Anglican and Lutheran churches, in which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed to and adored by the faithful....
.
Physical marks
Stigmata
Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet...
, but the best known recent example is another Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
(in fact a Capuchin
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...
) Saint Padre Pio. He is one of several Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
s in history with reported stigmata.
Padre Pio's stigmata persisted for over fifty years and he was examined by numerous physicians in the 20th century, who confirmed the existence of the wounds, but none of whom could produce a medical explanation for the fact that his bleeding wounds would never get infected. His wounds healed once, but reappeared. The wounds were examined by Luigi Romanelli, chief physician of the City Hospital of Barletta, for about one year. Dr. Giorgio Festa, a private practitioner also examined them in 1920 and 1925. Professor Giuseppe Bastianelli
Giuseppe Bastianelli
Giuseppe Bastianelli was an Italian physician and zoologist who worked on malaria.Born in Rome, Bastianelli was initially interested in chemistry, physiology and neurology; subsequently he became interested in the study of malaria...
, physician to Pope Benedict XV agreed that the wounds existed but made no other comment. Pathologist Dr. Amico Bignami
Amico Bignami
Amico Bignami was an Italian physician and entomologistHe was born in Bologna and graduated as a doctor in Rome in 1882. In 1883, he became extraordinary professor of pathology and in 1906, full-time professor at the University of Rome. In 1917, he became professor of medicine, a post he occupied...
of the University of Rome also observed the wounds, but could make no diagnosis. Both Bignami and Dr. Giuseppe Sala commented on the unusually smooth edges of the wounds and lack of edema
Edema
Edema or oedema ; both words from the Greek , oídēma "swelling"), formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy, is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin or in one or more cavities of the body that produces swelling...
. Dr. Alberto Caserta took X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
s of the hands in 1954 and found no abnormality in the bone structure.
Physical contact
Some visionaries have reported physical contact with Jesus. The Bible suggests that post-ResurrectionResurrection appearances of Jesus
The major Resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Canonical gospels are reported to have occurred after his death, burial and resurrection, but prior to his Ascension. Among these primary sources, most scholars believe First Corinthians was written first, authored by Paul of Tarsus along with...
(yet pre-Ascension) physical contact with Jesus is possible, for in John 21:17 Jesus told Saint Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
: ”Don’t touch Me for I have not yet ascended to the Father”. In John 20:27 Jesus ordered Saint Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...
: “Put your hand into My side”. But the Bible does not mention if Saint Thomas followed that command. Interestingly, in a reported “vision of a vision” on August 9, 1944 the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. Her work centers on Catholic Christian themes...
wrote in her notebook that Saint Thomas did obey Jesus that day and that in her reported vision of that incident physical contact took place. Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque reported putting her head on the heart of Jesus, while Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. Her work centers on Catholic Christian themes...
wrote that she had put her head on his shoulder.
Physical artifacts
Some visionaries produce artifacts based on their reported visions, although this is rare. A well known example is the image of Our Lady of GuadalupeOur Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
which is reported to have been miraculously imprinted on the cloak of Saint Juan Diego.
Unreported visions
Some visions remain partially reported, or unreported. For instance, Saint Juliana of Liege kept her reported visions of Christ a secret for almost 20 years and then revealed some of them to her confessor. Years later, her visions were the subject of the papal bullPapal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
Transiturus de hoc mundo which established the feast of Corpus Christi. However, in the meantime, due to a conflict with a local church official, she was driven out of Liege and lived in seclusion at Fosses-la-Ville
Fosses-la-Ville
Fosses-la-Ville is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Namur. On January 1, 2006 Fosses-la-Ville had a total population of 9,311...
until she died. On her deathbed she asked for her confessor, supposedly to reveal to him some secrets regarding her visions. But neither he nor any of her friends from Liege arrived and other secrets regarding her visions remain unknown.
Similar and interlinked visions
The case of Saint Juan Diego's vision in 1531 is somewhat similar to the case of Saint Bernadette SoubirousBernadette Soubirous
Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was a miller's daughter born in Lourdes. From 11 February to 16 July 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at that site at Lourdes....
's vision in 1858. Both saints reported a miraculous Lady on a hill who asked them to request that the local priests build a chapel at the site of the vision. Both visions included a reference to roses and led to large churches being built at the sites. Like Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
in Mexico, Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...
is a major Catholic symbol in France.
Some of the visions of Jesus and Mary are related among visionaries in different ages. For instance, in the 1980s Vicka Ivankovic
Vicka Ivankovic
Vicka Ivanković is one of six visionaries at Međugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina who claim to have seen the Blessed Virgin Mary on multiple occasions....
and Marija Pavlovic two of the visionaries in Međugorje both stated that the Virgin Mary told them that the visions reported in the 1940s by the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. Her work centers on Catholic Christian themes...
of her conversations with Jesus are authentic. Hence if and when the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
selects a position on Medjugorje, it may also be viewed as having selected a position on the work of Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta
Maria Valtorta was a Roman Catholic Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. Her work centers on Catholic Christian themes...
.
Sources and External links
- Franciscan Archives on St. Francis of Assisi
- Vatican Biography of St. Teresa of Avila
- St. Julian of Norwich at the Julian Site
- Poem by St. Julian of Norwich at the Vatican
- Vatican Biography of St. Juan Diego
- Vatican Biography of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
- Vatican Biography of St. Faustyna Kowalska
- St. Faustyna Kowalska’s Diary
- Vatican Biography of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
- Oxford University Press: Visions of Jesus.
- True Life in God Association
- A critical view of Vassula Ryden's writings
- Maria Valtorta Official Site
- The Maria Valtorta Web-Ring
- Valtorta Medjugorje confirmation
- Marian Movement of Priests
- Divine Mercy Organization
- Saint Juan Diego
- Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
- Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque
- Blessed Consolata Betrone
- Saint Bernadette Soubirous
- Padre Pio Devotions
- Mother Teresa
- Međugorje Official Website
- Giga Catholic Information