Garabandal apparitions
The Garabandal apparitions are apparitions of Saint Michael the Archangel and the Blessed Virgin Mary that are claimed to have occurred from 1961 to 1965 to four young schoolgirls in the rural village of San Sebastián de Garabandal in the Peña Sagra mountain range in the autonomous community of Cantabria in Northern Spain.
A photo, reproduced in all books and websites on Garabandal, is said to be taken from a film in which a Holy Communion wafer materialized in Conchita's open mouth, supposedly put there by an angel.
On July 8, 1965, Bishop Eugenio Beitia of Santander wrote, We point out, however, that we have not found anything deserving of ecclesiastical censorship or condemnation either in the doctrine or in the spiritual recommendations that have been publicized as having been addressed to the faithful, for these ...contain an exhortation to prayer and sacrifice, to Eucharistic devotion, to veneration of Our Lady in traditional praiseworthy ways, and to holy fear of God offended by our sins.
[9]In 1967 Bishop Vicente Puchol Montiz of Santander issued an "official note" declaring: "There was no apparition either of the Blessed Virgin or of St. Michael the Archangel or of any other celestial personage.
[11] He further expressed the opinion that he did not find it necessary to reiterate this in a new declaration and give undue publicity to something which happened so long ago.
In a letter to Archbishop Philip M. Hannan of New Orleans, Louisiana, dated April 21, 1970, Cardinal Seper, Prefect of the Congregation for the Sacred Doctrine of the Faith, stated: The Holy See has always held that the conclusions and dispositions of the Bishop of Santander were sufficiently secure guidelines for the Christian people and indications for the Bishops to order to dissuade people from participating in pilgrimages and other acts of devotion that are based on claims connected with or founded on the presumed apparitions and messages of Garabandal.
Rather the Holy See deplores the fact that certain persons and Institutions persist in formatting the movement in obvious contradiction with the dispositions of ecclesiastical authority and thus disseminate confusion among the people especially among the simple and defenseless.
[12]In 1972, Mari Loli Mazón moved to the United States, where she would live for the next 37 years until her death in Plaistow, New Hampshire in 2009.
Mari Cruz González lives in Aviles, Spain and is married with four children (Gabriel was born in 1975, Juan Carlos — in 1978, Lourdes — in 1981 and Ignacio — in 1985).
Conchita González later went to the United States and married Patrick Keena in 1973; they live in New York City with their four children but they also maintain a house in Fátima, Portugal.
In his book Person and God in a Spanish Valley, W. A. Christian, Jr., who spent some time in Garabandal, suggests that the alleged apparitions arose from a perceived threat to traditional local beliefs and practices due to some changes resulting from the Second Vatican Council.
[13] The Garabandal apparitions had the support of members of the family of Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, pretender to the Spanish and French thrones.
[10] Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell has written that the alleged Garabandal miracles came from anecdotal reports, never performed under conditions controlled by competent experts in deception.
