On 30 March 1968, four Spanish Catholic girls,[27][28][29] aged 12 and 13—Ana García, Rafaela Gordo, Ana Aguilera and Josefa Guzmán—reported that the Virgin Mary had appeared to them in the field of La Alcaparroa farm, close to the village of El Palmar de Troya, which at that time was a district of the municipality of Utrera, in the province of Seville, Andalusia, Spain.

When Corral became involved in the situation at Palmar de Troya he was expelled from the insurance company (belief in the apparitions were strongly opposed by José Bueno y Monreal, Archbishop of Seville, who refused to examine the seers or even open up any enquiries).

[51][52] As part of their quest to spread the message, throughout the 1970s, the duo, often joined by their ally, Carmelo Pacheco Sánchez (1948–1997), they travelled throughout Spain and Western Europe, before eventually making annual trips across the Atlantic to Latin America and the United States.

[59] On 30 November 1975, just ten days after the death of Spanish head of state, Francisco Franco, Domínguez claimed to have a vision of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, announcing that a new religious order would be founded by the Palmarians.

[63] Revaz asked Lefebvre if he would go to El Palmar de Troya for this purpose, but he declined, pointing them instead to the exiled Vietnamese Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục with the words "He is orthodox and he is not at present occupied.

In relation to this, Domínguez had another vision in January 1976, where it is claimed Jesus Christ told him to consecrate more bishops and create an episcopal college for Pope Paul VI to come and govern the church from El Palmar de Troya.

[77] At the time of his passing, the General of the Order of the Carmelites of the Holy Face and other top Palmarian bishops, were in Bogotá, Colombia, as part of their regular trips across the Atlantic Ocean to see to their followers and attempt to recruit more clergy.

Some of the Palmarian bishops and laymen were unwilling to take the leap of accepting the claims of Domínguez to the Papacy and the Holy See moving to El Palmar de Troya, deciding to leave (some reconciled with Rome, others drifted away from religion).

Domínguez and twelve Cardinals in 1979 made an apostolic journey from El Palmar de Troya to the Holy Land, passing through places outside of Spain which had a significant number of Palmarian faithful such as Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, France, Great Britain and Ireland.

Pope Gregory XVII and a number of Palmarian bishops were visiting the Basilica of the Annunciation of Our Lady of Discalced Carmelites of Alba de Tormes, near Salamanca, which is the final resting place of St. Teresa of Ávila.

[90] The Palmarian clerics were then set upon by a large number of local people, who attacked some of the bishops and tipped one of their vehicles into the River Tormes; they took refuge in the convent until the Guardia Civil could disperse the mob.

[90] As a direct response, between 30 and 31 July 1982, Pope Gregory XVII issued a number of decrees which stated that only Palmarians could receive grace and indulgencies from holy relics and images, but for members of "apostate, heretical and schismatic churches", such powers were now withdrawn, veiled to them and they could derive no supernatural value.

Pope Gregory XVII reported a vision in 1997 where the Prophet Elias allegedly appeared to him and said that the enemies of God (elsewhere described as "Jews and Masons")[92] had at various historical junctures, distorted the pure word of God, which had originally been announced in the world by his Holy Prophets and that these groups had instead introduced adulterations, simulations and falsifications, which had distorted the original texts of sacred scripture (including in what would become the Latin Vulgate, traditionally favoured by the Catholic Church) and that its contents must thus be purified to "remove errors" and allow the doctrinally infallible, "purified Bible, full of light" to be accessible to mankind for the Last Times.

As part of this reviewing process, members of the Palmarian Church, including the clergy, were asked to hand in their old Catholic bibles based on the Vulgate or the Septuagint to be destroyed (which some opposed, saying that if they did so they could not even study Treatise of the Mass, which references it throughout).

[95] As the decade wore on, the dissident Palmarians began to discuss their concerns secretly among themselves, with burner phones and the like to hide their communications, though control over members had increased by this time, with strict rules on personal conduct beginning to be brought in.

Dámaso María (Juan Marquez), moved away from Palmarianism completely, declaring it a fraud and accusing the Church of perpetuating psychological abuse, with the dawning of the internet became vocal anti-Palmarian activists.

[126] Hernández spoke to the Spanish media, including El País, defending himself and downplaying his mistress, claiming that, through study he had concluded that the original apparitions of Our Lady of Palmar had been genuine, but that they had been hijacked by Clemente and Manolo for financial manipulation.

[130] While most religious were inside celebrating Holy Mass, two would-be thieves in balaclavas scaled the walls of the compound with a telescopic ladder, armed with a knife, two clown masks, cable ties, duct tape, two pairs of pliers and a crowbar.

On 12 August 1978, Pope Gregory XVII in his Second Document proclaimed as further infallible doctrines, binding on all the faithful, four major Marian teachings; Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces, Co-Redemptrix, Queen of Heaven and Earth and Mother of the Church.

[149] The Church teaches a chronology of the apocalypse, based on the Book of Revelation and supplemented by visions received by Pope Gregory XVII the Very Great, as presented in the Sacred History and the Palmarian Catechism.

[149] The Palmarian Church teaches that, not long after this conflict, the bodies of the dead are raised and Jesus Christ returns to Earth in the Second Coming, where the final judgement of each individual human being takes place.

[149] At the conclusion of the final judgement, there will be only two destinations; the just, the elect who are saved, will be directly enthroned into the Sacred Heart of Christ, beholding the beatific vision and will live in glory in a blissful and heavenly state forever.

Exact up to date numbers for those currently belonging to one of the three bodies of the Carmelites of the Holy Face (and thus Palmarian Catholic Church) are hard to come by, however, in a sermon delivered in August 2011, the then reigning Pope Gregory XVIII claimed that there were between 1,000 and 1,500 members.

Between the years 1976 and 2005, there were 192 men consecrated to the priesthood and ordained to the episcopate during the Pontificate of Pope St. Gregory XVII the Very Great (thus belonging to the Friars of the Carmelites of the Holy Face), but by 2016, the number active was supposedly down to 32 bishops.

In the late 1990s, there were Palmarian chapels in the following place (typically in the homes of lay members); in Spain (El Palmar de Troya, Seville, Granada, Bermeo, Hernani, La Bañeza, Barcelona, Gran Canaria, Madrid, Oliva, Sabadell, Santander & Valencia), in England (London, Southport & Manchester), in Scotland (Hamilton), in Ireland (Belfast, Dublin, Gorey, Thurles & Portaferry), in Italy (Cengles village of Lasa & San Candido), in Germany (Augsburg, Berlin, Bottrop, Delbrück, Grafing bei München, Kempten, Mainz, Niederschopfheim, Nonnenbach & Unterschwandorf), in Switzerland (Aadorf, Andermatt, Jaun & Oberwil), in Liechtenstein (Triesenberg), in Austria (Böhlerwerk, Hollenstein, Kitzeck, Leonding, Ludersdorf, Mittlern, Oberperfuss, Salzburg, Sollenau & Virgen), in Poland, in Russia, in the United States (Arkdale, Chicago, Livingston Manor, Sonoma, Tacoma & Yelm), in the former Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire & Curaçao), in Australia, in New Zealand, in Argentina (Buenos Aires, Arequito, Deán Funes, Santa Fe, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Sierra Chica, Tandil & Villa Diamante), in Paraguay (Julián Augusto Saldívar, Ciudad del Este & Villa Elisa), in Peru (Huancayo, Lima, Pisco, Piura & Santa Rosa), in Venezuela, in Nigeria (Abatete, Abuja, Akpim, Asaba, Awkuzu, Enugu, Ihitta Ogada, Lagos & Nguru Mbaise), Kenya (Nguru Dawida, Ngange Nyika, Taveta, Migwani & Wudany), in the Philippines (San Ramón) & in Brazil (Aracaju, Atibaia, Buerarema, Belo Horizonte, Ilhéus, Passo Fundo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo & Vitória).

In addition to this, the Palmarian Church canonised Christopher Columbus, who, sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs is popularly known as a leading figure in the European Discovery of the Americas, led by the Spanish Empire (the entire Twenty-Eighth Document of Pope Gregory XVII is dedicated to this).

During the reign of Pope Peter II, Palmarians were instructed to destroy their TV sets, videos, mobile phones and internet to protect themselves from the "repugnant moral leprosy rampant in the world.

[77] The Palmarians also condemned the "evil national socialism of Hitler" and its "anti-Christian character" (for its "racial idolatry and omnipotence of the state") and it has canonised Catholics persecuted by them such as Rupert Mayer, Titus Brandsma, Maximilian Kolbe and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

The Palmarians state that there has been excessive abuse of the phrase "separated brethren" to describe sects which broke away from the "true" Catholic Church, leading to confusion, thus these groups should be referred to instead as heretics (i. e. — Protestants) and schismatics.

Nostra aetate from the invalidated Vatican II is reverse engineered in the Fourth and Thirty-Eighth Documents of Pope Gregory XVII, which proclaims that "unconverted Jews" are explicitly the "deicide people" and "perfidious" until they become Catholic.