Knock, Ireland - 1879
In 1879, Knock was a remote village in the west of Ireland, overlooking the flat countryside of southwest Mayo. Ancient tradition held that St. Patrick once stopped at Knock, and, bestowing his blessing on it, foretold that one day it would become a major center of Catholic devotion.
In Knock stood the humble little church of St. John the Baptist, which had been badly damaged by a fierce storm a year before the apparition of Our Lady. In addition to structural damages, the statues of the Blessed Virgin and other images had been destroyed. New ones were ordered, and were given their places in the newly renovated church.
On August 21, 1879, the people of Knock were working hard in the fields, or in the bogs, until the afternoon when storm clouds blew in bringing with them what was first a heavy drizzle, but by dusk became a great downpour. Archdeacon Cavanagh had been out visiting parishioners, and was completely drenched when he returned home. In anticipation of this, his housekeeper, Mary McLoughlin had a fire going for him to warm himself beside, and to dry his clothes.
At about half past eight the housekeeper left the presbytery to visit a friend, Mrs. Margaret Beirne, whose house was past the village church. She noticed strange figures and an altar, all bathed in light, outside the church, in front of the gable. She assumed they were additional statues that had been ordered for the church, and wondered why they were left out in the rain. She was far away, and unable to see clearly through the heavy rain, so she dismissed the thought and hurried on to her friend's house.
Little more than an hour before, a Mrs. Carty had been passing by the church and, seeing the luminous figures, had also thought the priest had ordered more statues, "God help us!" Sixteen year-old Margaret Beirne who was the daughter of the Margaret Bierne Mary McLoughlin was on her way to visit, saw the images when she went to lock the church at seven o'clock. Due to the lack of clarity from the rain, she had also assumed they were statues and continued on her way.
After visiting with her friend, Mary McLoughlin started home. Mrs. Bierne's older daughter, Mary, offered to accompany her part of the way due to the rain. As they neared the church, the girl exclaimed, "Look at those beautiful statues! When did the Archdeacon put those at the gable?"
As they went to have a closer look, the brilliance of the light became apparent, illuminating not only the figures, but also the whole side of the church. It soon became apparent that they were not statues, when the women noticed them moving. "It's the Blessed Virgin!" Mary cried when she realized what it was they were seeing.
The figures stood only a foot away from the gable wall, suspended in the air just above the tops of the blades of grass. The Blessed Virgin was the central figure in the group, wearing a white dress that fell to the top of Her bare feet. Over the gown was a gleaming white cloak that fastened at Her neck by a gold clasp, and which fell to the top. She wore a crown on Her head from which arose glittering crosses. In the center of the front of the crown, above Her forehead, was a red rose. She held her hands apart and upward. Her head was tilted slight back, and Her gaze was fixed Heavenward, and She appeared to be praying.
St. Joseph, Husband of Mary and Foster-Father of Jesus Christ stood to Our Lady's right, with his head bowed toward her in an attitude of respect and devotion. His face had more color than the others, and his hair and beard were white.
To Our Lady's left stood St. John the Evangelist. He looked nearly identical to a statue in the church of a neighboring town, except in this apparition he wore a Bishop's mitre (he was, after all, along with the other eleven Apostles, the first Bishop of the Catholic Church). In his left hand he held an open book, while his right hand was raised in the air in an attitude of teaching or preaching.
Behind the three Saints stood an altar with a Cross in the front, before Which stood a Lamb, Which was facing westward. The altar, Cross and Lamb were raised higher up than the three figures, and was clearly the central focus of the apparition.
The apparition remained for over two hours, which by that time had brought thirteen more witnesses to the gable. A total of fifteen people stood gaping at the wonderful apparition. None of the figures spoke, and when attempts were made to touch them, despite the fact that they appeared entirely solid and lifelike, there was nothing but empty air. Yet the ground underneath the entire miraculous scene was completely dry.
Within two months of the apparition, the Archbishop of Tuam set up an Ecclesiastical Commission to interview and cross examine the fifteen witnesses, and to investigate the numerous cures, conversions, and other favors that came in floods after the event. The Commission never gave a ruling on the apparition, either for or against, so the pilgrims kept coming, and today Knock is a thoroughly major Marian Shrine, that even Pope John Paul II came to visit in 1979, bringing with him a rose made of gold as a gift to the Shrine.
Knock remains the only Marian Apparition where an official statement by the Church for its authenticity has never been made, yet has full Church approval of being a genuine supernatural and Divine event. As the annual number of pilgrims to Knock in modern times has grown to well over a million, a major international airport had to be built in what was once an obscure and tiny village, but is now a major city in Catholic Ireland.
The apparition was a call to Eucharistic devotion, which is the heart of the Catholic Church that Christ founded. He is the Lamb of God Who sacrificed Himself on the altar of the Cross for our sins, and which Sacrifice is commemorated daily in every Catholic Church throughout the world, "For from the rising of the sun to its going down, My Name will be great among the Gentiles, and all around the world there shall be Sacrifice, and there shall be offered to My Name a clean oblation." (Malachias 1:11)
