LIPA, The Phillipines 1948

Teresita Castillo of Lipa City, the Phillipines, was a very devout young woman who came from a deeply religious family. She felt a strong, clear calling from God to become a Carmelite nun, but her family, though very devout, were not pleased with this. On her 21st birthday, July 4, 1948, Teresita fled her home in the early morning hours before her parents woke up, and entered the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Her family was very upset over this, and tried everything they could to get Teresita back; however, Teresita was an adult now, and her vocation to become a nun was confirmed by her confessor, and there was nothing her parents could do about it: she had to follow her calling, the same way her parents had to follow theirs when they had decided to get married.

Satan, however, sided with her parents. Trying to get her to abandon her vocation, he made several appearances to her over the next few weeks, filling her cell with a wretched odor, and antagonizing her in a guttural male voice.  Undisturbed by these intrusions, Teresita's resolve to become a bride of Christ was immeasurably strengthened. The Devil finally gave up and left her alone.

What was so special about this woman that the king of darkness tried so hard to make her vocation fail? The superiors of the convent would find out a few months later.

On September 12, 1948, while Teresita was praying in the convent garden, a vine began to shake, catching her attention. As there was no wind, she wondered momentarily what was causing it to shake, when a radiant Lady of indescribable beauty appeared. She wore a pure white veil covering Her long, dark-brown hair, which fell to her waist, and a pure white gown with a narrow cloth cincture. From Her right arm hung a gold Rosary. Her bare feet stood upon a white cloud that hovered about two feet off of the ground.

Although her first thought was that the Lady was the Blessed Virgin Mary, Teresita couldn't be sure since of her previous harassments from the Devil, she new Satan could easily disguise himself in a heavenly form.

"Fear not, my child." And to prove She wasn't the proud, infernal serpent, She instructed Teresita to make an act of humility: "Kiss the ground." The novice did so, and Our Lady continued. "Whatever I tell you to do, you must do. For fifteen consecutive days, come visit Me here at this spot." And for another act of humility, the Virgin instructed Teresita to eat a bit of grass, as She had asked St. Bernadette Soubirous to do at LOURDES, France, to the astonishment of the witnesses. Satan is incapable of humility, and since all sin has pride as its basis, in trying to induce someone to sin (particularly a woman who is about to become a bride of Christ), he would never instruct them to do such humiliating acts as an obeissance to Almighty God.

Teresita returned to the spot in the garden the next day, Monday, September 13, at five o'clock, which was the time of the previous day's apparition. She knelt down to say a Hail Mary, but she had barely finished: "Hail Mary, full of Grace..." when Our Lady returned as promised.

The next day, September 14, accompanied by some of the nuns of the convent, Our Lady appeared again, and for the first time, a shower of rose petals fell upon the garden. Unlike the shower of petals at FATIMA that disappeared before reaching the ground, these petals remained. This miracle, however, wasn't confined to the site of the apparition. Inside the convent, the other sisters were astonished to find rose petals strewn about their cells or outside their doorways, and the convent filled with an intense fragrance from the flowers.

In the course of these apparitions, Our Lady instructed Teresita to have the vine blessed, and to have a statue placed at this spot. She urged humility, penance, and much prayer, particularly for the clergy and the Pope. The Blessed Virgin gave a secret for Teresita herself, one for the Prioress regarding the convent of Lipa, one for China, and one for the entire world. Our Lady also asked that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass be offered on the 12th of every month at the place of Her apparition. At Her last appearance, Our Lady referred to Herself under the familiar title of "the Mediatrix of All Grace."

The Mother Prioress, although amazed by all these events, nonetheless was not going to take matters into her own hands. Consulting with auxiliary Bishop Alfredo Obviar, the Prioress was told to instruct Teresita at the next apparition that he wanted a sign from the Blessed Virgin to assure him these visitations were Divine and not diabolic. Teresita did this, but Our Lady did not give her an answer, merely smiling beautifully at the request.

Several days later, Teresita was inexplicably stricken with total blindness. When medical treatment failed to explain the origin of the blindness, and failed to correct it, the Mother Prioress heard a voice telling her to kiss Teresita's eyes. Soon after, with Bishop Obviar present, the Prioress did so, and Teresita instantly regained her eyesight. The Bishop no longer doubted that the apparitions were of Divine origin.

Although the Blessed Virgin no longer appeared to her, Teresita continued to receive private visitations of an angel, who gave her Holy Communion one day when she was too ill to attend Mass, (see GARABANDAL) as well as Saints Cecilia, Saint Therese of Lisieux, and others. At times she would also lose consciousness, upon which, though not having received any STIGMATA, she would enact the Passion of Christ, the latter in front of the very eyes of Bishop Obviar, the Mother Prioress, and many of the nuns in the convent. 

The attention all this received outside the convent walls was unacceptable to higher officials of the Catholic Church. Bishop Obviar and the Mother Prioress were demoted from their positions, Teresita's diary and all documents relating to the apparitions were burned, and the entire Carmelite community was forbidden to discuss the events, even amongst themselves. The statue of Our Lady was removed from the garden, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass She had requested on the 12th of every month was forbidden to be performed.

A phenomenon regarding the showers of rose petals (aside from them appearing out of nowhere and falling to the ground) was that they bore images on them of Christ, Mary, the Saints, or holy events, such as the Crucifixion. To add to the confusion, unscrupulous peddlers began selling sham rose petals that they had pressed over images on religious medals, claiming them to be from the Lipa apparitions. Teresita was soon obliged to leave the convent in the 1950's. Bishop Alfred Verzosa of Lipa issued a decree stating that there was nothing supernatural involved in the events reported at the convent.

After decades of intermission, the events of Lipa began to manifest again when in February, 1990, a luminous white female figure in prayer regularly appeared on the branch of a coconut tree during evening hours. Ony May 21, 1990, one of the Carmelite nuns, on her deathbed, pleaded for Church authorities to restore the statue of Our Lady of Lipa to the convent garden. Her request was granted the next day, the first time in the 40 years that the statue had been banned from being displayed. holy images fell on the convent.

On January 24, 1991, a new miraculous shower of rose petals bearing holy images fell on the Carmelite convent. Just a few days later, six children playing in the garden of the convent saw the statue of Our Lady "come to life."

These recent events forced the Lipa apparitions of 1948 back into the ecclesiastical spotlight, and Archbishop Ramon Arguelles has now formed a new commission to be established to investigate the whole phenomenon afresh. In the November 12, 2009 decree ordering the establishment of this new commission, Archbishop Arguelles also lifted the bans imposed by his predecessors regarding the apparitions.

We now await the official findings and ruling of the Archbishop of Lipa from this new investigation into the apparitions of Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace there.