Apparitions of the Virgin Mary at HEROLDSBACH
GERMANY, 1949-1952
From October 9, 1949 to October 1952, the Virgin Mary appeared in the German locality of Heroldsbac.h to four girls of ages ranging between 10 and 11 years (Kuni Schleicher, Grate Giigel, Erika Muller, Marie Heimann), to whom then were added three others (Betty Balmer, Antoinie Saam, Irma Mehl). Over three hundred people will witness the authenticity of the apparitions, among them also the pastor of the town. In the first apparition (October 9, 1949), the four girls Grate, Erika and Marie) had gone in the birch wood to gather the colored leaves of autumn While they were absorbed in the choice of the most beautiful leaves, they discovered in a bush a tablet with the inscription "JHS" (J meant "Jahwe" - Yahweh, IL "Hyos" from the Greek Son and S "Spiritus Sanctus" - Holy Spirit). Surprised they began to wonder what that writing could me., when suddenly a lady dressed in white like a nun appeared to them. The girls recognized immediately Our Lady in that figure. They will later say that the figure seemed to be 'transparent". The young girls informed their pastor, Johannes Geller, about the incident. After appearing skeptical and having examined the Me carefully, he began to be convinced of the truthfulness of the apparitions. Four clays later, they reached in the hill and they were in the presence of the same Lady and the girls asked her "What would you like?". She answered slowly: «The people must pray fervently». As soon as She had pronounced these words the Virgin Mary blessed them and disappeared. One of the girls will express herself in this way in describing the sensation experienced upon hearing the voice of the Holy Virgin: "I did not know whether this voice was inside or outside of me". Eight days later a new apparition manifested itself On the advice of a religious Johannes M. Heer, the visionaries posed the following question to Our Lady: "Beloved Mother of God, what prevents you from approaching us?". The Virgin Mary answered: «I have come to exhort the people to prayer and penance... the people must pray with perseverance». The girls questioned separately, all answered in the same way. The news of the events, that in the meantime became widespread, brought to that place thousands of visitors. The Ordinariate warned the faithful about going in pilgrimage to Heroldsbach, but despite that the flow was such as to count even sixty-thousand visitors in a single day. On October 31, Prof. Walz requested the visionaries to ask: "Beloved Mother of God, were you received with your body in Heaven?" Her answer was: «Yes, but I have remained the little servant». A solar miracle, which was seen by thousands of people, took place on the occasion of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The pastor of Heroldsbach, Johannes Gailer, writes this in his report: "On the day December 8, 1949I had held a procession: upon returning I saw assembled a few thousands of people who were looking towards the sky amassed and they drew soy attention towards the sun; when I too looked I incised saw the solar disk make some movements like it wanted to descend upon Earth, to then return to its initial position. This impossible movement was entirely unexplainable to me in "natural" term. I noted around the ear, as it was about "to descend", a wide crown of roses. Instead Antonio Seam saw in the sun the Mother of God with the Baby in her arm. The miracle lasted about half an hour. We were Bye priests present at the phenomenon. As long as I live I will never be able to forget this day". The visionaries were questioned individually and they all testified the same thing, which is that they had been witnesses of an apparition of Our Lady in the rotating and descending Sun, simultaneously the girls heard saying: "I did this in order that those who do not believe, may believe!". On the same day also the Archbishop of Bamberg presented a positive position regarding the phenomena that occurred. In the visions of December 25, 1949, more than four thousand pilgrims flocked to the place of the apparitions. The Virgin Mary with the Baby appeared to the girls in the usual place saying: "The people should do more penances and pray with perseverance; in the Christmas time the people should venerate the Holy Family more and recite the Holy Rosary every day, moreover one should practice every day a contemplation on the Heart of Mary Most Holy". After this brief apparition the young girls were again blessed by various visions until 7 PM. Afterwards the visionaries reported their content they had seen the Holy Family, the flight into Egypt, the Annunciation of the Angel to Mary Most Holy and the grotto where the Baby was horn. Many people appeared visibly moved by everything that the girls were describing. Everyone believed those girls who were speaking of things greater than them and that they could not have learned from someone in the daily earthly life. Other apparitions and brief messages of Our Lady took place at irregular time intervals. The Holy Virgin often held out her hands at the visionaries, in order that besides seeing and hearing her they could also perceive her contact. On February 9 the visionaries saw the Most Holy Trinity in heaven: "This has been the most beautiful thing that we saw in life; it would he wonderful if all of ire could soon go to heaven". In May of 1950 a woman had visions about the global catastrophes mused by the atomic bomb. In the visions it was also shown her that there were no more cars and airplanes and not even artificial light. She saw cities and villages swept away by the waves of the sea. The food was for the most part poisoned but the people were eating anyhow and were dying amid violent spasms of their body. From the fall of 1950 the Mother of God often appeared in bitter tears and urged all the faithful to atonement and prayer to soften the Sacred Heart of Jesus and avoid the great catastrophes that were about to fall 031 the world. The Virgin Mary now appeared as Queen of Heaven, with blue mantle and golden crown. In the apparition of September 26, she taught the visionaries the following prayer: «O Mary, let us stay under your blue mantle, safe shelter from all the ruins». In the night of November 1, 1950, at the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption of Our Lady in Heaven, the Holy Virgin showed herself to three hundred adults with a black crown of the Holy Rosary. Many accounts of eyewitnesses testified to the apparition. On March 13, 1951, Our Lady appeared with the Baby Jesus to the visionaries, around whom many people had already gathered. The Most Holy Virgin was surrounded by a crowded legion of saints. The saints blessed the visionaries after extending their hand. «To make sure that your hands do not commit impure acts», they said. Then they added: «You should always look straight in the eyes Our Lady the Baby Jesus and the Saints; you should never surrender to the body and to its senses, in the Judgment everything is revealed, the Good as the Evil Heaven has opened on this place, but soon it will close again». This was the response to the question of the girls about the meaning of the hand. After some time the visionaries narrated some stories of saints and martyrs also of early Christianity, stories ao ancient and of such a level to amaze those who listened to them. The pastor was very surprised, since the girls at that age would never have been able to know such details and connections that were almost unknown to even the most erudite religious and theologians. The visionaries had other apparitions of Mary Most Holy and Jesus on May 6, 1951, June 13 and 15. Among them, there is one in which the Holy Virgin received all the onlookers under her celestial mantle asking the to take a spot there. Some apparitions still manifested themselves, among them one when the Virgin Mary, dressed in white, appeared next to the golden throne of God, with the scepter and the crown and said: «Your prayers penetrate Heaven, you will be helped. There are many black clouds in Heavens pray pray, pray!». The visionaries had been prepared by the Virgin Mary for the day of farewell since October 9. At 3 PM many faithful had already assembled in that place. The Virgin Mary appeared with the Baby Jesus, as she had promised, and said: «We have not come to perform miracles but to urge you to prayer and atonement. Continue to pray on this hill also when we will not appear anymore». Then the girls saw twenty angels and some saints dressed in pink, red and blue, among the. Saint Therese of the Child Jame, Saint Bernadette, Saint Gemma Galgani, Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, Saint John Nepomucene and Saint Anthou of Padua, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Clement I Pope and Martyr etc... Seven saints in particular had received a special task: Pope Saint Pius X (for the Eucharist), Brother Claus and Therese of Lisieux (for humffity), Maria Goretti and Aloysim Genzaga (for chastity), Anthony of Padua and Crescentia Hoes (against diabolical threats). Also a sweet melody of the angelic choir was heard rising in the air. The visionaries, who had begun to sing with the Heavenly Choir, were in taro accompanied by the choir of pilgrims. Then Saint Therese said: «We rejoice in seeing many pilgrims who sing with all their heart. Have faith in our help and continue to pray even ff you will not see us anymore, we shall see each other in Heaven». At 11 PM, at night, at last the Virgin Mary appeared to the visionaries and upon leaving said: «They did not want to listen to my will and to the one of My Son: now it is too late for humanity to convert. This is the final appeal that we address to the people. Pray with the priests, all on their knees for the salvation of humanity. Every child will be able to extend his hand to me and to my beloved Son when he will desire it». With these words the Virgin disappeared in a luminous trail, while the angels spread out over the entire mountain the immense light blue mantle of the Mother of the Redeemer of the world. The mantle was internally red and blue and externally fringed with a double selvedge of brocade. A majestic mantle to symbolize the powerful protection of the Mother of God over all humanity. At the time of the apparitions the Archiepiscopal Ordinariate of Bamberg, ecclesiastical authority for this place, entrusted a commission of inquiry so that it may investigate about the phenomena, of which initially however it appeared skeptical. But, despite the negative opinion of the ecclesiastical authorities, the flow of the crowds of pilgrims increased unceasingly and there were many, even among the priests (first of all, the pastor), to declare themselves convinced of the authenticity of these apparitions. Among them Johannes M. Hee, spiritual counselor of the Archiepiscopal Ordinariate, expert of mysticism, who after a careful examination of the facts declared this: "We have the absolute moral certainty that the girls are not lying. We have the obligation to believer!". After 50 years of strict prohibition of going on pilgrimage to Heroldsbach, in 1998 the Archbishop of Bamberg officially recognized the site where the apparitions took place as a "place of prayer', allowing there the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and of the other Sacraments.