Sister Agnes Sasagawa, a Japanese nun whose supposed visions of the Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady of Akita included stark warnings for humanity and instructions to pray the Rosary and repent of sin, died on August 15 at age 93.
A parish priest in Akita, Japan, confirmed to CNA – EWTN’s English agency – by telephone that Sasagawa died on August 15.
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The order to which Sasagawa belonged, the Institute of the Handmaids of the Holy Eucharist, announced that the nun, who had been “under medical treatment for some time,” died on the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The woman allegedly received a series of messages from Maria and witnessed other supernatural events that began 50 years ago.
The then Bishop of Nigita, Bishop John Shojiro Ito, who founded the Sasagawa order and who died in 1993, authorized the faithful of his diocese, in April 1984to venerate Our Lady of Akita, after eight years of research, noting that her messages did not contain “anything contrary to Catholic doctrine or morals.”
Katsuko Sasagawa was born in 1930 into a Buddhist family. She was baptized after the testimony of a Christian nurse, who gave her Lourdes water to drink. She entered religious life and took the name Agnes.
Sasagawa’s unusual spiritual experiences began in 1973, when she was still very new to the religious community.
On June 12, 1973, Sasagawa saw bright rays coming out of the convent’s tabernacle. The vision was repeated two more days. Then, on June 28, a painful cross-shaped wound, bleeding profusely, appeared on Sasagawa’s hand.
The messages of Our Lady of Akita
On July 6, Sasagawa heard a voice coming from a wooden image of the Virgin Mary that had been in the convent for a decade. The voice told him that the problems he had then with his hearing would be cured (which happened in 1974) and also that he should “pray in reparation for the sins of men.” The voice also taught him a prayer of consecration to the heart of Jesus.
Shortly after, the Marian image developed a wound similar to that of Sasagawa, but on the opposite hand. Sasagawa’s wound eventually disappeared.
On August 3, 1973, Maria spoke to Sasagawa again, this time about an “important” message she had to give to her superior.
“Many men in this world grieve the Lord. I desire souls that will comfort you to soften the wrath of the Heavenly Father. I desire, with my Son, souls that will make reparation with their suffering and poverty for sinners and ungrateful people. So that the world knows his wrath, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great punishment on all humanity,” the Virgin reportedly told Sasagawa.
“With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the Father’s anger. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering him the sufferings of the Son on the cross, his precious blood, and beloved souls who console him by forming a court of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger. I also wish this from your community… that it loves poverty, that it sanctify itself and pray in reparation for the ingratitude and outrage of so many men.”
Mary would also have told the nun: “Recite the prayer of the Servants of the Eucharist with awareness of its meaning; put it into practice; offers in reparation (whatever God sends) for sins. Let each one strive, according to his capacity and position, to offer himself entirely to the Lord.”
Mary’s second message for Sasagawa came on October 13, 1973, on the 60th anniversary of the miracle of the sun of the Virgin of Fatima.
“As I told you, if men do not repent and improve, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the flood, such as has never been seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and eliminate a large part of humanity, both the good and the bad, without exception of priests and faithful. The survivors will be so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only weapons they will have left will be the Rosary and the sign left by my Son. “Every day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and the priests.”
“The work of the devil will infiltrate even within the Church in such a way that cardinals will be seen against cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be despised and will find opposition from their peers… churches and altars will be looted; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the devil will pressure many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. The devil will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. Thinking about the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. sins increase in number and severity, there will be no forgiveness for them.”
In January 1975, almost two years later, the image of Mary began to cry, and continued to do so 101 times over the next seven years. Apparently, a Japanese television station filmed the crying, known as “tearing.”
In a letter dated April 22, 1984, Bishop Ito recognized “the supernatural character of a series of mysterious events related to the image of the Holy Mother Mary.”
“Consequently, I authorize, throughout the diocese, the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita, pending the publication of a definitive judgment on this matter by the Holy See,” the prelate wrote.
“And I ask that you remember that, even if the Holy See later publishes a favorable judgment regarding the events in Akita, this is only a private divine revelation. Christians are obliged to believe only (the) content of public Divine revelation (closed after the death of the last Apostle) which contains everything necessary for salvation. However, the Church, until now, has made equally much of private divine revelations as they strengthen faith.”
In 2002, the Marian shrine Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer) was completed in Akita; The image was placed there and, since 2017, it attracts about 7,000 pilgrims each year.
The Vatican, which in May of this year published new rules so that its doctrinal office “is always consulted and gives its final approval” on alleged Marian apparitions, has not given a definitive judgment on Our Lady of Akita.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, allowed Ito’s judgment that the messages were acceptable to the faithful to stand in 1988, as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Hannah Brockhaus contributed to this article
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA
Jonah McKeown
Jonah McKeown is a writer and podcast producer for Catholic News Agency. He has a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, radio producer and videographer.