These three alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary—among them Medjugorje and Garabandal—have not been officially approved by the Catholic Church. This is what you should know.
In these three cases, various people claim to have witnessed these phenomena. In addition, there are many pilgrims, lay people, religious and priests who go with devotion to the places where they occurred.
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The alleged apparitions began on June 24, 1981, when six children in Medjugorje, in present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina, reported experiencing phenomena that they claim are apparitions of the Virgin Mary.
According to them, the apparitions contained a message of peace for the world, a call to conversion, prayer and fasting, and certain secrets surrounding the events that will take place in the future. It is said that three of the children, now adults, continue to witness apparitions of the Virgin every afternoon.
In November 2013, in the Mass he presided at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis, without mentioning Medjugorje, pointed out that curiosity drives us to want to feel that the Lord is here or there; or it makes us say: “but I know a visionary, a visionary, who receives letters from the Virgin, messages from the Virgin. But, look, the Virgin is Mother! And she loves all of us. But she is not a post office boss, to send messages every day.”
In January 2014, the Vatican concluded a nearly four-year investigation into the doctrinal and disciplinary aspects of the alleged Medjugorje apparitions and presented a document to the Congregation—now the Dicastery—for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was then delivered to the Saint Father.
In 2017, Pope Francis said the document was “very good” and distinguished three aspects about Medjugorje.
First, he pointed out that about “the first apparitions,” from when the supposed psychics “were children,” is something that “must continue to be investigated.” Then, he stated that regarding “the current alleged apparitions, the report has its doubts.”
“I personally am meaner. “I prefer the Virgin Mother, our Mother and not the Virgin Head of the Telegraph Office, who every day sends a message at such and such an hour… This is not the Mother of Jesus,” she expressed.
Later, he stated that there is a “spiritual” and “pastoral fact” that “cannot be denied”; and he assured that there are people who go to Medjugorje “and convert” and “find God, who changes their lives,” but he stressed that “there is no magic wand for this.”
Months before his statements, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Henryk Hoser as “special envoy” to the parish of Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Polish bishop died in August 2021 after falling ill with covid. In November 2021, the Holy Father appointed Bishop Aldo Cavalli as his replacement for an indefinite period.
The Vatican specified that the mission of this “special envoy” will have a pastoral character and will not be linked to the study of the Marian apparitions of Medjugorje, which are retained in the doctrinal field and which is the responsibility of the Congregation – today the Dicastery – for Doctrine. of faith.
In May 2019, Pope Francis officially authorized organizing pilgrimages to Medjugorje. The Vatican indicated that such pilgrimages must be “prevented from creating confusion or ambiguity on the doctrinal aspect.”
In 2020, the Pope sent a message to young people gathered in Medjugorje for the annual “Come and See” festival, encouraging them to imitate the Virgin Mary so that “the light of hope does not go out.”
In August 2021, the Pontiff sent a letter for the annual youth festival “Mladifest” and invited them to look to Mary to transform their lives “into a gift for others.”
In July 2023, Pope Francis also addressed the young participants of the Medjugorje festival and encouraged them to follow God’s plan, hand in hand with the Virgin Mary. In his message he did not refer to the alleged apparitions.
Between 1961 and 1965, four girls—Conchita, Jacinta, Mari Loli and Maricruz—claimed to have witnessed the apparitions of Saint Michael the Archangel and the Virgin Mary in their town, San Sebastián de Garabandal, in the community of Cantabria (Spain).
The events attracted crowds who claimed to have seen the girls go into deep ecstasy, levitate and perform displays of strength. During the alleged appearances, which were recorded by photography and film cameras, several tried to get the minors to come out of the trance through the use of force.
A few years ago, Bishop José Vilaplana, Bishop of Santander between 1991 and 2006, said that he did not find supernaturalism, but he did not condemn the alleged apparition either and allowed pilgrims to celebrate Mass in the town church.
“All the bishops of the diocese from 1961 to 1970 affirmed that the supernatural character of said apparitions, which took place around that time, could not be confirmed,” the prelate said, further expressing that he did not consider it necessary to reiterate this in a new statement and give publicity to something that happened a long time ago.
In 2018 the film was released Garabandal, only God knowswhich tells the story of the alleged apparitions.
In October 2022, Bishop Manuel Sánchez Monge, Bishop of Santander between 2015 and 2023, noted that “my position, like that of my predecessors, is that Rome’s assessment remains valid: ‘There are no signs of supernaturality.'”
3. Our Lady of Zeitun
Our Lady of Zeitun was an alleged mass Marian apparition approved only by the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
The events would have occurred in the Zeitun district, in Cairo (Egypt), during a period of 2 to 3 years that began on April 2, 1968.
During that period it is said that the Virgin appeared on many occasions, especially at night, and sometimes she was accompanied by white doves that flew around her. The first two years she would have shown up two to three times a week.
These supposed apparitions attracted large crowds, sometimes up to 250 thousand people.
This article was originally published in 2021. It has been updated for republication.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.