Relic Information
arca mortuaria - mortuary box, container
arca sepulerali- coffin/
breviario - breviary
coronse spinse D.N.J.C. - crown of thorns of Our Lord Jesus Christ
corporis (cravio) - body
D.N.J.C. (Domini Nostri Jesu Christi) - Our Lord Jesus Christ
de velo - from the veil
ex bireto - from the biretta
ex capillus - from the hair
ex carne - from the flesh
ex cilicium - from the cilicium, an instrument of penance
ex cineribus - from the ashes
ex crypta - from the cave or grotto (also modern-day crypts, Mausoleums, or vault-crypts inside churches)
ex domo - from the house
ex inducio - from covering
*ex indumentis - pieces of cloth that has touched a 1st or 2nd class Relic
*ex indumento - from the clothing
ex ligneo pulvere, mixto pulveri corporis, quem residuum continebat prima
capsa funeralis - from the remains of the wood, mixed with the dust
of the body, the residue of which was contained in the first box,
(or sarcophagus)
ex ossibus - from the bones
ex palio - from the cloak
ex pelle - from the skin
ex pluviali - cope (cloak wore for Benediction)
ex praecordis - from the stomach or intestines
ex praesepis - birthplace of D.N.J.C.
ex sindone - from the shroud
ex spongia - from the sponge
ex sportula - from the little basket
ex stipite affixionis - probably means "from the whipping post"
ex strato - from the covering (blanket)
ex subucula - of the tunic
ex tela serica quae tetigit cor - from the silk cloth which touched the heart
ex tunica - from the tunic
ex velo - of the veil
ex veste - from the dress/clothing
mensae coenae D.N.J.C. - the room where the Last Supper took place
petra - rock
sindonis D.N.J.C. - from the burial shourd of Our Lord
*This depends on where the relic has come from. 'Older' relics listed as ex indumentis are normally taken from the clothing of the said person; however, in the past couple of decades Catholic shops have supplied alloy medals and what I call 'modern' holy cards that contain 3rd class relics listed as ex indumentis (but not being such)...See pictures below:
Saturday, February 12, 2011
A good story for those who care about RELICS!!!
As the story goes, a priest assigned to a poor parish in a poverty stricken mountain community of northern Italy was approached by the town council. The council wanted to improve the lives of the population by bringing in tourist dollars. However, the town had nothing to attract outsiders to the community for a visit. They thought that, perhaps, the good father could obtain the relics of a major saint to place in the church that would bring visitors who would spend their money in local restaurants and hotels.
The priest agreed to give it a try and set off for Rome. After days of visiting church after church he was approached by a rather swarthy looking character who ask the father if he was searching for relics.
The priest responded, "Yes, my son, I am looking for the relics of an important saint to take back to my village but have found nothing. Tonight I must return home empty handed."
"Father, this is your lucky day!" responded the man. "It just so happens that I have recently acquired the head of Saint John the Baptist and for a moderate sum, to cover my expenses, the head is yours."
"But my good man, isn't the head of John the Baptist held at the church of San Silvestro here in Rome?" inquired the priest.
"Ah, yes, Father, but the head in San Silvestro is the head of St. John as an adult. I happen to have the head of St. John as a child."
The priest agreed to give it a try and set off for Rome. After days of visiting church after church he was approached by a rather swarthy looking character who ask the father if he was searching for relics.
The priest responded, "Yes, my son, I am looking for the relics of an important saint to take back to my village but have found nothing. Tonight I must return home empty handed."
"Father, this is your lucky day!" responded the man. "It just so happens that I have recently acquired the head of Saint John the Baptist and for a moderate sum, to cover my expenses, the head is yours."
"But my good man, isn't the head of John the Baptist held at the church of San Silvestro here in Rome?" inquired the priest.
"Ah, yes, Father, but the head in San Silvestro is the head of St. John as an adult. I happen to have the head of St. John as a child."
Friday, February 11, 2011
Saint Rafqa, A Saint of Lebanon
Boutrosiya recounted that "As I entered the church of the convent, I felt immense joy, inner relief; and looking at the image of the Blessed Virgin, it seemed as if a voice had come from it and entered the most intimate part of my conscience. It said to me: 'You will become a nun' (A Message 1985: 7).
She became a novice on Saint Maron's day, the 9th of February 1855. In 1856, she pronounced her monastic vows and took the religious name of Anissa (Agnes). While serving in Deir-el-Qamar in 1860, she witnessed the massacres of the Christians in the Chouf Mountain and was greatly affected by the suffering of her people.
In 1871, her order united with the order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to form the Order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The nuns were given the free choice of joining the new order or another existing order, or resuming lay status after being dispensed from their vows.
This was a very difficult time for the nuns of both orders who were not involved in the original decision to unite. Sister Anissa was teaching in Ma'ad in the Batroun region in North Lebanon. When she learned of the decision and the new situation, she went to Saint George's Church to pray. While in prayer, she cried because of her great distress. She fell asleep and felt the presence of someone who told her, "I will make you a religious" (A Message 1985: 11).
That night she dreamed of a man with a long white beard carrying a staff shaped like a "T" at the tip. He told her twice: "Become a nun in the Baladiya Order (The Lebanese Maronite Order)" (A Message 1985: 12). Sister Anissa did enter. Through
interpretation of her dream, Sister Anissa learned that the old man in her dream was Saint Anthony the Great, who carries a baton with a T-shape tip, made from a branch of a tree. Saint Anthony is the model of monastic life for the Baladiya Order.
On the 12th of July 1871 when she was 39 years old, she entered the novitiate again but it was at the monastery of St. Simon in El-Qarn as a member of the Baladiya Order. Her new religious congregation was cloistered. The nuns prayed, meditated, worked in the monastery and lived a life of asceticism. Her novitiate was documented in the records of that monastery as follows; "Sister Rafqa, whose name was Boutrosiya from Hemlaya, began her novitiate on the 12th of July 1871 at the age of 39" (Saadé 1986: 119). Two years later, on the 25th of August 1873, she made the solemn profession of her perpetual vows of obedience, chastity and poverty in the spirit of the strict Rule of the Baladiya Order. In the records of St. Simon's monastery we read "Sister Rafqa received her angelic cowl (the hood) from Father Superior Ephrem Geagea al-Bsherrawi during the administration of Sister Zyara al-Ghostawiye, Superior of the monastery on the 25th of August 1873" (Saadé 1986; 119). She took her mother's name Rafqa (Rebecca) as her religious name.
The Lebanese Maronite Order has its roots in the early monastic life in the East. However, it became an institution in the modern sense of the word in 1695. Pope Clement XII approved the monastic rules of the Order on the 31st of March 1732 (Shehwan 1996: 499). In 1736 at the Lebanese Synod, the women's branch of the Order was organized under the same rules (Azzi & Akiki 1995:36). Their relationship with the men's branch was spiritual and administrative (Shehwan 1996: 505). Their monastic life was that of an Oriental solitary type, which stresses prayer, contemplation and asceticism (Shehwan 1996: 502).
The nuns followed the basic monastic principle: pray and work. Their monastic daily life was divided as follows: prayer, chanting the office, meditation and Holy Mass, during the three hours from 4-7 A.M. Then came work from 7 to 10 A.M.
At 10 A.M. the nuns would sing the Breviary and this was followed by breakfast. Then they worked in the convent, paused to pray the Breviary once again, read from spiritual works and engaged in pious conversation as a community. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon they recited Vespers and this was followed by supper. Half an hour after sunset, they conducted the evening prayers from the Breviary, followed by the "great silence" when the nuns retire to their respective cells to meditate and rest until midnight. At that time (midnight), they leave their cells to join together in singing the first part of the Breviary. That would ordinarily last one and a half hours but during lent and Holy Week would last two hours. Back in their cells, they would be called again at four in the morning. Many of the nuns would stay in church to pray and meditate waiting for the four o'clock call to begin their day again [i.e. some nuns remained in chapel, and not in their cells, at prayer from midnight until 7 A.M.]. (A Message 1985: 15-16).
Rafqa lived her monastic life in great joy. On the feast of the Holy Rosary in 1885, seeing that she was blessed with health, Rafqa asked our Lord to let her share in the suffering of His crucifixion. Sister Rafqa prayed "Why, O My God, why have you distanced yourself from me and abandoned me? You have never visited sickness upon me! Have you perhaps abandoned me?" (A Message 1985: 17). From that night on, her health began to deteriorate and soon she became blind and crippled. Yet she rejoiced in being made worthy to participate in the suffering of Our Lord. Even when blind and weak, she often begged the mother superior to let her share in the daily work of the other sisters. Refusing to eat what was considered the good food, Rafqa often chose to eat the leftovers.
Blessed Rafqa was born in Lebanon at a time when suffering was the daily bread. She witnessed and experienced distress. For her to ask for more suffering is beyond comprehension. But Rafqa so requested. She believed that suffering is the path to salvation and a source of joy. Emulating Christ's love, she prayed asking to share in the suffering of Jesus and her people.
Her prayers were answered. She began feeling pain in the optic nerves [nerves of the eyes and vision]. The doctor who was treating her pierced through and destroyed her right eye in a barbaric manner. During bleeding and unbearable agony, Rafqa said only: "In communion with Christ's passion." Her other eye deteriorated and she became totally blind. Rafqa continued to suffer optic hemorrhage daily. She was left with no strength or energy.
Blind and in pain, she continued to work by spinning wool and cotton and knitting stockings for the other sisters. She took part in common prayer, chanting the psalms and reciting the Breviary -- all of this from memory.
In a 1981 medical report based upon the evidence presented in the Canonical Process, three specialists in ophthalmology, neurology and orthopedics diagnosed the most likely cause as tuberculosis with ocular localization and multiple bony excrescences. This disease causes the most unbearable pain.
Rather than ever complain of her pains, she prayed unceasingly, saying: "In communion with Your suffering, Jesus", "With the wound on Your shoulder, Jesus," "With Your crown of thorns, Jesus," "With the sufferings caused by the lance… by the thorns… by the nails of the Cross, my Lord Jesus."
Under obedience, the superior, Sister Doumit ordered Sister Rafqa to tell her life story since she did not wish to do so because she was humble. On the 23rd of October 1914, Sister Rafqa asked for final absolution and the plenary indulgence. She died in peace and received a humble monastic burial in the tombs of the monastery.
Four days after her death, Sister Doumit experienced a miracle, which took place through the intercession of Sister Rafqa. For eight years, Sister Doumit had been suffering from a lump in her throat that prevented her from even drinking milk. On the fourth night after Rafqa's death, after having asked the other sisters to let her rest undisturbed, she heard a knock at the door of her cell and heard someone say, "Take sand from Rafqa's grave and swab your throat with it. You will be cured." (A Message 1985: 281). Sister Ursula thought that one of the sisters had come to her about community affairs, so she asked to be left alone and went back to sleep. Again there was a knock and she heard the same message. She answered "I will get the sand when morning comes." In the morning, after learning that none of the nuns had knocked on her door, she went to Rafqa's grave and took some sand. Though still in wonder about what had happened during the previous night, she mixed the sand in water and swabbed the lump. The lump disappeared immediately. Sister Ursula had been miraculously cured! Since then, she advised all who came come to her with an illness to do the same.
Many physical and spiritual healings have been attributed to Rafqa's intercession. However, the miracle put forward for the Beatification of Sister Rafqa was the instantaneous, complete, definitive and scientifically inexplicable curing of a Lebanese woman named Elizabeth En-Nakhel from Tourza in northern Lebanon, who was suffering from uterine cancer. Elizabeth was cured, through Rafqa, in 1938 and lived for 28 years more. She died from a completely different illness in 1966.
On the 23rd of December 1925 and during the tenures in office of Maronite Patriarch Elias Howayek, the Superior General of the Lebanese Maronite Order Abbot Ignatius Dagher, and Pope Pius XI, the Lebanese Maronite Order presented Rafqa's cause for beatification to Rome. The causes of the future Blessed Hardini and Saint Sharbel were submitted at the same time.
Rafqa is like the bride of the Song of Songs who listened to the calls of her beloved: "Come from Lebanon, my promised bride, Come from Lebanon, come on your way. Look down from the heights of Amanus, From the crests of Senir and Hermon, The haunt of lions, The mountains of leopards. The scent of your garments Is like the scent of Lebanon. She is a garden enclosed, My sister, my promised bride; a garden enclosed A sealed fountain Fountain of the garden, Well of living water, Streams flowing down from Lebanon!" Excerpts from the Song of Songs 4:1-15.
Miracles continue to be granted through her intercession. Thousands of believers visit her tomb at Saint Joseph's monastery in Grabta. Her cause for canonization as a saint is being presented to
the Sacred Congregation in Rome.
Prophecies of th Servants of God, Blessed, Venerable and Saints
The Three Days of Darkness
by Yves Dupont
THE ACT OF GOD
The most spectacular aspect of the Act of God will be the three days of darkness over the whole earth. The Three Days have been announced by many mystics, viz., Bl.Anna-Maria Taigi, Padre Pio, Elizabeth Canori-Mora, Rosa-Colomba Asdente, Palma d'Oria, in Italy; Father Nectou, in Belgium; St. Hildegard, in Germany; Pere Lamy, Marie Baourdi, Marie Martel, Marie-Julie Jahenny, in France. (This list is not exhaustive; many more mystics have announced the Three Days.)
The Church does not oblige us to believe in any particular prophecy as a matter of faith, but we are indeed obliged to believe that prophecies may be made even in our own times, for this is in the Gospel: the Holy Ghost will speak to many in the Latter Days.
Moreover, when an identical prophecy has been made by widely separated people in time and space, when this particular prophecy was accompanied by other predictions which have already come to pass, and when the holiness of the mystics in question has been recognized by the Church, we would be foolish indeed not to believe that the prophecy must come to pass. Such is the case concerning the Three Days of Darkness. How else could we explain that an illiterate peasant woman of Brittany is describing the very thing that another mystic in, say, Germany or Italy is also describing?
THE PROXIMATE SIGNS
Here are the proximate signs in their probable order of occurrence. This, to be sure, is only my own opinion, and I may be wrong for I am no prophet myself; but, after studying a large number of prophecies, this order appears to me to be the most likely:
1. Flouting of church laws, irreverence and immodesty in church, fall in attendance at church.
2. Lack of charity towards others, heartlessness, indifference, divisions, contentions, godlessness, pride in human knowledge.
3. Breakdown of family life: immorality, adultery, perversion of youth (e.g. homosexuals giving lectures in schools), immodest fashions (e.g. mini-skirts and hot pants, bikinis and see-throughs), people concerned only with eating, drinking, dancing and other pleasures.
4. Civil commotions, contempt for authority, downfall of governments, confusion in high places, corruption, coups d'etat, civil war, revolution. (The first four proximate signs have already come to pass, at least partly; for we are yet to see civil war and revolution in the West. But the sequence of events is not strictly chronological; there is room for some overlapping. Thus, the 5th proximate sign seems to have begun also.)
5. Floods and droughts, crop failures, unusual weather, tornadoes, earthquakes, tidal waves, famines, epidemics, unknown diseases (e.g. new strains of viruses).
THE WARNING AND THE MIRACLE
These will take place between the proximate and the immediate signs. Both will be supernatural occurrences, and the Miracle will closely follow the Warning. There will be a solar prodigy; a Cross will be visible in the sky all over the world. The Warning will be associated with the letter "A"; it will not fall on a Feast day of Our Lady, nor on the l8th of the month.
The Miracle will fall on the Feast day of a young martyr of the Eucharist; this will be on a Thursday evening, and it will coincide with an important Church event.
Since the Miracle is to be seen only in Northern Spain and in Rome, and since the Cross in the sky is to be seen everywhere, it seems that the latter occurrence will take place with the Warning, not with the Miracle. However, the Miracle may also have a Cross in the sky.
During the Warning, everyone will be made aware of his/her own sinfulness, and many will wish to die, but the Warning itself will be completely harmless.
Both the Warning and the Miracle must be viewed as the last act of mercy from God, a final appeal to mankind to do penance before the three days of darkness and the destruction of three-quarters of the human race. At a time when the murder of unborn babies and the sin of Sodom and Lesbos have become respectable and sometimes legal, we should not wonder why God is going to punish mankind.
By that time, war and revolution will have already caused a high deathtoll, and Communism will be victorious, but all this will be as nothing compared with the deathtoll caused by the Three Days.
THE IMMEDIATE SIGN
It will be a bitterly cold winter night in the Northern hemisphere. (Presumably, a very cold summer night in Australia or, by contrast, a torrid night.) The wind will howl and roar. Lightning and thunderbolts of an unprecedented magnitude will strike the earth. The whole earth will shake, heavenly bodies will be disturbed – (this will be the beginning of the Three Days). Every Demon, every evil spirit will be released from hell and allowed to roam the earth. Terrifying apparitions will take place. Many will die from sheer fright. Fire will rain forth from the sky, all large cities will be destroyed, poisonous gases will fill the air, cries and lamentations everywhere. The unbelievers will burn in the open like withered grass. The entire earth will be afflicted; it will look like a huge graveyard.
As soon as you notice that bitterly cold night, go indoors, lock all doors and windows, pull down the blinds, stick adhesive paper on vents and around windows and doors. Do not answer calls from outside, do not look at the windows, or you will die on the spot: keep your eyes down to make sure you do not see the windows; the Wrath of God is mighty and no one should attempt to behold it. Light blessed wax candles; nothing else will burn, but the candles will not be extinguished once lit. Nothing will put them out in the houses of the faithful, but they will not burn in the houses of the godless. Sprinkle holy water about the house and especially in the vicinity of doors and windows: the devils fear holy water. Bless yourself with it and anoint your five senses with it: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, feet, and forehead. Keep on hand a sufficient supply of drinking water and, if possible, food also (but you can live without food for three days.) Kneel down and pray incessantly with outstretched arms, or prostrate on the floor. Make acts of contrition, faith, hope, and charity. Above all say the Rosary and meditate on the Sorrowful mysteries.
Some people, especially children, will be taken up to Heaven beforehand to spare them the horror of these days. People caught outdoors will die instantly. Three-quarters of the human race will be exterminated, – more men than women. No one will escape the terror of these days.
But, when all seems lost and hopeless, then, in the twinkling of an eye, the ordeal will be over: the sun will rise and shine again as in springtime over a purified earth.
Some nations will disappear entirely, and the face of the earth will be changed. There will be no more "Big Business" and huge factories which sap men's souls. Craftsmanship will revive, and assembly lines will give way to the working bench.
People will return to the land, but food will be scarce for about three years. Married women will bear many children, for it will be regarded as a disgrace not to have children, – no more "career women" addicted to the "pill". Unmarried females, – there will be many, will enter the religious orders and form large congregations of Nuns within the reborn Church. Disease will decrease dramatically, and mental illnesses will be rare, for man will have retrieved his natural environment. It will be an age of faith, true brotherhood between neighbors, civil harmony, peace, and prosperity. The land will yield crops as never before. Police will have little work to do: crime will disappear almost entirely. Mutual trust and honesty will be universal. There will be little work for lawyers, either. All the manpower which is currently taken up by the wickedness of the modern world will be released and available for the production of useful commodities. Thus, prosperity will be very great. This wonderful period will probably last 30 years approximately.
As soon as you see the sun rise again at the end of the Three Days, drop to your knees and give thanks to God.
Be warned, SPREAD THE MESSAGE, but do not fear: it would be an offense to God to show lack of confidence in His protection. Those who spread the message will be protected, but the scoffers, the skeptics, and those who dismiss the message because they are frightened, will not escape the chastisement.
WHAT TO DO NOW
SPREAD THE MESSAGE; do not be put out by those who laugh it off or think you are a bit odd. This is the price we have to pay, for no disciple of Christ can escape scorn or even persecution. Remain in the state of grace. Go to Mass, and regularly receive Holy Communion. Say your rosary every day. Obtain some wax candles and have these blessed by a Traditionalist priest. Do not buy ordinary white candles; they are not made of wax. Do not trust either a "new-breed" priest to bless your candles. Pray
for the Church and for the Pope in particular; it is not for us to judge the Pope, no matter what he does or says, – this is God's prerogative, but we must pray for him. Say the prayer to St. Michael which Leo XIII composed after witnessing a terrifying vision of Satan's power. Wear the Brown Scapular and the miraculous medal. Deny yourself some legitimate pleasures and entertainment; many seers insist on this. Eat sparingly, frugally, to sustain life more than to gratify the palate. When the proximate signs are over, i.e., war and revolution culminating in the victory of communism, when you behold the Warning, then store up food, drinking water, blankets and other necessities.
Apparition of Our Lady to Fr. Pere Lamy
"This was the 9th September, 1909. I had come [to Grey] nearly every year, and the Parish Priest of Violot was with me. They gave me handsome vestments put out for a prelate who was to come and who didn't arrive. I began my Mass. The Abbe Lemoine was in the interior of the chapel to the right, on the kneeler which is still there. The Blessed Virgin appeared to me suddenly, and at the same time the devil. It caused me violent emotion. I was in great doubt but I did not dare to believe because of my unworthiness, that I was facing the Most Blessed. It was so much beyond me. The Blessed Virgin came down from the ceiling, throned in great glory, so gently, so gently. She was as if in a furnace of light. Her glory went through everything gradually. The candles, the chalice, the altar vestments and I, like the sun going through water. How far did the glory reach? You need to know what the glory of God is, when you think of what He gives to the dearest of His creatures. It was just like a sun. I never saw the end of it. She came down from the ceiling like that, with Her hands joined. She wore a little smile before letting Her voice be heard. When She uncrossed Her hands, it seemed to make an eddy around Her."
"She first exchanged a word or two with the demon. During the descent, She said to Lucifer, who appeared behind Her, 'Is that you?'
(Lucifer) ; , I have leave from the Father.'
‘So be it.' replied the Blessed Virgin
Then, as if She were questioning him, 'You know how to obey the Father?' He gave no answer but I felt crushed. She extinguished Her glory. The lesser glory never left Her during all the Mass. I still stayed at the Dominus Vobiscum. Had I dared, I would have fled into the vestry, if I had not been at the altar. When I looked at the Parish Priest of Violot, he put his two hands over his face and his face in his book, and leaned his whole weight on the kneeler. I kept saying, ‘I shall be well defended.' She talked. She asked me questions. I did not dare to answer. She stood upright. She was of middle height. With the movement that She made, there was like a little storm of glittering spangles. Her crown only appeared when She stood up. Her feet were just about the height of those chairs. She stayed a little above the ground. With the right hand, She signed to me very maternally, 'Go on,' to give me back my courage. I said within myself, ‘If you are the Blessed Virgin, show me.' She said: 'I am the Mother of God.' When She said, • I am the Mother of God,' very gently, I seemed to melt away within. I did not doubt the word of the Mother of God. I believed Her, but She came in poor company (the fiend)."
"When I commemorated the martyrdom of St. Gorgonius She smiled gently. It was the prayer of Her Nativity. At the ut quibus beatae Virginis, I bowed to Her. She bowed to me, very graciously. What humility, even in Heaven and for me, a mountebank of the umpteenth class 1 I saw Her reflection in the glass before me in the altar-card. The interview went on, and so as not to cause too long a break, She signed to me to read the Epistle."
“The little altar server said: 'Is it the Blessed Virgin, Father? ' as he took the book from the Epistle side to the Gospel side. I said to him, low, e Don't talk, you will make Her go away,' She looked on him with motherly tenderness. She stayed aside to let him pass and took Her place again at the middle of the altar. When I said the Munda cor meum, She left the middle of the altar and went to the Gospel side."
" After the Gospel, the priest comes back to say the Credo. She took her place again at the side of the priest, almost in front of the book. She let him begin the Credo; at the Incarnatus est, She bowed as if to say, 'That is so.' At the Sub Pontio Pilato, She put forward Her closed hands upon the altar, clenching Her fists in a gesture of mighty sorrow. Her arms were just beside me (and he showed a distance of five inches). I was so upset that I made a mistake. I muddled things. When She saw that I wasn't getting over it, She went on with the Credo as if She were saying the Mass. My mistake had given me such a shock. She put me back where I stopped, very gently. (And, smiling, he said): She knows Her prayers well."
"At the Memento, She recommended the priest to ask more. There is great store, and still greater to be given."
"The Blessed Virgin foretold the War. She spoke to me very maternally, about my childhood, founded the pilgrimage of Our Lady of the Woodland; told me She wanted a new congregation. With great energy She condemned modernism, treated of several different matters, defending me from Lucifer."
"She was dressed in a deep blue gown, with Her white veil, the sleeves gathered in at the wrists, and bare feet. The neckline of Her dress is just below the chin. The gown is ample and quite simple. But anything She wore would be equally becoming. Her proportions are perfect. Everything in Her is perfect. Her eyes are very changeable; they can take all the colours, but there is one settled colour all the same. When She lived on earth they were neither brown nor altogether blue. Rather periwinkle. Her ears are visible. So is the start of the hair on the forehead. In the same way you can see the plaits of hair at the side. The only statue resembling her in the least is the one (Rue du Bac, above the entrance door of the Ladies of Charity), where She is giving an audience to Catherine Laboure, That has the face, just as long, but She has not that forehead. She looks too young in that statue, and yet you cannot make Her old. I have never been able to tell Her age. The Virgin is very dark. (' I am black, but comely.') Her demeanour is very simple. She seldom inclines Her head but looks you straight in the face, just like Her Divine Son, but you feel that beyond, how Their gaze pierces into the entire world."
"When the Blessed Virgin speaks as a mother, She wears a crown made from a spray of roses, of lilies, and of daisies, with a silver band, quite narrow, at a third of the height. These flowery sprays are arranged like the fingers; a white rose, almost open, a single lily, almost open, and a daisy. Naturally, these flowers often repeated, form a circle. As for the green branches at the base of the crown, they are very sober in colour. It is a bell-shaped crown. You could pass your hand between Her crown and the veil on Her head. But when She condemned modernism, She wore a crown of matchless beauty. If the crown of flowers can be copied, the other one, the great one, cannot be even dreamed. It is made up of clusters of jewels and light. The jewels are very fine, small for the most part and a few large. They are harmoniously arranged like the grains in a ear of corn, with sparkling lights inset between the stones and throwing them into relief. There are blue stones, some red, some violet but less numerous than the blue. Amongst the most beautiful are the pale blue stones. I am almost sorry I didn't ask Her for one. Of those stones, some hang and others cluster. There is quite a play of lights, some outside and some inside the crown. It is like a diadem, rising in the middle. All that I have seen in the museum look like cobble work beside a finely finished shoe. There is no crown on earth like that. She wears it when She speaks as a sovereign Lady. She is majestic. She wore it without the glory, or else She would be frightening and She does not come to frighten."
"After the Credo, She spoke of the War in very sorrowful tones. 'It will be slow to kindle. It will set all Europe on fire. It will set the world on fire. There will be about five millions killed, but (turning towards Lucifer) I shall save many in spite of you.' The fiend said, ' They'll pass through the gorge of the Vosges.' The Blessed Virgin, 'No, no, they will pass through Belgium.' Satan said, ' They are just as guilty on one side as the other.' Satan understands guilt very well. The Blessed Virgin half turned towards me and the bottom half of the church filled with a white cloud which opened. The wall disappeared and then I saw there a town with a mighty river. I think it is Belgrade. I saw the pictures of the War. I had a curious sensation. I felt quite well that I was in the church, but I was also transported far away. I cannot exactly reckon the thing up. I have perfectly reckoned up the favour the Blessed Virgin was doing me by showing me those countries. She brought me through an immense landscape. I am giving you very incomplete explanations but I cannot find words for these things. I saw ships of war with enormous funnels. I saw the landscapes, but later on I took awful trouble to place them and that wasn't possible at all. You see the great rivers, mountains, sea. How place them on the maps? All is not over. There are scenes which I did not see unfold. The best for you just now is to keep quiet."
"The Priest recommended his Parish to the Blessed Virgin. The Blessed Virgin protected it in a special way during the War, especially on the day of the explosion. She looked at me very steadily; 'While he is alive, the Germans will not pass this way-at Le Pailly.' After a little silence She added, 'Even after his death. That is his cradle, the village where he was born. J shall be the Proteetoress of those lands! ' Just then the pictures of the War left off and the wood came on the scene. They have nothing in those countries, nothing ….no pilgrimage. Lucifer said to Her, ‘You are already called Our Lady of Lourdes; you are going to call yourself Our Lady of the Woodlands.' She turned Her head lightly. I followed the direction and She showed me a shanty. I saw the shanty, I saw the little statue; perhaps She shows it because of its gestures. The Virgin (it is awkward and badly done) spreads Her cloak to protect us and the Child is blessing the earth on which there is no cross. Just at this moment, She stood aside a bit to let the boy with the book pass."
“I had not been to the Bois Guyotte for many years but I recognised it at once. I saw it twenty-five miles away as if I were in it. The wood was being cut way altogether. At Gray I saw the forest all in disorder and I saw people in the wood, cross-cut saws squaring the tree trunks, perhaps more than a hundred persons. There were horses, harnesses. I could hear carters swearing under the eyes of the Blessed Virgin, and they did not check themselves. The wood was in a lamentable condition, trees cut down, stripped, branches everywhere hanging down to the ground. It was in September and the wood was already turning russet. The house was shown to me just as it is, but in a lamentable condition. Still there were a good few panes of glass left but these had all gone when I bought it. There were great slabs of plaster fallen down. There was no sanctuary naturally. I saw it close up. Just at that time, the chapel, which had formerly been a hunting-lodge, had become a woodman's shelter. Of the other hut which I had known near the well, there remained one post."
"I will not say anything much of what was told to me concerning the monasteries. She spoke to me a long time about the community at Gray. She visits the communities. She told me so. She visits them. She taught the holy Women Herself. She had grouped the holy women, the widows, and she had them with Her. She was with Her apostles. The scattering of the congregations were a punishment rather for the people than for individuals. She showed me all the monasteries in France in times past and times to come, with their inmates. I saw Clairvaux.' and Pere Lamy sketched a complete picture of this ideal monastery in the heroic time of St. Bernard, with its blessed Abbot and its monks, whom he described one by one. He spoke also of the future religious of Grossesauve re-populated. As I knew the district well, my attention was focussed on the priory. I remarked how the ancient building was made and I saw the monks that lived in centuries gone by. They were shown to me in procession, two by two and four by four, with their heads down. They went into the three hundreds. The desert shall again be peopled and I saw buildings that are to be."
“Later on, when Madame Caillier asked me to pray for Remiremont, I found the very place when I found myself with Her [the Blessed Virgin] in front of the Holy Mount. I picked out Remiremont from the many landscapes which I saw then. I saw many of those abbeys. They died out gradually under commendatory abbots. The monks were not numerous, only enough to till the ground, and the revenue was very small. I have seen white monks, brown monks and black. I don't want to say how touched I was by that. What interested me was to see the congregation bud and grow. I shall be a foundation stone. The monasteries will flourish again, the convents will fill up again After these calamities, souls in great numbers will come and dwell in them again."
“She talked to me and gave me a plan of my own daily life, up to and including the Sub tuum at the end of evening prayer which was not always recited well. She reminded me of the sabbatine privilege. ‘You must do what is laid down.' She is very strict on respect for the Pope's orders. She went over my whole life. The Blessed Virgin explained to me all my childhood. She said that without Her I would have been killed a hundred times, when I was doing antics in the pear tree. The pear tree was in the fruit garden of my father and mother on the other side of the road from their house where the barn is. Then how She had saved my life when I had typhoid fever. Neither the doctor nor my mother knew what it was. It was cured in one day by toast and water. Then She spoke to me of the burning down of our house. She told me who lit the fire. It had brought my family to the greatest wretchedness. My outfit was already in the making for me to go to the little seminary. I was 19 years old and the fire made me put it off. I could only go after my military service. She said, ‘I wanted him a priest; you see, he is a priest."
“She also spoke to me about the miraculous medal. She spoke about a plaster statue after the medal which someone had given me a long time ago. In my childish faith I thought I was doing something wonderful painting that statue; a veritable daub. I had painted the Blessed Virgin white, Her cloak blue, Her veil white. In some wild notion, I had painted the girdle yellow. ‘He thought to give me a yellow girdle,' She said, ‘it was ugly, very ugly,' laughing very heartily, ‘but I liked the intention.' I was 8 years old or a little less. That statue was burned in the fire. The Holy Mother said, ‘For a moment, I meant to save that statue, but there was no need.' I went looking for that statue in the remains of the fire and I gathered up bits in my hat. I carried that rubbish to the new house and I buried it at the root of the black¬currant bush. The Blessed Virgin added, ‘He put them in his hat.' not have happened. She asked for penance, a return to God, but no one put it into commission. I thought I said enough of it at La Courneuve. I repeated it every time, every Sunday. People used to say, 'He is a good man, but he is always on about the War, and you must do this and that; there's a bee in his bonnet! They said simply that I had a slate off. They used to say, , He said it; he said it again and you will see he will say it on Sunday.' Afterwards they say, ' Ah, if we had only known I..' ‘But I told you often enough.' 'Oh, but we didn't believe it! She asked for holiness in family life. She asked us to give up disorder and go back to orderly lives and then all will be restored. God does not demand more for forgiveness."
"I have not told you a tenth of what I saw. There are many things that I cannot set down. There are things it would not be good to say even forty years hence. And then the present time is perhaps the least favourable that ever was for revelation. I don't speak for one fraction of the people, the fervent Catholics; those simply do not need revelation."
"I have made notes (accidentally destroyed by Miss Delarue), but even in those notes you will find lines of full stops at certain passages. I took those notes on the back of funeral notices. They are in the boxes where I put my papers at Le Pailly. Only a year after did I speak. of them. Now I am getting old. I shall die very soon from now and I feel more free. I have read passages from these notes on the apparition at Gray to a priest among my friends. He said to me at the end of the reading, ‘But it is you that is in this; I guess it. It must be well founded.' I answered him that it was very well founded. 'What especially astounded the late Bishop of Langres is, I believe, Father, that dialogue between Mary and Lucifer, and also the somewhat candid style of the conversation.' She speaks as She chooses, She is not high-falutin'. She said to me, ' I am coming into the family circle.' "
Father Lamy’s only nephew was killed during the war. It was a huge loss for himself and his sister Rosine Vauthelin, whom he especially loved.
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