BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary): Sightings & Apparitions

[JamesWhitehead]

Time was when such a miracle could have been reported with a straight face and without the need for references to sitcoms or pizza-joints!

The popular culture reference which seems to have been forgotten:

She was lovely and fair as the rose of the summer,
Yet 'twas not her beauty alone that won me;
Oh no, 'twas the truth in her eyes ever dawning,
That made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee.

 

[ramonmercado]

Such loving Christians.

NewstalkVerified account‏@NewstalkFM
Nun apologises for saying Mary wasn't a virgin after receiving death threats http://bit.ly/2kmwVOZ

 

[uair01]

Yesterday I visited a very nice exhibition about The Blessed Virgin Mary in the religion museum in Utrecht.
https://www.catharijneconvent.nl/english/mary/

I'm a fan of Mary (and the rosary) and I like modern art. I especially enjoyed the un-orthodox interpretations of The Blessed Virgin. Let's start with the classic ones:


Crowning of Mary (Atelier Mengelberg), Mary in "hortus conclusus" (anonymous)

And then the modern ones:
I like the first one very much. Not because of the explicit pose (also inspired by the Sheela Na Gig), but because it totally goes against any tradition, and still it works. That's the powerful Mary of the "Magnificat"


Virgin of Mercy (Elisabeth Stienstra), Mary and child (Sidi El Karchi), Rosary (Maria Roosen)

 

[Mythopoeika]

Picture number 3 depicts Mary as a naked drunkard. Odd.

 

[uair01]

Picture number 3 depicts Mary as a naked drunkard. Odd.

Could be my way of photographing. Here's a detailed picture on the artist's website:
http://elisabetstienstra.com/
Does not look drunk to me ... more calmly ecstatic ...

 

[JamesWhitehead]

more calmly ecstatic

It's that moment in the early hours when the bar has shut and someone has taken your pole away.

 

[ramonmercado]

But could the statue move? Good sized statue anyway.

1
Des Fitzgerald (82), Greystones, Limerick, with his ‘miracle’ statue of Our Lady. Photo: Press 22

October 13 2017 2:30 AM

A pensioner claims he could walk properly for the first time in years 10 minutes after obtaining a 4ft-tall statue of the Virgin Mary.

Grandfather Des Fitzgerald (82), of Greystones in Limerick city, recently purchased the statue to mark the centenary of the first apparitions in Fátima, Portugal.

He bought the blessed statue for €400 - but said he did not expect to receive a "miracle" as his health dramatically improved.

After alternating between using a wheelchair and a walking aid for a decade, he said his prayers had been answered.

"I hadn't the statue 10 minutes when I was able to walk fully. It was a miracle straight away. To prove it to myself, I walked out of the house, down to the gate and back up again. Before, I was barely able to stand up for a minute on my own," he told the 'Limerick ...

http://www.independent.ie/irish-new...ade-pensioner-speaks-of-miracle-36222732.html

 

[Mythopoeika]

In other news, an 82 year old man has begun selling tickets to people to who wish to visit his holy statue...

 

[GNC]

BVM appears in dust cloud above Italian church, prevents it being crushed by landslide:

The screengrab in FT 371 is clearer, but it does look awfully dusty.

 

[Mythopoeika]

BVM appears in dust cloud above Italian church, prevents it being crushed by landslide:

The screengrab in FT 371 is clearer, but it does look awfully dusty.

I didn't see anything unusual.

 

[ramonmercado]

BVM appears in dust cloud above Italian church, prevents it being crushed by landslide:

The screengrab in FT 371 is clearer, but it does look awfully dusty.

Looks like Like Lady Gaga to me,

 

[GNC]

I didn't see anything unusual.

That's the best video I could find, I'm afraid. There must be a good screengrab around, but basically she is standing above the tower giving a blessing. Or, you know, being a cloud of dust.

 

[hunck]

BVM appears in dust cloud above Italian church, prevents it being crushed by landslide:

The screengrab in FT 371 is clearer, but it does look awfully dusty.

Dusty Springfield?

 

[GNC]

Dusty Springfield?

Dusty Valchiavenna.

 

[EnolaGaia]

That's the best video I could find, I'm afraid. There must be a good screengrab around, but basically she is standing above the tower giving a blessing. Or, you know, being a cloud of dust.

Here's the most suggestive version I could find. I tweaked the contrast a bit for the sake of visibility.

​

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here's a photo of the aftermath from a different angle. As you can see, the landslide debris stopped well short of the church. Perhaps more to the point it stopped short of the power lines behind the church.

​

 

[GNC]

Thanks, EnolaG! Maybe the BVM blessed the power lines too?

 

[EnolaGaia]

Thanks, EnolaG! Maybe the BVM blessed the power lines too?

It's difficult to tell from the photos, but it appears it was the power authority that blessed the back side of the historic church with a protective raised embankment (or perhaps protective ditching) when erecting their power lines.

 

[GNC]

If God moves in mysterious ways, it can only be expected the BVM does too. Always on the lookout for a photo op.

 

[ramonmercado]

The BVM certainly gets around.

• For centuries, the Virgin Mary has appeared to the faithful, requesting devotion and promising comfort.
• These maps show the geography of Marian apparitions – the handful approved by the Vatican, and many others.
• Historically, Europe is where most apparitions have been reported, but the U.S. is pretty fertile ground too.

The divine is supernatural, but religion is very much of this world. The way people worship even has an impact on their physical surroundings. Here's a telltale sign that you're in Catholic country: chapels, shrines and grottoes dot the roadside. The latter are replicas of the cave in southern France where the Virgin Mary appeared to a local peasant girl in the early 19th century.

https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/world-map-marian-apparitions?rebelltitem=21#rebelltitem21

 

[Mythopoeika]

Interesting that very few sightings have happened in the UK.

 

[uair01]

Maybe Mary appears homogeneously everywhere, but only Catholic places recognize her as such when she appears. For example in Japan people may mistake her for Kanzeon, the Goddess of Mercy.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Yes and yes. I have seen a map which deals with the culturally-determined aspect of strange sightings. UFOs and hooded aliens become more SciFi as we move away from places with Marian and Miracle traditions.

I had, lazily, assumed Medjugorje to be in a devout region but the above map shows it as an outlier. Both political and geological influences have been used to interpret that one! :nun:

 

[Carse]

Interesting that very few sightings have happened in the UK.

And apparently none in Scotland, which I find very surprising!

 

[mikfez]

500 Years of Virgin Mary Sightings in One Map​

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Apparitions of the Virgin Mary, inspiring wonder and devotion among millions, have been tracked for centuries.​

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See Here:​

500 Years of Virgin Mary Sightings in One Map​

This is from 2015 so may have been posted before.

 

[Frideswide]

ooooooooooooooooooh! good stuff!

 

[Carse]

I winder why she has never appeared in Scotland?

 

[ramonmercado]

I winder why she has never appeared in Scotland?

She was bitten by a haggis when she was a wain.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Wasn't she one of those four-and-twenty who came down from Inverness?

 

[AlchoPwn]

I winder why she has never appeared in Scotland?

Nobody would pay her appearance fee :rim: