1-2c) The People Become Aroused

Reprinted with kind permission from St. Joseph Publications
from the book She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Book 1)

NOTE: All excerpts from Conchita's Diary will be in extra-bold type

When the four girls found themselves again, as if nothing had happened, upon the normal ground of the calleja, it was already night —9:3O— and so they did not make their intended visit to the church.

They were hardly able to talk about the effect on them. On separating, they agreed not to say anything to anyone. For this reason their answers to their families' questions in their homes were evasive. They carried their secret undivulged to the silence of their beds.

But soon they became aware that they could not keep it hidden like this. The request of the parish priest had to be carried out: If we saw something again, we should tell him right away. They wanted to obey. But how? He lived in Cossio, six kilometers down a seldom traveled and treacherous road. Our parents would not let us go alone. There was no other solution except to reveal to their families what had happened; and so they did, on the morning of June 21st.

This information, strictly confidential, was passed right away to Fr. Valentin, although something must have filtered down to him as the day wore on and the expectation in the village increased. The first extraordinary phenomenon of the calleja had not had any witnesses; they had been there alone, as Conchita said, We five: the Angel, Loli, Mari Cruz, Jacinta, and myself. But on the evening of Wednesday, June 21st, 1961, for the first time there would be other observers.

In the evening, after having done what we had to do, (This is a very important observation. Heaven always teaches us to fulfill our duties since this is the way all order is maintained.) we asked permission from our parents to go to the same place where the Angel had appeared to us.

But while going to the calleja, seeing that the people did not believe, we told a woman named Clementina Gonzalez that if she wanted to come with us ...

But she didn't want to come alone since she had her doubts, and she went to call another woman named Concesa.

Noticing us going together, other persons joined us also, and arriving at the calleja, we began to pray the rosary.

We finished it, and the Angel had not come.

The people were laughing hard and said to us, Now say a Station!

And so we did, and on ending it the Angel appeared to us.

But he didn't answer us.

The works of heaven follow their own cadence and its mysteries are not ordinarily immediately unveiled. It is necessary to prepare, wait, and merit.

What happened at that time to those who had come there just to look? The persons, who on that night of June were the first to view the girls' ecstatic transport, were carried away with emotion. A strange and sweet trembling seized them. They didn't know whether to shout or cry, or whether they should call for the rest of the villagers.

Weren't the four transfigured girls the same ones that they knew? Weren't they just like the other children of the village? Weren't they the same ones who walked around town with the other young girls, who ran and played every day in the little streets of San Sebastian?

How they held themselves! And what expressions on their faces! Positioned on their knees on the rocky ground of the trail, [Although rocks and stones are scattered all over Garabandal, it is hard to accept the remark in The Star on the Mountain from one pilgrim who states. This town is the rockiest in all Spain.] their faces turned upward toward something or someone that held them enraptured, their lips parted in a slight smile that gave a charming beauty to their expressions.

Such a limpid look in those eyes! And how those eyes gazed at something that no one else could see! Those present were certain that not even the best photographs could capture the scene completely.

When the four returned to normal, they saw with surprise that some of the people around them were crying, and that others were striking their breasts, and one of them, Clementina, was ready to run to the village to call all the people there.

Oh my children, exclaimed someone, expressing the feelings of the rest, When you see the Angel again, tell him to forgive us for not believing!

A woman said to my aunt {Aurelia} who was among the people:

—Did you see the Angel?

—No, I haven't seen him; but if you don't believe in this, you don't believe in God.

Clementina Gonzalez gives another version of this episode. The discrepancies between her report and Conchita's can be easily explained, since Conchita was only able to learn what happened around her and her companions during the ecstasy from what was told her by others later on, while Clementina Gonzalez experienced it first hand. According to the latter, it happened this way:

She had gone to the schoolmaster's home and was talking with his wife Concesa, seated at the entrance of the old house. (The house is no longer standing, as Conchita's brother built his little hotel Meson Serafin on its former site.) The women saw the four girls coming, and Conchita came up to Clementina and asked her to accompany them to a place in the Calleja [PHOTO: The calleja was a rocky trail leading out from the village] where they wanted to pray. Clementina agreed and Concesa went with them too.

They started praying with the girls, and only a little later, on noticing that something was going on in the Calleja, did other people begin to come, such as Angelita, Conchita's aunt Aurelia, Clementina's 12 year old eldest son, etc..

Those who had come, moved only by curiosity, did not take the matter seriously. Seeing that nothing was happening in spite of the girls' prayers, they were talking and laughing . . . But the girls' sudden entrance into ecstasy made quite an impression on them.

They were not able to see the transfigured faces well as they were in back of the visionaries. They wanted to go ahead to look at their faces but Angelita, the first one who tried it, came back trembling as she felt a mysterious obstacle that «prevented her step and held her back» . Then from their positions, leaning forward and stretching their necks, they were able to see the sides of some of the girls' faces and to hear some of their speech . . .

Clementina soon became very excited by this inconceivable spectacle. And certain that something was happening there — something from God — began to speak out like this, «Conchita, my child, pray to Our Lady of Mount Carmel . . . Pray to the Sacred Heart to help us ... Let them tell you what they want from us. . . » She was talking of going to call a priest — of calling the whole village. What could this be? All of those present did not share her tremendous excitement, and even continued laughing. It was at this time that she, and not Conchita's aunt, said, «Oh children! If you don't believe in this, you don't believe in God.»

All those who saw us went down to the village telling everyone about it, since they were very impressed.

For they had never seen or heard anything like it. [It can easily be understood what upset and upheaval came upon the good people of Garabandal as a result of the things happening in the village. Mari Cruz's mother, Pilar, illustrated this in her conversation recorded on the occasion already mentioned:

«When I saw my daughter for the first time in that way (in ecstasy), I was very frightened. I thought she was having an attack. I point out that I had never heard talk of apparitions. Well, perhaps apparitions; but not ecstasies. I was unaware of those things. I didn't know anything at all about them. Now I have learned something. And finding my daughter like that—and going to touch her—and she was so rigid—and going to lift her up—and I couldn't. I said to myself. This little girl is going to die; she is having an attack!»]

It can be imagined how the news spread thru the village, and what was talked about in the houses on that night in June, a night of grace.