1-5d) The Phenomena

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

The visions of the children of Garabandal could not be counted by days. Beginning from July they began to increase so that they frequently occurred several times each day. The time of the ecstasies varied greatly. Sometimes they occurred at the first ray of dawn, sometimes after dinner. For a long period the usual time for the ecstasies to take place was between seven and nine in the evening. Later they began to occur during the night, ending at times at five o'clock in the morning. This should not surprise us, notes Father Royo Marín [A celebrated Dominican priest renowned as a preacher, professor, and writer. Born in Morella (Castellón) in 1913, he lived for many years at San Esteban in the province of Salamanca. He will be mentioned again later on.] with regard to the frequency of the ecstasies and the visions. "In some saints these have occurred on a grand scale. For St. Mary Magdalena of Pazzis, St. Michael of the Saints and St. Joseph of Cupertino, some years of their lives were a continual series of ecstasies." (Theology of Christian Perfection N° 465)

There also was much variation in the duration of the ecstasies. Sometimes they lasted only a short time, from two to five minutes. This occurred on few occasions, and always with the purpose of some advice or information with regard to the visions themselves, as: Today I will not come, since they are singing so much, or I will come to see you at such an hour. But ordinarily they lasted a half hour or more. Sometimes (recalling the time when Loli was in ecstasy from nine at night until five in the morning) the ecstasies were interrupted for a time, as a pause for resting between visions. And the duration of these interludes varied, as in the case just mentioned, when there were two intermissions lasting about an hour and a half.

When the children were in ecstasy, they had the impression that time was standing still. Thus, very frequently after an hour or more in ecstasy, they would exclaim: Don't go. Why do you go so soon? You haven't been here more than a minute. What? So long? I thought that it was only a minute . . .

In spite of the very difficult positions in which they held themselves, in spite of the long inarches, in spite of being on their knees on top of sharp stones, their impression was always that the vision had lasted only a brief time; and when it ended, they remained with a sensation of having rested. All their appearance seemed to confirm this since they showed no sign of fatigue or of exertion. Their complexion had a light pallor, but felt fresh to the touch. PHOTO: Mari Cruz' mother and father {Escolastico).

We have already mentioned some of the things that were said by Mari Cruz' mother. Pertaining to this is the following:

«One day a man from Madrid was here and he said to my daughter, If you will repeat now the things you were doing, I will make your home into a chalet and I will buy you a car. She shrugged her shoulders.

But I said, How is she going to do that? Really it is impossible for her to do that thing again.

And there is no one who can do it. Do you think a person is going to stay in the position that she was in one time for two and a half hours? Who is going to stay two and a half hours the way she stayed?

And who will fall on their knees on top of a sharp stone and not hurt their knees, as she did one time without anything happening? Mr. Emilio del Valle took that stone. She was on it about three quarters of an hour and Emilio said it is not possible to stay in that position. I can assure you that Mari Cruz is not faking this.»

Escolasitco put in his part:

«Candido and I were in the stable one day and we were laughing at them and we were asking them, "What are you accomplishing with this?" And they answered us, "You are laughing? Well, some day you will see."»

Mari Cruz' mother added:

« Why doesn 't the Virgin act in these apparitions the same as she has acted in the others?»

Men rule the affairs of earth, but not the affairs of heaven . . .

«Faced with the intrusion of curious and devoted people who were coming in great numbers, the parents determined to close the doors of their homes and keep the children inside. The Virgin told them to obey and that she would continue to come in spite of everything.

Beginning on August 3rd, the falls in the state of trance increased considerably; sometimes the four together; sometimes several of them; sometimes only one. The position that they adopt in these falls is truly like a sculpture of great beauty. It was not remembered—I certainly have not seen it—that they even one time took a position the least bit indecent or incorrect [Donna María Josefa Herrero y Garralda, a woman from León who went up to Garabandal in July and August of 1961, assured me about this, marveling over the perfect modesty that the girls demonstrated during their ecstatic falls. Not only was their bodily posture really beautiful and dignified, but also their clothes always fell in a proper way, even to sliding in a direction that appeared contrary to the law of gravity: «It was as if an invisible hand was there not to permit anything bad to happen; everyone felt a great respect in front of these scenes.»] They could be on the ground a moment or several minutes. The fall, when several of them were involved, was accustomed to be admirably synchronized; and without the least preparation, they formed groupings that were on the whole truly extraordinary.»

(Father Arintero, in his book The Mystical Evolution mentions, "In the false ecstasies, the convulsive movements that usually occur are uncoordinated and unseemly, and the person is exposed to great dangers; while in the divine ecstasies an admirable modesty and composure is kept, and there is no risk of danger, even though the person should happen to fall into fire." [Andrés Otero Lorenzo was present during these days of July and August in 1961 at an extraordinary spectacle of which there were many witnesses: a mysterious game of the girls in ecstasy in the choir loft of the parish church. Repeatedly with their faces looking up and listening to someone invisible, they mounted on top of the railing of that choir loft without looking where they were putting their feet, and walked along the outside edge, in continuous danger of falling and hurling themselves. And they jumped down to the floor of the church and then went back up to jump down again.

The first time that he saw them on the choir loft railing, or outside of it, the man ran to give possible help, saying very fearfully. They will fall and be killed! And he could not understand the calmness of Ceferino, Loli's father, who unexcitedly said. Don't worry, nothing is going to happen.]

«In the Garabandal phenomena two groups or camps can be distinguished. One group consists of the spectators and the other of the young girls. The spectators could see the girls and their manner of comporting themselves, their movements, laughter, words, anesthesia, etc.; but they could not see the apparition. The girls viewed the apparition, being in its light, hearing its words; but they did not see nor were they aware of the public, although they knew that the public was there since the apparition told them of this many times.

The girls in their vision saw each other; however if one of them came out of the ecstasy and the others did not, the ones in the ecstasy no longer saw the one who was not in it. If she went back into ecstasy they would see her.

There existed also an intermediate zone. From the first days of September it was observed that the girls who were in ecstasy were able to establish contact with the other visionaries who were not; but only with them. Thus for example, if Jacinta went into ecstasy, she could communicate with Mari Cruz, Loli, and Conchita who were near to her and out of ecstasy, that is, in the normal state. This contact was established through questions which could only be made mentally.

Besides this medium of questions and answers, it was usual to have another manner of intercommunication. The girl in ecstasy was accustomed to remain rigid — as if paralyzed — at times. It was useless then to try to move or change the position of her face, hands, arms, etc. The effect was like dealing with a statue. But it didn't result that way for any of the other visionaries in the normal state. She could change the position of her companion in ecstasy, at which time the tremendous rigidity that existed for other persons appeared to change into a great flexibility for her.[The chief of the Civil Guard, Juan Alvarez Seco, who lived nearby, remembers this case.

«One day Maria Dolores was on the second floor of her house where she had apparitions many times. Her father Ceferino had said that, when they came down from there to the floor below where the tavern was, they would unscrew the lightbulb since there was no switch to turn it off. Loli, while putting her hand on the bulb this time, fell into ecstasy, and she didn't take away her hand. We all feared that if she continued like this, holding onto the lit lightbulb, she would burn her hand. Her mother said, Heavens, take away the lightbulb!

However all our efforts were useless. Then we called Mari Cruz who wasn't in ecstasy, and she — with the greatest of ease — made Loli let go of the bulb. Then the girl went down the stairs and continued her ecstatic march.»]

Many reflexes disappeared during the ecstasy; others remained only deadened. Thus the eyes appeared as if dead, without sight; but in proportion as the visions increased, the eyes appeared to acquire a brilliance in the pupils. The children cried at times with tranquil tears that ran down their faces. These tears corresponded with the times in ecstasy that they learned things and must have been the consequence of what they had heard and seen, since they were then heard to say, Oh! Pardon, pardon. Mercy. Ah! Let's not do that again! Yes, let's tell them about it.»

On one occasion they returned to the normal state with tears in their eyes and said that the Virgin had complained that the people were acting with irreverence in the church.

Another time the same thing occurred while in the street and the children declared that Father Luis had told them that there was little order among the public; that they were climbing one of top of the other; that they should advise the pastor and his brother [Fr. Luis: Father Luis Andreu, who will be discussed later. The Pastor: Fr. Valentin Marichalar. The brother: Fr. Ramón Maria Andrei (brother of Father Luis), the author of these writings, who was spending some time in Garabandal.] to try to establish order, arranging the young men of the village in a large circle. And the girls said that -- because of the disorder -- the Virgin was leaving soon.