2-01c) Awaiting the Great Day

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

In October, the influx of visitors slowed down. There were no longer summer vacationers in San-tander, and the normal rhythm of work and business required everyone's presence back on the job . . . Furthermore, there was the great day looming in the future, and almost everyone was saving himself for it. Since without doubt it would be worth the trouble! Those who had seen events, would encounter still more, many more on October 18th; and those, who still had not experienced the exhilaration of those things, could count on having them to the full on that heralded date.

Nevertheless, the phenonema continued daily. [During those days in October, Dr. and Mrs. Ortiz saw many interesting scenes. For example:

• Conchita and Loli, in ecstasy at the door of the church, sang the Ave Maria in a beautiful duet.

• On one of the nights Conchita was surprised in ecstasy while she was still eating, sitting by the fireplace. She was marvelously transformed, holding a glass of milk in her hand that no one was able to take away from her.

• Someone came to ask Maximina Gonzalez for lodging from the 14th to the 18th for a young woman from another country who had previously been in the

village (Muriel Catherine). Dr. and Mrs. Ortiz, who were not acquainted with her, heard comments that she was Jewish, but that she wanted to be baptized, and were really surprised by the ingenuousness of the visionaries who commented, Since she is so big, how can the godfather hold her in his arms during the Baptism? After the Baptism of adults was explained to them, Conchita exclaimed happily, Great! That way Mari Cruz can be the godfather and I can be the godmother!]

During one of our apparitions, Loli and I came down from the Pines with many people.

And we saw something like fire in the clouds.

It was seen by the people who were with us and also by those who were not.

When it was over, the Virgin appeared to us.

And we asked her what that thing was.

And she said that she came in it.

This was not the only sign from the sky. [Luke 21: 11,25.] We have the date of another, more spectacular:

    It was the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar [The feast of Our Lady of the Pillar is on October 12th. It is a great feastday in Spain and Latin America.
    The religious celebration comes from devotion to Mary through an ancient statue in the great Marian basilica in Saragossa. The statue, because it stands on a column (reputedly part of the column on which Christ was scourged), has received the name of del Pilar. According to tradition, here on the banks of the Ebro River, the first temple was built to honor Mary on the Iberian peninsula, the land of the Mother of God.
    The civil holiday, both in Spain and Latin-America, is based on the fact that on October 12th, 1492, the Spanish discoverers landed on the American continent. Also on October 12th, the Civil Guard celebrates the feastday of its patron.
    Juan Alvarez Seco, the chief of the Civil Guard, stated: «On October 12th, while apart from the others, I received the cross to kiss from the four girls, as if it were a congratulation from the Virgin for being the feast of our patron and for having come on that evening to Garabandal.»] during another day of our apparitions, at which Loli and I were present.

While we were looking at the Virgin, a star with a very long tail was seen beneath the Virgin's feet.

Several people saw this.

We asked the Virgin what it meant; but she didn't answer.

To be exact about the time, the phenomenon about which Conchita speaks seems to have occurred not on October 12th, the feastday of Our Lady of the Pillar, but on the beginning of October 13th. But what she writes is easily explainable; since in the determination of time, for the girls the day began on getting up in the morning and ended on going to bed at night; that is, the time during which they were awake.

The ecstasies that began on the evening of October 12th extended into the middle of the night. The people began leaving, and toward 2:30 in the morning almost no one remained in the little village plaza except a small group consisting of responsible men: Dr. Ortiz from Santander, Luis Adaro from Gijón, Rafael Sanz Moliner from Oviedo, and Rufino Alonso from Pola de Siero. They had met there, waiting for their wives who had gone to Mari Cruz' home to collect some religious articles that they had entrusted with the girl to give to the Virgin to kiss. Mari Cruz had an ecstasy during which she had gone up to the Pines. There she had prayed a Station to the Blessed Sacrament, and later stopped in the calleja, at the site of the first apparition, where she prayed another Station.

The people in the plaza soon saw two of the girls, Conchita and Loli, go under the balcony or terrace connected to the house of Loli's grandmother.They were in ecstasy there and let out a shout at the same time as they raised up their arms.

«Instinctively» — Dr. Ortiz said — «We looked upwards toward the sky, and we saw a star cross from the north to the south (that is, in the direction toward the Pines) with a great brilliance, leaving a trail that lasted several seconds ... I know that Maximina Gonzalez and other women of the village saw the star too. On the contrary some young boys, who were at the entrance of Ceferino's house and who ran toward the girls on hearing the cry, didn't see anything because they were under the balcony like the girls. After the star had passed, we went where the girls were and accompanied them praying toward the church, at whose entrance the ecstasy stopped. Immediately we asked them:

    — Why did you scream?
    — Because we saw the Virgin throw down a star.
    — But you couldn't have seen the star, since you were under the balcony!
    — Well we certainly saw it. The Virgin did this.»

Father Valentin mentions this phenomena in his notes:

«We were in the plaza. Conchita and Loli shouted out loud with fear. Everyone was frightened. Some of the people looked at the girls; others looked at the sky. Those who did the latter said that they saw a brilliant star that crossed from one part of the sky to another, and that it could not in any way be mistaken for a shooting star or comet. After having screamed, the girls laughed and went on happily, as if dancing with joy.»

It is understandable that all these things, wrapped like this in a halo of mystery, and probably magnified by being transmitted from person to person, necessarily had to leave the people very impressed.

With all these things happening, it would be easy to think: Where will all this end? Surely all these things are an announcement of something great to come. What will we see on the day of the message?

    For example, two days after the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, there appeared for the first time in Garabandal a German engineer who was residing in Spain at Madrid: Máximo Forschler Entenmann. [This man describes himself like this:    «From my infancy I have been a fervent believer, since I was well educated through Christian example by my parents who are now deceased; because of this, I loved our Savior Jesus Christ above everything. I am married to a Spanish Catholic. »
    The anecdote that has already been described in Chapter V relates to this man:    «A woman insistently requested the visionary to ask the Virgin if her husband believed in God. After the ecstasy, she received the answer: In God, he believes; in the Virgin, very little. . . But he will believe. »
   Here there are two miraculous things: (1) the intimate knowledge of a person whom the girl did not know; (2) a clear prophecy that came to pass.] Although Protestant, he was very closely tied to the Andreu family; because of this he came accompanied by Fr. Ramón María.

"We came to San Sebastian de Garabandal."

The journey was not easy. It was the 14th, the second Saturday of October, the octave of that special feastday of the rosary that had taken place in Garabandal. Let us listen to what he says:

«Some 20 kilometers before Cossio we had a tremendous smash-up with another car on a mountain pass. [Since they came from Palencia, this refers to the mountain pass of Puerto de Piedras Luengas. 1,213 meters above sea level, separating the provinces of Palencia and Santander. From here on a clear day, the superb panorama of the Picos de Europa and the Sierra de Peña Sagra can be viewed.] The accident could have had fatal consequences. Only later did I come to understand that it was without doubt the Most Holy Virgin who had saved us from certain death.

Because of what had happened we came to San Sebastian de Garabandal very late, after eleven at night. We had barely arrived when we had the good fortune to be able to witness two ecstasies. I admit that at the time they did not impress me in the least.

We retired to the house where we had lodging (all the houses of the village were open to Father Ramón María Andreu); and following this, at twelve o'clock, Father began to be very sick, with nausea, cold sweats, and terrible pains in his left ankle, which seemed very swollen . . .

In the village were a doctor from Santander and a bone specialist from Burgos. [The house where Fr. Andreu and Mr. Forschler were staying belonged to a woman named Epifania, called Fania. Dr. Celestino Ortiz Pérez was the doctor from Santander and Dr. Renedo was the one from Burgos.] I called them. After an examination they made a diagnosis: besides the obvious swelling, there was probably a fracture of the ankle, at least a hairline crack. They applied a thorough dressing and an icepack that was able to be found, (from the indiano who had a refrigerator) and with several others carried him in their arms to the bed; his pains were terrible. [So severe were his pains that he was not able to tolerate the slight weight of the sheet put over it to cover it. The ice cubes were the only ice that could be found in the village and they came from the refrigerator of the indiano. In Santander, the word indiano refers to emigrants who return to Spain after making their fortune in America, the India of their ancestors. The emigration from Santander across the ocean was especially directed to Mexico and Cuba.]

As an old friend of the father, I stayed in a second bed that they had set up in his room in order to take care of him at night.

After a long time — it had to be 3:30 in the morning — we began hearing a noise in the street, and people shouting that the owner of the house should open the door, since Jacinta was there in ecstasy, wanting to come in.

    Shortly afterwards she appeared in the room, went toward Father and gave him the crucifix to kiss. [Jacinta entered the room, raised the crucifix up in her hand, and said to the vision, «Father is very sick! Cure him. He is delirious , . , Cure him.»
    At the exact moment when the priest kissed the crucifix that the girl held out to him, his pains disappeared completely. But he was very careful about saying this in front of the people that accompanied Jacinta — some had come from Seville, Cádiz and Jerez — for fear that all this was due to the tremendous emotion of the moment; he said to himself, «Here! Better not to be foolish! Keep yourself quiet as a dead man.»
    A bad feature of intellectualism, which is so unfavorable to the attitude of the Gospel, Unless you become like little children... A man who thinks of himself as an intellectual has less fear of being taken for a sick man than of being taken for a foolish one.] Following this she said something to him that I couldn't hear . . . The girl was starting to make expressions and gestures of farewell to the vision when suddenly she stopped. She leaned backwards toward where I was and held out the crucifix for me to kiss ----- two times!»

«When the girl left, we naturally began to discuss all the details; and Father confessed to me that he had actually requested in his conscience that the girl, before leaving, would also give me the crucifix to kiss. I thought about this for the rest of the night.»

A short time after having kissed the crucifix that Conchita had offered him, he saw that she was beginning to make the sign of the cross and to hold out her cheeks for the invisible kisses: the unmistakeable sign that the ecstasy was going to end. Then he rapidly formed in his conscience a petition to the Virgin: that the girl would also give the crucifix to Máximo . . . (Hours before, the good man had followed the visionaries in their trances without obtaining the least demonstration of attention from them; but rather the opposite, since several times they had given the crucifix to the onlookers while they had always passed him by.)

Father had hardly made the secret request when Jacinta stopped and exclaimed, What? She remained in an attitude of listening, and added, Oh! She began to lean further and further backwards, till she was able to reach with the crucifix to the lips of Mr. Forschler, whom she could not see, since he was behind her back...

Seconds later, the girl returned to normal. It was time to go to sleep! Four o'clock Sunday morning, October 15th.

It was getting light on the morning of that day when several French people arrived, and behind them, one of the two doctors asking for the Father. It was about 8 o'clock. Father told the doctor that all his pains were gone, and that he was able to move his foot without difficulty. The doctor was surprised; but as a precaution, he counseled him not to step on the foot, and to wait for the coming of the ambulance that they had been able to summon from Casa Valdecilla [The Casa de Salud Valdecilla was the biggest hospital in Santander.] in Santander. The injury had been serious and normally would take from fifteen to twenty days to get better.

— What are you doing, Father?

— As you see, I am trying to get up ...

— Don't do that! That's foolish. Let's see your ankle . . .

The doctor got down on one knee to examine the ankle better. Then raising his head toward the Father, looking at him in a peculiar way, he said:

— What a comedian you are! Come on, show me the bad ankle.

The priest with apparent indifference showed him the other ankle, which was the good one. The doctor examined it very carefully . . . He compared it with the other . . . and ended up raising his head again toward the Father, while he said with an expression hard to describe,

Continuing now with Mr. Forsehler's description: «When the doctors left, Father began to put his shoes on, since he felt no pain . . . He went to stand on his foot, and did it without difficulty. Then he decided to celebrate Mass in the village, declining to advise Father Valentin to come to the village, as we had agreed to do. He ordered the bells to be rung for the Mass, and we set off to search for a cane.

I accompanied him myself to the church. And when he was beginning the celebration — as I did not understand anything about the Mass — I found a place near the last pew and determined to carefully watch from there how he walked on his foot. During the entire ceremony he moved and knelt down, and got up without difficulty.

After the Mass, I told him my observations, and he made various movements and bendings of his foot in front of me without the least trouble; and finally confided to me what had happened. The thing that Jacinta had told him in ecstasy at 3:30 in the morning had been this: Father, the Virgin told me that you were ill; but she told me to tell you that you are cured. At the same time the pains disappeared.»

This also gave Mr. Forschler something to think about; but the thing did not stop there.

On the following day a group of people from Asturias came to Garabandal. It was an ordinary day, Monday, October 16th. An ordinary day on the calendar, but very distinguished in our annals.

As night fell there was an ecstasy, a phenomenon that was never dull . . . not even for those who were seeing it every day. During it the accustomed time arrived for presenting the holy articles that the people wished to be kissed, and then the time for their return to their owners.

In the room where Loli's trance was taking place, a man finally forced himself in. It was the first time that he had been at Garabandal, and he carried in his arms a sick baby who was a heavy cross on his shoulders. The baby was crying. Loli, undoubtedly advised by the apparition, went toward it and — without looking — signed it with a perfect sign of the cross. Immediately the tears stopped and on the convulsing face of the little child an unexpected smile appeared. The father's sad expression softened with emotion, and he said simply, I have never yet seen him smile!

When the ecstasy ended, Mari Loli asked for the sick baby who was carried in his father's arms. She wanted to meet him, since she had not yet seen him, and at the same time she wanted to transmit the message with which she had been charged. She caressed the little baby and said to the father, dwelling slowly on the words, The Virgin told me that you shouldn't worry.

Jacinta — who at the time was in ecstasy in the street, searching for the man who had come — also repeated, on the part of the Virgin the same words of comfort concerning the little baby. [According to Fr. Valentin's notes, it seems that the episode of the sick child occurred not on the 16th, but rather on the 17th; perhaps during the night between the 16th and the 17th: «Loli, in ecstasy, went up to a sick child, made the sign of the cross over him several times and gave him the cross to kiss. It was a very moving scene, since the father of the child wept and cried aloud for his cure.»]

I would have liked to present a follow-up on the outcome with this baby, but up to now I have not been able.

Watching the different facets of that vigil was a large group of spectators, among whom were the Asturians whom we mentioned. These were mainly young boys, but two men among them appeared to be their guides or leaders. One said to the boys, Observe with close attention, and don 't let yourself be influenced, because these things . . .

At 10:30 at night they gathered in front of Ceferino's ancient house. Then Conchita came there in ecstasy, drew near, and began to hold out the crucifix to be kissed . . . The two men kept themselves away from her, and in order to hide better, went up the outside stairway of a nearby house.[This house was torn down a few years later. It had a staircase with half a dozen stone steps leading up from the street.] However the girl — with her head in a position incredibly tilted backwards, without seeing either them or the stairway — climbed the stairs miraculously and held out the crucifix for them to kiss. The first man shook visibly, and turned his head; but the girl managed to make the sign of the cross on him twice with the holy image. She insisted again that he kiss it and once again the man refused. A third time the girl made the sign of the cross over him with an extreme gentleness in her expression. Only then did the man relent and put his lips on the crucifix! Almost the same thing happened with his companion.

Conchita majestically descended the stairs and went toward the captain of the Civil Guard to give him the holy cross to kiss. Unexpectedly she turned and again walked toward these two men and held the crucifix in front of them. Once again they refused to kiss it! The onlookers were both indignant and scandalized. The girl suddenly came out of the trance, and everyone could see the most obstinate of the two trembling as if he were in pain. He went to hide in a corner where some of the young boys followed him,

— Father X, what has happened? — Let me alone, let me alone. Finally he confessed:

— You have seen how I refused the crucifix that the girl offered me . . . Well, after finally kissing it, I mentally asked God for proof: "My Lord, if all this that is happening is truly supernatural, let the girl come to me another time and let her ecstasy stop immediately; thus I will be able to believe." You see what happened. Don't ask me anything more.

Those two men who attracted attention by their attitude were priests; one of them appears to have been a pastor in Turón, the big mining center in Asturias.

Of course we can seek signs from God; but we do not have the right to demand them according to our pleasure. If He condescends, praise be to His name!

In this case there was still more. Conchita, once the ecstasy had ended, had no reason to stay in that spot during the late hours, so she took the street to her home. But she had hardly left the plaza when she went into ecstasy again . . . And once again the people gathered around her. Our difficult priest still desired more than what he had received, and requested in his mind: If the girl comes to me because she knows supernaturally that I am a priest, let her prove it to me, and let her give me the crucifix to kiss again, and let her make the sign of the cross several times over me (something that she had not done with anyone else).

The girl's response to this new and most secret demand was marvelous, satisfying the minister of God who was acting so much like St. Thomas on that unforgettable night in Garabandal.

It is not unusual that God gives even more than what is asked from Him, and this happened to the man whom no one knew. Seeing other persons offering the girls (at the time of farewell) cards and photographs for them to sign, he also presented one . . . And he could later read a dedication on it with a clear mention of his priestly state.