Our Lady of Knock

Our Lady of Knock

The evidence favoring the divine nature of the Lourdes and Fatima visits is overwhelming. And so is the 1879 Knock, Ireland appearance by Mary, Joseph and the Apostle John. They became silent witnesses to God’s glory and love.

At Lourdes and Fatima, the Blessed Virgin appeared on multiple occasions to one or a few children. She spoke and gave them messages. But just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, along comes the 1879 silent apparition of Mary, Joseph, and John witnessed by 14 Irish villagers living in Knock, Ireland. When we first examine this event, it is a bit troubling. Apparently, there are no messages. Yet, as we explore with more intensity, the messages delivered by this visitation subtly begin to emerge. As you meditate upon them they become quite profound. As was the case with the parables spoken by Jesus, to understand you must first desire understanding.

Let’s go to Knock, Ireland in the evening of August 21, 1879.

The visitation

The following summary is taken from the depositions of 15 villagers in October 1879. Apart from those villagers who were still alive in 1936 at the time of the second official investigation into the events that took place that evening, we don’t know what happened to them. Certainly nothing extraordinary. They just continued to live their lives the same way everybody else did at that time in rural Ireland.

The Knock apparition began at about 7pm or a little later when Mary McLoughlin (age 45), the housekeeper to the parish priest, Father Cavanagh, was passing by the chapel. It was still light and she noticed some “strange figures or appearances” at the south gable (A gable is the triangle wall just under where two sloping roofs join). These figures appeared to be the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph, an unidentified bishop and an altar. She thought the priest had obtained them and left them outside. She saw a white light “about them” and thought it all bit strange but didn’t give it much thought and continued to the widow Byrne’s house where, among others, the widow Byrne’s daughter Mary Byrne (age 29) was present.

In the meantime, and at around 7:30 pm and when it was still light, Margaret Byrne (age 21), the sister of Mary Byrne, went to the chapel and locked it. When she returned home she noticed something luminous or bright at the south gable. She didn’t pay much attention and continued home.

McLoughlin stayed at the widow Byrne’s house for about one-half hour or so and then returned to the Parish priest’s house accompanied by Mary Byrne. As they approached the chapel the two women saw the figures. They stopped just west of the school at a ditch and a low wall, about 30 yards south of the figures. After gazing for a while Mary Byrne returned to her mother’s house to tell others. Mary McLoughlin remained at the scene. McLoughlin stated that “It was now about a quarter past eight o’clock, and beginning to be quite dark. The sun had set; it was raining at the time.”

News of the apparition spread and within a short time about 14 witnesses were gathered around the ditch or wall fronting the gable. Evening and darkness fell and it was raining. Later, during the investigation, these witnesses described in varying detail what happened and what they saw. The most detailed description comes from 11-year-old Patrick Hill (It seems that the best witnesses to any event are boys between the ages of 9 and 12. It was no different in 1879 Knock).

“I am Patrick Hill; I live in Claremorris; my aunt lives at Knock; I remember the 21st August last; on that day I was drawing home turf, or peat, from the bog on an ass.

“While at my aunt’s at about eight o’clock in the evening, Dominick Byrne came into the house; he cried out: ‘Come up to the chapel and see the miraculous lights, and the beautiful visions that are to be seen there’. I followed him; another man by name Dominick Byrne, and John Durkan, and a small boy named John Curry, came with me; we were all together; we ran over towards the chapel.

 “When we, running southwest, came so far from the village that on our turning, the gable came into view, we immediately beheld the lights; a clear white light, covering most of the gable, from the ground up to the window and higher. It was a kind of changing bright light, going sometimes up high and again not so high. We saw the figures – the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. John, and an altar with a Lamb on the altar, and a cross behind the lamb.

“At this time we reached as far as the wall fronting the gable: there were other people there before me; some of them were praying, some not; all were looking at the vision; they were leaning over the wall or ditch, with their arms resting on top. I saw the figures and brightness; the boy, John Curry, from behind the wall could not see them; but I did; and he asked me to lift him up till he could see the “grand babies”, as he called the figures.

“It was raining. Some, amongst them Mary McLoughlin, who beheld what I now saw, had gone away; others were coming. After we prayed a while I thought it right to go across the wall and into the chapel yard. I brought little Curry with me; I went then up closer; I saw everything distinctly. The figures were full and round as if they had a body and life; they said nothing; but as we approached they seemed to go back a little towards the gable.

“I distinctly beheld the Blessed Virgin Mary, life size, standing about two feet or so above the ground clothed in white robes which were fastened at the neck. Her hands were raised to the height of the shoulders, as if in prayer, with the palms facing one another, but slanting inwards towards the face; the palms were not turned towards the people, but facing each other as I have described; she appeared to be praying; her eyes were turned as I saw towards heaven.

“She wore a brilliant crown on her head, and over the forehead where the crown filled the brow, a beautiful rose; the crown appeared brilliant, and of a golden brightness, of a deeper hue, inclined to a mellow yellow, than the striking whiteness of the robes she wore; the upper parts of the crown appeared to be a series of sparkles, or glittering crosses. I saw her eyes, the balls, the pupils and the iris of each. (The boy did not know the special names for those parts of the eye, but he pointed to them, and described then in his own way).

“I noticed her hands especially, and face, her appearance.

“The robes came only as far as the ankles; I saw her feet and the ankles; one foot, the right, was slightly in advance of the other.

“At times she appeared, and all the figures appeared, to move out and again to go backwards; I saw them move; she did not speak; I went up very near; one old woman went up and embraced the Virgin’s feet., and she found nothing in her arms and hands; they receded, she said, from her.

“I saw St. Joseph to the Blessed Virgin’s right hand; his head was bent, from the shoulders, forward; he appeared to be paying his respects; I noticed his whiskers; they appeared slightly grey; there was a line or dark mearing between the figure of the Blessed Virgin and the spot where he stood. I saw the feet of St. Joseph, too. His hands were joined like a person at prayer. The third figure that stood before me was that of St. John the Evangelist. He stood erect at the side of the altar, and at an angle with the figure of the Blessed Virgin, so that his back was not turned to the altar, nor to the Mother of God. His right arm was at an angle with a line drawn across from St. Joseph to where Our Blessed Lady appeared to be standing.

“St. John was dressed like a bishop preaching; he wore a small mitre on his head; he held a Mass Book, or a Book of Gospels, in his left hand; the right hand was raised to the elevation of the head; while he kept the index finger and the middle finger of the right hand raised; the other three fingers of the same hand were shut; he appeared as if he were preaching, but I heard no voice; I came so near that I looked into the book. I saw the lines and the letters. St. John did not wear any sandals.

“His left hand was turned towards the altar that was behind him; the altar was a plain one, like any ordinary altar, without any ornaments. On the altar stood a lamb, the size of a lamb eight weeks old – the face of the lamb was fronting the west, and looking in the direction of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph.

“Behind the lamb a large cross was placed erect or perpendicular on the altar. Around the Lamb I saw angels hovering during the whole time, for the space of one hour and a half or longer; I saw their wings fluttering, but I did not perceive their heads or faces, which were not turned to me.

“For the space of an hour and a half we were under the pouring rain; at this time I was very wet; I noticed that the rain did not wet the figures which appeared before me, although I was wet myself. I went away then.”

 Patrick Hill said that an old lady approached the figure to embrace the Blessed Virgin’s feet. This would have been Bridget Trench, age 74. She reported:

“I went in immediately to kiss, as I thought, the feet of the Blessed Virgin, but I felt nothing in the embrace but the wall, and I wondered why I could not feel with my hands the figures which I had so plainly and so distinctly seen. . . .

“It was raining very heavily at the time, but no rain fell where the figures were. I felt the ground carefully with my hands and it was perfectly dry. The wind was blowing from the south, right against the gable of the chapel, but no rain fell on that portion of the gable or chapel in which the figures were.”

 The 15th recorded witness was Patrick Walsh who was about one-half mile from the chapel that evening. His deposition reads:

“My name is Patrick Walsh; I live in Ballinderrig, an English mile from the chapel at Knock. I remember well the 21st August, 1879. It was a very dark night, It was raining heavily.

“About nine o’clock on that night I was going on some business through my land, and standing a distance of about half a mile from the chapel; I saw a very bright light on the southern gable end of the chapel; it appeared to me to be a large globe of golden light; I never saw, I thought, so brilliant a light before; it appeared high up in the air above and around the chapel gable and it was circular in its appearance; it was quiet stationary, and it seemed to retain the same brilliancy all through.”

The above is a summary of what occurred that evening. The complete testimony of all 15 witnesses can be accessed at Knock Shrine. The vision eventually faded and never reappeared. Later, in 1880, a reporter for the London Daily Telegraph interviewed a policeman who said he saw only “a rosy sort of brightness, through which what seemed to be stars appeared. I saw no figures … but some women who were praying there, declared that they beheld the Blessed Virgin,” he said. Asked whether he looked around to see where the brightness came from, the policeman replied, “I did, but everything was dark. There was no light anywhere, except on the gable.”

Here is a sculptured representation of what the witnesses saw. It stands next to the south gable of the chapel (notice the wall of the church behind the figures) where the Irish villagers saw the apparition.

Explanations

This is how it started, and this is what the witnesses saw. But could it be a hoax? There are several possible explanations for the appearance of Our Lady, St Joseph, St John, the altar, the Lamb and the Cross.

1.  All 15 witnesses and the policeman could be lying or were delusional.

2.  The priests that conducted the 1879 investigation and who published the results of that investigation were all lying. The villagers either were too fearful to correct the priests’ fabrications or they played along with it.

3.  The witnesses were tricked into believing they saw a supernatural event when it in reality was a hoax played on them. The only explanation offered for how someone could have perpetrated such a hoax was for them to employ a ‘magic lantern’ which would project the images upon the church wall.

  • The problem is that realistically there were two possible locations to place the projector. There was the wall where most of the witness stopped or the school some distance away and situated at an angle. The wall location doesn’t work because that’s where the witnesses were and they would have seen it. The school location is similarly deficient because there was no facing aperture from the school which could have been used.
  • Additionally, for the magic lantern to be effective, it had to be dark. The visions began while it was still light. Later in the investigation attempts were made to reproduce the images and they failed.
  • Moreover, the magic lantern required an effective light source to project an image the distance required. There was none except candlelight. The apparition took place in 1879, the same year Thomas Edison finally invented a light bulb that now lasted up to 40 hours. There was no electricity in the Irish village of Knock in 1879.
  • The perpetrators would have had to possess the artistic and technological skills to create a slide of the image for projection onto the side of the building. The suspects named are two boys who some 50 years later apparently claimed to have perpetrated the hoax, a policeman, or the priest himself. There is no evidence to support these alternative theories by theorists who reject out of hand the notion of heavenly intervention.
  • It was raining during the apparition and so whatever projection was used the light would have had to penetrate the rain with no visible beam.

4.  There is no natural explanation for the evening of August 21, 1879. The only explanation can be the apparition occurred as described by the witnesses ranging in age from 5 to 74, or these 15 (or more) diverse witness conspired and fabricated the entire story, all with the blessing of the investigating priests.

5.  None of the witnesses ever changed their testimony. They knew what they saw and went to their graves with their stories intact. In 1936 a follow up investigation took place. Mary Byrne, now 86 years of age, was interviewed again and reaffirmed what happened with the statement: “I am clear about everything I have said and I make this statement knowing I am going before my God.”

The messages

But then we wonder about the purpose of such an apparition. There apparently were no messages delivered – just some static figures. In fact, however, there were indeed some extraordinarily beautiful and majestic messages given.

Message 1.      God lives. He reveals his glory and majesty through means of his own choosing, and the apparition on that 1879 night in Knock makes it easy for us to believe.

Message 2.      In the apparition Joseph is to the right of Mary, bending to her in a gesture of respect. Nearly 1,900 years earlier, when the Word became flesh, Joseph was there. In Bethlehem, and except for Mary, he was the first to hold the Lord. St John is to Mary’s left. Except for Mary he was the last to be with the Lord at the foot of the cross. In the center and dominating both Joseph and John is the Blessed Virgin who bridges the first and the last. To John’s left is the Lamb and the Cross. The Lamb is the pure sacrifice of Our Lord and the cross is the ultimate symbol Jesus’ conquest of death. When we see the cross, we see the victory of Jesus.

Message 3.      The overall scene presents a message of salvation that can be understood by Christians of every tradition and culture.

Message 4.      John holds the written word. Yet we know from John himself that the written word contains only a small part of what Jesus taught. The rest comes through the Apostles and their successors. John teaches as a Bishop using both the written and spoken word.

Message 5.      The scene presents a powerful image of the Eucharist. The altar is present and upon it the Lamb of God. The Lamb is Jesus and he is present on the altar and in the consecrated bread. This scene confirms the very essence of the Apostolic Churches for all generations and for all places.

Message 6.      Above the altar are what the visionaries assumed were angels. And perhaps that’s what they were meant to be. None could see their faces, however, and maybe what they were really seeing was the 1879 equivalent of the dove at Jesus’ baptism. Maybe they were witnessing the presence of the Holy Spirit.

 Our Lady of Knock

Another gift given to us at Knock was the inspirational song Lady of Knock written more than 100 years later. A great version is the recording by Daniel O’Donnell. Another equally inspiring rendition is the one sung by the composer, Dana Rosemary Scallon.

Marion Carroll’s miraculous cure

Knock demands our attention. Well, one may ask—what about miracles. Aren’t these Marian apparitions supposed to be accompanied by miracles? In truth, the parish priest recorded a number of unexplained miracles, but there was no scientific documentation. Unlike Lourdes, Knock is not generally known as a place of inexplicable healings. Yet, as Marion Carroll can attest, they occur.

Some websites and references

Last modified on September 9, 2019