Knock, Ireland, 15 people 1879

 

Feastday: not known                                              

Born: not known                  

Died: not Known

 

County Mayo was in the centre of a region of Ireland that had suffered great distress in the 1870's. Various famines and economic dislocations produced by forced evictions had created yet another wave of Irish immigration. It was into this environment that the Lord again sent His Mother to visit His 15 of his oppressed children Patrick Hill, 11 yrs, Mary McLoughlin, 45yrs (Archbishop Cavanagh's housekeeper), Mary Byrne, 29 yrs  (daughter of Margaret Byrne), Patrick Walsh, 65 yrs, Patrick Byrne, 16 yrs, Mrs. Margaret Byrne, 68 yrs (widow, friend of Mary McLoughlin), Dominick Byrne, Junior, 19 yrs (son of Margaret Byrne), Mrs. Hugh Flatley, 44 yrs, Bridget Trench, 75 yrs, Catherine Murray, 8 yrs (niece of Margaret Byrne), John Curry, 5 yrs, Judith Campbell, 22 yrs, Margaret Byrne, 21 yrs, Dominick Byrne, Senior, 36 yrs (husband of Margaret Byrne) and John Durkan, 24 yrs.  The vision occurred on August 21, 1879 over the village chapel and consisted of the silent apparitions of Mary, Joseph, John the Evangelist and a lamb on a plain altar bathed in bright light. The first invesigative commission was established by Archbishop of Tuam Dr John Mac Hale in 1879 but the findings were not published.  This was followed up in 1936 by Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. Gilmartin who’s new commission returned a positive verdict. Both commissions determined that the  testimony of each of the fifteen official witnesses to the apparition was trustworthy and satisfactory". In 1936 All three surviving witnesses confirmed their original statements of 1879. Since then Knock has become an international centre for pilgrimages and in addition to the two blind men restored to sight shortly after the apparition has been host to over three hundred subsequent miraculous cures

 

 

 

Biographical Information

 

August 21st, 1879 was another rain-swept day in County Mayo. As evening arrived, Margaret Beirne, a resident of the village of Cnoc Mhuire, was sent by her brother to lock up the local church for the evening. After she had completed this task, as she was returning home she noticed a strange brightness covering the church. However, preoccupied with other thoughts, she mentioned this to no one else. At about this time, another member of the Beirne family, Mary, had just completed a visit with the church's housekeeper, Mary McLoughlin. As they were walking down the road they came to a location where they could clearly see the church and its gables, at which time Mary O'Beirne turned to her companion and said, ‘O look at the statues! Why didn't you tell me the priest had got new statues for the chapel? Her companion responded that she had heard nothing about new statues but she decided to look more closely. As they approached the church, Mary Beirne remarked, ‘But they are not statues, they're moving. It's the Blessed Virgin.’ What they and thirteen others saw in the still-bright day was a beautiful woman, clothed in white garments, wearing a large brilliant crown. Her hands were raised as if in prayer. This woman was understood by all who saw her to be Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Queen of the Angels. On her right stood St. Joseph, his head inclined towards her. On her left stood St. John the Evangelist, dressed as a bishop. To the left of St. John was an altar on which stood a lamb and a cross surrounded by angels. All of this was seen on the gable wall of the church in a cloud of light and lasted for about two hours. Other villagers, who were not involved with the apparition, nonetheless reported seeing a very bright light illuminating the area around where the church was located. There were subsequent reports of inexplicable healings associated with visits to the church at Knock.

 

Mary Beirne’s Official Statement to the 1st 1879 Commission of Enquiry 1

 

'I live in the village of Knock, to the east side of the chapel. Mary McLoughlin came on the evening of the 21st August to my house at about half past seven o'clock. She remained some little time.

 

I came back with her as she was returning homewards. It was either eight o'clock or a quarter to eight at the time. It was still bright. I had not heard from Miss McLoughlin about the vision which she had seen just before that.

 

The first I learned of it was on coming at the time just named from my mother's house in company with Miss Mary McLoughlin, and at the distance of three hundred yards or so from the church. I beheld, all at once, standing out from the gable, and rather to the west of it, three figures which, on more attentive inspection, appeared to be that of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. John. That of the Blessed Virgin was life-size, the others apparently either not so big or not so high as her figure.

 

They stood a little distance out from the gable wall and, as well as I could judge, a foot and a half or two feet from the ground.

 

The Virgin stood erect, with eyes raised to heaven, her hands elevated to the shoulders or a little higher, the palms inclined slightly towards the shoulders or bosom. She wore a large cloak of a white colour, hanging in full folds and somewhat loosely around her shoulders, and fastened to the neck. She wore a crown on the head, rather a large crown, and it appeared to me somewhat yellower than the dress or robes worn by Our Blessed Lady.

 

In the figure of St. Joseph the head was slightly bent, and inclined towards the Blessed Virgin, as if paying her respect. It represented the saint as somewhat aged, with grey whiskers and greyish hair.

 

The third figure appeared to be that of St. John the Evangelist. I do not know, only I thought so, except the fact that at one time I saw a statue at the chapel of Lecanvey, near Westport, Co. Mayo, very much resembling the figure which stood now before me in group with St. Joseph and Our Blessed Lady, which I beheld on this occasion.

 

He held the Book of Gospels, or the Mass Book, open in his left hand, while he stood slightly turned on the left side towards the altar that was over a little from him. I must remark that the statue which I had formerly seen at Lecanvey chapel had no mitre on its head, while the figure which now beheld had one, not a high mitre, but a short set kind of one. The statue at Lecanvey had a book in his left hand, and the fingers of the right hand raised. The figure before me on this present occasion of which I am speaking had a book in the left hand, as I stated, and the index finger and the middle finger of the right hand raised, as if he were speaking, and impressing some point forcibly on an audience. It was this coincidence of figure and pose that made me surmise, for it is only an opinion, that the third figure was that of St. John, the beloved disciple of Our Lord, but I am not in any way sure what saint or character the figure represented. I said, as I now expressed, that it was St. John the Evangelist, and then all the others present said what I stated.

 

The altar was under the window, which is in the gable and a little to the west near the centre, or a little beyond it. Towards this altar St. John, as I shall call the figure, was looking, while he stood at the Gospel side of the said altar, which his right arm inclined at an angle outwardly, towards the Blessed Virgin. The altar appeared to be like the altars in use in the Catholic Church, large and full-sized. It had no linens, no candles, nor any special ornamentations; it was only a plain altar.

 

Above the altar and resting on it was a lamb and around it I saw golden stars, or small brilliant lights, glittering like jets or glass balls, reflecting the light of some luminous body.

 

I remained from a quarter past eight to half past nine o'clock. At the time it was raining.'

 

 

Patrick Hill’s Official Statement to the 1st  1879 Commission of Enquiry 2

 

Patrick Hill was the first of the fifteen witnesses to give his deposition before the official Commission which was set up by the Archbishop of Tuam six weeks after the Apparition.

 

"I remember the 21st August last - 1879- on that day I was drawing home turf from the bog, on an ass. While at my aunt's at eight o'clock in the evening, Dominic Beirne came into the house and cried beautiful vision that are to be seen there! I followed him; another man by name of Dominic Beirne (senior) and John Durcan and a small boy John Curry, came with me.

 

We ran over towards the chapel and when the gable came into view, we immediately saw the lights; a clear white light covering most of the gable, from the ground to the window and higher. It was a kind of changing bright light, going sometimes up high and again not so high. We saw figures - the Blessed Virgin, St Joseph and St John and an altar with a lamb on the altar, and a cross behind the lamb. I went 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 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.

 

Her eyes were turned towards heaven. She wore a brilliant crown on her head, and over the forehead where the crown fitted the brow. A beautiful rose. I saw her move, but she did not speak. One old woman went up and embraced the Virgin's feet, and she found nothing in her arms or hands, they receded, she said, from her. I saw St Joseph to the Blessed Virgin's right hand; his head was bent, from the shoulder forward, he appeared to be paying his respects. I noticed his whiskers, they appeared slightly grey. His hands were joined like a person in prayer. The third figure that stood before me was that of St John the Evangelist. He stood erect at the Gospel side of the altar, and at an angle with the Blesses Virgin so that his back was not turned to the altar, nor to the Mother of God.|

 

St John was dressed like a bishop preaching; he wore a small mitre on his head, and held a Mass book or Book of Gospels in his left hand: the right hand was raised to the elevation of the head, 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 wore no sandals, his left hand was turned toward the altar that was behind him.

 

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 land 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 more; I saw their wings fluttering but I did nor 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 wit the figures".

                       

 

Mary Beirne’s Official Statement to the 2nd 1936 Commission Of Enquiry 3

 

Mary was eighty-six at the time of the second Commission of Enquiry. She was interviewed by the commissioners in her bedroom, as she was too ill to leave. She gave her final testimony and concluded with the words: 'I am clear about everything I have said and I make this statement knowing I am going before my God'  Mary died six weeks later.

 

References

1. Knock National Shrine Website Witness Accounts  (http://www.knock-shrine.ie/shrine/witnesses)

2. The Miracle Hunter Knock Ireland, 1879 (http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/knock/index.

html)

3. Op.cit Knock National Shrine Websire