The Marpingen Apparitions, from authentic German sources. By Charles Kemen (London :Washbourne) as reviewed in The Dublin Review (London and Dublin, 1878).
PROBABLY most of our readers have made themselves acquainted with Prince Radzivill's account of the chain of remarkable circumstances that occurred at Marpingen, in the diocese of Treves, in Germany, during the years 1876 and 1877 and they will certainly be glad to see the pamphlet now before us, prefaced by Dr. Barry's admirable letter. The Professor of Theology at St. Mary's Oscott has done a public service by this letter, which, while giving the fullest and widest encouragement to belief in supernatural visitations according to the mind of the Catholic Church, yet throws out such clear suggestions of prudence as the Church also invariably practises in their case. At this moment no ecclesiastical authority can open an inquiry at Treves, owing to the troubles with the German Government, and under these circumstances the Church inevitably remains silent. And "whilst she is silent," as Dr. Barry says, "we may each of us form our own opinion, or abstain from forming one, according to the estimate we put on the various parts of the evidence."
No devout person, Dr. Barry continues, could in the meanwhile feel startled, much less shocked, on hearing of a fresh apparition of our Lady. The circumstances also have a family likeness to others so well known to us. The appearances were vouchsafed to innocent children, while they were denied to many grown people, who afterwards accompanied them to the favoured spot. Again, there was an outflow of two wells of healing waters, giving occasion to a multitude of cures of the sick, always accompanied by the injunction to pray and repent. And lastly, a great concourse of pilgrims was drawn from all parts of Germany to Marpingen, in spite of the threats, chastisement, and every opposition of the Government. The whole story is well narrated in the ten chapters of Mr. Kemen's pamphlet, which is written, as Dr. Barry says, in the most simple and straightforward way. Marpingen is a little village six miles from St. Wendel, which again is on the railway line between the now historical Saarlouis and Kreuznach (or Creuznach). It contains about fifteen hundred mining and labouring inhabitants, who have for about a couple of centuries practised peculiar devotion to our Lady, even binding themselves by vow, in 1699, to abstain from work after the Angelus on Saturdays, and to say the Rosary publicly in the church. This vow was kept without intermission for a hundred years, till the French Republican troops, after the Revolution, occupied the village, and abolished all public worship. The vow was, however, renewed in 1814, and kept till 1847, when the Bishop of Treves released the inhabitants from the vow, while offering all who wished to renew it entrance into the confraternity of the Sacred Heart. The whole body of parishioners at once enrolled themselves as Children of Mary, and to this day it is the usual course for the children after First Communion to be enrolled in the guild.
In July, 1876, three little girls of eight years old went out to gather whortleberries at Hartelwald, in the neighbourhood and when the Angelus was rung they all knelt down to say it. Suddenly one of them, who was rather apart from the others, uttered a loud cry, which made her companions run towards her, when they also shrieked out with fright, and all set off home as fast as they could run. They all said in answer to their mothers' questions, that they had seen a white lady; and, in spite of rebukes and punishment, maintained their story. The next day the same children went again, as if irresistibly attracted to the wood, and knelt down to say three times the "Our Father " and "Hail Mary," when the same bright figure appeared before them. Losing at once their dread, they began to ask who she was, to which she replied, "I am the spotlessly conceived one." That same evening a crowd of people and children accompanied the first three to the Hartelwald, when the three children, and no others, again saw the radiant figure, and put questions to her which were answered. The answers were heard, but still no one else saw the vision. This time the children were told to pray devoutly, and not commit sin. The next time our Lady said that a chapel of stone should be built on that spot, and that she would appear that day and the next again, and at one of the succeeding apparitions gave leave for sick people to be brought to be healed. Immediately the listening crowd ran joyfully to the village to fetch out their sick and diseased, who were guided by the three children to lay their hands on our Lady's foot. After a number of cures, and after vast crowds of people had been to the spot, even carrying away the least fragment of the bush where the vision had first been seen, grown people were first allowed to see the apparition. As it appeared to them, it was no longer a white lady. "A light-blue veil, covering head and shoulders, descended to her feet; rich fair hair glittered through it The garment which the Queen of Heaven wore was of a deep blue, and allowed the front part of her white feet to be seen a little. . . . The left hand . . . held the child Jesus, also dressed in light blue, His right hand raised as if in the act of blessing, His countenance beaming with the bright light of the mid-day sun."
Before the middle of July, pilgrimages of many thousands of people had passed through Marpingen, and on one day the three children had spent the entire time between eight in the morning till eleven at night in laying the hands of sick, maimed, and diseased people upon the Blessed Virgin's foot. Such unbefitting "disturbances," of course, could not be allowed to continue by the German Government. If our Blessed Lady must appear at all to her persecuted and oppressed children, she must do so in a quiet, orderly, not-to-be-wondered-at, regimental manner. Enthusiastic pilgrims, cures of sick people by otherwise than the physic-bottle of the village doctor, wells gushing out of hill-sides unauthorized by mayors and over-inspectors of the water-supply, were all wholly contradictory to the admirable military discipline of the Bismarckian period, in which also public teaching had loudly declared that the invisible and supernatural world had ceased to exist. The next day, accordingly, there was a military occupation of Marpingen, when the soldiers brutally conducted themselves, as if in an enemy's country. They seized, even with blows, the food and wine of the inhabitants, turned them out of their beds, and strictly prohibited any one from visiting the Hartelwald. The upper well, which had sprung suddenly after the apparitions had been seen, was filled with rubbish, and patrols were posted around the wells and through the wood. But notwithstanding every effort of the authorities, the visions continued to appear to many people and in many places during the time our Lady had herself mentioned, of one year and two months. Two priests were then arrested, and the three contumacious children were sent to the Protestant Reformatory at Saarbruck; though, as nothing whatever could be proved against either the pastor or the flock, they were all released in about two months afterwards. The pilgrims also flowed towards Marpingen in such numbers that the military sentries gave up their opposition in despair, and during August of last year from 10,000 to 20,000 arrived every day. Among them were the Archduke Charles of Austria and his wife, and the Princess of Thurn and Taxis. The Government is apparently powerless to do any more than throw ridicule on what it calls "the Marpingen swindle." Meanwhile our readers will judge of the evidence for themselves.
No devout person, Dr. Barry continues, could in the meanwhile feel startled, much less shocked, on hearing of a fresh apparition of our Lady. The circumstances also have a family likeness to others so well known to us. The appearances were vouchsafed to innocent children, while they were denied to many grown people, who afterwards accompanied them to the favoured spot. Again, there was an outflow of two wells of healing waters, giving occasion to a multitude of cures of the sick, always accompanied by the injunction to pray and repent. And lastly, a great concourse of pilgrims was drawn from all parts of Germany to Marpingen, in spite of the threats, chastisement, and every opposition of the Government. The whole story is well narrated in the ten chapters of Mr. Kemen's pamphlet, which is written, as Dr. Barry says, in the most simple and straightforward way. Marpingen is a little village six miles from St. Wendel, which again is on the railway line between the now historical Saarlouis and Kreuznach (or Creuznach). It contains about fifteen hundred mining and labouring inhabitants, who have for about a couple of centuries practised peculiar devotion to our Lady, even binding themselves by vow, in 1699, to abstain from work after the Angelus on Saturdays, and to say the Rosary publicly in the church. This vow was kept without intermission for a hundred years, till the French Republican troops, after the Revolution, occupied the village, and abolished all public worship. The vow was, however, renewed in 1814, and kept till 1847, when the Bishop of Treves released the inhabitants from the vow, while offering all who wished to renew it entrance into the confraternity of the Sacred Heart. The whole body of parishioners at once enrolled themselves as Children of Mary, and to this day it is the usual course for the children after First Communion to be enrolled in the guild.
In July, 1876, three little girls of eight years old went out to gather whortleberries at Hartelwald, in the neighbourhood and when the Angelus was rung they all knelt down to say it. Suddenly one of them, who was rather apart from the others, uttered a loud cry, which made her companions run towards her, when they also shrieked out with fright, and all set off home as fast as they could run. They all said in answer to their mothers' questions, that they had seen a white lady; and, in spite of rebukes and punishment, maintained their story. The next day the same children went again, as if irresistibly attracted to the wood, and knelt down to say three times the "Our Father " and "Hail Mary," when the same bright figure appeared before them. Losing at once their dread, they began to ask who she was, to which she replied, "I am the spotlessly conceived one." That same evening a crowd of people and children accompanied the first three to the Hartelwald, when the three children, and no others, again saw the radiant figure, and put questions to her which were answered. The answers were heard, but still no one else saw the vision. This time the children were told to pray devoutly, and not commit sin. The next time our Lady said that a chapel of stone should be built on that spot, and that she would appear that day and the next again, and at one of the succeeding apparitions gave leave for sick people to be brought to be healed. Immediately the listening crowd ran joyfully to the village to fetch out their sick and diseased, who were guided by the three children to lay their hands on our Lady's foot. After a number of cures, and after vast crowds of people had been to the spot, even carrying away the least fragment of the bush where the vision had first been seen, grown people were first allowed to see the apparition. As it appeared to them, it was no longer a white lady. "A light-blue veil, covering head and shoulders, descended to her feet; rich fair hair glittered through it The garment which the Queen of Heaven wore was of a deep blue, and allowed the front part of her white feet to be seen a little. . . . The left hand . . . held the child Jesus, also dressed in light blue, His right hand raised as if in the act of blessing, His countenance beaming with the bright light of the mid-day sun."
Before the middle of July, pilgrimages of many thousands of people had passed through Marpingen, and on one day the three children had spent the entire time between eight in the morning till eleven at night in laying the hands of sick, maimed, and diseased people upon the Blessed Virgin's foot. Such unbefitting "disturbances," of course, could not be allowed to continue by the German Government. If our Blessed Lady must appear at all to her persecuted and oppressed children, she must do so in a quiet, orderly, not-to-be-wondered-at, regimental manner. Enthusiastic pilgrims, cures of sick people by otherwise than the physic-bottle of the village doctor, wells gushing out of hill-sides unauthorized by mayors and over-inspectors of the water-supply, were all wholly contradictory to the admirable military discipline of the Bismarckian period, in which also public teaching had loudly declared that the invisible and supernatural world had ceased to exist. The next day, accordingly, there was a military occupation of Marpingen, when the soldiers brutally conducted themselves, as if in an enemy's country. They seized, even with blows, the food and wine of the inhabitants, turned them out of their beds, and strictly prohibited any one from visiting the Hartelwald. The upper well, which had sprung suddenly after the apparitions had been seen, was filled with rubbish, and patrols were posted around the wells and through the wood. But notwithstanding every effort of the authorities, the visions continued to appear to many people and in many places during the time our Lady had herself mentioned, of one year and two months. Two priests were then arrested, and the three contumacious children were sent to the Protestant Reformatory at Saarbruck; though, as nothing whatever could be proved against either the pastor or the flock, they were all released in about two months afterwards. The pilgrims also flowed towards Marpingen in such numbers that the military sentries gave up their opposition in despair, and during August of last year from 10,000 to 20,000 arrived every day. Among them were the Archduke Charles of Austria and his wife, and the Princess of Thurn and Taxis. The Government is apparently powerless to do any more than throw ridicule on what it calls "the Marpingen swindle." Meanwhile our readers will judge of the evidence for themselves.