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Beauraing, Belgium 1932
Feast day:
August 22
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The first few times that The
Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Beauraing, it was at some distance from the five
children, Andree and Gilberte Degeimbre 15 and 9 years of age and Fernande,
Golberte and Albert Voisin aged 15, 13 and 11 years of age. The Blessed Virgin
remained there silently for a long. When she appeared the children were thrown
to their knees whether they wanted to or not. This causes them to land on their
knees with a hard bump, but there are no scars on their knees.
The
Blessed Virgin appeared in Beauraing more than 30 times. The first time was on
the 19th of November 1932 and the last on the 3rd of January 1933. They were not
believed when they spoke of these apparitions, as happened at most
of the other places where Our Lady appeared. The nuns at the
boarding school,
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they attended, forbade them to talk about the apparitions and were
not prepared to pay any attention to what the children told them. But
then at the fourth apparition, Our Blessed Lady moved Herself to the new
building where the nuns lived and stayed there in the hawthorn bush. She
opened Her hands by way of greeting, smiled and disappeared. Andree, Gilberte, Fernande, Golberte and Albert were not boarders
at the school, but the Mother Superior made them stay at home the next evening.
The children obeyed, but spent the night crying and praying. |
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The
apparitions in Beauraing all occurred in the evening, which resulted in a lot of
people being present. The first days, Our Blessed Lady seemed to be waiting for
the children and appeared to them whilst they were praying the rosary. When the
children see Her, their voices become higher in tone and seem to form one single
voice/sound. A few hundred people pray vigorously with them during the pure
silence. The nuns who hear this wonder what on earth they should think about
this. Meanwhile they follow the orders of the Deacon and keep the gates shut and
they do not appear. Then on the 8th of December, early in the morning, a large
number of people attend confession, many of whom are clearly converts.
An enormous amount of people go to Holy Communion. After Holy Mass there is a
procession to the hawthorn bush. There are coaches from Charleroi, Merziere,
Givet, Dinant, Namur, St.Hubert and Brussels. Extra trains are put on from
Dinant and the Ardennen.
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At three o'clock in the
afternoon the grounds of the convent are choke-a-block with people, as is the
street. The police maintain order and the people sing, 'stretch Your Blessed
Hand out over Belgium'. The area around the hawthorn is ablaze with lighted
candles. Then the gates to the convent are shut, which did not prove to be easy.
All the candles are extinguished, the police continue to patrol the ground and
area to protect the nuns property and to prevent the people from forcing their
way through the gates. At 6.p.m. the children arrive and a shout is heard: 'She
is here!!! They all drop to their knees, pray the Hail Mary
and ask The Blessed Virgin to speak. But there are no words,
just a smile. Then they all pray the entire rosary and the apparition remains
visible throughout this time.
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There are six doctors who
want to watch the children and to do tests. They let an electric lamp pass the
eyes of the children and one doctor sticks a needle fairly deeply into one of
the children and places a burning match on the hand of the little girl. The
match burns completely up and dies, but there is no sign of any sensitivity. The
children upon hearing of this later are very surprised and there is no mark of
any burns on the girl. The doctors agreed unanimously that the children were in
a state of total ecstasy. The children are questioned
separately, but there is absolutely no difference in what they say. It is
fantastic to hear the youngest child tell what The Blessed Virgin looked like.
But people do understand that The Blessed Virgin did appear.
The girl also had been given a request. It is not until the
21ste of December that Our Lady says in Beauraing who She is: |
I am The Immaculate Virgin
And on the 23rd of December
in Beauraing the Blessed Virgin Mary says: "I would like a church built here so
that people can come here on pilgrimage." On December 29th Fernande hears
Her say: "Pray, pray a lot!!." Her little sister, on the 1st of January hears,
'Pray always.' And then on the 2nd of January Our Lady says; " Tomorrow I shall
tell each one of you something very special." January the 3rd
is the last day of the apparitions and definitely the most important day for
announcements. Albert received a secret which he has never
disclosed and his little sister Gilberte was given, by, the Blessed Virgin Mary, The greatest
promise of Beauraing:
"I shall convert the
Sinners"
What
a wonderful promise!! from THE IMMACULATE VIRGIN. From Her Mother Heart, that has great sympathy and suffers with all who pray for the conversion of
their loved ones. Because they long for all to be one, unified in
The Love of God. To show Her Mighty Power, she says to Andree:
"I
am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of God; pray always"
To
Fernande, who at first had not noticed anything and therefore continued to pray
for longer. To her Our Lady said the following:
"Do you
love My Son?… Do you love Me?… Then offer yourself up for Me!!"
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Everybody
hears Her say: "Adieu!" In the apparitions which occurred after the
29th of December the children continually see 'A heart surrounded by
rays of light'. This is why people here call Mary: "Mother with the
Golden heart" |
The feast day of Our Blessed Lady of Beauraing was placed
on the liturgical calendar on the 22nd of August which was the feast day of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Then when the liturgical calendar was revised, this feast day was called: "THE QUEENSHIP OF
THE BLESSED VIRGIN
MARY".
In order to celebrate this feast in
Beauraing you must at the latest be in Beauraing on the 21st of August so that
you can then join in with the spiritual, personal preparations for the feast
day. It is like putting on your spiritual party clothes!
Pope John-Paul II
by the statue of the Virgin Mary
One year later, in 1933, the Blessed Virgin appears
again; this time
in Banneux (Belgium) |