Garabandal is an isolated mountain village in Spain.
Its population is but three hundred souls.
In 1961, on the 18th of June, four young women, between the ages of 11 and 12, were playing
together outside the village, when they heard a noise from the heavens like thunder.
They were scared... but they were about to witness, a modern day miracle.
The girls looked up into the sky... where they beheld a brilliant, shining angel.
He appeared for but a moment, and then he vanished without speaking.
Over the next few days, the angel would return to them, and smile upon them, always without a word.
A few local residents, would join the girls, every evening.
They would pray using rosary beads, while waiting for the angel to arrive.
These four young ladies, were Mari Loli, Jacinta González, Mari Cruz, and Conchita Concepción.
On his visit of the first of July, the angel spoke.
He said to the girls, "I am here to proclaim, the blessed mother, will appear to you tomorrow."
The girls were beside themselves with excitement.
In late afternoon of the very next day, they were walking on a local stone path, when they
saw before them, mother Mary.
Behind the blessed mother and above her right shoulder, loomed a single cryptic eye, which
the girls believed to be the eye of God.
Conchita said the experience, was like being reunited with her own mother, after a long
separation.
The girls spoke with Mary, about their families and their housework and their work in the
fields.
In exchange, the blessed mother taught them the proper way to pray the rosary.
Before leaving, Mary promised to return to them, and she did... on numerous occasions.
Her appearances before the young ladies, would number in the hundreds, sometimes occurring
several times a day.
The girls received three inner calls to worship, in advance of each appearance.
In response to the last call, no matter where they were located, individually, they would
run to wherever the apparition was expected, arriving often at the same time.
Then they would fall into a trance of ecstasy.
In August, while still in the ecstatic state, the girls could be seen walking throughout
their village, forwards and backwards, with their faces ever uplifted, and their eyes
fixated on the heavens above.
As the girls owned literally nothing of value, during the earlier apparitions, they offered
to mother Mary, a handful of attractive pebbles.
The blessed mother, after kissing the pebbles, requested they be handed out to certain people
of the village.
Soon the villagers, were asking to have various religious objects blessed by Mary.
When the girls were not home, the villagers left these objects outside of their houses.
There was no way to know, to whom each object belonged... and yet without fail, the items
were always returned to the original owners... items such as wedding rings, medals, rosary
beads, and other religious icons.
Neither did the girls discriminate.
Once they were given a woman's powder compact, to be glorified by the blessed mother.
When Mary appeared, the first thing she asked of the young ladies, was to touch the compact.
She claimed it had belonged to her crucified son.
When the object was returned, its owner disclosed, that in the time of the Spanish Civil War,
the compact was used for smuggling.
It was used to carry the holy wafers of the Eucharist, to soldiers who had been imprisoned.
Arguably the most important word delivered at Garabandal, was the so-called "second message",
which came from the blessed mother, four years to the day, after her first appearance.
She warned that many cardinals, bishops and priests, had set foot on the road to perdition.
Only by their penitent efforts, could the clergy now expect relief, from the impending wrath of God.