STORY OF OUR LADY OF APPARITIONS
Madrid Spain, 1449
Feast Day - March 2
In the year 1449, Cubas was only a village with a simple
church dedicated to Saint Andrew. The population of Cubas, however, lived quite
forgetful of their duties to God, and their sins were so many that it seemed
even to them that the hand of God must be hovering over the land, ready to
punish them.
The Chronicles speak then of a young girl of 12 named Ines,
(sometimes Yves or Agnes) who was but of humble birth. Still, there was
something about her that made her different from other girls her age. She
fasted, confessed regularly, and prayed daily the 15 mysteries of the Rosary.
Perhaps her deep faith and religiosity may explain what happened next.
On Monday, March 3rd, 1449, Ines was tending pigs on the
outskirts of town in a place called Cecilia, when at noon a woman appeared, a
lady bright and beautiful dressed in cloth of gold. She was surrounded by
light, and asked Ines what she was doing there. Ines stated that she was
tending the pigs. The Lady then said that the people were no longer keeping the
fasts, and told Ines the necessity of fasting. The lady said that the people of
Cubas must change their ways, confess, and cease their debauchery and offenses
against God, or He would soon punish them. There would be a great pestilence
that would come upon them from which many would die. Perhaps knowing the
hard-heartedness of the people, Ines asked if she, too, or her mother and
father, would die of this pestilence. She was told only that it would be as God
desired. The lady then disappeared.
At first Ines did not tell anyone of the incident, for she
thought no one would believe what had happened.
On Tuesday, March 4th, Ines was again tending the pigs, this
time near the stream of Torrejon. At about the same time of day, at noon, just
as the day before, the Lady reappeared. She asked Ines if she had told the
people what she had been told to say, but Ines answered that she dared not to,
for she suspected that she would not be believed. The Lady then commanded Ines
to warn the people, and that if they did not believe, she would give her a
sign. Ines asked the Lady who she was, but she said she would not tell yet
before once again disappearing. Finally Ines decided to tell her father,
Alfonso Martinez, who did not give any importance to the events recounted by
his daughter, but thought it a children’s story, a story invented in the
imagination of a young girl. He told Ines to be quiet when she tried to tell
anyone about the warning.
On Friday, March 7th, Ines was keeping the pigs in New
Prado, when the Lady reappeared again as before. She asked Ines if she had told
what she had been commanded to say. Ines answered that she had told her mother
and father, and many others. The Lady told Ines to publish what she had said to
all the people without any fear or trepidation.
When Ines went home at the end of the day she told her
parents what had happened. Her father told her she was lying and to “shut up,”
but her mother encouraged Ines, saying, “Well, still, say it.”
By Sunday, March 9th, word had spread. A priest, Juan
Gonzalez, with some other men, when to Ines’ home and talked to her parents.
Afterwards, the priest went to say Mass. Ines went out with the pigs,
accompanied by her brother John, to a place called The Ciroleda. Ines’ father
left them and went to Mass. The Ciroleda was a watery meadow that the pigs
liked. Ines left her brother after a time looking for one of the pigs that had
slipped away, and soon lost sight of her brother. All by herself, she knelt on
the soft earth, asking the lady to return, even though she was afraid.
The Lady appeared again as before, telling Ines to rise.
“Lady, who are you?” Ines asked. “I am the Virgin Mary,” the lady answered, and
approaching Ines, took her right hand and squeezed her fingers and thumb
together, making some kind of a sign. She then told Ines to go to the church
and show the sign to the people as they left Mass. Ines told her brother to
watch after the pigs, and went to the church, arriving just as Mass was letting
out. She was crying, and went to kneel before the altar of Mary. There, she
told everyone what had happened.
I cannot decipher what the sign was in Ines’ hand, but
whatever it was, the people examined her hand and many believed. The following
day the priest led the notables of the town and the faithful in a procession to
the place of the last apparitions, carrying a wooden cross. When they arrived,
Ines walked forward alone with the cross. The Virgin Mary herself took the cross,
telling Ines to have a church built there in her honor.
The cross was permanently placed where the Virgin, Our Lady
of Apparitions, had been last seen, and many miracles occurred there, including
11 people who were brought back to life. A church was begun shortly after the
apparitions of the Virgin were approved. It stood for nearly five centuries,
when it was destroyed in the 1936 fire, caused during the Civil War. Many of
the nuns were martyred. In 1949 the reconstruction was completed in part by the
Regiones Devastadas, who placed the current cross in the same place where the
first had been.
According to tradition, Ines ended her life in the monastery
of Santa Maria de la Cruz after having children and being widowed. It is said
that anyone who goes to visit the place, with faith, receives special graces,
and that miracles still occur there.
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