WHAT DID THE BLESSED VIRGIN
LOOK LIKE?
No sooner had the apparitions of Our Lady begun at Garabandal than
the young seers were hit with the obvious questions—What did
the Blessed Virgin look like? How was she dressed? What was her
voice like? How did she hold her hands? Etc…. These are natural
inquiries and we all want to know the answers. It helps our devotion
and leads us to a greater love for our Heavenly Mother when we can
‘picture in our minds’ how beautiful and loving she is
and imagine the sweetness of her voice.
And the descriptions we get from visionaries like young Bernadette
of Lourdes, the three shepherd children of Fatima and the four young
girls at Garabandal never disappoint us. In fact, the seers always
seem to have difficulty imparting the full beauty of their visions.
Someone once asked Conchita, one of the Garabandal missionaries,
if she ever saw a statue or picture of Our Lady that looked like
her. Conchita simply said, no. Another time, with Conchita, the
subject of Our Lady’s first appearance was brought up. At first,
she tried to think of something to say and then her mind went back
to those glorious events of the past. One could read volumes in
the profound expression of inner peace and serenity that momentarily
crossed her face as she fell hopelessly silent. Her questioner realized
then, that no human tongue could adequately describe the beauty
of what she saw.
Impossible though it may be for us to accurately envision Mary now
glorified in heaven, the seers, nevertheless, have given descriptions
to help us, at least, form a mental picture. Let us, therefore,
with the help of various sources, try to recreate as best we can,
the image of our beautiful Heavenly Mother as she appeared at Garabandal
under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Conchita’s Diary
Here is the way visionary Conchita Gonzales described Our Lady in
the diary she kept during the apparitions. Conchita was only 12
years old when she wrote the following account:
“The Blessed Virgin appears with a white dress, a blue mantle
and a crown of small golden stars. Her feet are not visible. Her
hands are wide open with the scapular on the right wrist. The scapular
is brown-marron. Her hair is wavy and parted in the middle. She
has an oval shaped face and her nose is long and delicate. Her mouth
is very pretty with rather full lips. The color of her face is dark
but lighter than that of the angel; it is different. Her voice is
very lovely, a very unusual voice that I can’t describe. There
is no woman that resembles the Blessed Virgin in her voice or in
anything else.”
Here we have at least an overall picture of Our Lady as she appeared.
As a further supplement, we go to an interview with Conchita conducted
by Spanish artist Dona Isabel de Daganzo dated July 2, 1966*.
| Q. |
Would her posture always be the
same or did it change? Which posture was the habitual one? |
| A. |
Her habitual posture was to look
at us with her arms extended, but she would also move them.
She would look at the people and sometimes smile-at times more
than at other times. |
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|
| Q. |
How would you describe her eyes?
Did she ever blink or look from one side to the other? |
| A. |
Her eyes were dark (Conchita
used the word “negros” which actually means black),
very sweet and merciful, more toward being large. It seems as
though she is not looking at our faces or bodies but rather
our souls. I never noticed if she blinked, but she would look
from one side to the other. |
| |
|
| Q. |
What was her gaze like? Would
she speak to you without looking directly at you? |
| A. |
Her gaze is very difficult to
describe. It makes one love her more and think more of her.
Looking at her makes us completely happy- and her looking at
us even more so. When she speaks to us she looks directly at
us but she would change her gaze during the conversation. |
| |
|
| Q. |
What was her voice like? Was
it a real voice that can be heard through the ears at the same
time that the lips can be seen to move, or was it a voice that
is heard interiorly but without sound? |
| A. |
Her voice, very sweet and harmonious,
is heard through the ears. Her words penetrate the heart; it’s
as though she puts her voice inside. As she speaks she moves
her lips like people do, with sound. |
| |
|
| Q. |
When she spoke, was there any
kind of resonance like an echo or did she speak with a clear
voice? |
| A. |
She would speak with a most clear
voice. |
| |
|
| Q. |
Did she ever laugh or would she
only smile? If she did laugh, how would you describe it? |
| A. |
Sometimes she laughed as well
as smiled, but I couldn’t possibly explain her laughter.
I will never know how to explain it. |
| |
|
| Q. |
Did she kiss you frequently?
Would you girls ask her to kiss you or would she just do it
herself? What kind of kisses were they? Did you ever ask her
to allow you to kiss her? |
| A. |
Yes, she would kiss us almost
every day and she would do it. They were good-bye kisses on
both cheeks. Yes, I did ask her if I could kiss her and sometimes
I kissed her without asking. |
| |
|
| Q. |
What would you feel during the
ecstasies? |
| A. |
Very great peace and happiness. |
| |
|
| Q. |
What would you feel after the
vision? |
| A. |
After seeing the Virgin, it was
like coming out of heaven (without seeing it) and I would be
filled with the desire to love the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
and to tell the people about them, for this is the only thing
that can make us happy. |
In February 1975, in an interview with members
of the GARABANDAL Magazine staff, Conchita was asked if the Blessed
Virgin ever looked sad or if she (Conchita) could ever picture Our
Lady crying. The visionary replied that Our Lady never looked sad
but always joyful, that her face seemed to be smiling even when
she wasn’t smiling. Conchita said that she and the other girls
would not have been able to stand to see the Blessed Virgin cry.
When asked if Our Lady’s teeth could be seen when she smiled,
Conchita answered, yes. We also asked about her voice- whether it
was more high than low, however Conchita didn’t fully understand
the question. But in her usual concise way, she said that the Blessed
Virgin talked, “Just as we’re talking now.”
We cannot expect more from the Garabandal visionaries than the accounts
they have given. They are simple, unsophisticated people not prone
to giving overly dramatic or flowery descriptions. One senses that
they would rather not try to describe the beauty of their visions
knowing full well the futility of any attempt.
Although Mary is far more beautiful now that she is glorified in
heaven than she was on earth, it might be interesting to hear the
account of someone who actually saw her in person. St. Dionysius,
after having been converted by St. Paul, was brought by the apostle
to see the Blessed Virgin at Jerusalem. St. Dionysius said, when
he beheld the Mother of Jesus, that if he had not been prevented
from doing so, so great was her beauty, he would have fallen on
his face and adored her as God.
As we know, the exterior beauty of Mary is symbolic of an inner
beauty overflowing with a super-abundance of all the virtues. There
were several incidences at Garabandal where her other qualities
became manifest.
Humility
It is difficult for us living today, so tied down with our pride
and self-love, to imagine the Queen of all Creation taking the crown
from above her head and placing it in the hands of four little children
so that they can inspect it, passing it from one to the other, before
returning it to her. And yet, this is what Our Lady did at Garabandal.
Motherly Love and Approachability
How much this Heavenly Mother must love her children to permit them,
innocent as they most surely were and yet still uncleansed from
the faults and failings that burden most children, to kiss her without
even asking.
Patience and Tolerance
We also know from the notes of Fr. Valentin Marichalar, pastor of
Garabandal during the time of the apparitions, that when the children
sensed an apparition was coming to an end, and knowing Our Lady
would not leave until they blessed themselves, they would deliberately
bless themselves backwards so that she would stay a little longer.
And she would stay and bear their childish antics with motherly
love and forbearance until they did it correctly.
Fr. Luis Andreu, S.J., who after seeing the Blessed Mother at Garabandal**
(the only person other than the four girls to do so), on the drive
home in the early hours of the next morning, very quietly and peacefully,
passed from this life to the next. The mysterious death of the young
priest could be attributed to nothing other than sheer joy. Shortly
before expiring he exclaimed, “This is the happiest day of
my life!” And then speaking for all of us, Fr. Luis added,
“How fortunate we are to have a Mother like that in heaven!”
* A.M. Santiago, Garabandal
67, Editorial Circulo, Paseo Fernando el Catolico, 39, 7, Dcha.,
Zaragoza, Spain.
** On August 8, 1961, Fr. Luis saw in a vision, the Blessed Virgin
and a preview of the great miracle to come.
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