AMKent books

The Apparitions

When investigating these apparitions further, there are some common occurrences that are to be noted, patterns that are present. When Mary speaks, it is exclusively in private; she does not speak to the masses that report seeing her, only to be people she selects. Before I get into specific apparitions and examples, I would like to discuss this more broadly to begin with. I can not find a single instance where she speaks, audibly, to the masses that she is visually presented to. So, when she appears to the highest number of witnesses, she is only a visual phenomenon. When a message is delivered, if it is to be believed that it actually is, then it is chosen specifically for the individual. This is a double-edged blade; it is easy to dismiss the individual who claims they heard her message audibly, but then the mass appearance is hard to dismiss, which gives credit to the more intimate message. It very much encompasses the notion of ‘faith’, which in these cases would be Christian. In Fatima, the masses, up to 70,000, saw miracles of the sun, including journalists. Zeitoun was witnessed by up to a million, of all faiths and cultures, sceptics and believers, including photographic evidence. Knock, in Ireland, also had around 15 witnesses; however, in this instance, she spoke to no one.

I will now move on to Christ and his apparitions, the first and most known is during his resurrection. It is said that around 500 people, where he said to the masses, “Peace be with you”, 1 Corinthians 15:6. It is important to note that not only did this event happen vastly beyond our ability to document it properly, but it is also central to the biblical text and has no external collaborators. Interestingly, Christ did appear to some in Zeitoun, Egypt; however, much like Mary, he remained silent, and no words were said, be it in private or to the crowds. Both then, operate in exactly the same way, appearing visually to the masses but audibly to those select. When trying to extrapolate the figures from the religion and their potential to be beyond the human baseline, this makes things interesting and difficult. The church in Zeitoun is somewhere that Mary, the holy family, stopped at according to orthodox Coptic Christian traditions. There are no biblical texts that confirm this, or historical texts, and the Coptic Christian claims were posited many centuries after Christ and Mary. Fatima has no link at all to anything, it is completely random and shares no intertwining with biblical text and history. Yet, it was the second largest mass apparition there was, and miracles of the sun were recorded. Taking this at face value, no words were spoken, the locations held no significance to the history according to the Bible, so, there is seemingly no connection between Christianity and these apparitions bar the names and the figures. I will give Zeitoun this, it happened above a church, which is linked to Christianity of course, but the church was of no significance biblically. In terms of sacred geography, it is one potential locale and another that is totally unrelated.

The rock and the hard place here is that this tradition, mass visions yet highly finite content, is repeated throughout the centuries. Almost as if it were a fail-safe, teasing the public enough to bite yet relying the true message to a select individual, forcing them to rely entirely on the faith of this message holder. When Mary appears, she is central, and she is feminine with a matronly aura, she truly does present herself as the mother of all. No other figure in the other Abrahamic monolithic religions has presented themselves the way that she has, throughout the centuries, and with so many witnesses. This is hard to dismiss, even at Zeitoun, where Christ had also appeared, according to some, Mary was still the focal point. The apparitions follow a strict pattern: the many are shown, the few are told. The masses see the spectacle, but only the chosen hear the word. It is as if the event itself is designed to suspend us between proof and faith, a spectacle that resists resolution.