"I WILL BE BACK IN TROUBLED TIMES"    
by Father Gerhard 

Suddenly last summer, Marpingen, a small village of five thousand inhabitants  near the German-French border in the Saar area of Germany, became a focal  point for the German media because three middle-aged women claimed that, since May of this year, they had been having apparitions of OUR LADY at the  little Marian shrine just outside the village.  

Last century, beginning at the end of September 1876 and continuing until  July 1877, the little village of Marpingen was already in the limelight, when  three little girls, all eight years old, claimed to have seen OUR LADY in the  "Härtel-Forest."   Despite threats and intimidation, the girls did not withdraw  their claim.  

The news about their apparitions went quickly around, and the people of the neighboring villages went to the site to pray and honor OUR LADY.   Not all were believers;  however, the crowds were mixed with naysayers and  curious onlookers.  It was the time of the German "Kulturkampf," and the Prussian administration tried everything in its power to oppress Catholic influence in Germany.   Some bishops and a large number of priests and laymen  were imprisoned.   The supernatural events at Marpingen were a thorn in the side of many government officials. Soldiers were called in to disperse the crowds at Marpingen.  The people were forbidden to visit the site.  The place  was closed down for some time.   Later on, pilgrims started to come again, and  reports about inexplicable cures made the rounds.  A number of pilgrims were  arrested and tried.   In the eyes of the authorities they were criminals, but  the believers in the apparitions considered them to be martyrs.  The poor little girls were sent into a children's home as punishment.  

After one year, the stream of pilgrims became less and less and dried up. Pastor  Neureuter,  the village's parish-priest, said:  "If it is human work it will disappear, but if it is GOD'S work it will remain."    Besides the three  main visionaries, Sudanna Leist, Katharina Hubertus and Margaretha Kurz,  fourteen other children claimed to have seen OUR LADY during that period.   There were many reports about miraculous cures.  Because the Episcopal seat of Trier was vacant for some years,  no one there followed up on the case.  Nothing is known about an actual diocesan commission  investigating the case, but some said the events had something to do with  "autosuggestion."   Others said that, as an adult, one of the visionaries  withdrew her first statement about having had visions.  Two visionaries joined  a religious order later in their lives.   In the last apparition OUR LADY  said to the small visionaries: "I will be back in troubled times."   Has this  prophecy become true in the year 1999?

After the reported 1876-77 apparitions, Marpingen once more became again the quiet village it was before, but with one little difference. Some villagers  built a chapel and shrine at the site to honor OUR LADY.  From time to time  they went to the little spring near the site to draw water because they  considered this water blessed by OUR LADY and beneficial for their health.  After, the "Kulturkampf," the parish priest and the diocesan authorities did not forbid the believers to visit the site.  On the other hand, Marpingen was  never officially acknowledged by the church as a pilgrimage place.   It  became a local shrine visited by the villagers and some people of the  Saar-area for a very long time. But Marpingen was never completely forgotten.  

Some years ago the English author David Blackbourne wrote an interesting book  about the events of Marpingen, and for some, the book created a furor.   Suddenly, on the 17th of May 1999, Marpingen came again into the limelight.  

Three middle-aged women--Marion Guttmann, Christine Ney, and Judith  Hieber--claimed to have seen OUR LADY at the site.  Marion Guttmann explained  that she saw OUR LADY in a three-dimensional way, while Christine Ney said  that she could see the apparition only hazily.   Judith Hieber stated that she  didn't see anything but that she heard clearly the voice of OUR LADY.   Of which kind are the "messages" of OUR LADY?   Nothing sensational, but  theologically sound, and this speaks for their truth.  There are no prophecies about future wars and disasters.  Asked about its identity, the apparition  answered: "I am the mother of Jesus. I came as mother to Germany.  Remain in  the love of GOD,  follow his commandments and learn again to estimate his  sacraments."   About  prayer she said:  "The Holy Rosary is an important weapon against evil. I need  your prayers and I will  bring your prayers to my SON.   Pray the Rosary for the conversion of sinners  and for the peace of the world."    She added that the source would be a spring of life. She promised that the blessed water would bring for some people  bodily and spiritually healing.  Not everyone would be healed, but the ones God had chosen would be healed.   

On other occasions the visionaries saw a  big dove behind OUR LADY pouring petals over the pilgrims.  And behind the dove a luminated cross appeared  beaming into the faithful.   The apparition insisted on the importance of  prayer.  She asked the  people to be faithful to the Pope and urged the present priests to bless  together the faithful.  

The water of the spring was officially checked by the German health  authorities with the result that they found dangerous microbes, and the well  was closed down.  Many pilgrims and friends of the shrine were very upset  because nobody had died after drinking the water.  Even the village's Lord  Mayor and his councellors insisted that the spring must be opened again.  

The  church press and medias disregarded for a long time the events of Marpingen.   For months the church press kept silent.  The secular press was faster and  pressured the church media to comment.  The echo in most of the magazines and  TV reports were rather negative.  But what can you expect from reporters, who  have no faith and who are only looking for the sensational?   The messages of  Marpingen are  not sensational.  They are rather a call for conversion and prayer and  receiving the holy sacraments.   The secular press ridiculed, mocked and scoffed in many articles the  happenings at Marpingen.   Many newspapers and magazines accused the pious and marianic priest Father Gressung of directing the visionaries because the  visionaries had chosen him as their spiritual director.   Is it not the right of every Catholic to choose a spiritual director according to his or her own liking?  Was it not in Lourdes, Fatima, and  recently in Medjugorje the same?   How many spoke and wrote against the  apparitions at those places?   Was there not a lot of mocking?   The bishop of  Trier has asked the priest not to preach about the apparitions and the  visionaries until his Episcopal commission has judged the events. It is good  and correct that the Church is very careful with her judgment, and the  believers must respect her authority.  On the other hand, until now she has not forbidden the faithful to visit the site and pray.  

OUR LADY  announced to the three visionaries that her final coming would be on October  17, 1999. On that date, the little village in Saarland was flooded with pilgrims and onlookers.   

As Christians, we must be tolerant and open.   Throughout the ages GOD has given humankind many calls and signs.   In each HOLY MASS the supernatural is touching the earth.   We must learn to understand the signs of GOD for our  world and the signs of GOD for us personally.  GOD touches this earth where He  wants and when He wants.  The message of Marpingen is a positive message for  mankind.   It is not adding anything to the revelation, which CHRIST gave us through His Good News and His deeds.  No Christian must accept apparitions.   They are no dogma.  But they can be a help for many of us to revise their lives and turn back to GOD.  This could be the great chance of Marpingen.  What do we need more than prayer, conversion and peace in our distressed and confused world?  

Marpingen  has not only a Marianic dimension.   The appearance of the dove and the  appearing of the beaming cross point clearly to the HOLY TRINITY and give the  apparitions a Trinitarian character.  So why not let the faithful come  together to praise HIM and His mother?  Why not let Marpingen become a place  of PRAYER, CONVERSION, HEALING and UNITY?   If GOD  wants it, human beings will not be able to stop it.

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ]