Beginning of the Finale

The Virgin Mary is one of the most iconic religious personages of our time. She is pictured holding the baby Jesus, rising to Heaven, and simply praying in any number of mediums. Her face is in paintings, stained glass windows, statues, and in every manner of mirrors, pill boxes, rosaries, and other trinkets. She is even said to have appeared many times in everyday circumstances, dating back to 1531 in Mexico[1]. These appearances, or apparitions, are at the center of a great deal of folk lore, worship, and occasionally approval by the Catholic Church.

Although only thirteen of these apparitions have been deemed to be true by the Church[2], hundreds of other seeming appearances have found their way to the public and to the internet. A Google search for “Mary apparitions” contains pictures of burnt toast, the windows of a high rise, a bowl of soup, and even the wall in a subway station which bear resemblances to Mary. Some of these are sold on eBay; many are simply worshipped with small shrines, but the reverence for these objects, almost completely apart from Catholicism, creates an interesting division between the Catholic Church and popular culture. This division seems to be completely disregarded by many followers, who consider these unapproved apparitions to be just as wholly worship-able as the approved ones[3].

These cleavages between popular ideas and the Church’s approved doctrine are not new. They are not fought over, although many unofficial apparitions and their supporters wait and lobby for centuries in order to obtain approval. They are simply examples of faith beyond religion, as is Robert Orsi’s depiction of the shrine in the North Bronx[4].

Orsi said that religion “comes into being in an ongoing, dynamic relationship with the realities of everyday life.”[5] He would argue, then, for these apparitions to be called religious, as it is one of the small, everyday parts of worship that defines an individual’s religious experience.

Religious scholar Mircea Eliade also argued for this broader description of religion. The Marian apparitions, which he would have called hierophanies[6], have contributed a great amount of feeling to the practice of Roman Catholicism, whether the church approves or not. He would call these sightings and objects of worship religious, as long as people feel a sense of holiness when interacting with them.

Thomas A. Tweed argued that sacred places and items created something of a separate reality[7], and would have considered the apparitions to be indicative of the unity of the worshipper with the religion itself and with its origins. A Catholic in Chicago can light a candle at the shrine in the Chicago subway[8] and feel himself transported to the realm of the holy, even despite the racket of the subway and the bustling crowds around him. This indicates the religious nature of the apparitions, as they exist in two almost distinct realities.

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[1] Mary was said to have appeared to a man in Mexico at this time, asking that a temple be built for her. When no one believes the man’s tale, a portrait of Mary appeared on his cloak. This image came to be called the Virgin of Guadalupe.

[2] http://www.catholicdoors.com/isit/approved.htm has a clear list of approved apparitions.

[3] Such as the author of marypages.com, who gives a list of the more serious apparitions, excluding toast and windows but still including many not officially approved by the Church.

[4] Robert Orsi, "Everyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion"

[5] See footnote 4.

[6] Mircea Eliade, “The Sacred and the Profane”

[7] Thomas A. Tweed, “Our Lady of the Exile”

[8] An unapproved apparition of Mary is the result of water damage in a Chicago subway.