Documents / Document

MacPhilpin 1880, Google Books scan of Harvard copy

Internet Archive · 91 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This is an 1880 book, The Apparitions and Miracles at Knock, prepared and edited by John MacPhilpin of Tuam and published in Dublin by M. H. Gill and Son. The Internet Archive holds a Google scan of the Harvard College Library copy. It reprints Tuam News accounts and the official depositions of eye-witnesses to the apparition of 21 August 1879 on the sacristy gable of Knock Church, County Mayo. It argues that natural light could not have caused the apparition and lists cures recorded in Archdeacon Cavanagh's diary.

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

the feet, and remarked that the right foot was in advance of the left, like one going to move forward; and that, in fact, the figures did move forward at times, and backwards towards the gable whenever the people drew nearer to them. He saw angels, having their faces veiled, fluttering around the Lamb. Other witnesses say they saw only glittering lights around the Lamb, but that they were not angels. Master Hill declares that they appeared to him to move, and, as it were, on wing, but that he could not see their faces. The cross, he says, was behind the Lamb, and erect on the altar, and not on the Lamb, as is represented. The other witnesses used the words behind the Lamb, on the Lamb; he states with a certain conviction the cross was behind the Lamb, but inward, erect, or perpendicular to the altar, and in no way touching the Lamb. Again, he states that although a luminous whiteness covered the whole gable, or the greater portion of it, yet a dark border line out a little from each of the forms, gave the beholders a clear and distinct view of each of the figures that stood before them: for instance, between St. John and the figure of the Blessed Virgin, a dark or less bright border line showed how far the bright rays that encircled the Virgin extended, and how far those radiating from St. John extended, and the meeting of the two was less bright than the lustrous whiteness that was seen around.

Then, again, he saw, he states, not only the eyes of the Immaculate Lady, but the iris and the pupil in each. That after being a while looking on and gazing at the figures, he went up towards St. John, and could distinctly see the lettering in the book which St. John appeared to be reading.

These are points that are worth noting in the evidence of Master Patrick Hill, on account of their special character, and the minuteness of outline, and the simple certainty with which he tells one out straight what he saw.

About this file

Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 91 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.