The Apparitions and Miracles at Knock; also, the Official Depositions of the Eye-witnesses

10
can life and manners in that great republic to the west of the
Atlantic. In this way our Catholic people are not at all put
about by the narration of miracles or of miraculous apparitions
at Knock. They are, by faith, aware beforehand that such
things happened before, happen now, and will take place as
long as the Church of God is on earth. The angels appeared
to Abraham, and walked with him, and talked to him, and
directed " him in all his ways." They appeared and spoke
to, and brought to a foreign country and back, the grandson
of Abraham, Isaac, the father of all the Israelites. The same
is true of Tobias and Daniel, the prophets ; and of St. Peter,
the head of the Apostles, and of numerous saints in the
Catholic Church in Africa, in Rome, and in this island during
the golden age of sanctity in Ireland. What happened once,
why not happen again ? It is the same God who ruled and
governed mankind then as now ; it is the same Church that
points out to her children the way to heaven ; the Irish faith
ful, like those in the time of St. Columkille, or at a later period,
are the brothers of the Redeemer, purchased by his sacred
Blood. He loves us as He loved them, and sends his angels
to take charge of us, as they took charge of them in days past.
These points have been spoken of and canvassed in conver
sation amongst laity and amongst religious for the past six
months. It was only when the matter was described in a
former issue of the Tuam News that the faithful began to at
tach any degree of credibility to the facts before that time
incorrectly narrated. The Tuam News gave a summary of the
events that had occurred up to that time, stamped with the
appearance of the supernatural. The Apparition of the 21st
of August last cannot well be understood without having some
notion of the position and form of the little Catholic church
in the village of Knock.