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

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CHAPTER V.
WHAT THE EYE-WITNESSES SAY.
Depositions taken in the presence of the Very Rev. Arch
deacon Bartholomew A. Cavanagh, P.P. ; of Rev. James Canon
Waldron, P.P., Ballyhaunis; and Rev. U. J. Canon Bourke,
P.P. of Kilcolman, Claremorris, Co. Mayo, deputed by his
Grace, the Archbishop of Tuam, to see into the truth of the
vision alleged to have appeared at the Catholic Church of
Knock on the evening of the 21st of August, the octave of
the Assumption of the B.V.M., 1879.
In presenting the testimony of the different witnesses who
beheld the apparitions on the evening of the 21st August last,
the first place is rightly due to the evidence of Patrick Hill,
of Claremorris, a young, frank, intelligent boy, of about
thirteen years of age. His account of the Apparition is the
fullest and most satisfactory. It extends to even the minutest
details. To all who question him, he replies with an open,
childlike simplicity of manner, and with the readiness of one
who knows and who feels that he is certain of what he tells.
He states some points to which other eye-witnesses do not
even allude ; for instance, that on the forehead of the figure
representing the Blessed Virgin, he saw just under the circlet
of the crown, and where, on the human head, the hair grows,
a full-blown rose. The other witnesses do not even allude
to this remarkable fact. The palms of the hands were
not turned outwards, but slightly diverging from a paral
lel position, one palm fronting the other, with a gentle
convergency towards the face of the figure. He observed