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This book was prepared and edited by John MacPhilpin of Tuam and published in Dublin by M. H. Gill & Son in 1880. It reprints Tuam News reports on the apparition of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, which about twenty people saw on the south gable of Knock chapel, County Mayo, on 21 August 1879. It also gives the witnesses' official depositions, which a commission of priests appointed by the Archbishop of Tuam judged trustworthy. It lists cures recorded in Archdeacon Cavanagh's diary.
“Hill”15 pages
32 and into the chapel yard. I brought little Curry with me ; I went then up closer ; I saw everything distinctly. The figures were full and round, as if they had a body and life ; they said nothing, but as we approached they seemed to go back a little towards the gable. I distinctly beheld the Blessed Virgin Mary, life size, standing about two feet or so above the ground, clothed in white robes, which were fastened at the neck ; her hands were raised to the height of the shoulders, as if in prayer, with the palms facing one another, but slanting in wards towards the face ; the palms were not turned towards the people, but facing each other as I have described ; she appeared to be praying ; her eyes were turned, as I saw, to wards heaven ; she wore a brilliant crown on her head, and over the forehead, where the crown fitted the brow, a beauti ful rose ; the crown appeared brilliant, and of a golden bright ness, of a deeper hue, inclined to a mellow yellow, than the striking whiteness of the robes she wore ; the upper parts of the crown appeared to be a series of sparkles, or glittering crosses. I saw her eyes, the balls, the pupils, and the iris of each— [the boy did not know those special names of those parts of the eye, but he pointed to them, and described them in his own way]—I noticed her hands especially, and face ; her ap pearance ; the robes came only as far as the ankles ; I saw the feet and the ankles ; one foot, the right, was slightly in advance of the other ; at times she appeared, and all the;figures appeared to move out and again to go backwards ; I saw them move ; she did not speak ; I went up very near ; one old woman went up and embraced the Virgin's feet, and she found nothing in her arms or hands ; they receded, she said, from her ; I saw St. Joseph to the Blessed Virgin's right hand ; his head was bent, from the shoulders, forward ; he appeared to be paying his respects ; I noticed his whiskers ; they ap peared slightly gray ; there was aline or dark mearing between
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