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

M.H. Gill & Son (1880), via Internet Archive · 1880 · 90 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 46 …I noticed his whiskers ; they ap peared slightly gray ; there was aline or dark mearing between
  • p. 51 …represented the saint as somewhat aged, with gray whiskers and grayish hair. The third figure appeared…
  • p. 60 …Joseph were an iron gray ; the Blessed Virgin had on a white cloak. The reason I…
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and fastened to the neck ; she wore a crown on the head—
rather a large crown—and it appeared to me somewhat
yellower than the dress or robes worn by Our Blessed Lady.
In the figure of St. Joseph the head was slightly bent, and
inclined towards the Blessed Virgin, as if paying her respect;
it represented the saint as somewhat aged, with gray
whiskers and grayish hair. The third figure appeared to be
that of St. John the Evangelist ; I do not know, only I
thought so, except the fact that at one time I saw a statue at
the chapel of Lekanvey, near Westport, county Mayo, very
much resembling the figure which stood now before me in
group with St. Joseph and Our Blessed Lady, which I beheld
on this occasion. He held the Book of Gospels, or the Mass
Book, open in his left hand, while he stood slightly turned
on the left side towards the altar that was over a little from
him. I must remark that the statue which I had formerly
seen at Lekanvey chapel had no mitre on its head, while the
figure which I now beheld had one—not a high mitre, but a
short-set kind of one. The statue at Lekanvey had a book
in the left hand, and the fingers of the right hand raised.
The figure before me on thiS present occasion of which I am
speaking had a book in the left hand, as I have stated, and
the index finger and the middle finger of the right hand
raised, as if he were speaking, and impressing some point
forcibly on an audience. It was this coincidence of figure
and pose that made me surmise, for it is only an opinion, that
the third figure was that of St. John, the beloved disciple of
our Lord. But I am not in any way sure what saint or cha
racter the figure represented. I said, as I now expressed,
that it was St. John the Evangelist, and then all the others
present said the same—said what I stated. The altar was
under the window, which is the gable, and a little to the west
near the centre, or a little beyond it. Towards this altar St,

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