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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
4o gable ; I saw then and there distinctly the three images—one of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of St. Joseph, and the third, as I learned, that of St. John the Evangelist. I saw an altar, too, and a Lamb on it, somewhat whiter than the altar; I did not see the cross on the altar. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in the attitude of prayer, with her eyes turned up towards heaven, a crown on her head, and an outer garment thrown round her shoulders. I saw her feet. St. Joseph ap peared turned towards the Blessed Virgin, with head inclined- I remained looking on for fully fifteen or twenty minutes ; then I left, and returned to my own house. Seventh Witness. The Testimony ofDominick Beirne. I am brother of Mary Beirne, who has given her evidence already ; I live near the chapel of Knock ; my age is twenty years. On the occasion when my sister came at about eight o'clock on the evening of the 21st of August into our house, she exclaimed : " Come, Dominick, and see the image of the Blessed Virgin, as she has appeared to us down at the chapel." I said, " What image ?" and then she told me, as she has already described it for your reverence in her testimony : she told me all she was after seeing ; I then went with her, and by this time some ten or twelve people had been col lected around the place, namely, around the ditch or wall fronting the gable, where the vision was being seen, and to the south of the schoolhouse; then I beheld the three like nesses or figures that have been already described—the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, St. John, as my sister called the bishop, who was like one preaching, with his hands raised towards the shoulder, and the fore finger and middle finger pointedly set; the other two fingers compressed by the
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