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

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correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, London. The an
nexed is the written testimony of John P. MacCloskey,
penned by himself, to which he signed his name. Young
MacCloskey has been remarkable from his childhood for his
guileless, honest, and pious course of life. He is now about
eighteen years. His testimony is confirmed by the separate
attestation of the other two, MacGeoghegan and Conway :—
I, John P. MacCloskey, a native of Claremorris, remem
ber the night of the 9th of February, and the morning of the
10th. Simon Conway, MacGeoghegan, and I left Clare
morris at 10 o'clock, p.m. We arrived at Knock sometime
after midnight; our desire was to behold the Apparition.
After we had arrived, we continued to pray for some time.
At about three and a half o'clock on the morning of the 10th
of February, while I was praying before the gable of the Knock
chapel, I saw a light, like a white silvery cloud, move in a
slanting direction over from where the cross stands, on the
apex, and overspread the gable. In this bright cloud I saw
distinctly the figure and form of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so
clearly and fully that I perceived the fleshy colour of the feet.
Her dress resembled that made of white satin, and it con
tained numerous folds. The light had hardly settled on the
gable when it began to grow less bright, and to seem to fade
or darken in colour, leaving a wreath of its own brightness
still around the head of the Blessed Virgin, while the rest of
the gable became the colour of white paper stained with
pencil strokes. Every now and then a red tongue of flame
used to shoot down from the heavens and cross the gable.
During the momentary brightness resulting from these flashes,
the figure of the Blessed Virgin was each time fully seen.
In the absence of such flashes she was seen too, but not so
distinctly, only in subdued tones of colour. What attracted
my attention to the gable at first was small stars of an emerald