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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. 73 …years, is now able to walk ; John O'Brien, who was born blind, has the use…
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presence should come from the simple faithful and not
through the priests. Though I have not witnessed the di
vine manifestation I have seen the light, and once, when
standing at some distance from the chapel, in company with
others, a most brilliant star flashed along the gable, leaving
a train of radiance."
Miraculous Cures.
Questioned as to miracles, the archdeacon said : " I will
show you along list of cures effected by the divine interposi
tion, and can tell you of one in which I was an agent. Some
little while ago I received a ' sick-call ' late at night to a man
who was said to be vomiting blood, and in extreme danger.
Hastening to the house, attended by a boy with a lantern, I
met the father of the patient coming to hurry me, in distress
lest I should be too late. On reaching the cottage, I found
the young man covered, so to speak, with blood, and appa
rently very near death, but conscious. After ministering to
him, I called for a glass of water, sprinkled on it a few
particles of the mortar from the gable wall of the chapel, and
bade him drink. He did so ; at once he began to recover,
and is now well. I can speak of other cases, but especially
of a man who came from Cork afflicted with a polypus, which
extended into his windpipe, and so, said the surgeons, re
quired a dangerous operation. He was here performing his
devotions for several days, and then, to his astonishment
and joy, expelled the abnormal growth—I saw it—and he
returned cured." The archdeacon next showed me his list
of " miracles," from which I quote a few special cases :
Bridget Nearney of Strokestown, blind for seventeen years,
can see ; Maria Conolly, a cripple for thirteen years, is now
able to walk ; John O'Brien, who was born blind, has the
use of his eyes; Belinda Mash of Ballina, dumb for six

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