Our lady of the nations : apparitions of Mary in twentieth-century Catholic Europe PDF
Preview Our lady of the nations : apparitions of Mary in twentieth-century Catholic Europe
OUR LADY OF THE NATIONS Our Lady of the Nations Apparitions of Mary in Twentieth-Century Catholic Europe CHRIS MAUNDER 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries ©ChrisMaunder2016 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2016 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015944722 ISBN 978–0–19–871838–3 PrintedinGreatBritainby ClaysLtd,StIvesplc LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. To my wonderful wife Natalie, for her love, companionship, and shared passion for Marian shrines! Preface On2March1983,IvisitedWestminsterCathedralandquitebyaccidentcame acrossalow-keycelebrationmarkingthefiftiethanniversaryoftheapparitions ofMaryinBanneux,Belgium.ThiswasthefirsttimethatMarianapparitions caughtmyfullattention,althoughIhadheardofLourdes,ofcourse.Fiveyears later, I was staying in a hotel at Banneux owned by the visionary Mariette Beco,bytheninhersixties,whileundertakingaPhDonthesubject.Mythesis focused on approved modern European apparitions from the Rue du Bac to BanneuxaswellasfamousandcontroversialcasessuchasthatatMedjugorje inBosnia-Herzegovina,whichwasalreadydrawingpilgrimsingreatnumbers. However, in the years following, I became more interested in lesser-known apparition shrines in Western Europe and carried out research visits to Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France, and Italy. Discovering out-of-the-way places brings the researcher of shrines and apparitions into contact with nation,region,andlocalityinwaysthatofteneludethepilgrimortourist. Myresearchsupervisor,theChurchhistorianAdrianHastings,warnedme that the literature on my subject would not be abundant. In terms of insider literature writtenby Catholics, this was not the case; I found a whole section andseveralshelvesofaCatholicbookshopinParisdedicatedtoit.However, as far as academic literature was concerned, he was correct, with material on apparitions often limited to small sections in books on wider topics and the occasionalarticle.Yet,asIhandedinmythesisin1991,Ilearnedthatabook on Marian apparitions, Encountering Mary: From La Salette to Medjugorje, had just been published by Sandra Zimdars-Swartz in Princeton. It seemed that the collective unconscious was stirring in terms of academic studies on Catholic apparitions; since then, there have been several detailed academic studies on particular modern visions by scholars such as David Blackbourn, William Christian, Paolo Apolito, Ruth Harris, Eugene Hynes, and Jeffrey Bennett,andarticlesbyresearchersPeterMargryandTinevanOsselaerfrom the Netherlands and Belgium, respectively. So now there seems to be a need for a volume that takes the general subject forward from Encountering Mary by bringing together the data and theory given in those resources. However, for the task to be manageable, I have limited my research to Europe in the twentiethcentury. This work concentrates on times and places where apparitions have been especially prevalent and popular, and where there is some supporting docu- mentation. A comprehensive survey would result in an encyclopaedia, like thatinFrenchbyLaurentinandSbalchiero,whereasthisvolumeexploresand discusses a wide sample of Marian apparitions, including the famous and viii Preface those of which thereader may not have heard. One learns a great dealabout twentieth-centuryEuropeanhistorywhenresearchingthissubject:apparitions and shrines reflect a variety of contexts from the First World War to the Internet. Of particular interest is the fact that the great majority of Marian visionarieswhogainpopularacceptancearewomenorgirls. My acknowledgements go to all those custodians of shrines, pilgrims, and priestswhomImetonresearchvisitsorwithwhomIhavecorresponded;they havebeenverygenerouswiththeirtimeinofferingmeinformationandhospi- tality.Iknowhowmuchtheycareabouttheshrinesinwhichtheyareinvolved andIhopeIhaverepresentedthemjustlyinabookthatisacademicratherthan devotional. I also thank colleagues for their support during the writing of this book.YorkStJohnUniversityhasprovidedmewithafulfillingcareerforover twentyyearsandaidedthewritingofthisbookwithfundingforresearchtravel. TheCentreforMarianStudieshasgivenmetheinspirationoffellowresearchers who share my niche subject across a variety of disciplines; my thanks go especiallytoitsdirector,SarahJaneBoss,whohasalwaysbeenagreatencour- agement.ProfessorAdrianHastings,whodiedin2001,wasveryimportantatthe beginningofmyacademiccareerandIamindebtedtohim.Thankyoualsoto Angela Volpini, for allowing me to use her photograph for the cover, and to LauraCasimo,whoprovidedthetranslationofAngela’swebsite. Finally,IamverygratefultothetwowomenwhomtheUniversityappoint- ed as my student research assistants in 2010–11; my thanks to Natalie Leavy and Nicola Beales for their useful resource-finding on European apparitions. Natalie’s passion for the subject, including her willingness to go on shrine- huntingtripsevenafterherstudieswereover,isonereasonamongmanyfor ourengagementandwewillbemarriedbythetimethisbookispublished.So mygreatestappreciationgoestoherforherconstantcompanionship,support, andlove. ChrisMaunder 31May2015 Note on Terminology Thisbookusesthepairsofterms‘apparition’and‘vision’,‘visionary’and‘seer’ interchangeablyassynonyms. The word ‘cult’, when applied to Marian apparitions, has the sense of the Latincultus,i.e.allthoseactivitiessurroundingafocusoffaith,andshouldnot be read as having any pejorative meaning implying deviance, as used in the mediaandsomesectionsofacademia.
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