Joan Carroll Cruz - Miraculous Images of Our Lady

Our Lady of Confidence
A 17th-century Italian portrait by Carlo Maratta.

Other Books by the Author

Secular Saints

Prayers and Heavenly Promises

The Incorruptibles

Eucharistic Miracles

Relics

The Desires of Thy Heart

Nihil Obstat:	Father Terence J. Tekippe Censor Librorum
Imprimatur:		Most Rev. Francis B. Schulte Archbishop of New Orleans May 22, 1992

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are the Churchs declarations that a work is free from error in matters of faith and morals. It in no way implies that the Church endorses the contents of the work.

Copyright 1993 by Joan Carroll Cruz.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Cover Picture: Our Lady of the Holy Rosary . (See .)

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 92 62149

ISBN: 978-0-89555-484-0

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN Books

An Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC

Charlotte, North Carolina

2012

There is not a church without an altar in her honor, not a country nor a canton where there are not some miraculous images where all sorts of evils are cured and all sorts of good gifts obtained.

St. Louis Marie De Montfort
True Devotion to Mary

C ONTENTS

ARGENTINA

AUSTRIA

BELGIUM

BOLIVIA

CANADA

CUBA

ECUADOR

FRANCE

GERMANY

HUNGARY

IRELAND

ITALY

JAPAN

LITHUANIA

LUXEMBOURG

MADEIRA

MALTA

MEXICO

THE NETHERLANDS

THE PHILIPPINES

POLAND

PORTUGAL

SPAIN

SWITZERLAND

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

I NTRODUCTION

Catholics do not adore statues or other representations of Our Lord, His Mother or the Saints, nor do we pray to these images. In early childhood, we are taught from our Catechism that we do not pray to the crucifix or to the images of Christ and of the Saints, but to the persons of whom they remind us. Because they represent holy persons, images are treated with becoming reverence, even as the picture of ones mother would be.

This subject was clarified by the Council of Trent during its 25th session in December 1563:

Moreover, [the faithful must be instructed] that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other Saints are to be placed and retained especially in the churches, and that due honor and veneration is to be given them because the honor which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which they represent, so that by means of the images which we kiss and before which we uncover the head and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ and venerate the Saints whose likeness they bear. That is what was defined by the decrees of the Councils, especially of the Second Council of Nicaea (787 A.D.) against the opponents of images.

From the earliest days of the Church, images were painted on the walls of the catacombs as religious expressions of the faithful, as acts of veneration and as aids in visualizing Our Lord, His miracles and His Holy Mother. We are told by St. John of the Cross in Book III, of The Ascent of Mount Carmel : The Church established the use of statues (and images) for two principal reasons: the reverence given to the Saints through them and the motivation of the will and the awakening of devotion to the Saints by their means. Insofar as they serve this purpose their use is profitable and necessary. The Saint also tells us, Since images serve as a motivating means toward invisible things, we should strive that the motivation, affection, and joy of will derived from them be directed toward the living object they represent.

Without question, the most popular image of a Saint found in churches throughout the world is that of the Queen of Saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary. One would be hard pressed to find a church, chapel or oratory that does not contain an image of the Mother of God.

Of these images of our Holy Mother, some have been identified as being miraculous. It is not that the statue or painting is miraculous of itself, but it does seem that Our Lady favors certain of her replicas and often honors the requests of those persons who visit them to express their needs and their love for her.

The purpose of this work is to identify 100 of these favored images and to chart their histories and the reasons for their designation as miraculous objects. It must be understood that the Blessed Virgin does not perform the miracles by herself. It is ultimately our Heavenly Father who performs the miracles according to His holy will at the request of Our Lady. For this reason, the Virgin Mary is known as the Mediatrix of All Graces who pleads our cause before Gods holy throne.

For an image to be included in this collection, the painting or statue must fit into one or more of the following categories:

• It must have had a miraculous origin, such as the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
• It must be composed of an unusual substance, such as the portrait of Absam, Austria.
• It must have bled, wept, exuded manna, or changed location, such as the portrait of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
• Something unusual must have happened to it, such as that which affected the statue of Our Lady of the Thunderbolt.
• It must have a reputation for miraculous cures and favors.

Many of the 100 images included in this volume fall into two or more of these categories.

It must be noted that all the images mentioned in this volume were thoroughly studied by Church authorities before ecclesiastical permission was granted for the images to be enshrined and honored in their respective churches or shrines.

The sanctuaries that house these miraculous images were especially selected by Our Lady. In keeping with her humble life at Nazareth, Our Lady chose places that were beautiful in their quiet simplicity. In almost every instance, the corner chosen was retiring and withdrawn from the world. A few of these shrines have maintained their reverent isolation, but in many instances a chapel located outside a village eventually became embraced by the houses and businesses of an expanding population. For this reason, some shrines are now surrounded by great cities. To accommodate the growing numbers of Our Ladys devotees, many of the simple chapels that were first erected to house her images developed into churches and finally into magnificent basilicas.

As Henry Martin Gillett noted in his Famous Shrines of Our Lady , Once Our Lady has been given a shrine, it may be said that the site belongs to her for all time. For one reason or another her subjects may forget their allegiance and even blot out every trace of the original sanctuary; but the site remains hers. And sooner or later she comes back to her own. Sometimes people are moved to restore the old. At other times her more faithful children, quite ignorant of past history, are inspired to establish a new shrine quite near the old foundations. The reader will find that such has happened repeatedly, due to marvelous and unusual promptings.

Although many of the miraculous images of Our Lady are exquisitely beautiful, the reader will discover that some of them are regarded as miraculous even though they are of poor workmanship. Many have been damaged by time, while some are downright unflattering representations of our beautiful Madonna. St. John of the Cross, in Book III, Chapter 36 of his Ascent of Mount Carmel , explains, Experience even teaches that if God grants some favors and works miracles, He does so through some statues that are not very well carved or carefully painted, or that are poor representations, so that the faithful will not attribute any of these wonders to the statue or painting. St. John of the Cross has dedicated Chapters 35, 36 and 37 of his Ascent of Mount Carmel to the subject of miraculous images, the benefits to be derived through their veneration and valuable precautions to be observed. The reader is encouraged to study these chapters, which are written by a Doctor of the Church who is also acknowledged as a master of the spiritual life.