Our Lady of Beauraing
Our Lady of Beauraing
On November 29, 1932, the Virgin Mary made her first of thirty-three historic appearances in Beauraing, a village of two thousand people in the French speaking corner of Belgium. She appeared to five children, all but one entering their teens.
The Virgin looked young, about eighteen years old. Her smile was magnetic. Her eyes were radiant blue and beams of light spread from her head. She wore a long white heavily pleated gown that gave off a luminous blue light. During the apparition the children would speak to the Virgin, at which time their voices would involuntarily assume a high pitch, far different from their natural voices.
As expected, the children's reports were not believed. Friends teased them, officials threatened them and their parents dragged them to their family physicians. But on December 8, 1932, when the apparition was predicted to occur again, the childrens' parents, doctors and fifteen thousand curiosity seekers came to discern fact from fiction.
When the Virgin appeared, the children were transfixed. Their eyes were locked on the vision that they alone could see.
Doctors, meanwhile, busied themselves checking pulses, picking and pricking and shining flashlights into the children's eyes. All were oblivious of any distractions. One doctor held a flame under one of the children's hands, while another slapped and pinched all five of them. There was no reaction and no trace of burning whatsoever.
When the vision concluded, one of the children explained, I could see nothing, neither fence, nor tree, nor crowd; only the Holy Virgin who smiled at us.
Another said laughingly, Just think Daddy, they tried to make me believe they had pricked and burned me.
The appearances continued daily until January 3, 1933, after which they stopped. The message conveyed through the children was simple and clear. The Virgin wanted people to gather at this spot and pray. How they chose to pray was their own decision, but she wanted them to gather at this spot in Beauraing.