posted June 23, 2008 11:04 PM         

just a few interesting ones:

Argentina (1998)

"Only a miracle could make me recover the sense of smell I lost after a tumour operation in the brain," stated Rosa de Quinteros, one of the 3,000 people who have visited Gabriel Moyano, a child of five who reportedly acquired healing powers after a visitation from the Madonna.

"Particularly I smell a scent of roses," said Quinteros, who was not aware of the fact that this is precisely the scent the child smells at home when the Madonna is present.

It all began in March 1998, when the people of Villa Libertad, in the western Argentinian village of Pocito (San Juan province), witnessed an image of the Madonna appearing on a repair-garage wall. They were sure was something supernatural, and it quickly drew the attention of the province and then the whole country. A group of children, Gabriel among them, were the first to notice it. They were playing in the garage backyard when they saw some strange lights forming a shape.

From then on, Gabriel says, the Madonna appears in his room every night telling him to heal the people who come to Pocito, as well as an image of Jesus the Merciful. "He puts on my chest a blue ray and a red ray, and he tells me to give them back to the people I have to heal the next day," explains Gabriel, who can also tell in detail the messages he receives and the work he has to do: "The Madonna and Jesus are the ones who heal. They tell me what to do, and I do it with the ill people who come here. If they cannot be healed, I also tell them so.

"Many are healed and others go with God, and I know this because the Madonna explains it to me." Gabriel does not charge for his healing, and takes all of this as something he has to do "at the request of the Madonna and Jesus", as he puts it.

Little Gabriel heals not only at home, but also travels to places the Madonna shows him the night before. "She tells me that in a hospital or house there is somebody very ill, or burnt, or whatever. Then, with her mantle, and as if we were flying, she brings me to that place so I can see what's going on. The next day I go there and heal the person, if God is not going to take the person with Him." Gabriel's mother, Dora Pizarro, reports that when the child has these visions at night, the next day he goes to the place in question as if he had been there before.

"What he sees at night happens then 'to the letter': the description of the venue, the face of the patient, his illness ... as if he had indeed visited him before." Gabriel's parents say the Madonna's appearances have completely changed their lives, and they have tried to persuade their son to give up the whole thing. Gabriel refused, saying he would not disobey the Madonna. (Source: Diario de Cuyo, Argentina)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Philippines (1982)

From the Share International letters column :

Dear Editor,
Five hundred children of Emilia Auginaldo elementary school on the island of Luson witnessed a vision (the paper called it an apparition) in the sky, of Mother Mary and baby Jesus. About four thirty in the afternoon of November 19, 1982, a ten year old 4th grader was sitting on the playground of the school. When she looked up in the sky, she saw three angels, Mother Mary with a baby in her arms and an old man standing next to her. They were coming out of a golden palace in a carriage pulled by winged horses. The girl, Janet Holly, an orphan, started to cry because she thought angels were coming to take her. She ran into the classroom and called her teacher who came out but did not see anything. Other children came running out of the buildings and saw the same vision in the sky.

They described the vision to a reporter in great detail: Mary was wearing ... gown and a gold crown on her head; the angels had golden hair and more long flaming gowns; one of them had a key in her hand; and so on. One teacher who had seen the vision told the reporter that she felt an awesome force making her kneel down.

A week later, the children still told the same story about the vision. When they waved their hands, they said, Mary waved at them and the vision disappeared.

The Philippines is a predominantly catholic country and St. Mary is a most important figure in their beliefs. This is one of many stories about visions or apparitions that people have seen all over the world. In the United States those visions often include figures of Jesus Christ; in Japan, they are images of Maitreya Boddhisatva!

What is unique about this story is that 500 children saw the vision together.
(Name and address with-held)
(published September 1983)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Canada (1997)

Five years ago, apparitions of the Virgin Mary began being seen on a farm owned by John and Shelagh Greensides in Marmora, about 200 kilometres northeast of Toronto, Canada. The Greensides had set up Stations of the Cross on their land and invited groups of friends to pray with them. It was their way of thanking the Virgin Mary for a trip they had taken to Medjugorje, Bosnia, where apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been reported since 1981.

"In Marmora, all kinds of people see our Blessed Mother from all parts of the world," according to Alice Johnson, a Sister for Christian Community in Peterborough, Ontario, who has written two books on the phenomenon. On 8 December 1996, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, 2,000 people from throughout Canada and the US travelled to the Greensides' farm to witness the apparitions.

"While messages attributed to Mary contain common themes such as return to God, go to church and pray the rosary, they also warn people about the so-called 'end of times,'" according to the article. "While neither priests nor visionaries totally agree on what that phrase means, they think it signifies the end of an age rather than the end of the world."