Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace
Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace (Philippines)
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)In August 1948, the Virgin Mary appeared to Teresita Castillo, a Carmelite novice, while she was in her assigned cell. Then in September of that year, she appeared again while Sister Teresita was in the convent’s garden. She asked the novice to return to the same spot daily for the next fifteen days. During these sightings, the messages stressed some common themes, especially the need for humility and penance. The Virgin Mary also requested the faithful to remember the clergy and the pope in their prayers, to pray the rosary, and attend a special mass on the twelfth day of each month. She further asked for a statue to be placed where she appeared.
The Virgin’s initial appearance in the garden was signaled by a shaking of a vine; she requested that the vine be blessed. When Sister Teresita saw the Virgin, she was standing on a cloud and was clothed all in white with a belt around her waist; she carried a golden rosary. She called herself the Mediatrix of All Grace.
The garden in which the apparition appeared has since become the site of numerous other reports of miraculous occurrences. People have seen the sun spin (as it did at Fatima), and some have reported being showered in rose petals that had images of Mary or Jesus on them. These rose petals have been catalysts for healings. Sister Teresita was also the subject of other paranormal experiences, including visitations by various angels and deceased saints. On one occasion, while lying in her bed ill, she received communion from an angel.
These apparition sightings and miraculous occurrences were not well received initially. Because of the controversy caused by them, both the convent’s mother superior and the local bishop were replaced, and Sister Teresita was forced to leave the convent. There were a number of articles in Philippine newspapers ridiculing the miracles, and the church’s investigation yielded a negative report. Church authorities ordered the destruction of the statue, but the nuns at the convent secreted it away. Church authorities also ordered the nuns not to talk about the apparition. There the matter rested for several decades. Then, in 1990, there was a new series of spiritual visions—this time they were not at the convent but at another location in Lipa City.
On January 24, 1991, rose petals began to fall straight from the sky again at the Carmelite convent in Lipa City. A few days later, six children playing in the garden at the convent saw the statue of the Virgin Mary come to life. In light ofthese more recent apparitions, the church has established a committee to conduct a new investigation. As of 2005, that committee has yet to report. Meanwhile, the statue remains in the chapel at Lipa and the pictures of the rose petals have been widely circulated.