~ Our Lady of Banneux ~ From January 15 to March 2, 1933, the Virgin Mary appeared eight times to an 11-year-old girl, Mariette Beco. The Virgin was enveloped in a “great oval light” and wore a long white gown with a sash of “unforgettable blue” and a white, tranparent veil covering her head and shoulders. Her right foot was visible and “crowned with a golden rose” between the toes. She had a rosary on her right arm with diamond-like beads and a golden chain and cross. She stood on a cloud with her head and shoulders bent sllightly to the left.
Messages:
Calling herself the “Virgin of the Poor,” Mary promised to intercede for the poor, the sick and the suffering in her eight messages. Additionally, Mariette Beco had reportedly received a secret which never was made public.
Miracles and Signs:
Many people, including Mariette’s father, were converted to Catholicism upon hearing accounts of the apparition. The extraordinary event sparked to life among a population of villagers who had abandoned the Catholic faith after World War I. Within a year, each of the approximately 300 souls in Banneux came roaring back to the sacraments and to the Sunday church bells they had routinely ignored. Five hundred thousand pilgrims visit Banneux and the site of the apparitions every year. Over fifty miraculous cures have been documented at the spring.
Church Approval:
Banneux was investigated from 1935 until 1937 by an Episcopal commission, after which the evidence collected was submitted to Rome. In 1947 the apparitions received preliminary approval, with this becoming definite on August 22, 1949. Venerable Aloysius Schwartz: Our Lady’s visit to Banneux may have saved more than 175,000 children from a life of poverty, violence, trafficking, and even death over the past half-century through the work of Washington, D.C., native Venerable Aloysius Schwartz. Because of Father Al and his vow to Our Lady of Banneux, today there are 17 Catholic Boystowns and Girlstowns throughout the world. Each is run by the Sisters of Mary, the order Father Al founded on the Feast of the Assumption in 1964.
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