Lady of Knock
The Shrine in Knock -
Co. Mayo is a Thin Place
August 21, 2007
Of the better known apparitions
of the Virgin Mary, the Knock
apparition in 1879 in County Mayo
reveals the Mother of Jesus a little
differently. Mary typically appears
to humble people, living the simple
life with few riches, and the
appearance at Knock follows this
pattern though there were 15 people
who saw her. And at Knock, Mary
appeared with others – St. Joseph
and St. John the Evangelist.
Mexico City (Guadalupe) in 1531,
Paris (Miraculous Medal) in 1830,
Lourdes in 1858, Fatima in 1917 and
Medjugorje in 1981 were places where
Mary appeared solo and gave a
message to those who saw her.
Sometimes the message was lengthy
and continued on for years as in
Medjugorje. All the messages
encourage us to pray and take steps
to move closer to Christ.
In Knock, Mary said nothing. Her
silence perplexed those trying to
gain meaning from the apparition
because without words, there seems
to be no message. No message can be
interpreted as no purpose or reason
for the apparition.
THE APPARITION AT KNOCK
On a rainy Thursday evening, August
21, 1879 the apparition occurred in
the small town of Knock, located in
the Northwestern part of Ireland in
County Mayo. The vision was first
seen by Mary McLoughlin who was
serving as a housekeeper to the
parish priest. Mary saw a light at
the end of the church wall which
appeared to be three standing
figures. When she looked closer, she
saw the Virgin Mary with her eyes
lifted heavenward, St. Joseph and
St. John the Evangelist who was
holding a book in one hand. There
was also a lamb on an altar with
angels hovering over it.
Mary left the scene frightened but
word spread throughout the village
about the light and figures behind
the church. Eventually fifteen
people – men, women and children –
gathered at the church wall and saw
the same vision. Statements came
later from other villagers that they
could see a “light” hovering over
the church from a distance, through
the rain.
Read more about the Knock Apparition.
Once word of the Knock apparition
spread, people from all over Ireland
began came to the site to pray and
ask for healing. Eventually those
numbers climbed into the thousands
and in 1976 a new church had to be
built. Today visitors and pilgrims
to Knock exceed one million each
year. Life-size statues of the
Virgin, St. Joseph, St. John and the
lamb with angels were commissioned
and placed near the old church wall
to recreate the apparition based on
descriptions given by the
visionaries.
Today the area of the apparition
with the statues is enclosed to
offer pilgrims a quiet place to sit
before the apparition site in a
protected environment. A glass
ceiling and walls around the statues
connect the new chapel to the old
church allowing natural light to
pour in. From the outside the old
church is still easily seen. There
have been several additions and the
extension to the rear where the
apparition was seen is identified by
glass, so pilgrims can view the
apparition from the inside or
outside.
KNOCK TODAY
I visited Knock on my first trip to
Ireland in the early nineteen
nineties. I knew the story from song
“Lady of Knock” recorded by
Dana. We visited on the feast of
the Assumption – August 15th – and
we attended Mass there. My second
visit was this past February (2007),
and though I was there, mid-week in
the lowest season for tourists in
Ireland, the place was had a good
number of pilgrims. It’s obvious
that the site gets thousands of
tourists weekly, just looking at the
amenities available.
There is a large, high cross now
erected in the Knock church complex.
It marks a visit to Knock by Pope
John Paul II in September of 1979 –
100 years after the apparition.
A sign on the high cross reads:
This is the cross of the altar on
which our Holy Father, Pope John
Paul II celebrated Mass on the
occasion of his visit to the Knock
Shrine.
The cross itself, modeled on the
ancient Celtic Cross of Ahenny,
remains in grateful remembrance of
the greatest event in Irish history
since the coming of St. Patrick.
Standing at the foot of this cross,
the Holy Father as “a pilgrim”
addressed 450,000 other pilgrims and
said, “Here I am at the goal of my
journey to Ireland – the shrine of
Our Lady of Knock.”
A THIN PLACE
I almost didn’t make it to Knock
this last visit. I had only a few
hours of daylight to get back to
Shannon from Castlebar on my last
day in Ireland. It was a rainy,
gloomy day…. good weather for
reflection. I didn’t get a real
sense of thinness when I first
approached. The site is like Disney
World. There’s now a huge church
that hold 2000 people, a complex for
walking and meditation, spigots that
will provide holy water from Knock
for taking home, and even a rest
area with bathrooms and areas for
washing up.
 Once
I got in the chapel in front of the
statues and sat awhile, the thinness
washed over me. I have wondered for
years why she was silent when she
appeared in Knock. What is the
meaning of her silence?
Mother Teresa spoke about silence …
God is the friend of silence. See
how nature - trees, flowers, grass -
grows in silence; see the stars, the
moon and the sun, how they move in
silence...we need silence to be able
to touch souls.
Perhaps she was silent because
she listening. The statue reminds us
that she’s still there … listening.
|
Recent Posts