The Catholic Defender: Our Lady in Knock, Ireland, 1879

On the evening of the 21st of August 1879, a heavenly Apparition occurred at the gable wall of the Parish Church when Our Lady appeared, in the company of St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist.

He recalled that in the apparition of Our Lady at Knock, “the Virgin says nothing”, yet, her silence is a language – “the most expressive language we have.” The message from Knock, therefore, is that of the “great value of silence for our faith”.

Photograph: Ciro Fusco/AFP/Getty Images. It was very wet that evening in Knock on August 21st, 1879, 140 years ago today, when 15 local people saw the apparition of Mary, St Joseph, St John the Evangelist, and a lamb standing on an altar before a cross, on the parish church's gable wall.

TUAM, Ireland — The Catholic Church in Ireland has for the first time recognized a miracle attached to the Our Lady of Knock Shrine, where a woman was cured of multiple sclerosis 30 years ago. Marion Carroll had been bedridden for years until she was healed in 1989 during a blessing with a monstrance at the shrine.

On the evening of the 21st of August 1879, a heavenly Apparition occurred at the gable wall of the Parish Church when Our Lady appeared, in the company of St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist.

Our Lady of Knock is a powerful reminder that God is always with us, he isn't just “something that happened a long time ago.” We can still find him, in our hearts, in the Eucharist, in the Church, and in the silence. This is just one example of how to use this story to explore and expand on an aspect of our faith.

Our Lady of Knock does the same thing; she does not say a word because our focus is not meant to be on her, our focus is meant to be on what is behind her: the lamb and the altar. Mary's whole life and mission is to bring us closer to her son. Mary knows like any good mother that in her silence she tells us everything.

She held her hands at chest height and apart as if she was praying. - A second commission was instituted in 1936 and again returned a positive verdict of the apparition. - Pope John Paul II visited the shrine on its 100th anniversary along with 450,000 people.

Knock is a manifestation of the mystery of redemption wrought by the Lamb of God. By a felicitous symbolism conceived in heaven, the Queen of Knock reveals in her person something of that singular grace and beauty conferred on her by this mystery. . ., She appears as the climax of human redemption.

In August 1879, fifteen people in the village of Knock reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary at the south gable of the parish church. They claimed that as well as seeing the Virgin Mary, they also saw St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist.

For over 140 years, Knock Shrine has welcomed pilgrims and visitors to this sacred place. Find out more about how this small rural village has grown to become an international pilgrimage destination, that has been honoured by visits from two Popes.

The understood purpose of each apparition is to draw attention to some aspect of the Christian message, given the needs of a particular time and place. Apparitions are often accompanied by other alleged supernatural phenomena, such as medical cures.