life, came from my mother when I was a little boy. She told me the story of how her mother had fallen away from the Catholic Faith — even became anti-Catholic — when my mother was young. My mother prayed fervently for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe to help my grandmother. As many people commonly do when they pray desperately, she offered a bargain in exchange. My grandmother, miraculously or not, soon reverted to the Faith and became a model of devotion for her children and later for her grandchildren. Making good on her end of the deal, my mother became a schoolteacher when she grew up and taught her students and her own children the beautiful story of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe each year on her feast day, December 12. The story became a favorite of mine and brought me to consider the Guadalupe story to be the second greatest story ever told. Ever since then, apparitions were of keen interest to me and later materialized in my studies.
When I attended Stanford University, I took a break from my engineering major and science classes and enrolled in an archaeology class. Our final assignment was to identify a famous artifact and write on its significance. Much to the curiosity of my secular professor, I chose to explore the miraculous tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the process of my research and many hours in the library, I uncovered the rich history of miracles in the Catholic Faith. I had heard of the visions at Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fátima but had no idea of the number of incredible reports of visions in the tradition of our Faith: more than 2,500 apparitions have been claimed by people of all walks of life from every corner of the globe. After I finished this college paper, I promised myself to return to this study someday, as I found it absolutely fascinating that so many people were making these claims and that the Church actually would risk its credibility to declare any of them worthy of belief.
At the end of my senior year of college, I received from Condoleezza Rice, the vice provost of the school at the time, a piece of advice that I will never forget: Become an expert in something. I took it to heart and sought to identify something I was passionate about, something I could learn as much about as possible, and most importantly, something that would bring me closer to God. As a result, I put my energies into investigating the miracles of the Church.
After more hours of study and research than I can ever recount or care to admit, I combined my scientific curiosity, my engineering-minded love of data, and my professional skills in graphic design and sought to produce the world’s top online resource on Marian apparitions: MiracleHunter.com. Now, more than fifteen years later, I am blessed that my research has opened many doors for me, and I consider the inspiration of my mother that led me to my Mother in heaven to be the beginning of it all.
Chapter 1
Are Miracles Really All That Important?
The Church has been enriched by the fruits of miracles from its very beginning. It was the miracles of Christ that invited people to follow him, and it was history’s greatest miracle — his resurrection — that changed the world forever. The apostles were emboldened by his mandate to work miracles and the prodigy of Pentecost that sent them on their way into the world. St. Paul’s life-altering vision put him on the path to become Christianity’s greatest evangelist, and the Roman emperor Constantine was first inspired to legalize Christianity in the year 312 after witnessing a vision in the sky of the IHS Christogram.5 Miracles big and small surround us, including the greatest one that happens every hour of every day in every country of the world: the Eucharist, bread and wine transformed into Christ’s body and blood, which has remained at the center of the Catholic Faith since its institution. The Catholic Church has always affirmed the importance of miracles and revelation and teaches that Christ’s works demonstrate that “the kingdom has already arrived on earth.”6
In many places in Scripture we are able to reflect on the role of the supernatural in our lives of faith. St. Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, reminds the faithful to be open to miracles: “Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess 5:19–21). Christ worked many miracles of healing, but he did not seem to encourage the search for miracles: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah” (Mt 16:4). In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Christ announces that no messenger from the next world will be sent to the brothers of the rich man to encourage them to repent. “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead” (Lk 16:31). Finally, Christ’s words to Thomas are as relevant today as they were when the apostle touched Christ’s wounded side: “You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn 20:29).
The Catholic Church acknowledges that Sacred Scripture is bolstered and given a divine guarantee through the miracles of Christ, most importantly his resurrection from the dead. We read in Vatican II’s Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation:
To see Jesus is to see His Father (John 14:9). For this reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through His whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself: through His words and deeds, His signs and wonders, but especially through His death and glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover He confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal. (no. 4)
The miracles of Christ and the subsequent works of the apostles in his name come down to us through Sacred Scripture, which is considered to be public revelation, as it is valid for all time and meant for all. Miracles and messages received after the death of the last evangelist, John — even extensively studied and Church-authorized spiritual insights given to history’s greatest saints — are considered private revelation. In his Message of Fatima, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Benedict XVI) reminded Catholics of the importance of public revelation (as opposed to private revelation) found in Scripture:
The term “public Revelation” refers to the revealing action of God directed to humanity as a whole and which finds its literary expression in the two parts of the Bible: the Old and New Testaments…. It is valid for all time, and it has reached its fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has said everything, that is, he has revealed himself completely, and therefore revelation came to an end with the fulfillment of the mystery of Christ as enunciated in the New Testament.7
In his apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini, he speaks of the unique value of private revelation:
The value of private revelations is essentially different from that of the one public revelation: the latter demands faith…. Private revelation is an aid to this faith, and it demonstrates its credibility precisely because it refers back to the one public revelation…. A private revelation can introduce new emphases, give rise to new forms of piety, or deepen older ones. It can have a certain prophetic character and can be a valuable aid for better understanding and living the Gospel at a certain time; consequently it should not be treated lightly. It is a help which is proffered, but its use is not obligatory.8
The dogmatic constitution Dei Filius from Vatican I reminds us that miracles are external signs provided by God as arguments on behalf of revelation.9 The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), in paragraph 156, thus relates this expression of the purpose of miracles:
So “that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit” (Dei Filius 3: DS 3009). Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all”; they are “motives of credibility” (motiva
