In the city of Calabar, in southeastern Nigeria, an apparition attributed to the Virgin Mary was observed and photographed by several witnesses.
If the Catholic Church recognizes only about fifteen Marian apparitions, including those of Lourdes in 1858, and Fatima in Portugal, in 1917, they are much more numerous to be reported almost everywhere in the world, and sometimes even photographed. and filmed. This is the case of a case that inflames Nigeria and would have occurred in St Charles Lwanga Church, in Calabar, at the end of last month. Sign of the times, it is on his Twitter account that the person in charge of the parish, the priest Evaristus Bassey, related the event which would have taken place on June 22: “On Wednesday 22-6-2022, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in one of our parishes in Calabar, St. Charles Lwanga. More than 100 people witnessed it. There was even a Protestant pastor who came to visit his cousin, the vicar. The rays around her were too bright to get a clear picture. She moved to the shrine dedicated to her, then left. The aura around the parish was incredible that night. She didn’t tell anyone. But I think she came to assure us of the presence of God among us.”
On Wednesday 22-6-2022 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in one of our parishes in Calabar, St. Charles Lwanga. It was something more than 100 people witnessed, even a Protestant pastor who came to visit his cousin, the assistant priest. He took these pictures. The rays around her pic.twitter.com/xm10DNcENt
— Fr. Evaristus Bassey (@FrEvaristus) June 30, 2022
In response to a question about the absence of a message, the priest clarified: “My dear, it was a surprise. Most of the people came for the late evening Adoration, and they were waiting. They were very impressed. The photos were taken by a Protestant pastor. And the lights around her were too bright for sharp shots. It was a non-verbal message.”
A few days later, anxious to respond to the very numerous requests and doubts expressed, Evaristus Bassey engaged in a kind of journalistic work, by going to collect the testimonies of several parishioners which he shared in a long Twitter thread, the July 3. According to one of them, a collaborator of the pastor, the appearance of the Virgin was preceded by a rainbow, then by a ray of light. “That’s when, he says, those who were at the church noticed something was going on and rushed outside. A young girl tried to take pictures while the apparition was on the ground in this beam of light which made it difficult to take clear pictures. It was when the apparition moved above the shrine in the ray of light that some people managed to photograph it.”
Among these photographers, a young woman, Felicia (left), took the photo below:
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Due to the number of witnesses and the existence of several photographic documents, this Marian apparition aroused great enthusiasm among the faithful. It will probably not be shared by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, always very cautious, even suspicious, in the face of these events which are only very rarely authenticated and after a long canonical investigation where the photos are very far from constituting proof. sufficient.
Among the alleged manifestations of the Virgin Mary authenticated by religious authorities, very few have been photographed. And it is towards the Coptic Orthodox Church that we must turn to find the most spectacular there, the apparitions of Our Lady of Zeitoun, in Egypt, in the suburbs of Cairo which followed one another in 1968 and 1970, gathering huge crowds. Several photos and films of the luminous apparition on the roof of the Coptic church have been made, in particular by Egyptian television. Hypotheses have been put forward to try to explain this phenomenon, ranging from large-scale hoaxes to mass hysteria without any of them succeeding in imposing themselves.