The Vision of Our Lady of Knock as Liturgical Apocalypse
An interpretation of the most mysterious of all Marian apparitions

In discussions of Marian apparitions, it seems to me that Knock doesn’t receive nearly the attention it deserves. Fatima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe greatly overshadow it. But there are deep truths communicated through the vision of Knock, which can lay claim to being the most unusual and complex of all the approved apparitions.
We should begin with a basic description of what happened. For this, I rely heavily on the excellent twelve-part series by Gregory Johnson, “Reflections on Knock.” (The link is to the last part, at the end of which can be found the links to the other eleven.) Johnson goes into considerably more detail than I shall do, but my debt to his research is immense. I adopt many of his conclusions, although I would have to reject others.
On a rainy night, August 21, 1879, from about 7:15 to 9:30 in a small village of a dozen homes, Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. John, and the Lamb of God silently appeared to a couple of dozen men, women, and children, ranging from 5 to 75 years old. The number of persons seen in the apparition as well as the number and age-range of the visionaries have no parallel in the history of apparitions. A commission that spoke to fifteen of the witnesses individually reached the conclusion that their testimony was “trustworthy and satisfactory.” In other words, all agreed about what they had seen. A second commission in 1936 reexamined all the evidence and reached the same conclusion: the apparition really took place and was worthy of credence.
One of these official witnesses, Judith Campbell, related:
I ran up with her to the place, and I saw outside the chapel [of St. John the Baptist], at the gable of the sacristy facing the south, three figures representing St. Joseph, St. John [the Apostle] and the Blessed Virgin Mary; also an altar, and the likeness of a lamb on it, with a cross at the back of the lamb.
I saw a most beautiful crown on the brow or head of the Blessed Virgin. Our Lady was in the centre of the group, a small height above the other two; St. Joseph to her right, and bent towards the Virgin; St. John, as we were led to call the third figure, was to the left of the Virgin, and in his left hand he held a book; his right hand was raised with the first and second fingers closed, and the forefinger and middle finger extended as if he were teaching….
All the figures were in white or in a robe of silver-like whiteness; St. John wore a small mitre. Though it was raining, the place in which the figures appeared was quite dry.
Everyone noted that the apparition was utterly silent — not a word was said. The entire meaning must therefore be found in what is seen, and in the overall circumstances of the event.

Johnson notes something obvious that is nevertheless usually overlooked: the four great modern apparitions — La Salette, Fatima, Lourdes, and Knock — never include clergy among the visionaries and never take place inside a church. “The apparition of La Salette is on a mountainside, Lourdes is in a grotto, Knock is deliberately and conspicuously just outside of a church that is a few feet away, and Fatima takes place in the fields at the Cova da Iria.”
With Knock, there are two things that stand out very strongly: first, the liturgical nature of this vision: we have the Lamb slain upon the altar, with Our Lady and St. John in attendance as on Calvary; second, the location of the vision, namely, outdoors, on the other side of where the tabernacle in the church was located. So it might be considered a vision of the heavenly liturgy, telling us something about the earthly liturgy. More than that, I will argue that it prophesies the postconciliar crisis in the Mass, the plight of traditional Catholics, and the means by which they will persevere.
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