The Virgin Mary Around The World

The appearances of the Virgin Mary in every culture and era since the birth of Christ is without parallel or precedent. All peoples and nations have their own tale of the Virgin's visitation. She has left her mark in the lands of Hindus, Jews and Moslems, Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox, Buddhists and Shintoists, Confucians and Communists, Aztecs and animists, hunter-gatherers and city-dwellers. Her maternal presence has been perceived and portrayed in every major racial and social "world". She is without question the mother of all humanity, of all races and nations. She is the meeting-place of the mystical and the historical. The places, images and events associated with the appearances have become an integral part of the cultural fabric of the societies that encountered the Virgin. So integral in fact that very few people have stepped back to consider the extraordinary panorama of peoples and places involved. This is the "big picture" shown in Contact! The Virgin as encountered around the globe and across history. From the introduction to Contact! by Bishop David L. Ricken (Bishop Ricken declared the apparition of Our Lady of Good Help as worthy of belief making it the only Marian apparition approved in the United States of America) I am very pleased to write this forward to Contact!, Roy Varghese's most recent book which tells the story of fifty verified encounters of the Blessed Virgin Mary throughout history. This book is an excellent resource for those who wish to hear what Mary is saying to us and to see how she always leads us closer to her divine Son Jesus. .., When you read Contact!, I urge you to ponder the fact that these apparitions actually did happen. The veil of heaven was pulled back for a brief moment and the Mother of God spoke to us. Reviews of Varghese's previous book on Marian apparitions Ralph McInerny, renowned Catholic philosopher and author of the Father Dowling mysteries: "Roy Abraham Varghese has just published ... a magnificent book, placing the apparitions in a theological setting, recalling the Church's attitude towards such happenings from the earliest times, and analyzing the interrelationship and common notes of the various apparitions. ... There may be no other single volume as informative and judicious as this one." ("To All Appearances," Crisis, May 2000) Catholic News Service (CNS is the news agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) "I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who wants a lucid, comprehensive and intelligent approach to Marian apparitions. The book possesses several strengths. First, Varghese has the remarkable ability to explore 2,000 years of developed Catholic teachings on Mary and present the information in a cogent and easily understandable manner without marring critical distinctions. Second, Varghese's book stands apart from others because he searches all parts of the world to report on their experiences of Mary. Third, Varghese takes a rigorously academic approach throughout the book, avoiding the oversentimentalism to which so many Marian books fall prey." (Dimitra C. Bolger, "Intellectual Clearly Explains Mary's Apparitions," CNS, June 15, 2000)

The Virgin Mary continues to attract devotees to her images and shrines. In Moved by Mary, anthropologists, geographers and historians explore how people and groups around the world identify and join with Mary in their struggle against social injustice, and how others mobilize Mary to impose ideas and rules and legitimize acts of violence and suppression. Far from an outdated practice of little relevance to the modern world, Marian pilgrimage expresses the deep and urgent concerns of a wide range of people. With examples of Marian pilgrimages from all over the world, Moved by Mary explores the ways in which men and women of different ages and religious, political, social-economic and ethnic backgrounds empower themselves to deal with modern-day issues with Mary ́s help. The ethnographic cases reveal the cultural and devotional variation of Marian pilgrimage, but also global similarities. Collectively, the contributors to Moved by Mary show how in many places religion dramatically suffuses everyday life.

This interdisciplinary study explores Marian imagery and representations in world literature and art throughout the centuries. This book demonstrates the widespread deep veneration of the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in various countries and different Christian traditions. Devotion to the Holy Virgin has served as a bridge to different cultures, overcoming all types of possible borders. Religious and cultural literacy is crucial for domestic and international politics, the practice of peace, harmony, justice and prosperity. This book also gives recognition and pays homage to the influence of the image of Mater Dolorosa in shaping art and literature around the world.

This book shows us the other faces of Mary: some sublime, some unusual, and all a tribute to the enduring power of the Mother of God around the world.

Ink Drawings of Famous Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary from around the World

Through the centuries and across the world, the Virgin Mary has appeared to ordinary people of every race and culture, from scholars to illiterates, from the devout to the unbelieving, from young children to the dying. In this exquisite and inspiring volume, Janice T. Connell chronicles authenticated Marian apparitions and messages Mary has brought from God--as mother, comforter, Queen of Angels, and Prophet of the Apocalypse. Drawn from scripture, legend, and never-before-published eyewitness accounts, these are personal stories--the author's own, and her interviews with other visionaries--filled with beauty, wonder, and joy. Meetings with Mary ranges from Elijah's vision of Mary eight hundred years before her birth to the world-famous children of Medjugorje in Bosnia, whose encounters with her began in 1981 and continue daily. Here also are lesser-known, deeply touching encounters with the Mother, from an office worker in Holland to a Japanese nun, from a Jewish banker in Rome to an awestruck crowd of visionaries, few of them Christians or of any other faith, in Egypt. Meetings with Mary asks also: as the millennium draws near, shadowed by disasters, disease, and brutal civil warfare, are Mary's frequent appearances a signal to the faithful? Perhaps she is calling us all to join her now on a voyage toward the eternal shores of peace, joy, and abiding love. . . . "[Connell is] passionate about prayer and sharing her love of Jesus' mother. . . . She has a way of simplifying complex theology." --Rocky Mountain News