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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

P HENOMENA

T H E E N C Y C L O P E D I A O F

R ELIGIOUS

A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Al-Aqsa Mosque • Alchemy • Amrit-sar • Amulets • An Najaf • Angel ofMons • Anne, Saint • Apparitions ofthe Virgin Mary • Apports • Ark ofthe Covenant • Arunachala • Aura •

Auroville • Automatic Writing • Ave-bury • Avignon • Ayyad, Ala

B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Babaji • Bahá’í Temples • Beauraing/Banneux • Benares/Varanasi/Kashi •

Betancur, Pedro de San José • Bethle-hem • Bible Code • Bi-location • Bio-rhythms • Black Madonnas • BlackMass • Bodhi Tree • Borobudur • Bran-ham, William Marion • Browne, Sylvia •

Buddha, Relics of the

C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Canterbury • Carey, Ken • CargoCults • Cartago • Cayce, Edgar •

Chakras • Chartres Cathedral • Chi-mayo • Chromotherapy • City ofRefuge • Comets • Committee for theScientific Investigation of the Claims ofthe Paranormal • Communes • Cony-ers, Georgia • Cottingley Fairies •

Crop Circles • Crystal Balls • CrystalSkulls • Crystals • Cumae • Cumorah• Curé d’Ars

D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75The Da Vinci Code • Dalai Lama •

Damanhur • Dark Night of the Soul •

Darshan • Davenport Brothers • Dee,John • Deganawidah • Delos Island •

Delphi • Dentistry, Paranormal • DivineMercy • Dodona

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA [vii]

C O N T E N T S

Introduction xiIndex 367

E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Easter Island • Ecstasy • Ectoplasm •

Edward, John • Edwards, Harry • Esta-bany, Oskar • Exorcism • Ex-votos

F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Face Cloth (of Jesus) • Fakirs • Fatima• Feng Shui • Findhorn • Firewalking• Flagellation • Ford, Arthur • FortuneTelling

G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Garabandal • Geller, Uri • Giant ofCerne Abbas • Glastonbury • Glaston-bury Tor • Golden Palace • GrandTetons • Great Pyramid of Giza •

Green Man • Grilled Cheese Sandwich(Virgin Mary) • Grimoires • Guadalupe• Guardian Angels

H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Hagia Sophia • Hajj • Hardwar • Harer• Healing, Miraculous • Heiligenkreuz• Helena, Saint • Hill of Crosses •

Hillula • Hinn, Benny • Holy Blood •

Holy Coat of Trier • Holy Grail • HolyInfant Child of Prague • Holywell •

Home, Daniel Dunglas

I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157Icons • Ife • Image of Edessa • IndigoChildren • Iona • Istanbul

J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Jagannath • Jama Masjid • James Ossu-ary • Januarius, Saint • Jerusalem •

Johrei • Joseph of Cupertino

K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177Kabbalah • Kamakura • Karbala •

Khajuraho Temples • Khomeini, Aya-tollah • Kirlian Photography • Knock• Kuan Yin • Kuhlman, Kathryn •

Kumbh Mela • Kusinagara

L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193Labyrinth • Lake, John Graham • Lali-bela • La Salette • Latihan • Laying onof Hands • Levitation • Lindsey, Gor-don J. • Locutions • Loreto • Lourdes• Lumbini

M . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207Machu Picchu • MacLaine, Shirley •

Magic Mirrors • Mahatma Letters •

Malachy, Saint • Mandalas • Mary’sHouse • Masada • Materialization •

McPherson, Aimee Semple • Mecca •

Mediums and Mediumship • Medjugor-je • Meiji Jingu • Menas, Saint • Mes-mer, Franz Anton • Milk-drinking Stat-ues • Miraculous Medal • Moodabidri• Mother of the World • Mount Athos• Mount Fuji • Mount Horeb • MountKailas/Lake Manasarovar • Mount Shas-ta • Moving Statues • Mudras • Mys-tery Hill

N, O . . . . . . 239Noah’s Ark • Nuestra Señora de la Pre-sentación • Oak Island • Omens •

Ouija Board • Our Lady Mediatrix ofAll Grace • Our Lady of Kevelaer •

Our Lady of Peace Cathedral • OurLady of the Roses, Mary Help of Moth-ers • Oyotunji

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA[viii]

Contents

P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251Padre Pio • Pendulums • Penitentes •

Philip • Pilgrimage • Potala • Pram-banan • Prasadam • Psychic Surgery

Q, R . . . . . . 261Qigong • Rajgir • Rappings • Reiki •

Relics • Rennes le Château • Rich-mond, Cora Scott • Rila • Rishikesh •

Roberts, Oral • Rome/Vatican City •

Rosary • Rosslyn Chapel • Rydén,Vasula

S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary • Sad-hus • Sai Baba • Saint Catherine’sMonastery • Saint Joseph’s Oratory •

Saint Nectan’s Glen • Saint Nicholas’Tomb • Salem Village • Samadhi •

Santiago de Compostela • Santo,Audrey • Sarnath • Scapular s •

Sedona • Serpent Handling • ShahFaisal Mosque • Shaktipat • Shipton,Mother • Shroud of Turin • Shwe-dagon Pagoda • Silbury Hill • SiriusMystery • Skeptics Society • SlateWriting • Slaying in the Spirit •

Smith, Hélène • Speaking in Tongues(Glossolalia) • Spear of Longinus •

Spirit Photography • Spiritualist Camps• Stigmata • Stonehenge • Stupa

T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323Tai Shan • Talismans • Tarot • Tem-plars • Temples of the Latter-day Saints• Tenri City • Teotihuacan • Thai-pusam • Therapeutic Touch • ThreeMagi (relics) • Tirumala/Tirupati •

Tomb of Christ • Topkapi Palace •

Touro Synagogue • Tower of Babel •

Trier • Trondheim Cathedral • TrueCross • Tulku • Tummo • Tzaddik

V, W . . . . 349Veronica’s Veil • Virgin of Las Lajas •

Vishnu’s Footprints • Wailing Wall •

Weeping Statues and Icons • WhirlingDervishes

X , Y, Z 359Xenoglossy • Yantra • Yazd • Yoga-nanda, Paramahamsa • Zimbabwe •

Zion

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA [ix]

Contents

AL-AQSA MOSQUE

(JERUSALEM)The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the most holy site forMuslims in Jerusalem and one of the most holy ofplaces for all Islam. Its origin relates to a famoussupernatural event in Muhammad’s life, the so-called Night Journey or Al-Isra wa Al-Miraj. Oneevening he was visited by the angel Gabriel (fromwhom he was receiving the Qur’an). He ledMuhammad to a spirit horse (buraq), which car-ried him to JERUSALEM. Here he met, among oth-ers, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. In their presence,he offered a prayer to Allah.

While in the city, he had three dishes placedin front of him that contained, respectively,water, wine, and milk. Muhammad refused thewater, knowing that if he chose it the Muslimswould drown, and he declined the wine as itwould mean Islam would leave the true path. Heinstead chose the milk, indicating the Muslimcommunity would follow Allah’s true religion.Gabriel confirmed his choice. Muhammad nextvisited heaven, where he met and talked withAllah before returning to Mecca.

The meeting with the prophets, the prayer,and the drinking of milk are all believed to haveoccurred on Temple Mount in Jerusalem at the

spot currently occupied by the Al-Aqsa Mosque.Muhammad’s presence in this place is furtherconfirmed by the hoof print his horse left in arock as it lifted Muhammad to heaven. Addition-ally, some believe the rock attempted to go toheaven with Muhammad and was pushed backinto place by Gabriel, who left a handprint in it.

Following the capture of Jerusalem by theCaliph Omar in 638 CE, attention was immediate-ly focused on the Temple Mount. The first spotmarked by a building was the rock from whichMuhammad was believed to have been lifted toheaven. That same rock, in the center of what isknown as the Dome of the Rock, is also believedto be the axis of the world, the spot from whichcreation began and at which the final trumpet,ending history as we know it, will sound.

The original building on the site where Muh-ammad offered prayer was completed by Omarsoon after the Dome of the Rock was dedicated. Itwas then rebuilt in the eighth century by theCaliph El-Walid.

Muslim presence in Jerusalem grew slowly, andin the eleventh century the Muslim rulers decid-ed to Islamize the city by pushing the Christiansout. In the process, a number of Christian church-es were destroyed. Christian crusaders took the

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AA

city in 1099, and those Muslims who survived theattacks were sold into slavery. Muslims were large-ly denied access to the Temple Mount until 1187,when Saladin (1138–1193) retook the city.Jerusalem then remained in Muslim hands(except for a few years in the thirteenth century)until 1917, when the British took control.

The Temple Mount is now surrounded by awall that predates Muslim presence in the city butessentially marks its most sacred area. This area ofthe city is off-limits to non-Muslims on Fridaysand major Muslim holidays. The major conflict iswith Jewish believers who believe the rock in thecenter of the Dome of the Rock is the place whereAbraham bound Isaac and prepared to sacrificehim (Genesis 22). The major Christian sites areclose by, but outside the wall.

Sources:

Cragg, Kenneth.The Dome and the Rock, Jerusalem Stud-ies in Islam. London: SPCK, 1964.

Graber, Oleg. The Shape of the Holy: Early IslamicJerusalem. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UniversityPress, 1996.

Landay, Jerry M., and the Editors of the NewsweekBook Division. The Dome of the Rock. New York:Newsweek, 1976.

Peters, F. E. Jerusalem and Mecca: The Typology of theHoly City in the Near East. New York: New YorkUniversity Press, 1986.

ALCHEMY

Alchemy is a religious philosophical perspectivethat was popular during the medieval era. The exo-

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Alchemy

Located in Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque sits on land that is associated with miracles involving both Muham-mad and Abraham. It is therefore regarded as holy land to both Muslims and Jews. AFP/Getty Images.

teric quest of the alchemist was the transmutationof baser metals (those that were more common andhence of lesser value) into the more valued metals,gold and silver. Philosophically, this quest was seenas a symbol of personal transformation in whichthe individual self, with its base nature, was turnedinto the ideal moral and spiritual person. Alchemywas always the belief of a small number of people,and it lost even this small following as alchemistsproved completely unable to manifest the object oftheir quest and as a contemporary understanding ofsubatomic structures emerged with the evolving ofmodern chemistry and physics.

Alchemy remains a fascinating subject for aca-demics. Philosophically, it was a significant carri-er of the dissenting Esoteric tradition, the majorperspective challenging orthodox Christianity inWestern society through the several centuries ofthe Christian era. It represents an enlightenmentapproach to the spiritual life: a counterpoint tothe salvation offered by Christianity. Suchapproaches provide various spiritual disciplines orexercises (meditation, controlled breathing, psy-chic development) that produce altered states ofconsciousness and lead to a new spiritual aware-ness and an enlightened state of being.

While many alchemists possibly used their talkof chemical experiments to legitimize their ownreligious views (in a time when dissenting reli-giously could lead to torture and death), undoubt-edly, some alchemists believed that they couldbuild various contraptions, usually a furnace, inwhich a literal transformation of elements couldoccur. It is also the case that some alchemists,many probably con artists, talked wealthy peopleand rulers into financing their alchemical activity.

Today, medieval alchemy is dismissed as pseu-doscience, although the study of alchemical phi-losophy flourishes. In that context, interest hasshifted to modern claims of alchemical success.Through the nineteenth century, alchemy sur-vived as a semi-secret fringe activity within theoccult community, itself very much a fringe com-munity at the time. The most famous alchemist ofthe era, known only as Monsieur L., remained in

the background, but he allowed the writer LouisFiguier (1819–1894) to speak for him.

Through the twentieth century, a few alche-mists emerged, most notably Armand Baubault inEurope and Frater Albertus in the United States.However, they remained reclusive figures, andonly a few people took their claims of alchemicalsuccess with any seriousness.

Given the almost complete disappearance ofalchemy as a scientific possibility, one can stillapproach it as an important historical philosophythat has left behind a set of texts, symbolic artwork, and many pieces of apparatus used by thosealchemists who seem to have actually attemptedthe transformation of base metals. These relics ofalchemy can be found in libraries and museums inEurope, and to a lesser extent in the United States.

Sources:

Albertus, Frater. The Alchemist of the Rocky Mountains.Salt Lake City, UT: Paracelsus Research Society,1976.

Barbault, Armand. Gold of a Thousand Mornings. Lon-don: Neville Spearman, 1975.

Fernando, Diana. Alchemy: An Illustrated A to Z. NewYork: Sterling Publishing Co., 1998.

Pritchard, Alan. Alchemy: A Bibliography of English-lan-guage Writings. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,1980.

AMRITSAR (INDIA)The city of Amritsar in Punjab, India, is the cen-ter of the Sikh religion. Throughout the fifteenthcentury, where now a large urban complex is situ-ated, there was only a small lake to which GuruNanak (1469–1539), the founder of the Sikhfaith, was known to retire and meditate. Throughthe decades following Nanak’s death, his follow-ers visited the site, which subsequently emergedas the religion’s most holy place. The name of thecity and the lake means “pool of nectar.”

Nanak was succeeded in leadership of thesmall but growing Sikh community by designatedgurus. The third guru, Amar Das (1479–1574),

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Amritsar

began to recognize the sacredness attributed tothe lake, and he entrusted his successor, Ram Das(1534–1581), with the construction of an appro-priate place for worship. He saw to the enlarge-ment of the lake and laid the foundation of thetemple, which was completed by the fifth guru,Arjun Dev (1563–1606). The temple was finishedin 1601, and three years later the Adi Granth, thecollection of the writings of the gurus that consti-tute the Sikh scriptures, was formally placedinside the temple. The Har Mandir Temple ofGod, as it was called, became the center of therelatively small Sikh community and a target byits enemies. In the eighteenth century it wasdestroyed on several occasions, the last time in1767, only to be rebuilt.

The temple is entered via a causeway over thepool of nectar. Pilgrims may walk completelyaround the temple and find entrance doors onevery side. Inside the temple, the space is domi-nated by the platform holding the Adi Granth. Atank within the temple contains water from thespring that feeds the lake. Here pilgrims may sym-bolically wash their soul with the holy water. Onthe shore of the lake at the other end of thecauseway is a second, smaller temple, the AkalTakht. Each day begins with a priest bringing theAdi Granth to the Har Mandir. It is placed on itsplatform, and readings from it may be heardthroughout the day. At the close of the day, theAdi Granth is wrapped in ritual cloths andreturned to the Akal Takht. Next to the complexof temple buildings are dormitories and dininghalls where all persons, regardless of religion, race,or gender, may find free room and board. The HarMandir received its common name, the GoldenTemple, after the upper exterior of the temple wascovered with gold in 1830.

The Golden Temple made world headlines in1984 when it became the site of a battle betweenPunjabis seeking a separate, autonomous Sikhnation (for which some Sikhs had arguedthroughout the twentieth century) and Indianprime minister Indira Gandhi (1917–1984). Ashe carried out this struggle, Sikh leader Jarnail

Singh Bhindranwale (1947–1984) made theGolden Temple his headquarters, and Gandhivowed to capture him even if it meant stormingthe temple complex. In the end, the Indian Armystormed the complex, largely destroying the AkalTakht and killing a number of people, includingmany innocent pilgrims who were trapped in thetemple when the army had originally set up asiege. Bhindranwale was also killed in the process.In retaliation for the violation of the GoldenTemple, two of Indira Gandhi’s bodyguards wereassassinated.

Guru Nanak had been opposed to the veryidea of pilgrimages, and to this day, Sikhs haveshown some reluctance to identify visits toAmritsar as making a pilgrimage. However, theemergence of the Golden Temple as a sacred cen-ter of the faith prompted some of the faithful toview their visits as pilgrimages. Within a shortdistance of Amritsar, other sites sacred to theSikhs may be found, including the gurudwara(worship center) at Tarn Taran built in honor ofGuru Arjun Dev, the gurudwara at Gobindwalbuilt by Guru Amar Das, and the memorial toGuru Angad Devji at Hazoor Sahib.

Sources:

Dogra, Ramesh Chander, and Gobind Singh Manusuk-ani. Encyclopedia of Sikh Religion and Culture. NewDelhi: Vikas, 1995.

Duggard, K. S. The Sikh People Yesterday and Today.New Delhi: UBS Publishers’ Distributors, 1993.

Macauliffe, Max Arthur. The Sikh Religion. 6 vols. NewDelhi: S. Chand & Company, 1978.

AMULETS

The use of amulets, objects believed to have mag-ical or supernatural powers that will protect thewearer from some evil, have been common amongpeople in all religious traditions since ancienttimes. They have generally been distinguishedfrom talismans, objects designed to accomplishgoals desired by the object’s possessor, although inpractice, amulets and talismans are difficult to dis-

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Amulets

tinguish. Amulets come in all shapes and sizes,indicative of the many cultures from which theyderive and the spectrum of uses for which they areemployed. They are often used in conjunctionwith specific magical formulas, prayers, or devo-tional activity.

In the premodern world, amulets were oftenassociated with the spirit entities that were seenas freely populating the world. They were seen asthe home to spirits, and often as a protection fromthe actions of evil or mischievous spirits(demons). Amulets could thus protect someonefrom illness, injury, impotence, or various mentaldisorders deemed to be caused by demonic posses-sion or obsession. Relative to the social order,amulets were seen as providing protection fromthe wrath of neighbors, arrest, unfavorable deci-sions in court, and downturns in business.

In the West, a magical strain remained afterChristianity came into dominance, especially atthe popular level, and sacred objects were fre-quently viewed as having talismanic value. Insome European cultures, concern with the protec-tion from the veil has been strong, and amulet-like objects designed to protect one from the evileye remain popular. However, Protestantsattacked many of the magical elements remainingin Roman Catholicism (including the assigning ofamulet-like efficacy to sacred objects, such as therelics of saints). Later, during the Enlightenment,amulets were largely relegated to the dustbins assuperstitious objects and driven out of main-stream use.

With the revival of magic in the nineteenthcentury, amulets, shorn of much of their pre-sci-entific association with spirits and demons, beganto make a comeback, at least within the magicalcommunity (admittedly a very small communityrelative to the total population). However, in thedecades since World War II, not only has theWestern Esoteric community expanded greatly,but cultural and religious practices from a varietyof cultures where amulets remained popular havebeen disseminated by immigrants and the forcesof globalization. Amulets of all varieties have

become available from practitioners of WesternEsotericism (especially Neo-paganism and cere-monial magic), practitioners of various Easternand Middle Eastern religions, and commercialestablishments supportive of both.

Today, amulets are generally seen as objectsthat contain or focus cosmic magical power,rather than the abode of spirits or demons. At thesame time, ancient amulets have become popularitems worn simply as jewelry or decoration.

Sources:

Andrews, Carol. Amulets of Ancient Egypt. Austin: Uni-versity of Texas Press, 1994.

Budge, E. A. Wallis. Amulets and Superstitions. Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1930.

Elliot, Gabrielle. The Creations of Talismans, Amulets,and Good Luck Charms. Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK:New Wiccan Publications, 2000.

Pavitt, William T., and Kate Pavitt. The Book of Talis-mans, Amulets, and Zodiacal Gems. Detroit: TowerBooks, 1914.

Vinci, Leo. Talismans, Amulets, and Charms: A Work onTalismanic Magic. New York: Regency Press, 1977.

AN NAJAF (IRAQ)The town of An Najaf in central Iraq is the site ofone of the holiest shrines for Shi’a Muslims, whoconstitute the largest segment of the country’spopulation. The town is closely associated withAli ibn Abi Talib (c. 602–661), the son-in-law ofMuhammad and the fourth Caliph to lead theemerging Muslim Empire after the death ofMuhammad. Ali came to his position of powerfollowing the assassination of Uthman in 656. Aliwas himself assassinated in 661.

Ali’s brief rule brought to the fore a strong dis-agreement within the Muslim leadership. Somechampioned the family of Muhammad as the mostlegitimate rulers in Islam, while the majority sup-ported the historic evolution of the caliphateunder the most capable leadership available. Fol-lowing Ali’s assassination, those who continued tosupport the leadership of his family, primarily

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An Najaf

through his son Husayn, would emerge as a minor-ity community within Islam, known as the Shi’a.

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, mentioned inthe biblical book of Genesis 2:14 relative to theGarden of Eden, flow through Iraq. Manybelieved Iraq to be the cradle of humanity and AnNajaf the burial place of both Adam and Noah.Ali’s actual burial site was unknown, but a centu-ry after his death, Shi’a leaders announced AnNajaf as the burial place and erected a shrine overthe designated spot. As the Shi’a communitymatured, An Najaf became one of its most endur-ing pilgrimage sites. It attained new status in thetwentieth century when the Iranian Shi’a leaderAyatollah Khomeini took up residence and direct-ed his efforts against the Shah from there (1965–1978). During the first Gulf War, An Najafbecame a center of resistance to Saddam Hussein,president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, and the Shi’asites suffered when government forces crushedresistance leaders in the town after the war.

Celebrations and pilgrimages have picked upconsiderably in the years following Hussein’s cap-ture by U.S. forces.

Sources:

Jafri, S. Husain M. The Origins and Early Development ofShi’a Islam. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press,2002.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, Hamid Dabashi, and Seyyed ValiReza Nasr, eds. Shi’ism: Doctrines, Thought and Spiri-tuality. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1988.

Tripp, Charles. History of Iraq. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2002.

ANGEL OF MONS

In September 1915, noted British writer ArthurMachen published an article in the London EveningNews about the World War I Battle of Mons,which had occurred in August of the previous year.The battle was the first significant engagement ofthe war between the British and Germans, and itresulted in a British retreat from the field.

In his article, actually a reprint of a story thathad appeared in a book of his short stories pub-lished in the spring, Machen focused on theaccount of a British officer who reported that asthe army moved west, he had seen shimmeringlights in the sky from which emerged winged fig-ures carrying bows and arrows. Thanks to the dis-traction provided by these figures, the Britishwere able to make a successful disengagementfrom the Germans. He noted that two others hadalso seen and made note of the mysterious angelicforces. Machen later received letters verifying theevent. The believability of the story was increaseddue to the semi-miraculous nature of the retreatagainst large odds of success.

The problem with the story, as Machen clearlystated in the original publication, was its completefiction. Published many months after the battle,Machen wanted to provide a momentary distrac-tion from a war that was not going well. Instead, hefound people who wanted to believe the story wastrue. Most notable in this endeavor was one PhyllisCampbell, a nurse with the Red Cross. She claimedshe had treated French soldiers who saw a Joan ofArc figure in the sky. Journalist Harold Begbiepicked up the story and wrote a pamphlet aboutMons, On the Side of the Angels, in which he includ-ed testimony of an officer who described watchingthe angels for more than 45 minutes around eighto’clock one evening. The story grew over the years.As late as 1930, a retired German espionage officeroffered an explanation for the angels: They were amisinterpretation of motion pictures projected onthe clouds by the Germans. As late as 1963, histori-an A. J. P. Taylor referred to the angelic event asfact in his history of the war. He cited Mons as theonly battle where “supernatural intervention wasobserved, more or less reliably, on the British side.”

In fact, the story is complete fiction, the eventsfirst recounted by Machen being a figment of hisimagination that inadvertently played to thedeeper hopes of his readers at a time of crisis.There is no verifiable evidence that any phenom-ena occurred during the retreat from Mons tohave suggested the story.

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Angel of Mons

Sources:

Begbie, Harold. On the Side of the Angels. London:Imperial War Museum, 1915.

Machen, Arthur. The Angel of Mons: The Bowmen andOther Legends. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1915.

Stein, Gordon. The Encyclopedia of Hoaxes. Detroit:Gale Research, 1993.

Taylor, A. J. P. The First World War: An Illustrated His-tory. London: Penguin, 1963.

ANNE, SAINT

Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, hashad a secondary but important position in WesternChristian thought and practice, especially sincethe declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate

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Anne, Saint

Some powerful tales in history involve angels intervening in human events. Such is the case with the Angel ofMons story in which spirits from heaven helped save British soldiers during World War I. Fortean PictureLibrary.

Conception (the idea that Mary was born withoutoriginal sin) by Pope Pius IX in 1854. Among thefirst recognitions of devotion to Saint Anne isfound in the church built for her by the ByzantineEmperor Justinian (d. 565). Her feast day (July25th) recalls the dedication of the church as wellas the reputed arrival of her relics in Constantino-ple in 710. Veneration of Saint Anne in the Westwas concentrated in France, although some of herrelics made their way to Austria.

Among the churches dedicated to Saint Anneis Sainte-Anne-d’Auray in Morbihan, France. Thisseventeenth-century church originated in a visionof the Virgin Mary in 1623 to Yves Nicolazic, whowas told to rebuild a chapel dedicated to SaintAnne that had reputedly existed at Auray from the

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Anne, Saint

The mother of the Virgin Mary, Saint Anne, is associated with a number of miracles, including healingmiracles emanating from her image. Fortean Picture Library.

fifth to the seventh century. As land was beingcleared for the building, an old statue of SaintAnne was discovered. The coincidence of theapparition and the discovery of the statue quicklyattracted pilgrims, and as word reached the ears ofmore pious rulers, they offered support. Mostnotably, Anne of Austria and Louis XIII of Francepresented a relic of Saint Anne to the new chapel.

The chapel at Auray suffered greatly duringthe French Revolution, when it was plunderedand burned (although the statue survived). Anew, large church adjacent to the chapel was con-structed at the end of the 1860s. It is the site of anannual festival on July 25–26.

A second miraculous statue of Saint Anne waspulled from the sea by fishermen and now residesin the church of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Palue, also inBrittany. While carrying the statue to what wouldhave been the nearest church, the men reached aspot where Saint Anne had requested the erec-tion of a new church. The statue was said at thispoint to have become so heavy the men could notfurther move it.

French sailors took their veneration of SaintAnne to Quebec in the mid-seventeenth century.They built a chapel to her on the shore of the St.Lawrence River, where they had found safety in astorm. A healing miracle that occurred in 1658 whilea second expanded chapel was being built set thechurch apart as a focus for divine healing. Thechurch was rebuilt and expanded a number of timesin the intervening years, and today the church ofSainte-Anne-de-Beaupré is part of a large complexof Catholic facilities that includes a hospital,monastery, and convent. It has become a favorite siteamong Native Americans and Canadians. In 1892,Pope Leo XIII sent a relic of Saint Anne to theshrine, and Pope John XXIII sent another in 1960.

Sources:

Cruz, Joan Carroll. Relics. Huntington, IN: Our SundayVisitor, 1984.

Lefebvre, Eugene. A Land of Miracles for Three HundredYears. Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré: Saint Anne’s Book-shop, 1958.

Reames, Sherry, L. Middle English Legends of WomenSaints. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publica-tions, 2003.

APPARITIONS OF THE

VIRGIN MARY

Apparitions of the Virgin Mary rank with healingmiracles as one of the most reported religious phe-nomena. Since the appearance of Mary to SisterCatherine Labouré in a convent in Paris in 1830,the event from which the modern era of appari-tions is usually dated, literally thousands of peoplehave claimed to have seen (and/or received mes-sages from) the Virgin Mary. These have occurredoverwhelmingly in a Roman Catholic context, butoccasional accounts by Protestants and EasternOrthodox believers have also surfaced.

The most prominent apparitions, such as theones at LOURDES, France, in 1854, and FATIMA,Portugal, in 1917, have received the approbationof the highest authorities in the Catholic Churchand have become the subject of an internationalmovement within the church to respond to andpromote the approved apparitions. Contributingto the interest in apparitions have been claimedappearances that have attracted much attentionbut have yet to be approved (although they havenot been disapproved officially). Such apparitionswould include those at MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The great majority of apparitionsreceive only local approval, if that. Some appari-tions, especially a few of a spectacular nature thatproduce an immediate mass response amongfaithful Catholics, have been investigated andfound to be wanting. In these cases, such as thosethat occurred for many years at Necedah, Wis-consin; Garabandal, Spain; and Bayside, NewYork (see OUR LADY OF THE ROSES, MARY HELP

OF MOTHERS), have been officially disapproved.Both the Necedah and Bayside apparitions havebecome the focus of small schismatic movements.

A number of apparitions of the Virgin Maryattained significance by initiating new forms ofCatholic piety, such as the ROSARY, or by becom-

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA [9]

Apparitions of the Virgin Mary