Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Virgin Mary at LaSalette and Lourdes: Whom Did the Children See?

1985; Wiley; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1386275

1468-5906

Michael P. Carroll,

Diverse Cultural and Historical Studies

Despite the continuing importance of Marian apparitions within the Roman Catholic Mary Cult, few scholars have been concerned with explaining why these apparitions appear to some individuals and not to others. This article explores this question by considering in detail two particular Marian apparitions: the apparition seen by Maximin Giraud at LaSalette, France in 1846 and the apparition seen by Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France in 1858. What makes these two cases especially interesting is that in neither instance was the seen by the seer initially identified as the Virgin Mary. On the contrary, analysis of the early reports associated with each apparition makes it highly likely that the apparition in each case was modeled on a parental figure (though not a natural parent) in the seer's background. Furthermore, examination of the childhood experiences of each seer make it highly likely that each seer's apparition was an attempt to gratify an unconscious desire associated with that parental figure. The psychodynamic explanation developed in each case is useful because it allows us to explain a wide range of observations associated with each apparition (e.g., why the lady at LaSalette was crying, why the lady at Lourdes identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, etc.).