OUR LADY OF HEEDE

Day 175: November 03

Queen of the Universe and Queen of Poor Souls, Heede, Germany

Heede is a place very close to the Dutch border where, from the evening of the feast of All Saints (November 1) in 1937, four visionaries: Mary (12 years old) and Grete Ganseforth (11 years old), Anna Schulte (12 years old) and Susi Bruns (13 years old) began to receive numerous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin. In fact, according to what is said, the Madonna would have deigned to appear more than a hundred times later to the four girls of the village.

As in many villages of Germany, the parish church in Heede is also a little distant from the village and has the cemetery next to it. It is precisely in the cemetery where Our Lady appeared on November 1, 1937, the eve of All Souls' Day, to two girls who were gaining the indulgence for holy souls. In one of the intervals between one visit and another, they stopped by the bell tower, and looking towards the cemetery, suddenly, one of them took her companion by the arm and said to her: "Don't you see Our Lady over there?" Her companion, who could not see anything, told her: "you are crazy!" but then looking closer, she too saw the heavenly vision in front of a group of three cypresses. Taken by fright, the two ran towards the village, but on the way they met two of their peers who were heading to church. They told them the fact and taking courage, all the four went to ascertain a little better that strange vision. In fact, when they arrived at the place of before, they were blessed with the heavenly apparition that sweetly smiled and invited them to come back again.

Both in that first apparition and in the following ones, Our Lady was seen dressed in white; Her feet rested on a bluish cloud, so that she appeared to be hovering in the air, about a meter above the ground. A white veil ran down her shoulders and down her sides, up to the little cloud. The Virgin supported the Child with her left hand. The eyes of both were blue and the Child had blond hair. With his right hand he held a small golden globe, surmounted by a cross.

The right hand of the Madonna also rested on the golden globe, so that the cross seemed to sprout between the fingers of the Madonna. The vision always appeared surrounded by a luminous halo. The Virgin appeared to be between the age of 19 and 21, while the Child looked one or two.

The face of the Virgin was in all these apparitions amiable and sometimes smiling, and when the maidens began to pray, or to sing, then the Vision appeared still more amiable and smiling. This happened, for example, on September 12, 1940, the feast of Mary's name, when the girls wished Our Lady a happy name day, saying to her: "Dear Mother, we congratulate you on your name day." But at other times, and especially from 1940 onwards, Our Lady's face took on a serious and worried expression.

The invitation received in the first apparition to return again to that place had kindled in the hearts of the four girls the desire to know the will of the heavenly Lady. Our Lady did not delay in revealing some of her desires; so on April 5, 1938, after a question addressed to her by Maria G., the Virgin replied that she wished to be invoked in the Litany of Loreto with the title of "Queen of the universe" and "Queen of the souls in Purgatory."

On October 24, 1939, she ordered the girls to report to the priests what they had heard from her. On January 26, 1940, the Virgin suddenly began to weep. Then Maria G., taking courage, asked her: "Mother, what is happening?" In response, Our Lady said to her: "Little children, pray!"

On September 29, 1940, the diocese of Osnabrueck solemnly consecrated itself to Mary; on that occasion Greta G. asked Our Lady to bless their diocese and Our Lady lovingly complied. As early as May 1938, another of the visionaries had asked Our Lady if some sick people could be brought to her, but she replied: "Not yet." It was only on October 19, 1940, that he expressly said that he would restore health only to those who would come with true spirit. Finally, each of the girls received a special secret from Our Lady, with the order not to reveal it except to the Pope.

As happened in other similar circumstances, the facts that were being told about Heede determined an ever-increasing influx of devotees and onlookers. The continuous pilgrimage of people soon aroused the suspicions of the notorious "Gestapo." Hitler's police officers were convinced from the start that everything was a sham, so they decided to act. As mentioned earlier, the events began on November 1, 1937; it was only the 14th of the same month and the Gestapo had already put its hands on the matter, sending the four girls to the Goetingen Health Center to be examined by psychiatric experts and alienists. But the medical examination, which lasted four weeks, ended with a sentence of acquittal for the four girls who were found to be perfectly healthy and normal.

Since the ecclesiastical authority was willing to transfer the visionaries for another four weeks to the Hospice of St Mary in Osnabrueck, the police locked them up in that institution, in addition, making the Bishop pay one thousand marks (former currency in Germany) for the hospitalization. Finally, towards the end of 1938, they were able to return to their families, but not without having received strict orders from the police not to go to the place of the apparitions anymore. But these prohibitions were in vain. Our Lady did not intend to submit to it at all and continued to manifest herself to the girls in one place or in another, sometimes in the middle of the meadows and others in the garden at home.

On February 2, 1938, they saw the Mother of God again for a few moments. The apparitions followed one another irregularly until November 3, 1940. The duration of the apparitions was also extremely different; Most of the messages were silent. Only to a question from Anna, during the apparition of Mary Most Holy on April 7, 1938, was there an answer: "Girls, pray again and much!" At the beginning of 1939, Mary asked the Mother of God how she wanted to be venerated; he heard himself answer:  "As Queen of the Universe and as Queen of poor souls."

On October 24, 1939, the visionaries received the following assignment from the Blessed Virgin: "Make known all that I have told you!" From 1940 Mary appeared very sad and did not cease to say: "Young girls, pray the Holy Rosary for the sins of the world!" On October 19, each seer, separately from the others, received a mystery, the four mysteries were to be communicated only to the Pope. Eventually, the message was placed in a sealed envelope that was transmitted by Bishop Berning to Pope Pius XII.

November 3, 1940 at 8:30 p.m., marks the last apparition of Our Lady in Heede. On that day, the girls received the last Apparition and Our Lady again spoke to each of them, without the others being able to hear. Then they prayed to the Blessed Virgin once again for the blessing, Our Lady replied: "Now, my dear girls, I bless you in this farewell. Stay good and faithful to God! Pray the rosary often and willingly [...] I am going to heaven." Weeping they followed her with their eyes as she disappeared.

Our Lady's message refers to many things and events; but it returns very often to the destiny of the Church and of the world, and the advice that the Virgin often repeats is this: "Pray, pray much, especially for the conversion of sinners."

The apparitions of Our Lady met with opposition from the beginning from the most authoritative people. The first to not believe it were the parents of the girls. The priests of the place, (and more than one sent there by the Curia among the most reluctant), behaved with prudence. But the profound spiritual transformation wrought in the young girls, the scrupulous examination of the facts, like what was done at Lourdes, convinced even the most reluctant to admit, or at least not to systematically deny, the extraordinary character of the events. Adding also the fact that one of the girls, Grete Ganseforth, received the grace of the Stigmata in 1939.

On July 23, 1942, Bishop Berning expressed his position during the homily delivered at the place: "A rich blessing came from Heede. I saw that Marian devotion increased dramatically [...] I have seen [...] that sacramental life, in particular, has prospered dramatically in this parish."

On February 3, 1943, Bishop Berning sent a positive report to the Holy Office. A final decision was not yet followed by Rome. Finally, on June 3, 1959, the vicariate of Osnabrück, in a circular letter to the clergy of the dioceses, confirmed the validity of the apparitions. However, there was no formal and official recognition by the Holy See.

St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Glory to the Most Blessed Trinity in you, O Mary! Glory to you, O Mary, in the Blessed Trinity, for your beauty, for your wetness, for your joy, for your peace, for your patience, for your generosity, for your kindness, for your long-suffering, our unselfishness and your meekness."

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1997, p. 390)