Alfonsus de Liguori (1696-1787) was a principal proponent of the Marianist Movement, which glorifies Mary. He wrote a book entitled The Glories of Mary which is famous, influential and widely read. In this book, de Liguori says that Mary was given rulership over one half of the kingdom of God; Mary rules over the kingdom of mercy and Jesus rules over the kingdom of justice. De Liguori said that people should pray to Mary as a mediator and look to her as an object of trust for answered prayer. The book even says that there is no salvation outside of Mary.
Apparitions, Healings, and Weeping Madonnas: Christianity and the Paranormal
Our
Lady of the Nations is a detailed and scholarly overview of the
apparitions of Mary in 20th-century Catholic Europe. Chris Maunder
discusses apparitions in general and how they are interpreted in
Catholicism by, for example, Karl Rahner and Benedict XVI. The role of
women and children as visionaries is considered, including issues
concerning changing views of gender, children's spirituality, and the
protection of minors. He covers cases that are well known and approved
by the Church (Fatima, Beauraing, Banneux, and Amsterdam), others that
are well known but not approved (such as Garabandal and Medjugorje), and
many that are neither well known nor approved, such as those in Belgian
Flanders or Nazi Germany in the 1930s, or in France, Italy, or Germany
after the Second World War. Resources include academic studies of
particular apparitions, some Catholic theological and devotional
literature, and occasionally travel writing. There is also coverage of
material in French which is not known to the English reader.Shrines and
visionaries are believed to be indicators of the presence of Mary. In
the visionary perspective, she has appeared in order to reassure her
followers and to warn of divine judgement. Her messages echo doctrinal
Catholic Mariology with some innovations, but also express a deep
dissatisfaction with the events and trends of the 20th century, from
communism to Nazism to liberalism and religious indifference. While the
Marian cult evolves according to new templates for apparitions and
developments in Mariology, the fundamental message of presence,
consolation, and admonition remains constant.
Our Lady of the Nations: Apparitions of Mary in Twentieth-century Catholic Europe
Tears and Saints
By
the mid-1930s, Emil Cioran was already known as a leader of a new
generation of politically committed Romanian intellectuals. Researching
another, more radical book, Cioran was spending hours in a library
poring over the lives of saints. As a modern hagiographer, Cioran
"dreamt" himself "the chronicler of these saints' falls between heaven
and earth, the intimate knower of the ardors in their hearts, the
historian of God's insomniacs." Inspired by Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, Cioran "searched for the origin of tears." He asked himself if saints could be "the sources of tears' better light."
"Who can tell?" he wrote in the first paragraph of this book, first published in Romania in 1937. "To be sure, tears are their trace. Tears did not enter the world through the saints; but without them we would never have known that we cry because we long for a lost paradise." By following in their traces, "wetting the soles of one's feet in their tears," Cioran hoped to understand how a human being can renounce being human. Written in Cioran's characteristic aphoristic style, this flamboyant, bold, and provocative book is one of his most important—and revelatory—works.
Cioran focuses not on martyrs or heroes but on the mystics—primarily female—famous for their keening spirituality and intimate knowledge of God. Their Christianity was anti-theological, anti-institutional, and based solely on intuition and sentiment. Many, such as Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Saint John of the Cross, have produced classic works of mystical literature; but Cioran celebrates many more minor and unusual figures as well.
Following Nietzsche, he focuses explicitly on the political element hidden in saints' lives. In his hands, however, their charitable deeds are much less interesting than their thirst for pain and their equally powerful capacity to endure it. Behind their suffering and their uncanny ability to renounce everything through ascetic practices, Cioran detects a fanatical will to power.
"Like Nietzsche, Cioran is an important religious thinker. His book intertwines God and music with passion and tears. . . . [Tears and Saints] has a chillingly contemporary ring that makes this translation important here and now."—Booklist
"Who can tell?" he wrote in the first paragraph of this book, first published in Romania in 1937. "To be sure, tears are their trace. Tears did not enter the world through the saints; but without them we would never have known that we cry because we long for a lost paradise." By following in their traces, "wetting the soles of one's feet in their tears," Cioran hoped to understand how a human being can renounce being human. Written in Cioran's characteristic aphoristic style, this flamboyant, bold, and provocative book is one of his most important—and revelatory—works.
Cioran focuses not on martyrs or heroes but on the mystics—primarily female—famous for their keening spirituality and intimate knowledge of God. Their Christianity was anti-theological, anti-institutional, and based solely on intuition and sentiment. Many, such as Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Saint John of the Cross, have produced classic works of mystical literature; but Cioran celebrates many more minor and unusual figures as well.
Following Nietzsche, he focuses explicitly on the political element hidden in saints' lives. In his hands, however, their charitable deeds are much less interesting than their thirst for pain and their equally powerful capacity to endure it. Behind their suffering and their uncanny ability to renounce everything through ascetic practices, Cioran detects a fanatical will to power.
"Like Nietzsche, Cioran is an important religious thinker. His book intertwines God and music with passion and tears. . . . [Tears and Saints] has a chillingly contemporary ring that makes this translation important here and now."—Booklist
Beginning in 1948 there was a series of apparitions of Mary in the city of Lipa. These apparitions were sometimes accompanied by showers of rose petals and other supernatural phenomena. They occurred in a convent. The local bishop personally experienced a shower of rose petals and thereafter supported the apparitions. The media mocked the supernatural events in Lipa and street vendors sold phony “holy rose petals.” In response to the bad publicity, the Vatican sent a Papal Administrator to take over the diocese where the apparitions occurred. He replaced the bishop and the mother superior. The nun who saw the apparitions was forced to leave the convent. The nuns were ordered to destroy all materials associated with the apparitions, including a statue. The convent was sealed and the nuns were not allowed to talk to anyone outside the convent.
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