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On 13 October, 1917, a crowd believed to be approximately 70,000 in number, gathered at the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima, Portugal. According to many witness' statements, after a downfall of rain, the dark clouds broke and the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disk in the sky. Many sceptics believe that the event was natural and meteorological in nature. But, how does one explain that the event occurred at the exact time predicted by three young children ?
Available on YouTube at http://youtu.be/hyIpE1_qIFM.
The official position of the Holy See is that, while the Holy Office has approved a few apparitions of the Virgin Mary, Roman Catholics, at large, are not required to believe them. However, many Catholics express belief in Marian apparitions. This has included Popes, e.g. four Popes, i.e.. Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II have supported the Our Lady of Fátima messages as supernatural.
Pope John Paul II was particularly attached to Fátima and credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life, after he was shot in Rome on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fátima, in May 1981. He donated the bullet that wounded him on that day to the Roman Catholic Sanctuary at Fátima, Portugal.
Veneration Through Marian Art.
As a historical pattern, Vatican approval seems to have followed general acceptance of a vision by well over a century in most cases. According to Father Salvatore M. Perrella, of the Marianum Pontifical Institute in Rome, of the two hundred and ninety-five reported apparitions, studied by the Holy See through the centuries, only twelve have been approved, the latest being in May 2008.
The tradition of honouring Mary, by venerating images of her, goes back to 3rd-Century Christianity. Following the period of iconoclasm, the position of the Church, with respect to the veneration of images, was formalised at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 A.D. A summary of the Doctrine is included in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Schubert's "Ave Maria".
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The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the First Commandment, which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honour, rendered to an image, passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image, venerates the person portrayed in it."
The honour paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God Incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends towards that whose image it is.
Alemannisch: Michelangelos Pietà im Petersdom in Rom.
Asturianu: "La Piedá" de Miguel Ánxel na Basílica de San Pedru, na Ciudá del Vaticanu.
Беларуская: П'ета ў Ватыканскім саборы св. Пятра (Мікеланджэла, 1499).
Français: La Pietà de Michel-Ange située dans la Basilique Saint-Pierre, au Vatican.
Photo: 2008.
Source: Edited version of (cloned object out of background)
Author: Stanislav Traykov.
(Wikimedia Commons)
No image (in either the Western or the Eastern Church) permeates Christian Art as does the image of Madonna and Child. The images of the Virgin Mary have become central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, where Mary remains a central Artistic Topic.
The Virgin Mary has been one of the major subjects of Christian Art, Catholic Art and Western Art, since Early Christian Art, and she has been very widely portrayed in iconic "portraits", often known as Madonnas, with the infant Jesus in the Madonna and Child, and in a number of narrative scenes from her life, known as the Life of the Virgin, as well as scenes illustrating particular Doctrines or Beliefs: From Masters such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Murillo and Botticelli, to Folk Art.
Some Marian Art subjects include:
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