Marian Apparition - Our Lady of Akita

The Blessed Virgin Appeared to Give 3 Messages to Sr. Agnes in 1973

Jul 17, 2009

The mystical events began on June 12, 1973, when Sister Agnes witnessed brilliant rays of light shining from the tabernacle where she had been at prayer.

A vision of bright light emanating from a tabernacle which housed a statue of the Blessed Virgin greeted the eyes of a simple yet devout nun living in the remoteness of Yuzawadai in Akita prefecture. Sister Agnes, recognizing the importance of her vision, returned to the statue in prayer.

The same thing happened on each of the two days that followed. Thus was born the visitation of Our Lady of Akita.

Beginning with that night of June 12th, Sr. Agnes, who had suffered many health problems and was at this time totally deaf, saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary, showed signs of stigmata and reported a weeping statue of the Virgin Mary.

A cross-shaped wound appeared on the inside left hand of Sr. Agnes on June 28, 1973. A week later on July 6, Sr. Agnes heard a voice coming from the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary where she had been in prayer. The nuns at Yuzawadai also reported stigmata on the statue, matching that on the hand of Sr. Agnes.

The Three Messages of Our Lady of Akita

As is often the case with Marian Apparitions, the Blessed Virgin Mary had messages for Sr. Agnes. Over the next few months she was given three separate messages from the Virgin. The first was of a personal nature. The sister was to say a prayer of reparation and was told that her deafness would eventually be cured.

The second message from Our Lady of Akita was for mankind in general. She asked mankind to pray the rosary and to pray to repair the sins of others. According to EWTN, the second message contained the following:

"In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind...I desire this also from your community...that it love poverty, that it sanctify itself and pray in reparation for the ingratitude and outrages of so many men.”

The final message from Mary was of possible worldwide calamities if mankind did not repent, and is said to have ended with the statement: "Those who place their confidence in me will be saved."

Recognition of a Marian Apparition

Nearly ten years later, at a Sunday Mass, Sr. Agnes was miraculously cured of her deafness – just as The Blessed Virgin Mary had predicted. The apparition of Our Lady of Akita was initially approved in 1984 by Bishop John Shojiro who had witnessed some of the events at Akita.

He later went to Rome to consult with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) who formally approved Our Lady of Akita as supernatural and worthy of belief in 1988.

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