WHY OUR LADY
20TH CENTURY - 1983 - OUR LADY OF SAN NICOLAS
SAN NICOLAS, ARGENTINA
OTHER TITLE: Mary of the Rosary of San Nicolas
VISIONARY: Gladys Quiroga De Motta
NUMBER OF APPARITIONS: 1,800+ from The Virgin Mary; 68 from Jesus
FIRST APPARITION: September 25, 1983
LAST APPARITION: February 11, 1990
APPROVED: May 26, 2016
“All humanity is contaminated. It does not know what it wants,
and it is the evil one’s chance, but he will not be the winner.
Christ Jesus will win the battle, my daughter.
You must not let yourselves be surprised, you must be alert.
For this reason, daughter, I ask for so much prayer, so much obedience to God.
I say this for the whole world.”
SUMMARY
On September 25, 1983, the Blessed Mother first appeared at San Nicolas, Argentina to the visionary Gladys de Motta. Gladys was in her own home praying the rosary. No words were spoken at this time. Subsequently, Our Lady appeared an additional 1,800 times, For a period of time Our Lady appeared on nearly a daily basis.
Gladys also experienced sixty-eight visions and messages from Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Early in the apparitions, Our Lady requested that a Sanctuary (Basilica) be built and on November 24, 1983 and again on January 4, 1984, a ray of light illuminated the exact spot where the Sanctuary was to be built.
On Friday, November 16, 1984, Gladys first experienced the suffering of the Passion as the Stigmata appeared progressively on her wrists (not the palm of her hands), on Good Friday, her shoulder would be marked with an extended, very painful spot, as she experiences the carrying of the cross.
The Blessed Mother invited Gladys to undertake extreme fasts. During Advent of 1984, Gladys ate no solid food at all, taking only grapefruit juice and tea and coffee with milk. She said that she did not experience hunger of discomfort. She never lost weight or became ill in any way from her strict fasts.
The important theme of Our Lady of San Nicolas is that the Immaculate Heart of Mary is foreshadowing the imminent return of Jesus Christ. The messages of Our Blessed Mother carry an urgent appeal to prepare for this Second Coming of Christ. She sets forth the means and weapons to be used for our salvation in Hope and Trust. She urges us to pray, particularly the rosary, to do fasting, she asks for our conversion and for the conversion of the world, and finally, she asks for our prayers of Consecration to the Two Hearts as a means to achieve forgiveness and love for all people.
The messages indicate Jesus’s Mother insistence that God’s people know and understand the Word of God in these times. They also are of international significance; they impact every town, village, and hamlet on earth. Many of the messages are supported with Scriptural references. For example, Our Lady warns that our youth are in peril: “My daughter, I see the youth adrift. The devil corners them and leads them to sin. My children are harassed by evil, and the disorder of their spirits is complete. To all of them I say, to thank the Lord because of His patience and to ask Him for His protection. Read Ecclesiastics 17:25-26.”
Great healings have taken place in San Nicolas. A book of testimonies runs two hundred pages long. Likewise, many conversions have also taken place there.
The messages and visits ended on February 11, 1990. The messages have been compiled by the Marian Information Center authorized by Bishop Castagna who supported these events and authorized the dissemination of the messages.
A commission of priests, psychologists, scholarly theologians, and psychiatrists declared that Gladys and her messages were authentic, the healings were both supernatural and real, and her mental state was balanced, healthy, and free of hallucinations.
The Church approved this apparition on May 26, 2016. This means that the messages from the apparitions are not only approved for the faithful to read but also that the events were in fact actual miraculous apparitions. This also means that the San Nicolas apparitions are now on a par with Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe.
Interestingly, Our Lady referenced both her previous appartions at Lourdes and Guadalupe when she said:
February 11. 1989: “Yesterday in Lourdes, today here. The Mother is always looking for her children. Prayer, fasting, penance, and above all conversion she expects from them. The souls will be saved if they get close to the Lord. Peace is lacking in many souls. Look for the Peace and you will find God”.
May 13. 1989 - “Today, like then, in Fatima, are my visits to Earth, although these are more frequent and prolonged since mankind lives moments of great drama”.
BEFORE THE APPARITIONS
Statue
In 1884, a beautiful statue of the “Virgin of the Rosary” was donated and brought to San Nicolas from Rome where it had been blessed by Pope Leo XIII. The Confraternity of the Rosary was initiated and a special feast of the “Virgin of the Rosary” was inaugurated with a novena which was to become a yearly tradition. The statue was placed in the Cathedral at San Nicolas where it has always remained; however, due to a breakage of one of the hands it was placed in storage in the belfry of the Cathedral.
The Visionary - Gladys de Motta
Gladys de Motta was born on July 1, 1937. She attended only four years of elementary school from age seven to eleven. Gladys is the wife of a retired metalworker and mother of two daughters. The family lived on the outskirts of San Nicola across the street from a wasteland known as the “Campito”, on the bank of the Parana River.
Several weeks before the first apparition, Gladys and some neighbors had noticed rosary beads handing from her bed, lighted up like a neon rosary. They decided to pray the Rosary together daily after that unexpected sign. Gladys also prayed the Rosary privately.
Before the apparitions, Gladys had never written even a simple letter. Nevertheless she started to leave testimony in writing of the messages and facts that changed her life and the lives of many others.
THE APPARITIONS
The Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son Jesus began appearing to Gladys on September 25, 1983, while she knelt on the floor praying the Rosary. She described the Lord and His Mother “transfigured by a living light.” The Blessed Virgin, attired in a blue dress, held her Son in her arms and carried a rosary in her hand.
On October 7, 1983, the feast of the Holy Rosary, Gladys felt a tingling sensation in her arms and an impulse in her heart that notified her of an impending divine visitation. She composed herself, closed her eyes, and saw the light that announces an apparition. In the intense light, Gladys saw the living, breathing Mother of God before her, holding a large rosary. Gladys describes: “I saw her and asked her what she wanted of me. Then her image faded away and a chapel appeared. I understood that she wanted to be among us.”
Gladys received her apparitions in a different manner than the visionaries at Medjugorje or those in Rwanda. Marian scholar Rene Laurentin explains that at Medjugorje and Rwanda, “the visionaries cease to see and to hear what surrounds them after the beginning of the apparition. A brilliant perception of another world obscures the world here below. Gladys’s perception is tangible, real, surrealistic. But she frees herself from the external world, simply by closing her eyes.”
Gladys’s apparitions were not mere internal, subjective vision. Father Laurentin comments: “For Gladys the Blessed Virgin is real, living. She has touched her. She has felt the firmness and warmth of her body, not through ordinary perception, but according to a more direct, more existential way, no less real, but surrealistic. It commands a linking of coherent reactions---a listening, and a response in a very real intimacy. At times those around her perceive a sweet smell of roses and a feeling of warmth.”
On November 15, 1983, the Lord Jesus Christ began to speak to Gladys and to give messages through her to the world. He said: “I am the Sower. Gather the harvest. It will be great.
On November 16, the Blessed Mother of Jesus said: “I am the Patroness of this region. Assert my rights.” Gladys asked the Blessed Mother if she desired a chapel or a basilica. The Blessed Mother responded: “I desire to be near you. Water is a blessing. Place my shrine near the river. Holy Scriptures say: They will make me a sanctuary and I will dwell in the midst of them. Please carry out my request.” The Blessed Mother advised Gladys: “Do not forget the sanctuary, because it is a sanctuary of the Lord. Time will pass away, but it will remain.”
The following day, November 17, the Blessed Mother’s Divine Son spoke again to His people with great joy: “Glorious days await you. You will rejoice in Me, My beloved children.”
During her apparitions in 1983 and 1984, the Blessed Mother continued to ask for a special sanctuary, a basilica, to be built at the site of her apparitions on the banks of the Parana River and located in a field known as the Campito. The curious were fascinated to notice that on two different occasions, during the apparitions of Gladys, a sudden ray of light was visible, marking the exact location for the construction of the sanctuary.
The official title of the Blessed Mother disclosed to Gladys is Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicholas. In response to that title, Our Lady said: “My wish is to be among you, to fill you with blessings, with peace, joy, and to bring you closer to God our Lord.”
By 1984, Gladys began to understand the place of physical and moral sufferings for humans in the spiritual ascent to union with God. On Friday, November 16, 1984, she experienced some of the sufferings of the passion of Jesus. Evidence of nail wounds showed on her wrists and would renew each Advent and Lent. Blood would flow from the wrist wounds only on the Fridays of Lent. On Good Friday, a little after 3:00 pm, additional injuries manifest themselves on Gladys’s feet and her shoulder. A transfixion would occur in her side as a wound opens up without a flow of blood.
The Blessed Mother invited Gladys to undertake extreme fasts. During Advent of 1984, Gladys ate no solid food at all, taking only grapefruit juice and tea and coffee with milk. She said that she did not experience hunger of discomfort. She does not lose weight or become ill in any way from her strict fasts. The Blessed Mother explained on January 11, 1989, “This Mother always seeks the good of her children. I expect of them prayer, fasting, conversion. They wil find salvation if they do not flee from God. If they accept God. Many souls lack peace. If the soul searches for peace, it will find God.”
From the beginning, as Gladys experienced her apparitions, she--and those with her--noticed a great aroma of roses. Only years later, on June 27, 2987, did the Blessed Mother explain to Gladys the meaning of the sudden scent of roses: “Those who experience the perfume of my roses walk with me.”
Urgency and the imminent return of Jesus are the underlying themes of the apparitions and messages in Argentina. According to experts, the messages indicate that God desires to renew the covenant with His people through the Blessed Mother of Jesus, His own Ark of the Covenant. God created her to be, with her consent, His dwelling place among His people. Mary, the divinely created Ark of the Covenant, is now in the midst of God’s people, who are invited to follow her out of the desert of evil to the promised land of God’s heart.
Selected visions and messages of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Jesus is very loyal and protective of those who are faithful to Him. He is especially protective of the Blessed Mother, who is His Co-Redemptrix and our stairway to Heaven. And, in His messages, Jesus continues to endorse the role that the Blessed Mother plays in salvation history.
The following are just some of the sixty-eight visions and messages received by Gladys from Our Lord Jesus Christ:
On October 4, 1985, Jesus told her: “A nation that prays and respects My Word will live in peace. I protect such a nation.”
On March 12, 1986, Jesus said: “If this generation does not listen to My Mother, it will perish. I ask everyone to listen to her.”
On November 19, 1987, Jesus shone with a dazzling light as He announced: “Today I warn the world, for the world is not aware: Souls are in danger. Many are lost. Few will find salvation unless they accept Me as their Savior. My Mother must be accepted. My Mother must be heard in the totality of her messages. The world must discover the richness she brings. The children of sin will grow up in sin if their unbelief increases. I want a renewal of the Spirit, a detachment from death, and an attachment in life. I have chosen the heart of My Mother, so that what I ask will be achieved. Souls will come to Me through the means of her Immaculate Heart.”
On November 17, 1989, Jesus said: “My light wants to illuminate all nations, for it is the true light. All those who receive it will be called true children of God.”
In December, 1989, Jesus showed Gladys the work of the creation of the world. Then He said to her: “In the past the world was saved by the Ark of Noah. Today My Mother is the Ark. It is through her that souls will be saved, because she will lead them to Me. He who rejects My Mother rejects Me. Many are those who allow the grace of God to pass these days.”
Selected visions and messages of Our Blessed Mother; Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas
The Blessed Mother told Gladys that two-thirds of the world’s people live without any conscious awareness of God. She explained that her apparitions are a gift of God to His children. The Blessed Mother said that we witness the world on the brink of destruction and that the world as we know it is passing away. The messages of the Blessed Mother in Argentina offer profound insight concerning the special times in which we live, and the mission of Our Lady, the Mother of God, which is to mother and lead every soul to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Good Shepherd does not desire to lose even one lamb from His flock. Our Lady’s assignment is to lead every lamb back to the Good Shepherd so that there will be “one flock under one Shepherd.” Our Lady notes: “In my Immaculate Heart there is enough purity to purify the whole world.”
The following are just some of the 1,800 visions and messages received by Gladys from Our Blessed Mother:
On December 18, 1988, the Blessed Mother told Gladys: “I address all humanity: The Lord does so much for you! Do not prevent the Lord from entering into your life. Recognize that He is speaking to you. I myself call each you. I am waiting.... I desire that you pray and meditate. The rays of light from my Immaculate Heart are God’s love for you. He sends me to you because He desires to save as many of His people as awaken to His present and His ways. Every soul must prepare so as not to be imprisoned eternally by darkness.”
On August 24 and 25, 1988, the Blessed Mother promised: “I am above all a Mother. I am beside my children, watching over them. My Mother’s heart goes toward all corners of the earth. I console and protect each heart that seeks my protection. I am the Mother of All Ages. I am the Mother of all God’s Children. I am the Mother of Christ. Blessed are they who take refuge under my mantle in my Immaculate Heart. In my Immaculate Heart there is enough purity to purify the whole world. In my Immaculate Heart there is enough love to sweep away all the hatred of the ages accumulated in hardened hearts. In my Immaculate Heart there is enough light to enlighten every soul ever
createe and the entire creation. Do not be ashamed of sin. My Son is the Savior of sinners. Be ashamed of not loving God. Be ashamed of not trusting God.”
On May 24, 1989, the Blessed Mother said: “I am the door of Heaven and the help of people on earth. I am your Heavenly Mother who descends to my children of the earth to give you safety and protection I am the Anchor grasped by the humble, the destitute, the lost who go to seek God. I ask you for courage and surrender. Come out of the dark. Abandon yourself in the arms of your Heavenly Mother. Glory be forever to the Lord.”
On August 7, 1988, the Blessed Mother asked Gladys to tell the world: “Pray for all the children of the Universe. For those in need of bread, for those who are deprived of love, and above all of the word of God. The one who is compassionate with a child is compassionate with God. The one who gives love to a child gives love to God. The one who reveals the word of God to a child is truly a child of God. May the Lord be praised.”
On January 31, 1984, the Blessed Mother showed Gladys a large saloon filled with drunken young people. Then she explained: “These young people are calamities. They are human spoils. Children of effective parents not come to these places, for God’s will is not respected here, nor in places such as these. None is seeking the Lord in this place. Pary for the young people of the world who have not found God. Pray for those who, ill-advisedly, behave shameful. The Lord can rescue them because He is merciful and loves His children. Read Galations 6:2-10.”
On September 13, 1986, the Blessed Mother said: “The earth, polluted because of the evil one and his rebel cohorts, shall be cleansed by the grace of God from this day forward. This requires honest attitudes, purity of heart, and surrender to the Lord. He sends to you His own Mother, for I am Queen of the Angels. It is my Immaculate Heart that asks His children to return to Him. It is my Immaculate Heart that speaks to you. It is my Immaculate Heart where Jesus decides to see humanity. Cleansed, you will see life. Glory be to the Lord of all Creation.”
On September 29, 1989, the Blessed Mother said: “Today you have the special protection of the archangels. They fight intrepidly as messengers of God against evil under all its forms.... They defend souls against the perils of the devil. They open a path of light for the soul in the midst of darkness. They restore health of body. In harmony with the Holy Spirit, they prepare the soul with a heightened desire for salvation.”
On August 31, 1985, the Blessed Mother sent this message to God’s faithful children from San Nicolas: “Do not look for rest day or night. It is necessary to evangelize.”
On March 26, 1988, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of San Nicolas announced the imminent return of her Divine Son Jesus: “The coming of the Savior is imminent. As the Gospel says, no one knows the date or the hour, but the hour will come, and it is certain that the soul of the Christians must be prepared for that hour. Even the stones will be witnesses to it. That is why I, His Mother, want you to make known the Word of my Son.”
Primary Messages by Category
Our Lady’s messages at San Nicolas contain exhortations, statements, and warnings, as well as uplifting teachings and informative messages on Faith, Hope and Love. The often repeated and urgent sounding messages may be summarized in nine separate categories as follows:
Prayer
July 12, 1986 - “Pray for the Pope, My most chosen son, who has given body and soul to the Lord and to Mary, Mother of Christ.”
March 24, 1987 - “I tell those who are consecrated to Me. Renew yourselves with prayer, with intense prayer.”
December 8, 1983 - “I say to all mankind, be fervent and constant in prayer. Offer it to the Lord with love, with your heart, with suffering.”
March 25, 1988 - “Prayer produces fruit beyond the imaginable. May the name of the Lord be called upon today and forever.”
February 11, 1990 - “My children I invite you to live My instructions step by step; pray, repair, trust” Blessed are those who seek in prayer a refuge for their souls! Blessed those who repair the grave offenses that are inferred on My Son! Blessed those who trust in the love of this Mother! Whoever trusts in God and in Mary will be saved! Preach glory be to God.”
Rosary
January 18, 1984 - “Say the rosary and may the Lord see that with it goes your conversion.”
January 30, 1984 - “Summon as many as you can for prayer, say the holy rosary.”
June 14, 1985 - “Say the holy rosary continuously, during the 24 hours of the 25th day of the month.” (this message repeated again on July 22, 1986)
November 19, 1988 - “Gladys, the weapon that has the greatest influence on evil is to say the rosary.”
Fasting and Penance
January 11, 1989 - “Prayer, fast, penance, and above all conversion. I expect from them...”
November 28, 1983 - “Know how to carry your cross. Accept it as He accepted it.”
October 24, 1989 - “The Lord will deliver the souls who return to Him repentant.”
Conversion
February 24, 1984 - “I want the conversion of the world...”
January 18, 1987 - “In a faithful heart, there will be no room for pride, nor for hatred, because it will be flooded with humility and love.”
August 26, 1988 - “All must know My urgent call to conversion, My request of Consecration to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.”
Forgiveness
April 3, 1985 - “He who curses, who hates, is only poisoning his own heart. Let no one curse; let no one hate. May there be in your thoughts, no ill thoughts. Forgive as the Lord forgives, love as the Lord loves you.”
January 15, 1989 - “Where there is forgiveness, there is love; where there is love, there is no hatred, and where there is no hatred, peace reigns.”
October 10, 1988 - “Charity is to forgive the offender, to bless those who curse you. He who has charity loves his neighbor and whoever loves his neighbor, loves God. Pay attention to My message.”
Eucharist
January 29, 1986 - “Jesus reveals Himself, accessible to all.”
June 1, 1988 - “I tell you brethren, Jesus’ Eucharist is Live and Real Body! Adore Him and Love Him! My children, it is in the Eucharist where He again becomes Body and Blood and it is from the Eucharist that He wants to save the souls prepared to receive Him!”
September 12, 1988 - “Adore the Body and Blood of My Son in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.”
June 9, 1985 - “In Holy Mass, one not only receives the Body and Blood of Christ symbolically, Christ Jesus is present, and He offers Himself truly.”
Consecration
February 1, 1990 - “I want my consecrated children to give the Mother whatever She asks. The
consecration must be made on a special day of the Mother’s. This is the consecration that I ask in my Sanctuary, that:
1) they devote at least one hour per day to prayer
2) they receive Communion daily
3) they be humble
4) they be at the complete service of Mary
5) they be pleasing to God each day by living as consecrated souls
6) they be united to the Love of Her Son
7) they ask for the grace to live under the Light of the Holy Spirit”
AFTER THE APPARITIONS
Church (Sanctuary)
The Bishop of San Nicolas, Msgr. Domingo Salvador Castagna, far from taking distance from the vital phenomenon that happens in its diocese, accepts it, guides it and nourishes it, without leaving aside the prudence and the discernment. He encourages the traveling pilgrims to come and visit San Nicolas. The processions follow one another every 25th day of every month, being the most important and numerous, the 25th of September of every year, in memory of the first apparition.
On September 25, 1986, the bishop places the corner stone of the present Sanctuary. The Campito of the Virgin located next to the Sanctuary has been transformed into a place of processions, via crucis and confessions, particularly in days of greater concurrence. The conversions are numerous and profound. The grace has lasting effects.
In 2008, a magnificent new church was completed on the 25th anniversary of the first apparition.
September 28, 2008 - Some 200,000 people participated in the Eucharistic celebration near the Sanctuary on Mary of the Rosary of San Nicolas, for the 25th anniversary of the appearances of Our Lady of Argentina. The Eucharistic celebration was presided over by the Bishop of San Nicolas de los Arroyos, Hector Cardelli who in his homily stressed that “when Mary calls us together, the family is reinforced, because the Mother is bringing her children together.”
Throughout Argentina thousands of prayer groups have formed that are light sources. Several have also given testimony of physical healings made by Jesus, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Many testify to have seen extraordinary manifestations of the presence of God and the Virgin Mary like the dance in the sun, that reminds us of the miracle of Fatima; the perfume to roses; seeing glowing rosaries on the walls of several homes; the candle lights that went burning leave the letter M of Mary imprinted on the inside. More recently water began to flow from the Sanctuary and many have perceived the scent of roses in it. But the greatest miracles that mark the presence of Heaven in this place on Earth are the numerous conversions. God wants to renew the alliance with his people through Mary, His coffer of the Alliance. She is the Woman dressed with the sun of the Apocalypse. She is our anchor of salvation that takes us to her Son.
Approval
In 1982, both Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General Bosco M. Vivas Robelo of the Archdiocese of Managua, and Bishop Pablo Antonio Vega Mantilla, of Juigalpa (the diocese of apparitions) released statements positively affirming the apparitions at Guapa, Nicaragua.
On November 13, 1983, Bishop Vega published his approval of the appartions.
In 1994, Bishop Robelo who then led the Diocese of Leon stated “I hereby authorize the publication of the story of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Cuapa and the messages given to Bernardo Martinez…”. May this publication help those who read it have an encounter with Jesus Christ in the Church through the mediation of the Mother of Our Lord.
The messages and visits ended on February 11, 1990. A commission of priests, psychologists, scholarly theologians, and psychiatrists declared that Gladys and her messages were authentic, the healings were both supernatural and real, and her mental state was balanced, healthy, and free of hallucinations. Bishop Castagna approved the apparitions and began accompanying a monthly procession on the 25th of each month, often accompanied by as many as 100,000 people.
May 22, 2016 - The apparitions of Our Lady of the Rosary were declared in a homily as having “supernatural in character” and “worthy of belief” by the local bishop, Most Rev. Hector Cardelli. He released the formal statement “La Escuela de Santa Maria del Rosario de San Nicolás.” The Church approved this apparition May 26, 2016.
Bernardo
In 1995, at the age of 64 years, Bernardo Martinez was himself ordained as a priest in the Cathedral of Leon, Nicaragua. Bernardo died in 2000.
SOURCES
Wikipedia.org/wiki/our_lady_of_the_rosary_ of_san_nicolas
https.//spiritdaily.org/blog/apparitions/messages of san nicolas
www.divinemysteries.info/our_lady_of_the_rosary_san_nicolas_argentina