SacredSpace102fm - The Apparition of Knock - 18 August 2019 (Programme Excerpt)

To celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Apparition at, Knock we have decided to replay a reflection Michael Keating shared with us in May 2010 . Michael starts his reflection by reminding us that at the time of the apparition in 1879, many people were still suffering from the effects of the famine in Ireland 1845-1852 when one million people died and one and a half million people emigrated (25% of the population). On a wet, windy evening at 7.30pm on 21st August 1879 Our Lady appeared with St Joseph, St John, A Lamb on an Altar and Angels on the gable wall at the church in Knock for two hours. Michael shares with us the significance of each of the figures in the Apparition and the need for us to read and reflect ourselves. He also shares with us how the first organised pilgrimage came from Limerick in 1880. There were three hundred cures in the first year following the apparition and many more since. Monsignor Horan was responsible for overseeing the building of the present day Basilica, Knock international Airport and of course for welcoming Pope St John Paul II to Knock shrine for the centenary of the Apparition