FEBRUARY 1963 Joey’s sense of smell restored by Padre Pio. Joey Lomangino was born on June 27, 1931, in Brooklyn (U.S.A.) from Italian-American parents. He was the eldest of five boys and one girl. In 1947, while he was watching a truck tire being inflated, it exploded and Joey was hit by the rim in his face. The bones of the forehead were crushed, the optic and olfactory nerves were severed. He was in a coma for three weeks before he woke up . . . on the 16th of July (Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) ! In 1961, he traveled to Italy and met St. Padre Pio for the first time, at the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo. Although they had never met, the famous Capuchin greeted the American with these words: "Ah, Joey, how happy I am to see you!" February 1963, Joey made another trip to Italy. He went back to see Padre Pio, who heard his confession and . . . miraculously restored the use of his olfactory sense . . . while the nerve still remains severed! Joey tells the story : "when I knelt down to receive Padre Pio’s blessing, and got the fragrance of roses that came from the wounds in his hands, I was startled and went against the wall with my arms up to protect myself; I didn’t know what it was. Padre Pio pulled down my hand and said in Italian, “Joey, don’t be afraid.” He then touched me on the bridge of my nose and my sense of smell was restored to me after being without it from the day of my accident in June 1947, which was 16 years." Joey asked Padre Pio if the Virgin was appearing in Garabandal ,and was it true. Padre Pio would encouraged him to go to San Sebastian de Garabandal, after he had assured him very clearly that, "Yes, it is true, the Blessed Virgin is appearing at Garabandal!" Joey was far from being the only one to whom the great Italian stigmatist would confirm the authenticity of the apparitions: in addition to Conchita herself, may we mention, among others, Frs. Pel and Marcelino Maria Andreu, Padre Gustavo Morelos ( from Mexico), Mr. John Haffert (then President of the "Blue Army" of Fatima), Miss Eloisa Deguia. When Joey returned to NY, he started spreading the news of apparitions of the Blessed Mother in Garabandal. From 'Garabandal' Book, pages 166-167 As I have told my story before, I met Joey as a boy, had a healing on my legs from the medal he had that Mary kissed at Garabandal, and would later see him in 1993 again, and started working for the NY Garabandal Center, and in 1996 becoming the Director of Public Relations there.
The letter to Fr. Ramón Andreau from Dr. D.C. Ortiz Pérez from Santander. February 2, 1962 Reverend Father Andreu: I am going to tell you about the impressions of my last trip to Garabandal on January 27th. For this date, the Marquis of Santa María had already given more facts. He told me that he would see you on the next day. The event that caught my attention is that after 7 consecutive months of “marvelous ecstasies,” the four girls continue with the utmost normality, although many people “who don’t see” maintain that this is the result of a pathology. The girls continue their ecstasies the same as always, running through the streets of the village praying, with this precious transformation on their faces and movements that seem to be images. On the afternoon of the 28th, with the difference of approximately 10 minutes from one to the other, María Dolores and Conchita had ecstasies in their houses and left directly for the Church. When they met each other, they were very happy and they ran through the streets of the village singing the rosary. They visited the houses of the sick where they prayed and gave the crucifix to be kissed. It made a great impression on me when they visited a sick old man (uncle Leoncio) who was blind, deranged, had the flu, and was in agony. They knelt at the head of his bed, praying Hail Marys without interruption, and everyone answered except the dying man. After 15 or 16 prayers, the sick man responded with ‘Holy Mary’ in a clear voice and added: “I pray because I have faith.” In this moment, they put the statue of Christ to his lips, and he kissed it. The girls had expressions of immense enjoyment. They returned to the normal state after approximately 2 and a quarter hours. At ten at night we thought we’d return, and it took half an hour for us to leave. We realized that María Cruz was running through the streets of the village in ecstasy accompanied by her parents. We united with a group and prayed with them. These are the facts of what happened on the 28th in Garabandal. Respectful greeting from my wife—she tells what this good friend always offers. I salute you affectionately. C. Ortiz (Dr. Ortiz in center of photo)
Girls bodies were rigid during ecstasy! Witness Pepe Diaz: “ I touched them many times…protecting them from the many people who wanted to lay hands on them, not with bad intentions, but with the crushing and avalanche of people…that was when I felt something very extraordinary, so extraordinary that it didn’t seem like flesh, like a human person; it seemed , let’s say, like block, something rigid…I don’t know…it very difficult to explain”. Another Villager, Prudencio Gonzalez, who passed with his sheep among the girls in ecstasy in the beginnings, when they were still alone in the Calleja, tells how “he had to lean on the shoulder of one of them, and got an enormous fright, as if he had touched the mystery. The shoulder seemed not to be flesh, soft and warm, but so rigid and cold that he shivered”. Prudencio, who up to then had given no credit to the apparitions, suddenly changes his opinion in the face of this ”change of consistency”. “Garabandal:Message of Hope” by Fr. Luis Saaverdra, pg 127
“A Doctor’s experience” ( Testing Mari Loli & Jacinta in ecstasy) August 1961. Dr. Felix Gallego and his wife Josefa test the 2 girls. "Ceferino ( Loli’s Father ) told my Husband ,If as a Doctor you want to run some tests on the children,you have my permission” My husband approached the kneeling girls, grabbed Loli under her arms, and attempted to lift her. It was impossible to even budge her. She appeared welded to the floor, more like a block of stone than a little girl. The he tried to tip her over, pulling her to the \side, and again could not move her. He tried several times with no results. He couldn’t even move her enough to pass a piece of paper between her knees and the floor. " “ He then tried the same test on Jacinta with the same results. My Husband is a strong man, and it’s unbelievable that he couldn’t move two small 12 year old girls, they appeared to weigh tons.” After a while, Jacinta picked up Loli by the hips and lifted her as though she were a feather,until she almost touched the ceiling with her head. At this time she was giving rosaries to the Virgin to be kissed. “GARABANDAL JOURNAL” – MAY-JUNE 2005 Excerpted from LOS PINOS DE GARABANDAL ILUMINARAN AL MUNDO, by Josepfa Villa de Gallego.
FEBRUARY 5,1968: CONCHITA'S SECOND TRIP TO ROME The Vatican covered the expenses of Conchita's second visit to Rome again with her mother and Fr. Luna, complete discretion being then asked to Conchita. The visionary again went to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to be questioned but, this time, no longer by Cardinal Ottaviani. We hardly know anything more about the new encounter: Conchita, in fact, was even more discreet about this second trip than about the first. The archives of Fr. Luna, now deceased, will someday doubtless be of great use to us to know, at last, the nature of the conversations that took place then between the visionary and the Church authorities. It will a fortiori be the same for what the Archives of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are preserving about this matter. From 'Garabandal' Book, J. Serre, page 215
MARTHE ROBIN (MARCH 13, 1902 - FEBRUARY 6, 1981) Marthe Robin was a French Roman Catholic mystic and stigmatist and foundress of the Foyers de charité association. Paralyzed since the age of twenty-seven, and also stigmatized, Marthe Robin would spend some fifty years of her life without sleep or food, nourishing herself uniquely with the Eucharistic Bread. Fr. Combe decided to ask Marthe, whom he knew well, for her advice. The famous woman mystic welcomed him in the first months of 1971, in her house of La Plaine . Here is the account of her meeting as reported by Fr. Combe himself: Marthe Robin: “ Keep working for Garabandal without fearing what you have to suffer. Tell the 4 girls that I pray for them everyday” From 'Garabandal' Book, J. Serre, pages 228-229 Pope Francis declared her “ Venerable “ on Nov. 8,2014. The recognition of a person as “venerable” is one step in the process leading to canonization.
FEBRUARY 7, 1966 Conchita enters a convent. Many people have commented over the years “ Why didn’t the girls go into the religious life, become Nuns after the apparitions ? Most people don’t know that actually 3 of the 4 girls did enter convents ! Conchita, Jacinta, and Mari Loli did for a short time, then left for different reasons, and became boarding students instead. Mary Cruz did not go at all. On February 7,1966 Conchita (on her 17th birthday) enters the Discalced Carmelites Missionaries of Pamplona. On February 13,1966 she has a locution from Jesus. Jesus said to Conchita: “ I choose you in the world, that is, in the normal condition of the faithful, so that you would remain in it. “ Both Jacinta and Mari Loli were 16 at the time they decided to enter a convent. I guess our Lord had other plans and vocations for the girls, to remain in the world, and not hidden away in a convent. How else would we know all that we do about the apparitions and messages. ' “A decisive hour for Conchita” by Fr. Alfred Combe GARABANDAL JOURNAL JAN.-FEB. 2022 PGS 4-6
I want to wish a most Happy & Blessed 77th Birthday today to Conchita ! Her example of humility, grace, spiritual wisdom, and sacrifice , is an example for all of us to follow and emulate. May God continue to bless her, and I ask you pray for her intentions today, thank you.
February 8, 1979 2nd Interview with Dr. Morales. Dr. Luis Morales changes mind on Garabandal ! (For those who don’t know, Dr. Morales was one of the leading Physicians trying desperately to discredit the apparitions in the beginning. ) On September 3, 1978, my first visit with Dr. Morales was recorded in its totality with his consent and lasted two hours. During the interview he was somewhat reserved in explaining his change of position on Garabandal and finally, because of my insistence, he said, "Now I see the existential reality of Our Lady in Garabandal. I think of Garabandal as Fatima: a gift of Divine Providence for humanity. Garabandal truly is a gift to us from Christ through his Mother..." At the end of the interview he answered my last question by saying, "Oh, yes! Garabandal has been a manifestation of Divine Grace...!" A typed copy of this conversation was presented to Bishop del Val. He reacted with a mixture of surprise and satisfaction to the change of opinion of Dr. Morales. Signed: Father Francis A. Benac, S.J., Reprinted with kind permission from GARABANDAL JOURNAL November-December 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- February 8, 1979 2nd Interview I had a second interview with Dr.Morales and found him calm, happier and very open. In this friendly atmosphere he answered my pointed questions by saying that he accepted Garabandal as supernatural and that the messages came directly from God. Then he told me how, a month before his wife died of cancer, he had borrowed from another cancer patient a crucifix kissed by the Virgin of Garabandal and presented it to his wife to kiss. Her pains disappeared and she remained with interior peace until the end. He also told me, with evident joy, that the patient from whom he'd borrowed the crucifix miraculously recovered completely from his cancer and now works in a bank. Signed: Father Francis A. Benac, S.J., Reprinted with kind permission from GARABANDAL JOURNAL November-December 2005
FEB.8 I will be on vacation for about a week, John T will be posting my information for me. Please hold any questions for me until I return. Thank you.
February 9,1975 Conchita: “I remember I had the crucifix kissed by our lady and I said to Padre Pio “This is the cross kissed by the Blessed Mother, would you bless it? He then took the crucifix kissed by our lady and placed it in the palm of his left hand over the stigmata. Then he took my hand and placed it in his palm, closing his fingers over my hand with his right hand, he blessed my hand and the cross. I was kneeling in front of him the whole time I was there. he started holding my hand with the cross while he was talking to me. “ ( Reprinted in “Garabandal Journal” Jan-March 2023, pages 6 & 7
THE WARNING AND MIRACLE INTERVIEWS WITH THE SEERS Reprinted with kind permission from GARABANDAL International October-December 2004 February, 1977 Q. Can you tell us what the Warning will be like? A. The Warning is something that is first seen in the air everywhere in the world and immediately is transmitted into the interior of our souls. It will last for a very little time, but it will seem a very long time because of its effect within us. It will be for the good of our souls, in order to see in ourselves our conscience, the good [Conchita says we will only see the bad] and the bad that we've done. Then we'll feel a great love toward our heavenly parents and ask forgiveness for all our offences. Q. Will the Warning be felt by all people regardless of their beliefs? A. The Warning is for everybody because God wants our salvation. The Warning is for us to draw closer to Him and to increase our faith. Therefore, one should prepare for that day, but not awaiting it with fear because God doesn't send things for the sake of fear but rather with justice and love and He does it for the good of all His children that they might enjoy eternal happiness and not be lost.
Lord, let our knowledge of this precursor of our own personal judgments be an impetus for a greater devotion to the Two Hearts!
The Brown Scapular When Mary appeared as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, wearing the Brown Scapular over her arm, she instantly sent a message of its importance. It also connected the Brown Scapular to the devotions Mary talked about (the rosary, the morning offering, etc) to the Garabandal messages. A very rare photo of Karol Wojtyla ( SAINT (Pope) John Paul II ) as a young factory worker, wearing his Brown Scapular. When he was pope, in 1981 he was shot , during the operation ,he told doctors not to remove the Brown Scapular.
