Heaven, the Believers' Reward
When believers and seers themselves died, other seers saw them in purgatory or heaven. In September 1932 those around Benita asked her to ask the Virgin if the seer María Celaya, who was gravely ill, would recover. Benita seemed to see María in purgatory.
I saw the seer but only her head. Her face was very disfigured, and she seemed to be suffering a lot. I do not know where she was, since the place was so dark. After the vision, which was about six o'clock in the evening, they told me that she had died that morning.[14]
B 491. Boué, 143, gives a more complex version.
José Garmendia reported that the servant seer Carmen Visa, who died two weeks after María Celaya, spent only a few moments in purgatory before going to heaven.
In January 1934 Martín Ayerbe learned that the sister of the parish priest of Zegama was in heaven. Three weeks later Conchita Mateos in vision spoke to the dead woman, before about twenty people in Beasain. Juan Bautista Ayerbe described how Conchita made the connection.
Next, and with the desire I had not mentioned to anyone, not anyone, to know if the late Ramona Oyarbide, a very fervent devotee of the Holy Aparitions
of Ezkioga who died in Cegama last January 21, was in heaven, I gave the girl a death card I had received from the parish priest of that village, the brother of the deceased. The girl, without opening the card, became very excited, "Is that Ramona? You must be better there than here! You left this earth, for you were so sad, and now you are in delight for eternity! How many times would you say, 'When will I be in heaven?' Well, now you are in the heaven you so desired. There you are together with Gemma and Mama [Amatxo , referring to Mary]." (When the vision was over the seer responded to my questions by saying she had seen the deceased together with Gemma and the Most Holy Virgin, and that she had never met her in real life.)
Then in the same trance the girl replied in writing to three letters, one of which, with four questions for the Virgin, was mine. Her answers fit the questions EVEN THOUGH THE GIRL HAD NOT READ THEM . She distributed flowers as directed by the Most Holy Virgin, had certain objects blessed, and began to dictate to me the following while not losing sight of the vision.
The Virgin's subsequent message as relayed by Conchita put the vision of Ramona Oyarbide in perspective, for in fact it did not refer to the woman at all. The Virgin told those who still believed in Ezkioga (it was only ten days after the Vatican backed Bishop Múgica's September 1933 decree denying that the visions were supernatural) how lucky they were. Through Conchita the Virgin asked those present if they led better lives since they learned of the apparitions. When they answered that they thought they did, the Virgin praised their loyalty and pointed out that when she first appeared many thousands came by bus, train, and on foot, and "many of the little angels came down from heaven as well."
The Virgin described for the believers the spirit in their little community, a spirit I still felt in the 1980s and 1990s when speaking to its last original members.
"Look how happy you are together at this moment! How many such happy moments you have had together since I appeared! Above all, how often you get together to tell stories to each other! Even if they are always the same, you never tire of hearing them. You are told them, you are told them, and you always want to hear them. You ask each other if you have more stories. And if you do, you are all happy; and if you don't, then you go back to repeating the previous ones!"
Conchita said to the Virgin, "You must laugh at us, Mother! Because what can we do? We like your things so much! We are always talking about you, so we are always wanting you to come so we can hear your stories. Keep on, keep on, for we do not tire of them!"
Juan Bautista Ayerbe's sister-in-law made an aside to him, "Others from Urnieta would have wanted to be here." Whereupon the Virgin said something
to Conchita, who replied, "Yes, Mother, that is true, and many who are nearby do not want to come and hear you. Jesus says, 'I come to you and you reject me.'" Finally, after a vision that lasted forty-five minutes, the Virgin departed.[15]
Juan Bautista Ayerbe, "Visión de la Niña Conchita Mateos, en Beasain 10 Fbro. 1934," 2 pages, dittoed, signed by Conchita Mateos, AC 307 and 308.
This account shows us two phases of the presence of the dead at Ezkioga. In the first the dead came down with the Virgin as little angels while the great public visions were taking place, and the angels were one more factor among many that authenticated the visions. In the second, with the visions discredited and the believers on the defensive, heaven was a reward for continued belief. By the end of October 1931 the Catalans knew that those who came from far away believing in the apparitions would go straight to heaven without passing through purgatory. In this phase appearances by the dead helped maintain the morale and loyalty of the living. Believers led lives of heavenly joy, enriched by heavenly stories brought to them by the Virgin. In both phases the dead were benign spectators at the visions.[16]
For Catalans see García Cascón to Vallet, 31 October 1931, AHCPCR 10-A-27/2. Garmendia told García Cascón, José María Boada, and Manuel Esquisabel on 9 December 1931 that if they kept on as they were then [leading a good life], they would not go to purgatory (SC E 237).
But there was an obverse, dark side to the believers' assurance: doubters would go to purgatory, unbelievers to hell. Seers saw some people in purgatory for not believing enough—the brother-in-law of a fervent believer in Ormaiztegi, because he was skeptical about the visions and did not attend the local sessions, and Juan José Echezarreta, for giving in to government pressure and removing the image from the holy place. José Garmendia warned a man from Sabadell who had asked for a blessing that the Virgin of Ezkioga had said "they have to believe in her, and if they do not believe now, at the end they will not have time to believe in her. It will be useless to ask for forgiveness at the last hour. He who does not believe in her does not believe in God Our Lord." Hell was considered a sure punishment for those active in suppressing the visions.[17]
Garmendia in SC E 241-242. Condemnation of nonbelievers: López de Lerena to Burguera, 26 July 1933, private archive; B 690-693; Albiztur girls told Gregorio Aracama, Juan Celaya, Albiztur, 6 June 1984, pp. 29-30; Pío Montoya, San Sebastián, 7 April 1983, p. 13; of governor of Gipuzkoa, PV, 4 November 1932.
The people of the Goiherri at this time took sudden death when not in a state of grace to be divine punishment and almost certain damnation. Writing about Ataun in 1923, the Basque ethnographer Jose Miguel de Barandiarán observed: "We have never had a homicide, but we have had deaths by accident at work. In these cases one of the things that most torments the family is that the deceased was not able to receive the last rites."[18]
Barandiarán, AEF, 1923, p. 113; Patxi Goicoechea of Ataun claimed to see in hell a worker who had once been his friend and who had died suddenly (Boué, 143). For long history see Schmitt, Les Revenants, 257.
When the vicar general Justo de Echeguren died in an automobile accident on 16 August 1937 without last rites, Ezkioga believers felt the dire prophecies had come true (as did believers in the visions at Garabandal in Cantabria when the bishop Vicente Puchol died in a traffic accident on Saint Michael's Day 1967). But by the same token others read Patxi's sudden death in a fall from scaffolding as proof that the visions were not authentic. The most frightening aspect of the chastisement seers predicted for unbelievers is that death would be so sudden as to preclude repentance.But believers could be sure of their place. Conchita Mateos, who had witnessed other believers in heaven, was seen there herself after her death. Esperanza Aranda saw a host of deceased seers and believers in heaven, including Tomás Imaz, Soledad de la Torre, Juana Aguirre, Juliana Ulacia, Patxi, Cruz Lete, and
a number of relatives of her followers. In a vision message narrated by Juan Bautista Ayerbe on 8 December 1950 Aranda was given a glimpse of heaven, and at the request of Conchita's mother, who was present, the deceased Conchita even spoke.
Now [Aranda] feels herself transported to heaven, and she exclaims, "But Mother, where am I, in heaven or on earth? What music! The angels and saints are singing as a choir 'Tota Pulcra est María.'" At this moment something surprising happens, for one of those present, the mother of the former Conchita Mateos (who died in a Franciscan convent as Madre Sor Ana María), exclaims, "Since today is her saint's day, let Conchita speak to us."
And then the seer says, "I see a dwelling where the glorious souls are carrying what seem to be palm fronds, and one of them comes forward. It is Conchita! Now she prostrates herself at the feet of the Mother and Queen of Heaven and kisses her hands and feet. Conchita is now about to speak: 'Two words for my parents. Mother and father, now you see that I am in heaven. I wait for your arrival here soon. So continue to be models of sanctity, setting a good example everywhere … The same goes for my brothers. Be holy, which is the only thing you should desire in this world. In heaven I never forget you. I intercede so you will be happy not bodily but spiritually, which is much greater. You will never be in need of bread, and as until now, peace will never be lacking in your household. From heaven I contemplate you and help you, and I see you are happy, for which I give thanks to my Lord and Master. Do not worry. You will get the warning that in due time I will bring to you. You will be protected against all harm by your dear Mother until one day we will be able to see each other and embrace each other for always, dear parents, in the heavenly land.'"[19]
"Mensaje de la Stma. Virgen. 8 Dic. 1950 ¡La Inmaculada! Grandiosa vision. Consoladoras manifestaciones de nuestra amorosísima Madre del Cielo. Al final, sorprendente mensaje familiar de una alma gloriosa, que fué vidente y murió en un convento en olor de santidad," 2 pages, AC 159.
From heaven Conchita could provide a valuable service, a warning of impending death so that her relatives could prepare themselves, and could live in the meantime without anxiety.
This vision, however rudimentary, of a heavenly space was unusual for the Ezkioga seers. Another seer who described heaven was connected only indirectly with Ezkioga. Anna Pou i Prat was a servant about twenty years old on an estate in Tona in the province of Barcelona. From Tona two bus excursions had gone to Ezkioga in November 1931, and two women from nearby Vic had had visions on the Aulina trips.[20]
A salesman from Vic happened on the crowd at Ezkioga 17 October 1931: Vigatà, Gazeta de Vich, 22 October. The first trip from Tona and Vic went October 19-23 and another was planned for a week later (Gazeta de Vich, 24 October; EM, 8 November). There was a favorable lecture in Vic by Joaquim Soler i Tures on 11 April 1932 (Gazeta de Vich, 9 and 13 April; EM, 13 April).
Pou i Prat was orphaned at a young age. On 31 January 1933 she experienced what seemed to be a miraculous cure of an infected ankle. The cure occurred during a novena to Our Lady of Lourdes and after prayers at a local shrine to the Virgin. An Ezkioga enthusiast described the cure in a local newspaper, possibly enhancing the matter for Anna herself, and she saw the Virgin for the first time a week later.[21]
SC E 555-777 (22 February to 10 June 1933) and Cardús's correspondence with the enthusiast Paulí Subirà of Vic, the Galobart family of Mas Riambau, and Miguel Fort of Santa Eulàlia de Riuprimer (21 February 1933 to 5 October 1933, ASC). Subirà, Gazeta de Vich, 6 February 1933; there was a Lourdes chapel next to the estate; Anna Pou had prayed at Our Lady of La Gleva.
The Vic enthusiast alerted Cardús, who visited the new seer on February 26. Subsequently Anna's visions became more complex and tortured. Although her employers first believed her, they fired her on March 20, and she went back to her aunt's house, where she claimed to suffer the Passion on Fridays and receive mystical Communion. She also felt the devil was after her. One of her aunts believed that Anna was mentally ill and that reading Galgani's Letters and Ecstasies, a gift from Cardús, had made her worse. No one besides Cardús and his friends heeded the girl, and even they stopped coming in June 1933 after threats from Anna's neighbors.
Five days after her first vision Anna claimed to visit heaven. In the presence of other servants she fell on the floor as if her soul had departed and she had died, and later she said the Virgin had taken her up higher than the stars. As Cardús told it:
She entered heaven, and the Virgin let her see her mother, who was very resplendent, and then the Crucified Jesus, from whose wounds blood dripped. Heaven seemed to her like immense, grandiose vaults, with a very brilliant, slightly bluish, light. After a little while there, the Virgin said to her, "Come, go back to earth, for your body [left behind on earth] will get cold."[22]
SC E 581-583.
Like most of the Ezkioga visionary dead, Anna Pou's mother did not speak. When Conchita Mateos spoke from heaven, Juan Bautista Ayerbe was surprised, because it is virtually the only time that a seer relayed to him a dead person's words.