1973 - Our Lady of Akita

The apparitions of Our Lady of Akita were reported in 1973 by Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in the remote area of Yuzawadai, near the city of Akita in Japan. For several decades, Agnes Sasagawa had encountered many health problems but her health reportedly improved after drinking water from Lourdes. After going totally deaf, she went to live with the nuns in the remoteness of Yuzawadai. In 1973 she reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary, as well as stigmata and a weeping statue of the Virgin Mary that continued to weep over the next six years on 101 occasions. According to EWTN, up to November 2011 no ecclesiastical decree appears to exist from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.[64] However, some individuals, such as former Ambassador of the Philippines to the Holy See, Mr. Howard Dee, have stated that they were given private assurances by Cardinal Ratzinger of the authenticity of Akita. In any case, in keeping with the current norms, given the absence of a repudiation of Bp. Ito's decision by his successors, or by higher authority, the events of Akita continue to have ecclesiastical approval.

more infos:

http://www.marypages.com/Akita.htm

In 1973, the Blessed Virgin Mary gave Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in Akita, Japan, three Messages through a statue of Mary. Bathed in a brilliant light, the statue became alive and spoke with a voice of indescribable beauty. Her Guardian Angel also appeared and taught her to pray.

Hundreds of people witnessed many of these events. Scientific analysis of blood and tears from the statue, provided by Professor Sagisaka of the faculty of Legal Medicine of the University of Akita, confirmed that the blood, tears, and perspiration were real human tears, sweat, and blood. They came from three blood groups: O, B, and AB.
Sister Agnes also has the stigmata on the right palm. A Korean woman with terminal brain cancer received immediate healing while praying before the statute in 1981. The miracle was confirmed by Dr. Tong-Woo-Kim of the St. Paul Hospital in Seoul and Fr. Theisen, President of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Seoul. The second miracle was the complete cure of the total deafness of Sister Agnes.The wooden statue, about 3 feet high, had been carved by an artist on the request of the Sisters of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Eucharist, founded by the local Bishop, Most Rev. John Shojiro Ito, of the Diocese of Niigata. This statue, from which the voice came, wept 101 times over a course of several years, from January 4, 1975, to September 15, 1981, the Feast of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows. It also perspired abundantly, and the perspiration sent out a sweet perfume. Its right palm bled from a wound that had the form of a cross.

Miraculous events

The events began on June 12-14, 1973. During these days, Sister Agnes saw a brilliant light coming from the tabernacle. On Thursday, June 28, eve of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Sister Agnes again saw a blinding light from the Blessed Sacrament, rays of light, and a multitude of angels surrounding the altar in adoration before the Host.
In the evening, another mysterious event occurred. While praying in the chapel, Sister Agnes felt as though something pierced the palm of her left hand. There, in the center of her palm, were two red scratches in the form of a cross. As days went by, the pain became increasingly intense.
This phenomenon recurs every week, and Bishop Ito himself witnesses it: on Thursday evening, the wound is still dried out, but it begins to swell up, and scratches form on the skin. On Friday morning, blood flows and impregnates the bandages of gauze. On Saturday morning, the wound stops bleeding and becomes dry again. This phenomenon lasted the whole month of July.
On July 6, the Guardian Angel appeared to Sister Agnes, and said: “Do not fear. I am the one who is with you and watches over you. Do not fear. Pray with fervor not only because of your sins, but in reparation for those of all men. The world today wounds the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord by its ingratitudes and injuries. The wounds of Mary are much deeper and sorrowful than yours. Let us go and pray together in the chapel.”

Messages of Mary

In the chapel, the statue of the Virgin Mary came to life, and a voice of indescribable beauty struck her totally-deaf ears. This was to be the first Message of Mary:
“My daughter, My novice, you have obeyed Me well in abandoning all to follow Me. Is the infirmity of your ears painful? Your deafness will be healed, be sure. Be patient. It is the last trial. Does the wound of your hand cause you to suffer? Pray in reparation for the sins of men. Each person in this community is My irreplaceable daughter. Do you say well the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist? Then, let us pray it together:
“Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in the Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart, being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father, pleading for the coming of His Kingdom. Please receive this humble offering of myself. Use me as You will for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.
“Most Holy Mother of God. Never let me be separated from Your Divine Son. Please defend and protect me as Your special child. Amen.”
As her Guardian Angel had told her, a cross-shaped wound, similar to that of Sister Agnes, appeared in the right hand of the statue of the Blessed Virgin, and blood started to flow.
On August 3, 1973, the First Friday of the month, Sister Agnes received the second Message from Mary:
“My daughter, My novice, do you love the Lord? If you love the Lord, listen to what I have to say to you. It is very important. You will convey it to your superior.
“Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with My Son, for souls who will repair, by their suffering and their poverty, for the sinners and ingrates.
“In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With My Son, I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him and form a cohort of victim souls.
“Prayer, penance, and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father's anger. 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. Recite the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist with awareness of its meaning; put it into practice: offer (whatever God may send) in reparation for sins. Let each one endeavour, according to her capacity and position, to offer herself entirely to the Lord.
“Even in a secular institute, prayer is necessary. Already souls who wish to pray are on the way to being gathered. Without attaching too much attention to the form, be faithful and fervent in prayer to console the Master.”
It was on Saturday, October 13, the anniversary day of the last Apparition of the Virgin Mary to the three children of Fatima, that Mary gave to Sister Agnes Her third Message, the most important and serious one:
“If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the Bishops and the priests.
“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see Cardinals opposing Cardinals, Bishops against other Bishops. The priests who venerate Me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres (other priests). Churches and altars will be sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.
“The demon will be especially implacable against the souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of My sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will no longer be pardon for them.
“...Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able to still save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in Me will be saved.”
The last Sunday of May, 1982, during the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Sister Agnes was completely cured from her deafness.

Approval of the local Bishop

After having himself been an eyewitness of the events, and having carefully investigated them for years, Most Rev. John Shojiro Ito, Bishop of Niigata (the diocese Akita belongs to) declared the events of Akita, Japan, to be of supernatural origin, and authorized throughout the entire diocese the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita, in a long message which he ordered to be read in every parish of his diocese on Easter Sunday, April 22, 1984.. He said: “The Message of Akita is the Message of Fatima.”

Approval of Rome

Bishop Ito went to Rome a third time in June of 1988 to seek the opinion of the Holy See. “I was worried because of the seriousness of the Message,” he said. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reassured Bishop Ito that he had acted properly, and gave definitive judgement on the Akita events and Messages as reliable and worthy of belief.

This article was published in the October-November-December, 2005 issue of “Michael”.

Timeline

1930
Agnes Sasagawa is born.
May 12, 1973
Agnes enters the convent of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Eucharist in Akita, Japan.
June 12, 1973
Sr. Agnes encounters on several occasions a bright light emanating from the tabernacle in the chapel and "spiritual beings" worshipping the Eucharist. She reports these experiences to Bishop John Ito.
June 1973
Sr. Agnes begins to experience the stigmata. On Thursdays she feels initial pain and on Fridays and Saturdays finds a cross of blood on her left hand.
July 6, 1973
Sr. Agnes encounters her guardian angel and subsequently a three-foot high wooden statue of the Virgin ablaze with light. The statue spoke to Agnes and asked her to pray for the reparation of the sins of humanity and to follow her superior. After the apparition, Agnes and the other nuns discover a bleeding wound in the hand of the statue.
July 26, 1973
The angel appears again and promises that the pain in her wound would subside.
Aug 3, 1973
The statue speaks again and warns of a great chastisement.
Sep 29, 1973
The statue stops bleeding but tears start flowing down its cheeks.
Oct 13, 1973
Sr. Agnes receives her last message from the Virgin. She was told that the Father would inflict a terrible punishment on humanity, that fire would fall from the sky and wipe out part of the population, and that the devil would infiltrate the Church.
May 1974
The angel tells Agnes that her hearing will be temporarily restored and then permanently cured later.
Oct 13, 1974
Agnes temporarily regains her hearing.
Jan 1975
The tears, sweat and blood from the statue were sent for laboratory analysis.
Dec 1975
The angel appears again.
Sep 15, 1981
The statue weeps for the 101-st and last time
Sep 28, 1981
Her guardian angel shows her a vision of the Bible and asks her to read Genesis 3:15: "I will place enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman (Mary), between thy seed and hers. She will crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."
Aug 4, 1981
Theresa Chun is cured of a brain tumor after praying to our Lady of Akita.
May 30, 1982
Agnes' hearing is restored permanently in accord with the promise of the angel.

June 1988
In 1988, Bishop Ito brought his letter to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- who allowed the pastoral letter and its dissemination to the faithful.

Description of the Virgin

In the events of Akita, there was no "apparition" of the Virgin. Agnes reported the apperance of her guardian angel but the messages attributed to Mary were said to emanate from a bleeding 3-foot high wooden statue. The wooden statue in the convent at Akita was carved by a Buddhist woodcarver from an identical image of The Lady of All Nations.

Messages

The Virgin delivered messages 3 times in 1973 (July 6, August 3, and October 13). Her guardian angel appeared an additional 4 times.

"As for the content of the messages received, it is no way contrary to Catholic doctrine or to good morals. When one thinks of the actual state of the world, the warning seems to correspond to it in many points. The Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith has given me directives in this sense that only the bishop of the diocese in question has the power to recognize an event of this kind."

Bishop John Shojiro Ito, the Diocesan Bishop of Niigata

Miracles, Cures, and Signs

The statue wept 101 times. Her guardian angel explained it with the following: "There is a meaning to the figure 101 (the number of times the statue wept). This signifies that sin came into the world by a woman and it is also by a woman that salvation came into the world. The zero between the two signifies the Eternal God who is from all eternity until eternity. The first one represents Eve, and the last, the Virgin Mary."

The actual weeping of the statue was not only witnessed by the local bishop but was shown on national Japanese TV.

Theresa Chun, a Korean woman diagnosed with a brain tumor, placed an image of Our Lady of Akita under her pillow and prayed to her for a miraculous healing. On August 4, 1981, the tumor was found to have disappeared. This healing was well documented by Fr. Joseph Oh of Seoul, S. Korea.

In May 1982, her angel told Agnes that her hearing would be permanently restored that month, and on May 30 the deafness was cured. (Tests performed on Agnes at the Akita Muncipal Hospital in 1975 had confirmed that she was deaf and that her deafness was incurable.)

Approval

The first tests on the samples of blood, tears, and sweat from the statue were performed by Professor Eiji Okuhara, a Catholic physician in the Akita University Department of Biochemistry and a former Rockefeller Foundation fellow. Professor Okuhara, who had witnessed the weeping statue himself, also passed the samples on to a non-Christian forensic specialist, Dr. Kaoru Sagisaka. The scientists confirmed that the samples were of human origin- the blood was found to be type B and the sweat and tears were type AB.

Initially the nun's claims were rejected by an archbishop, then accepted by the bishop of her actual diocese, Most Reverend John Shojiro Ito of Niigata, who on April 22, 1984, after years of extensive investigation, declared the tears to be of supernatural origin and authorized veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita.
"After the inquiries conducted up to the present day, one cannot deny the supernatural character of a series of unexplainable events relative to the statue of the Virgin honored at Akita (Diocese of Niigata). Consequently I authorize that all of the diocese entrusted to me venerate the Holy Mother of Akita."

Bishop John Shoojiroo Ito of Niigata (April 22, 1984)
Bishop Ito was apprehensive over the reaction of the Vatican to his pastoral letter, but when he brought his letter to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- in 1988, the cardinal, who was initially disinclined toward the revelation, allowed the pastoral letter and its dissemination to the faithful.

Prayers

Eucharistic Prayer of Akita
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in the Holy Eucharist,
I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart,
being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father,
pleading for the coming of His Kingdom.

Please receive this humble offering of myself.
Use me as you will for the glory of the Father and the
salvation of souls.

Most Holy Mother of God, never let me be separated from Your Divine Son.
Please defend and protect me as Your special child.
Amen.

Our Lady of Akita