Akita, Japan (1973-81)
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Summary
Sister Agnes Sasagawa of the Handmaids of the Eucharist received
101 messages emanating from a bleeding wooden statue.
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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.
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| July 6, 1973 |
Sr. Agnes encounters her guardian angel and subsequently a three-foot
high wooden statue of the Virgin (Our Lady of All Nations) 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 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." |
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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. |
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April 22, 1984 |
Approved by Bishop John Shoojiroo Ito of Niigata |
June, 1988 |
Approved by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect, Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith |
Photo Gallery
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
Click here to read messages.
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.
"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."
April 22, 1984 approved by Bishop John Shoojiroo Ito of Niigata
June, 1988 approved by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect, Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith
Books and Videos
God-Sent: A History of the Accredited Apparitions of Mary
by Roy Abraham Varghese
Akita:
The Tears and Message of Mary
by Teiji Yasuda (Preface), John M. Haffert (Translator) (June 1989)
Akita: Mother of God As Coredemptrix Modern Miracles of Holy Eucharist
by Francis Mutsuo Fukushima (December 2000)
Meetings
with Mary
Janice T. Connell
Divine
Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Arts
by Melissa R. Katz (Editor), et al
The Meaning of Akita
by John M. Haffert
Akita - The Tears and Message of Mary and The Meaning of Akita
By Fr. Teiji Yasuda, O.S.V.
Our Lady of Akita (Japan) 68 min 1993
The Messages of Our Lady in Akita 60 min 1994
A Hill of Redemption (Talk of Sr. Agnes, Fr. Yasuda and Bishop Ito ) 101 minutes
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.
Links
The Work
of God
The Circle of Prayer
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