THE EARLIEST RECORDED APPARITION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 144, 4 February 1876, Page 12

THE EARLIEST RECORDED APPARITION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

I know of no instance to my purpose earlier than a. d. 234, but it is a very remarkable one St. Gregory Nyssen, tlvn, a native of Cappadocia, in the fourth century, relates that his namesake, Bishop of Neo-Caesarea, surnamed Thaumaturgus, in the centnry preceding, shortly before he was called to the priesthood, received in a vision a Creed, which, is still extant, from the Blessed Mary at the hands of St. John. The account runs thus : He was deeply pondering theological doctrine, which the heretics of the day depraved. "In such thoughts," says his namesake of Nyssa, "he was passing the night, when one appeared, as if in human form, aged in appearance, saintly in the fashion of his garments, and very venerable both, in grace of countenance and general niein. Amazed at the sight, he started from his bed, and asked who it was, and why he came ; but on the other calming the perturbation of his mind with his gentle voice, and saying he had appeared to him by divine command on account of his doubts, in order that the truth of the orthodox faith might be revealed to him, he took courage at the word, and regarded him with a mixture of joy and fright. Then, on his sketching his hand straight forward and pointing with his fingers at something on one side, he followed with his eyes the extended hand, and saw another appearance opposite to the former, in shape of a woman, but more than human. . . . When his eyes could not bear the apparition, he heard them conversing together on the subject of his doubts ; and thereby not only gained the true knowledge of the faith, but learned their names, as they addressed each other by their respective appellations. And thus he is said to have heard the person in woman's shape bid ' John the Evangelist ' disclose to the young man the mystery of godliness ; and he answered that he was ready to comply in this matter with the wish of ' the Mother of the Lord,' and enunciated a formulary, well turned and complete, and so vanished. He, on the other hand, immediately committed to writing that divine teaching of his mystagogue, and henceforth preached in the Church according to that form, and bequeathed to posterity, as an inheritance, that heavenly teaching, by means of which his people are instructed down to this day, being preserved from all heretical evil." He proceeds to rehearse the Creed thus given : " There is One God, Father of a Living Word," &c. Bull after quoting it in his work on the Mcene Faith, alludes to this history of its origin, and adds, "No one should think it incredible that such a providence should befall a man whose life was conspicuous for revelations and miracles, as all ecclesiastical writers who have mentioned him (and who has not ?) witness with one voice." Here our Lady is represented as rescuing a holy soul from intellectual error. This leads me to a reflection. . . It is said of her in the Antiphon, " All heresies thou hast destroyed alone.mi Surely the truth of it is verified in this age, as in former times. T She is the great exampler of prayer in a generation which emphatically denies the power of prayer in toto, which determines that fatal laws govern the universe, that there cannot be any direct communication between earth and heaven, that God cannot visit His earth, and that man cannot influence His providence. (Anglican Difficulties," p. 423.) — From Dr. Newman's Writings.