Interpretations and Theological Definitions of ApparitionsTo indicate apparitions, the terms «*apparition*», «*vision*», «*hearing*», «*private revelation*», etc., are often used in an ambiguous and polyvalent manner. It is true that apparitions, like visions and hearings, belong to the order of divine communication and God’s revelatory action, as they reveal certain aspects of the divine mystery, but they are not realized in the same way.Regarding the “perception” of a supernatural object, for instance, while the term “vision” is used, in an analogical sense, to describe corporeal experiences, that is, the sensible perception of an objectively invisible reality to man, imaginative experiences, that is, the perception by imagination of an object existing in the present, and intellectual experiences, that is, supernatural knowledge without object perception, the term “apparition” can be used only for corporeal and imaginative perceptions, but not for intellectual ones.Moreover, while “apparition” underlines the essential role of the object that manifests itself, Christ, Mary, a saint, etc., “vision” highlights the action of the seer who perceives the “invisible” nature of the supernatural object. The difference between “apparition” and “audition” is even more clear. While an apparition is the perception of a supernatural object, audition is the perception of a word that reveals the will of that object. Especially in recent times, these two phenomena have shown a close connection, in the sense that the seer, increasingly, not only “sees” the supernatural object, but also “hears” its word. Thus, he does not become merely a “revelator” of the supernatural object, but also its “messenger.”The terminology used to describe apparitions has not always been uniform in the history of the Church. The Council of Trent, for example, speaks of them as “special revelations,” while Benedict XIV prefers to call them “private revelations,” to clearly distinguish them from “public revelation,” from which they differ essentially (Sur Augustinus, *Le rivelazioni private nella vita della Chiesa*, pp. 29-31).There is also no unique interpretation of apparitions, due to the cultural, ideological, and religious assumptions through which they are read. A good synthesis of the various positions is offered by Stefano De Fiores:a) De Fiores defines apparitions as an hallucinatory mechanism, that is, a perception without an object. Therefore, the seers would be visionaries and the apparitions a psychic illness (Stefano De Fiores, *Maria Madre di Gesù, sintesi storico salvifica*, EDB, Bologna 1992, p. 347).b) Holstein sees in the apparition a response mechanism to three psychosocial needs: the need for verifiable facts, the need for protection and religious emotionality, and the need for security. (Stefano De Fiores, «Le apparizioni all’incrocio degli studi teologico-interdisciplinari. Stato della questione nell’odierna riflessione culturale», in Actas do Congresso Internacional de Fátima, 9-12 de outubro de 1997, Santuário de Fátima 1998, pp. 47-48.)c) Drewermann understands apparitions as a visual projection of ideal images that come from the deep layer of the human psyche. Therefore, they belong to the symbolic language and can only be interpreted through symbolic reconstruction. (Stefano De Fiores, «Le apparizioni all’incrocio degli studi teologico-interdisciplinari. Stato della questione nell’odierna riflessione culturale», in Actas do Congresso Internacional de Fátima, 9-12 de outubro de 1997, Santuário de Fátima 1998, pp. 49-51.)d) Vergote compares apparitions to dreams. Thus, they would be a representation that includes a sense of reality, made up of images and models present in memory and derived from powerful emotional motivations. (Stefano De Fiores, «Le apparizioni all’incrocio degli studi teologico-interdisciplinari. Stato della questione nell’odierna riflessione culturale», in Actas do Congresso Internacional de Fátima, 9-12 de outubro de 1997, Santuário de Fátima 1998, pp. 52-53.)e) Dierkens considers apparitions not as a pathological or religious phenomenon, but as normal manifestations of human creative experience, such as artistic creation or dreaming. (Stefano De Fiores, «Le apparizioni all’incrocio degli studi teologico-interdisciplinari. Stato della questione nell’odierna riflessione culturale», in Actas do Congresso Internacional de Fátima, 9-12 de outubro de 1997, Santuário de Fátima 1998, pp. 53-56.)A scholar who believes in God and the possibility of his revelation in history defines the apparition as «a psychic experience in which non-perceptible people by our visual and auditory faculties, though inaccessible to our human experience, enter supernaturally into the realm of the senses». (Karl Rahner, Herbert Vorgrimler, verbete «Apparizioni», in Nuovo Dizionario di Teologia, Herder, Morcelliana, Roma, Brescia 1968, p. 42.)
René Laurentin sees in an apparition “the visible manifestation of a being whose sight, in that place or at that moment, is unusual and inconceivable according to the natural order of things” (René Laurentin, entry “Apparitions” in Stefano De Fiores, Salvatore Meo, eds., *Nuovo Dizionario di Mariologia*, Edizioni Paoline, Milan 1986, p. 126).
In light of these definitions, an apparition is characterized by two elements: the “presence” of a person who is outside the ordinary sensory experience, and the “perception” of that presence through sensory knowledge. The visionary, who often falls into ecstasy, withdraws from the world around him, yet remains fully in control of his faculties, and is convinced he is in direct and immediate contact with the being who manifested. This being does not present itself as a static image, but with all the characteristics of tridimensionality, (Stefano De Fiores, *Maria Madre di Gesù, sintesi storico salvifica*, EDB, Bologna 1992, p. 348).
However, it is necessary to reaffirm a priority and a difference that qualify the dignity and truth between a theophany of historical-salvific revelation and a transcendent manifestation that does not pertain to the essence of faith. Public “revelation” is subject to the obedience of faith. Private “revelations” should be granted adherence dependent on the evidence presented and the exercise of one’s own critical sense, (Giandomenico Mucci, *Rivelazioni private e apparizioni*, p. 15).
At the boundary between natural reality and transcendent reality
According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, an apparition does not imply, in the place where it occurs, the “real” presence of the glorified body, which can only be seen where it is definitively located, (Summa Theologiae, Pars III, quaestio 76, articulus 8). He states: “The body of Christ cannot be seen in its own species unless it is in a place where it is definitively contained,” (Summa Theologiae, Pars III, quaestio 76, articulus 8).
Instead, there would be the visionary’s perception of a sensible or luminous form that represents him, which would explain, for example, how Mary appears sometimes under one form and sometimes under another, (Adolphe Tanquerey, *Compendio di teologia ascetica e mistica*, Società di San Giovanni Battista, Rome, Tournai, Paris 1927, pp. 914-915).
Saint Teresa of Jesus, on this point, writes that Jesus, after ascending into heaven, never descended to earth again to communicate with men, except through the Most Holy Sacrament (Adolphe Tanquerey, *Compendio di teologia ascetica e mistica*, Società di San Giovanni Battista, Rome, Tournai, Paris 1927, p. 915).
Starting from what Saint Thomas and Saint Teresa affirm about the immobility of the glorified body and seeking to understand what happens in an apparition, it is necessary to clarify the notions of “place of the apparition” and “place of the Transcendent.”
The “place of the appearance” is understood as a natural place inserted into history, clearly distinct from the “place of the Transcendent,” where there is no history but eternity, and which, therefore, lies beyond our categories of time and space.Yet, even the “place of the appearance,” belonging to reality and history, can be considered as “part” of God’s eternity, in the sense that all reality and all history are mysteriously “near” to Him, who is their author and Lord, from whom they depend and to whom they are oriented.From this perspective, the “place of the Transcendent,” as thought by Saint Thomas, is not a “remote” place in relation to our reality. It is so near to us that the skin is distant in comparison to the “nearness” and presence of the Transcendent among us. Both the Old and New Testaments constantly emphasize this “nearness” of God, His “being with” us, His “being near” to man and to the “places” of his history, as the author and operator of salvation.The very Quran expresses with force the idea of the extreme “nearness” of the transcendent reality to our reality, often stating that it is near to men, knows what is before them and what is behind them, so near “as the carotid” to the neck (Paolo Branca, *Introduction to Islam*, San Paolo, Milan 1995, pp. 216-217).Recognizing the extreme nearness of the place of the Transcendent to the place of time and history, one must inquire in what sense and to what extent the celestial creatures, Jesus, Mary, the Angels, and the Saints, who belong to Transcendence, are “near” to man when they become visible and how the seer perceives and lives this nearness.One might consider, excluding the “descent” of the glorified body, which is not necessary given the nearness of the two places, a “attraction” of the human person to a situation that enables her to perceive, in a “sensible” way, the presence of the Transcendent, which in any case is already near. This situation can be described as a window open, through which the human being, attracted, carried away, or transported, can see, hear, touch the transcendent “object,” and even speak with it.Paraphrasing St. Thomas, without contradicting the principle of the “static” nature of the glorified bodies, one could say that it is not so much the Transcendent that moves towards man, but the Transcendent that moves and carries away the man, making his nearness visible.What kind of contact?The mystery of Paul’s experience, “carried away” to the third heaven (2Cor 12:1-4): the contact with the Transcendent happens with the body or without the body? The Apostle could not answer. However, one can affirm that, once through the threshold of the “window” into the “reality” of the Transcendent, the seer is as if entering another dimension.His sense of time is altered. At the end of the apparition, he is unaware of how long it lasted. His perception of space is reduced to the minimum necessary. He perceives the presence of objects, the cave, the tree, the rock, etc., as if they were symbols that help him understand the meaning of the apparition and the message it conveys. His body undergoes changes not only psychic but also physical, defying the laws of earthly reality (Sur Augustinus, *Le rivelazioni private nella vita della Chiesa*, pp. 134-148). The perception and control of his own body also become functional to the apparition. Thus, while acting with maximum freedom, he performs actions as if he were “guided” or “assisted” by the Transcendent, (description of the seer’s behavior, according to observations gathered by the author).The evangelical dilemma of Thomas remains unsolved: what did he actually “touch” of the glorified body of the risen Jesus? The seer believes he touches or actually touches the glorified body? When touching this body, is it a psychic-intellectual sensitization from the Transcendent, or is there a real contact?The experience of some visionaries, such as Catherine Labouré and others of her time, supports the theory of real contact. Approaching so “really” close to the Transcendent (cf. Mt 17:1-8. *La Bibbia di Gerusalemme*, EDB, Bologna 1971, pp. 2125-2126. Rinaldo Fabris, *Matteo. Traduzione e commento*, Borla, Rome 1996, p. 381), allows the seer to see, hear, and touch serenely the transcendent object, albeit imperfectly. This occurs because he is not completely separated from his own body, which to some extent interferes with the pure and complete acquisition of celestial reality, while at the same time “translating” sensibly the data acquired in this experience.In this contact with the apparition, one must distinguish between “resistance” and “tactile sensation.” The object the seer touches is something that opposes a contrary movement. He has the impression of being before something that offers resistance to his gesture, as happens in nature when two solids come into contact. At the same time, he struggles to describe, in understandable terms, what this tactile sensation consists of, that is, to clearly say what he is touching.The object touched, the foot, the garment, the knees, the hand of the apparition, seems to him something extremely fine, like a veil of soft and delicate weave, like the calm surface of water, without, however, the sensation of heat, warmth, or cold. In short, the seer, though certain he is touching something, remains uncertain and hesitant in describing the nature of what he touches.To conclude, it can be affirmed that, given the extreme and real proximity between the “place of the apparition” and the “place of the Transcendent,” the seer is rendered capable of sensibly perceiving this “proximity.”The “place of the apparition” is nothing other than the close and privileged point of encounter with the Transcendent, the window through which the “visibility” of the supernatural becomes concrete, the “place” where the fluid and subtle wall that “separates” two distinct but extremely close realities in the eternity of God disappears completely. (The paragraph’s foundation is based on a private collection of testimonies and on personal notes and studies by the author regarding contemporary apparitions.)ConclusionReflecting on the nature of Marian apparitions requires, above all, conceptual precision and ecclesiastic discernment. Terms such as “apparition,” “vision,” and “hearing” are not equivalent, and their indiscriminate use can obscure the phenomenon rather than clarify it. Theologically, an apparition is characterized by the extraordinary presence of a transcendent subject and the sensible perception of that presence, often accompanied by a communicated word, which confers on the seer a dual role: to testify to the encounter and to transmit the message.At the same time, Church tradition recalls an indispensable hierarchy: public Revelation, culminating in Christ, demands obedience of faith, while private revelations require a prudent adherence, proportionate to the evidence and always subject to critical reasoning and pastoral judgment. Therefore, discernment is not a disciplinary detail but a service to truth and communion, aimed at embracing what builds up and avoiding what disorients.From this foundation, it becomes possible to understand the apparitions as a phenomenon situated at the boundary between natural reality and transcendent reality. Without positing a “descent” of the glorified body, the experience can be explained as a form of opening, a kind of window through which the seer becomes capable of sensing the nearness of the Transcendent, already actively present in the history of salvation. This perspective also illuminates the typical characteristics of the event: alterations in the perception of time and space, unusual bodily experiences, and sometimes the conviction of real contact, whose description remains limited by the ordinary categories of human language.Approaching Marian apparitions seriously requires a synthesis of theology, anthropology, and spiritual prudence. The safest path is neither uncritical enthusiasm nor automatic skepticism, but a reading guided by faith and oriented by the Church, capable of recognizing the primacy of the Gospel and, at the same time, evaluating the potential value of a charism that, when authentic, calls for conversion, strengthens hope, and leads with greater fidelity to Christ.For the criteria of discernment regarding Marian apparitions and their place in Catholic devotion, consult the Apostolic Exhortation *Marialis Cultus*: Theological Criteria for Marian Apparitions. Also read: Nature of Apparitions and Mary’s Presence in the Life of the Church.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and the Master’s Program in Mariology.
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Regarding the “perception” of a supernatural object, for instance, while the term “vision” is used, in an analogical sense, to describe corporeal experiences, that is, the sensible perception of an objectively invisible reality to man, imaginative experiences, that is, the perception by imagination of an object existing in the present, and intellectual experiences, that is, supernatural knowledge without object perception, the term “apparition” can be used only for corporeal and imaginative perceptions, but not for intellectual ones.Moreover, while “apparition” underlines the essential role of the object that manifests itself, Christ, Mary, a saint, etc., “vision” highlights the action of the seer who perceives the “invisible” nature of the supernatural object. The difference between “apparition” and “audition” is even more clear. While an apparition is the perception of a supernatural object, audition is the perception of a word that reveals the will of that object. Especially in recent times, these two phenomena have shown a close connection, in the sense that the seer, increasingly, not only “sees” the supernatural object, but also “hears” its word. Thus, he does not become merely a “revelator” of the supernatural object, but also its “messenger.”The terminology used to describe apparitions has not always been uniform in the history of the Church. The Council of Trent, for example, speaks of them as “special revelations,” while Benedict XIV prefers to call them “private revelations,” to clearly distinguish them from “public revelation,” from which they differ essentially (Sur Augustinus, *Le rivelazioni private nella vita della Chiesa*, pp. 29-31).There is also no unique interpretation of apparitions, due to the cultural, ideological, and religious assumptions through which they are read. A good synthesis of the various positions is offered by Stefano De Fiores:a) De Fiores defines apparitions as an hallucinatory mechanism, that is, a perception without an object. Therefore, the seers would be visionaries and the apparitions a psychic illness (Stefano De Fiores, *Maria Madre di Gesù, sintesi storico salvifica*, EDB, Bologna 1992, p. 347).b) Holstein sees in the apparition a response mechanism to three psychosocial needs: the need for verifiable facts, the need for protection and religious emotionality, and the need for security. (Stefano De Fiores, «Le apparizioni all’incrocio degli studi teologico-interdisciplinari. Stato della questione nell’odierna riflessione culturale», in Actas do Congresso Internacional de Fátima, 9-12 de outubro de 1997, Santuário de Fátima 1998, pp. 47-48.)c) Drewermann understands apparitions as a visual projection of ideal images that come from the deep layer of the human psyche. Therefore, they belong to the symbolic language and can only be interpreted through symbolic reconstruction. (Stefano De Fiores, «Le apparizioni all’incrocio degli studi teologico-interdisciplinari. Stato della questione nell’odierna riflessione culturale», in Actas do Congresso Internacional de Fátima, 9-12 de outubro de 1997, Santuário de Fátima 1998, pp. 49-51.)d) Vergote compares apparitions to dreams. Thus, they would be a representation that includes a sense of reality, made up of images and models present in memory and derived from powerful emotional motivations. (Stefano De Fiores, «Le apparizioni all’incrocio degli studi teologico-interdisciplinari. Stato della questione nell’odierna riflessione culturale», in Actas do Congresso Internacional de Fátima, 9-12 de outubro de 1997, Santuário de Fátima 1998, pp. 52-53.)e) Dierkens considers apparitions not as a pathological or religious phenomenon, but as normal manifestations of human creative experience, such as artistic creation or dreaming. (Stefano De Fiores, «Le apparizioni all’incrocio degli studi teologico-interdisciplinari. Stato della questione nell’odierna riflessione culturale», in Actas do Congresso Internacional de Fátima, 9-12 de outubro de 1997, Santuário de Fátima 1998, pp. 53-56.)A scholar who believes in God and the possibility of his revelation in history defines the apparition as «a psychic experience in which non-perceptible people by our visual and auditory faculties, though inaccessible to our human experience, enter supernaturally into the realm of the senses». (Karl Rahner, Herbert Vorgrimler, verbete «Apparizioni», in Nuovo Dizionario di Teologia, Herder, Morcelliana, Roma, Brescia 1968, p. 42.)
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