Our Lady of Akita: the Japanese apparitions and the three messages

The shrine of Akita (Japan) and the apparitions of 1973-1979 to Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa

Our Lady of Akita refers to the Marian apparitions that took place in Akita, Japan, between 1973 and 1981, to Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa, a member of the Pius X Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacrament. The site of the apparitions is the small religious community of Yuzawadai, in Akita, where a wooden statue of Our Lady began to weep blood and tears, a phenomenon verified 101 times between 1975 and 1981. The apparitions were approved by the Bishop of Niigata, John Shojiro Ito, in 1984, and confirmed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Benedict XVI) in 1988 as “worthy of belief.”

Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa: the healing of her deafness, the stigma on her left hand and the beginning of the apparitions

Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa was born in 1931 in Niigata, Japan, and converted to Catholicism in 1949. She became deaf in 1973, precisely in the period when the apparitions began. On June 12, 1973, a voice guided her to pray before the wooden statue of Our Lady. On June 27, the statue began to bleed from its right hand. Agnes reported three distinct messages received during that period. Remarkably, her deafness was miraculously healed in 1982, on the feast of Pentecost, and this healing was attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Akita.

The three messages of Our Lady of Akita (1973): conversion, reparation and the future chastisements

First Message (July 6, 1973): “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him. So that the world may know His anger, the Heavenly Father is about to inflict a great chastisement on all humanity. Pray the Rosary with fervor, in reparation for the sins committed continually.”

Second Message (August 3, 1973): “If men do not repent and do not better themselves, the Father will punish men more severely than He did in the flood. A chastisement greater than the flood will come. Fires will fall from the sky and will annihilate a great part of humanity. The survivors will be so sorrowful that they will envy the dead.”

Third Message (October 13, 1973): “As I said, if men do not repent and do not better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible chastisement on all humanity. It will be a chastisement greater than the flood. The devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that you will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises.”

The tears of the statue: 101 episodes between 1975 and 1981 and the scientific testimonies

The statue of katsura wood (a tree native to Japan) began to weep on January 4, 1975, and wept 101 times until September 15, 1981. The tears were analyzed and confirmed to be human fluid of unknown origin. Professor Kaoru Sagisaka, a specialist in forensic medicine at Akita University, confirmed that the samples had the characteristics of living human tissue. The tears attracted global media attention and were the principal factor behind the formal ecclesiastical investigation.

The ecclesiastical approval: Bishop Ito (1984) and the confirmation of Cardinal Ratzinger (1988)

On April 22, 1984, Bishop John Shojiro Ito issued the Pastoral Letter “To venerate Our Lady of Akita,” declaring the apparitions and the phenomena to be “supernatural” and “worthy of belief.” In 1988, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, confirmed this approval, declaring that the apparitions of Akita were in accord with the message of Fatima. Akita is one of the few Marian apparitions approved in Asia. Outside Europe, another recent approval is that of Kibeho (Rwanda, 1981-1989), recognized in 2001.

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See also: Complete guide to the Marian Apparitions approved by the Church

See the complete list of Marian apparitions recognized by the Church.