From: Excerpts taken from Praying with the Saints for the Holy Souls in Purgatory:

At about 8 o’clock on the Thursday evening of the 21st of August, 1879, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist appeared at the South gable of the Church at Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, beside them and a little to the right was an altar with a cross and the figure of a lamb, around which angels hovered.

There were fifteen official witnesses to the apparition-young and old.  They watched it for two hours in pouring rain and recited the Rosary. Today, Knock ranks among the world’s major Marian Shrines with the full approval of the Church.  Pope John Paul II visited the shrine on September 30, 1979, presenting the Golden Rose to this Shrine.

Not everyone is aware however, that the marvelous appearance on the gable of the Knock Church came on the day when the parish priest, Archdeacon Cavanagh, finished offering, as he had promised, 100 consecutive Masses for the suffering souls in Purgatory!   A few months before the apparition the Archdeacon began to offer 100 Masses for the poor souls whom Our Lady wished most to release.  It was on the day of the one hundredth Mass was offered Our Lady came to visit Knock.

Surely, that extraordinary devotion to the Holy Souls had a part to play in the gift of the vision from Heaven.  If such a response came from heaven to Archdeacon Cavanagh, then surely Our Lady wants to encourage us all to remove the torment of our dead.  Our Lady is the mother of her children, above all her suffering children.  She is the Refuge of Sinners on earth and in Purgatory.

Indeed, we can dig deeper there for a link with our own day regarding this apparition.  The REASON the parish priest turned in this way to the Holy Souls was a painful problem similar to what affects many countries today.  A secret organization resorting to violence had threatened the priest by letter for preaching against their tactics.  They resented his condemnation of violence, which prevented them from gaining recruits in the Knock parish.  In his distress, he turned to the suffering souls and called on his parishioners to fill the church for 100 days of these offered Masses. And what an answer he was given from Heaven!

The holy souls stopped the violence through the intercession of Our Lady of Knock.

Father Cavanagh is buried on the grounds of the Knock Shrine. The altar where the 100 Masses were offered exists and is located in the chapel. Mass continues to be offered on that sacred altar to this day.

The Holy Souls in Purgatory are pleading for our Masses and prayers.  The Mass is the greatest prayer to give the Holy Souls to behold the face of God! Make their desire your desire.  Contact the Pious Union of St. Joseph www.pusj.org for Masses.

A Holy Soul said the following: “You the living can do everything for us, and we can do everything for you.  It is an exchange of prayers.”

Our Lady of Knock, pray for us!

Excerpts taken from Praying with the Saints for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, OSV, Copyright, 2009.