When a famous nun and her crew encountered an angel
[as told to Michael Brown for The Trumpet of Gabriel]
If there is any one center of angelic activity, it may well be Mount Gargano near the east coast of Italy.
It is a place where the Archangel Michael has manifested since A.D. 404.
An astonishing place to visit!
A cave there serves as a basilica, and the sensations of heavenly power are palpable.
Heading for this site a few years ago, on the way back from Assisi, Mother Angelica, of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), experienced one of the most dramatic angelic experiences on record. She was in the company of three other nuns and a deacon named Bill Steltemeier.
It wasn't just one angel they happened across.
It was a carload.
They were about twenty miles from the cave when the five travelers found themselves at a crossroads and couldn't decide which way to turn. There was a road to the left and a road to the right. But there were no signs, and it was something of a dead end.
All that was around were the stony hills and occasional livestock.
"I slowed down as I came to the intersection," Deacon Bill, since deceased, once told us. "All of a sudden we saw a car coming very fast from the left. It was speeding. I rolled down my window. I wanted to ask him directions.
"He slowed down to probably thirty miles an hour. There were a whole bunch of handsome men in that car, three in the front and three in the back -- in this small car.
"I'm trying to wave at them.
"They were all looking at us, smiling.
"All of a sudden a young man just jumps out of the back seat on the other side of the car while it's going thirty miles an hour and heads straight for us. The car never stopped! It just kept going. All of a sudden he comes out the back. I was just flabbergasted!
"As he walks to me, I see he is just so handsome and as I'm wondering about how he got out of the car, Mother Angelica is saying, 'It's an angel! It's an angel!'
"I'm just totally surprised. I knew Mother Angelica was saying it was an angel, but I had never seen one. I'm ready to ask him the way to the top of the Gargano when he points to the mountain to the right and says, 'That way to Gargano,' in perfect English. But he was as Italian as anyone I ever saw!
"He was extremely handsome, maybe 22 and very dynamic, yet extraordinarily young.
"I knew there was something about him that was different -- just so handsome in a way I had never seen.
"I asked if he wanted a ride. He said he would go back to the intersection -- where there were no houses and no human for twenty-five miles. It was desolate -- just livestock on the hillside," the only life rupestrine. Bill recalled that the sisters were all excited. "Mother Angelica kept repeating, 'It's an angel!'"
They started up the hill, Bill driving, the nuns looking back at the strange young man, this fellow who looked 22 and yet didn't look 22.
As they watched, the stranger walked in a pattern that formed a cross -- fifteen feet one way, then up and down. A cross! He did this six or seven times.
All of a sudden the nuns cried in unison, "He's gone!"
The helpful man had vanished before their eyes.
[see also: Encounters with a mystic named Mother Angelica]
[resources: The Trumpet of Gabriel, by Michael Brown]
[resources: Retreat: Cherry Hill, New Jersey and Retreat, Michael Brown in Vandalia, Illinois, April 23: spiritual warfare, prophecy, the afterlife, the Blessed Mother ]
[Note: Spirit Daily pilgrimage announced for Guadalupe]
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