Wednesday 11 January 2012

The Apparitions at Turzovka

Bishop Pavel M. Hnilica, Matúš Lašut and
Fr. Rene Laurentin at Mt. Zivcak, Turzovka

The messages given to Matúš Lašut (variously spelt as Matous Lasuta , Matthias Laschut, etc), which he reportedly recieved from the Virgin Mary at Turzovka, in former Czechoslovakia in 1958, also forewarn of a future catasrophic tsunami event caused by a mountain being thrown into the sea. While the apparitions of Our Lady at Turzovka have yet to be approved by the Church, it is a strong candidate for future recognition, due to the various miracles and healings reported at this site (see the link after the message below for a list of the miracles). Unfortunately, it can sometimes take many years for Marian apparitions to acheive formal Church approval, such as those of Our Lady of Laus - which occurred between 1664-1718, but were only officially recognised in 2008, or those of Our Lady of Good Help in Wisconsin, which took place in 1859, but were first approved in 2010. So while any apparitions still awaiting Church approval should always be considered with discernment, they should not be entirely dismissed either. 
Lašut first experienced the apparitions on 1st June 1958, while working as a forester at U Obrozku, Turzovka. He was walking through the woods, and had stopped to pray at a statue of Our Lady on a pine tree when he saw a beautiful woman arrayed in white garments who appeared to be floating in the air over a small cloud. The woman pointed to a tableux beside the pine, and Matous saw a map of the world depicted on it.


The following is a first-hand account of Matúš' experiences:


I saw a picture of the globe, or better yet a plane representing the map of the world. Below the map I noticed a black board. Whenever I did not understand something an explanation would appear on it similar to movie subtitles... I saw a total of seven different clips:
1st clip: The map was three coloured- blue, green and yellow. The symbolic meaning of the green colour was "goodness", of the yellow "evil"... Afterwards a Demand appeared on the board:
Repent! Pray for priests and the religious! Pray the Rosary!

2nd clip: I saw on the map that the yellow colour was spreading and the green was retreating, evil gaining and goodness losing ground.
3rd clip: The yellow colour has already flooded the entire world. A yellow and fiery rain was falling from the sky, as if yellow glistening pieces of tin were falling. The picture represented the sins of the entire world, multiplying of evil and its consequences. A warning appeared on the board:
If people do not amend, terrible disasters will come - separately and grouped - and people will die in many different ways.
4th clip: I saw explosions in the sea near the coast. Gigantic explosions hurled great masses of matter from its depths which flooded the earth. Wherever they fell, life ceased to exist. A warning appeared on the board: If people do not amend, they will die!
5th & 6th clips: These parts of the revelation I judged that I ought to leave for myself as a personal secret: the knowledge of them would not benefit people.
7th clip: It showed what the earth would look like if people converted and lived according to God's commandments. The earth was illuminated by the sun rays. It was covered in brilliant greenery and many beautiful flowers. Happiness, harmony and peace could be seen everywhere. The appearance of the Immaculate Conception with a magnificent Rosary in Her hand and with Her right hand outstretched as if protecting nations, radiated above the earth.



(The full text can be found here)


Another website gives a different third-person account of these events, which contains the same general content as the material above, but with a few additions:


Our Lady then signaled Matous to look in the direction of the pine; he looked and saw a tableaux showing the globe, then all the different countries on earth were displayed. Different colours now appeared on the map, some green some yellow. The water was blue. An inscription explained that the green spots indicate countries where the population is good and the yellow spots denote countries marked for destruction owing to the bad behaviour of the people. The high country is more green and the flat land more yellow. Matous sees the yellow invading and covering more countries while the green is retreating. The message was that the world is getting worse and worse. Then an inscription emerged from the words “Do penance” By and by the yellow colour had invaded all lands. Then powerful explosions burst forth over the water and land. A dense rain of small leaves fall to the earth, and upon reaching the ground, these turned into flames. Soon all the touched soil is covered by fire. Matous sees this as a punishment by God. From the indications on the map, Matous can make out which countries will be destroyed and which ones will be protected under Mary’s mantle. However the seer is not permitted to communicate these precisions to any person except to the Holy Father in Rome...


Matous was made to see the great punishment to befall the world if mankind does not return to God. The description of the chastizement was made known to the seer; yet Our Lady also said that prayer can hold off the justice of God. Matous describes it thus: (i) The sun will cease to warm, there will be cold summers with poor harvests (ii) there will be terrible floods and other misfortunes through the elements (iii) there will be earthquakes and mountains will move (iv) Churches will collapse, houses will move and be carried away by the floods...


(See here for the full text).


The messages given to Matúš Lašut contain some very strong parallels with our earlier material concerning the threat of a mega-tsunami from the collapse of the volcano Cumbre Vieja in the Canary Islands, which we have linked to the “huge mountain, burning with fire” being thrown into the sea in Rev 8:8 (see the earlier post Mega-tsunami). The phrase "I saw explosions in the sea near the coast. Gigantic explosions hurled great masses of matter from its depths which flooded the earth" sounds remarkably evocative of a a powerful volcanic eruption causing a lateral collapse, which in turn generates a mega-tsunami. As does the latter message, which describes "terrible floods and other misfortunes through the elements... there will be earthquakes and mountains will move... Churches will collapse, houses will move and be carried away by the floods..."


Another element given here sounds very similar to the warning in the Second Secret of Fatima that "various nations will be annihilated": "From the indications on the map, Matous can make out which countries will be destroyed and which ones will be protected under Mary’s mantle". Compare this to the conclusions made earlier in the post John Paul II - The Third Secret and a Prophecy of a Mega-tsunami?. Could this be the so-called "minor chastisement" of various Catholic prophecies?


Although the Bishop of Nitra issued a pastoral letter at the time, forbidding members of the diocese from taking part in the pilgrimages to Turzovka, this must be understood in the context that this part of Slovakia was still behind the Iron Curtain at this time, and therefore was part of the old communist order. The local communist regime was vehemently against the apparitions, and arrested Matúš, subjecting him to torture in a bid to force him to retract his claims. After his release he was then committed to a mental institution, and when doctors established that he was clinically sane, he was again imprisoned. The shrine at Mt. Zivcak was destroyed by the Communist Youth, and once it was rebuilt, the crowds of pilgrims making their way to Turzovka were frequently obstructed by the local authorities. The pastoral letter by the Bishop of Nitra was most likely urging the members of the diocese not to attend pilgrimages to the site of the apparitions in order to avoid conflict with the local communist government, and was not an official condemnation of the apparitions.
Lašut had very little to gain from these claims, and a great deal to lose - including his very own liberty and immediate access to his family. It is hard to imagine a family man concocting such a story merely for personal  fame. And the fact that many miracles have been connected to these apparitions further helps to bolster their authenticity.


You can find additional material on this subject at the Sanctus Christopher blog here.

12 comments:

Anne said...

Thank you for this Emmett. It is very moving. I wonder what more I can possibly do other than Repentance, Prayer and Penance (Fasting), its pretty close to a tsunami of people who don't believe in God's words, in a lot of people their souls have died before themselves...Europe is so secular and hardened. I sometimes feel so sorry for the Good Lord...I don't know what to say, He doesn't deserve this behaviour from us. Madness.

Jesus, Son of the Living God, Have Mercy on us All.

Anonymous said...

Anne the sad thing is that our churches themselves are rife with unbelief and sacrilege. Often when I attend a novus ordo mass most of the congregation are gone before the final hymn is finished. How many Catholics believe in the true presence nowadays? In fact according to surveys Catholics abort and divorce at the same rate as non Catholics.

Good orthodox priests who are trying to clean up the mess and bring reverence back to Mass whilst also speaking up against issues such as abortion get persecuted. Many bishops are too scared to speak up against the evils of the day and are in hiding as they will get smashed by the radicals in the media.

Cheers for that prophecy Emmett it is a fascinating one. I came across it briefly in a book once but was unable to find it on the net when seeking further information. I recently came across the following nun who had the stigmata who was given very dire prophecies that marry up a heap of apparitions.

http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2011/09/blessed-elena-aiello-mystic-stigmatic.html

After a series of environmental catastrophes there will be a great fire that will fall from the sky that will wipe out a large part of humanity. This coincides with Sister Sasagawas Akita apparition.

Jamey

Emmett O'Regan said...

Anne - That's the best any of us can do, individually at least. Indeed the current situation seems somewhat dire - but we must cling to the hope of the promised Outpouring of the Spirit at the Second Pentecost which will reverse this tide of secularism before the chastisement. God is forever Merciful - even in the face of such adversity. And according to the seers themselves, such punishments can be mitigated through these means.
Jamey - Thanks for pointing out the prophecies of Blessed Elena. I was thinking of posting something on this in the future.
There isn't a great deal of information available on the Turzovka apparitions. I came across a first-hand account in a book detailing how a crowd of pilgrims witnessed solar miracles at this site in 1963. I haven't came across this anywhere else, so I'll add the relevant material to this post. There were a lot of other miracles recorded here, such as the discovery of several springs with healing properties. Apparently it was prophesied by the German stigmatic Therese Neumann that there would be a second Lourdes in Slovakia, and Padre Pio vouched for the authenticity of these apparitions. But I can't find the original source for these claims. Coincidentally, Therese Neumann is also reputed to have prophesied that "America will be destroyed economically by natural disasters" after the war in 1946. http://www.spiritdaily.net/Prophecy-seers/resl1.htm
But the fact that she stated this would happen "by the end of this century" is somewhat problematic. Perhaps it could mean at the end of 100 years, which would bring us up to 2046? Either that or the prophecy is completely spurious - again no original sources are mentioned in connection to this prophecy, and there are a lot of bogus prophecies in circulation on the web.

Anne said...

Thank you Jamey and Emmett.

richard said...

Thank you for posting these little-known prophecies.

sszorin said...

The name of the seer of Our Lady is misspelled. It is Matúš Lašut, pronounced Matuush Lashut [the first "u" is long one, almost doubled and "š" is soft "s" pronounced sh. Matous Lasuta is a czech misspelling. Slovakia gained the independence on 1. of January 1993; before that it was occupied by Czechs who tried to change slovak names into czech ones. Matthias Laschut is a german transcription of his name. There are many german pilgrims coming to Turzovka and their version of the name got into the german written materials about the apparition.
A little bit more on Turzovka try - sanctuschristopher.blogspot.ca Our Lady of Turzovka.

Emmett O'Regan said...

Thanks for the info! I've updated the post to give precedence to the Slovak spelling.

heromartyr said...

the second pentecost i think is the same with THE WARNING describe in Garabandal that spoke about ILLUMINATION OF CONSCIENCE OF ALL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD,TWO COMETS WILL COLLIDE AND A CROSS WILL FORM,THE WORLD AND ALL THE PEOPLE WILL PAUSE FOR 15 MINUTES,AT THAT TIME PEOPE WILL SEE THE STATE OF THEIR SOUL.MANY WILL BE CONVERTED OTHERS CONTINUE TO SIN AS SOMETHING DOESNT HAPPEN.

Aileen Toring said...

Thank you. God bless you.

Eva Lados said...

how do you get to this apparition site? please leave message at eva.lados@utoronto.ca


Eva Lados said...

This is what I found out about trying to locate it. If I'm understanding the Hungarian accurately: I"m not translating because it talks about the train lines you can take from various directions; but anyway, you need to get yourself to the Turzovka train station (Turzovka megallo).Turzovka has 2 train stations so make sure you take Tursovka Megallo. There is a road there that leads up the mountain to the site.

Hungarian: Útirány
Ha valaki el akar látogatni Turzovkára, az útirány nyugatról: A varsói expresszel: PrágaOstrava-Cadca. Délről: Bécs-Bratislava-Piestany-Trencin-Zilina (átszállás) – Cadca. Cadcáról helyi vonattal még 15 km-re van Turzovka. Ennek két állomása van. A „Turzovka Megálló”-nál kell leszállni. Onnan indul a hegyre vezető út. Az állam szívesen látja a külföldi turistákat.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile a church has been built Bishop present.
http://www.zivcakova.sk/KUCHAR/Kuchar.html