The Knock Apparition · The Night It Rained

On an evening in August 1879 the people of Knock said that figures of the Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John appeared outside the church wall, with an altar. They watched in the rain for two hours, and none of them got wet.

A shrine was later built there, and it became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Ireland. In 1979 the Pope visited, and hundreds of thousands came.

When the old people of the village tell it, they describe the scene and not the meaning: that night the ground was wet, and the place where we stood was dry.

Folklore / Mayo · Ireland / 1879