Our Lady of Palmar ( es, Nuestra Señora del Palmar), known formally as Our Crowned Mother of Palmar ( es, Nuestra Madre del Palmar Coronada), is a Palmarian Christian title of the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

associated with an alleged

Marian apparition A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance by Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a series of related such appearances during a period of time. In the Catholic Church, in order for a reported appearance to be classified as a Marian ap ...

in the Spanish village of

El Palmar de Troya El Palmar de Troya is a village in Andalusia, Spain. In 2018, it seceded from the municipality of Utrera and became the province of Seville's 106th municipality. With a population of about 2,400, it is particularly known for the cathedral of t ...

in 1968. The apparition is not recognized by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

but is recognized by the

Palmarian Christian Church , native_name_lang = , image = File:Catedral El Palmar.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Cathedral of El Palmar de Troya , caption = Cathedral of El Palmar de Troya, seat of the Palmarian ...

, a schismatic

Independent Catholic Independent Catholicism is an independent sacramental movement of clergy and laity who self-identify as Catholic (most often as Old Catholic or as Independent Catholic) and form "micro-churches claiming apostolic succession and valid sacrament ...

denomination. The Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar, the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metro ...

of the Palmarian Christian Church, serves as the major

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

of Our Lady of Palmar and was built on the site of the alleged apparition.

Marian apparition

On 30 March 1968 four school girls from

reported having

apparitions Apparition may refer to: Supernatural *Apparitional experience, an anomalous, quasi-perceptual experience * A vision, something seen in a dream, trance, or religious ecstasy *Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear ...

of "a very beautiful lady" on a tree near the Alcaparrosa field, just outside of the town in Spanish

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

, while they were picking flowers. In the following year, several other people reported apparitions and visions of the Virgin Mary in the field. The alleged apparitions attracted large groups of

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

to the region from other parts of Spain and abroad. Visionaries reported messages from the Virgin Mary, claiming she instructed people to pray the ''

Our Father The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

'' and the

rosary The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

, and for Catholics to return to worship in the Traditional form. On 15 October 1968

Clemente Domínguez y Gómez Clemente Domínguez y Gómez (23 May 1946 – 22 March 2005) was a self-proclaimed successor of Pope Paul VI and was recognised as Pope Gregory XVII by supporters of the Palmarian Christian Church schismatic breakaway movement in 1978. His cla ...

and

Manuel Corral Manuel Alonso Corral (1934 – 15 July 2011), known by his religious name as Isidoro María and by his papal name as Peter II, was the Pope of the Palmarian Christian Church, a mysticalist group not recognised by the Catholic Church, from 2005 ...

visited the apparition site for the very first time. On 30 September 1969 Domínguez y Gómez claimed to have a vision of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

and Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. Later that year, on the eighth and fifteenth of December, he claimed to have visions of the

. He also claimed to experience

stigmata Stigmata ( grc, στίγματα, plural of , 'mark, spot, brand'), in Roman Catholicism, are bodily wounds, scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ: the hands, wrists, and feet. Stigm ...

and other

Holy Wounds In Catholic tradition, the Five Holy Wounds, also known as the Five Sacred Wounds or the Five Precious Wounds, are the five piercing wounds that Jesus Christ suffered during his crucifixion. The wounds have been the focus of particular devotions, ...

. According to Domínguez y Gómez, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ both communicated to him that the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almo ...

was the only correct form of

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

and that the

Mass of Paul VI The Mass of Paul VI, also known as the Ordinary Form or Novus Ordo, is the most commonly used liturgy in the Catholic Church. It is a form of the Latin Church's Roman Rite and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969, published by him in the 1970 ...

was blasphemy. There were also warnings that

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

were infiltrating the Catholic Church. Domínguez y Gómez went on to claim that

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

was innocent, and that he was a victim of other Catholic leaders, who were holding him hostage in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

. On 18 May 1970 Cardinal José Bueno y Monreal, the Roman Catholic

Archbishop of Seville The Archdiocese of Seville is part of the Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's ol ...

formally denounced the apparitions as "collective and superstitious hysteria". The apparition site continued to attract Roman Catholic pilgrims and so, on 18 March 1972, Cardinal Bueno y Monreal reiterated his denunciation of the apparition and visions, forbidding Catholic devotion to Our Lady of Palmar. Under his ruling, no Roman Catholic priests were allowed to make pilgrimages to El Palmar de Troya, and no acts of public worship or religious services were allowed to take place. On 30 November 1975 Domínguez y Gómez claimed to have a vision of the Virgin Mary and Christ announcing the foundation of a new religious order to reform the Church. In 1975 they founded a canonically irregular religious order, the Christian Palmarian Church of the Carmelites of the Holy Face. The order was denounced by the Archbishop of Seville who refused to ordain any priests or consecrate any religious sisters and brothers to the order. Archbishop

Ngô Đình Thục Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục () (6 October 1897 – 13 December 1984) was the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Huế, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Huế, South Vietnam, Vietnam, and later a sedevacantist bishop who was excommunicated by the V ...

ordained Domínguez y Gómez, Alonso, and two other men to the priesthood, and consecrated Domínguez y Gómez and others as bishops, granting the order

Apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...

. The papal nuncio to Spain, Luigi Dadaglio, declared Archbishop Thuc, Domínguez y Gómez, and all Palmaranian bishops

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

from the Catholic Church. The

Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible f ...

in Rome declared all clergy of the order suspended ''ipso iure''. In 1976 Domínguez y Gómez claimed to have received a private apparition from the Virgin Mary asking him to consecrate more bishops to the religious order. He also claimed to have been given messages from the Virgin Mary that Pope Paul VI would be succeeded by a valid pope and by an

antipope An antipope ( la, antipapa) is a person who makes a significant and substantial attempt to occupy the position of Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church in opposition to the legitimately elected pope. At times between the 3rd and mid- ...

, and that the Catholic Church would no longer be centered in Rome. After the death of Pope Paul VI on 6 August 1978, Domínguez y Gómez claimed to have been crowned by Christ as the new

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

of the Catholic Church, taking the papal name Gregory XVII and declaring that the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

had been transferred from Rome to El Palmar de Troya. At this time the order formed into its own

church, called the Palmarian Christian Church, and severed all ties with the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Domínguez y Gómez claimed to continue to have visions and witness apparitions of the Virgin Mary until 2000.

Marian shrine

In 1974 Domínguez y Gómez and Corral purchased the Alcaparrosa field and built an elaborate shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, surrounded by a wall. In 1978 construction began to build a larger church on the site. The shrine, known as the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar, was finished in 2014 and is used as the cathedral and headquarters of the Palmarian Christian Church.

References

{{Reflist

External links

The apparitions of the Virgin Mary in El Palmar de Troya
1968 in Andalusia Catholicism in Spain Conclavism Marian apparitions Titles of Mary Traditionalist Catholicism Province of Seville Visions of Jesus and Mary