Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church

P. Torres St., Poblacion,
Lipa City, Batangas
Philippines 


About the Place:

The Carmel monastery is a very famous destination to pilgrims. On January 24, 1991, the monastery was miraculously showered with rose petals. The showering of petals occurred not only once but several times. What many people don't know is that the miracle at Mt. Carmel in Lipa City goes beyond petal showers and can be traced back to decades earlier.

Excerpt from The Poor Traveler blog:

The Apparition of 1948

On September 12, 1948, at five in the afternoon, nun Teresita Castillo was at the garden when she saw a vine shake and heard a female voice speak to her: “Fear not my child. Kiss the ground. Whatever I tell you to do, you must do. For fifteen consecutive days, come to visit me here in this spot. Eat some grass, my child.”

Castillo followed what she was told. The next day,  again at 5pm, she returned to the site. As she was saying the Hail Mary — right when she was at the phrase “full of grace” — the vine shook again and a lady in pure white with a cloth belt and a white veil that reached her feet, stepping on what looked like clouds, appeared before her. A golden rosary was said to be hanging from the lady’s right hand. The lady told her to have that spot in the garden blessed. Castillo shared the lady’s wishes with the Mother Priores Ma. Cecilia de Jesus, who then asked Lipa’s auxiliary bishop, Most Reverend Alfredo Obviar to heed the request. It was the start of the many miracles that took place at the Carmel Monastery including the very first shower of rose petals on September 14.

On September 27, 1948, the lady introduced herself as the Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace. She allegedly appeared to Castillo 19 times.

Of course, not everyone is convinced. Controversies surrounded the events in 1948. After investigation, the Local Church ruled negatively. The Church declared: “We, the undersigned Archbishops and bishops, constituting for the purpose a special Commission, having attentively examined and reviewed the evidence and testimonies collected in the course of repeated, long and careful investigations, have reached the unanimous conclusion and hereby officially declare that the above mentioned evidence and testimonies exclude any supernatural intervention in the reported extraordinary happenings- including the shower of petals – at the Carmel of Lipa.”

 All materials related to the apparitions were ordered to be destroyed — including Teresita’s and the Mother Prioress’ diaries. The statue, which the Lady asked to be built, was spared when the nuns at the covent kept it away. The Mother Prioress and the Bishop were released of their jobs, and Castillo left the convent. The convent was sealed and no one inside was allowed to communicate with anyone outside.

The committee of bishops who decided on the matter appeared unanimous in ruling that the Lipa miracles were not supernatural. Some of them, however, confessed that they had been coerced to sign the negative results because of the threat of excommunication.

Regardless, many devotees — especially those who claim to have experienced the shower of petals — believe that the happenings in 1948 were miraculous and heavenly.