People Who Have Had Miraculous Visions

Basic Info

Throughout Christian history, but perhaps more often in the last 500 years, some people have claimed that Jesus or Mary or another saint have appeared to them and asked them to do something or to share a message. Joan of Arc in France, Juan Diego in Mexico, Sister Agnes in Japan, and many others have reported and acted upon such events. Authorities in the various Christian communities investigate claims of apparitions and accept some as authentic. This process does not necessarily mean that the claimed apparitions that Church authorities do not accept are then ignored by the faithful; often people continue to flock to the apparition site in spite of the official disapproval.

The persons to whom these visions appear are revered as having a special connection with God. The site of the apparition often becomes a pilgrimage site. Lourdes in France is one such pilgrimage site; it often honors the healings that occur for pilgrims by displaying their discarded crutches and other assistive devices.

In most cases, art tradition includes some reference to the apparition itself in the depiction of the saint, though Joan of Arc would be a notable exception to this trend.

What to Look For

• The physical appearance of the person who is seeing the vision (expression, gaze, posture, emotion, etc.)
• The physical relationship between the apparition and the person having the vision (near, far, above, below, etc.)
• The details of the apparition (Some apparitions have a characteristic iconography that is used to always reference the particular apparition story.)

Questions to Focus a General Interpretation

Notice that the artwork creates a visual presentation of someone else’s vision. Does the artist seem to be simply reporting the story, retelling it for an audience, or taking it a step further into a statement of faith? or perhaps a question of faith?

Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation

What is your emotional response to the artwork? Does it engender faith or doubt?

It is easy to bring a critical, scientific, historical consciousness to such events and dismiss them as hallucinations or some other scientifically explainable event, but what would it take for you to believe something like this (even if not this particular story)?

Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation



What might have been going on in the artist’s (or patron’s) time and place that would have made it important to depict such an event? Was anything going on that would have caused the people to have doubt about God and need a “reminder” of God’s power?