Visionaries: The Spanish Republic and the Reign of Christ

by William A. Christian

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In June 1931, on a hillside in the Spanish Basque country, two children reported seeing the Virgin Mary. Within weeks, hundreds of seers were attracting tens of thousands of onlookers, and the nightly spectacle gave rise to others in dozens of towns across Spain. "Visionaries" explores the experience and the larger meaning of this wave of sightings of Mary and the saints, which began shortly after Spain became a republic and anti-clerical mobs burned religious houses in several cities. Immersing himself in the lives of the visionaries, William Christian retraced their steps and recreated their world. He spoke with hundreds of witnesses, who led him to caches of vision messages, diaries, clandestine publications, and eloquent photographs. He describes two kinds of vision-aries and their relation to each other: the seers who had a vision for the future, which they hoped Mary and the saints would confirm. Together, these visionaries attempted to convince a skeptical world that heavenly beings were appearing on the Iberian peninsula.
By turns intense, poignant, fierce, and funny, this long-hidden history demonstrates the vital role of the extraordinary in giving voice to a society's hope and anguish.
  • ISBN10 0520200403
  • ISBN13 9780520200401
  • Publish Date 30 May 1996
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 23 June 2003
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint University of California Press
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 588
  • Language English