The Lady of All Nations explained

The Lady of All Nations is a Catholic Marian title sometimes associated with apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Ida Peerdeman of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Peerdeman claimed to have received 56 visions of the Lady from 1945 to 1959.

The visionary

Ida Peerdeman
Birth Date:13 August 1905
Birth Place:Alkmaar, Netherlands
Death Date:17 June 1996
Nationality:Dutch

Ida Peerdeman was born on 13 August 1905 in the city of Alkmaar, Netherlands, the youngest of five children. She was an ordinary woman who worked as a secretary in Amsterdam. On 25 March 1945, Peerdeman reported seeing a woman surrounded in light who identified herself as "The Lady" and "Mother". The apparitions continued until 31 May 1959.[1]

Peerdeman's movement received support from a member of the wealthy Brenninkmeijer family. In December 1979, The Lady of All Nations Foundation purchased property in Diepenbrockstraat, Amsterdam, which became the center of the apparition cultus, and where Peerdeman came to reside.[1] She spent the rest of her life promoting the messages she claimed to have received. She died on 17 June 1996.

Messages

According to Peerdeman, the first apparition occurred at her home in Amsterdam on 25 March 1945 when she saw a light from which a woman appeared. When Peerdeman asked the woman if she was Mary, the woman replied, "They will call me 'The Lady'." The initial twenty-five messages were generally apocalyptic pronouncements warning of dangers such as communism and atheism.[2]

After the promulgation of the dogma of the Assumption in 1950, the messages changed. "On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. This event constitutes a noteworthy point within the messages, for from here they take on a new direction. In this, the first message to follow the proclamation of the dogma, Mary calls herself 'The Lady of All Nations' for the first time. In the succeeding messages she dictates her prayer, draws attention to her image, and speaks for the first time about the final and greatest Marian dogma: Mary Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate."[3]

The Lady reportedly said that the definition of the Assumption had brought to a close the era of Marian dogmas having to do with Mary's earthly life, and that the "final and greatest" Marian dogma would be a definition of the heavenly role of the Lady of All Nations under the titles of Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate.[4] Supporters of this proposal refer to it as "the fifth Marian dogma," since it would theoretically follow the four dogmatic definitions of Mary as Mother of God,[5] Perpetual Virgin,[6] Immaculately Conceived, and Assumed into Heaven.

In February 1951, the Lady of the apparition reportedly began identifying herself in a different way: "I am the Lady, Mary, Mother of All Nations. You may say: The Lady of All Nations or Mother of All Nations, who once was Mary."[7] The following month the lady said, "The whole world is degenerating, and because of this the Son is sending the Lady of All Nations, who once was Mary."[8] In July, she explained, "'Who once was Mary" means: many people have known Mary as Mary. Now, however, in this new era which is about to begin, I wish to be the Lady of All Nations."[9] Peerdeman's apparition messages cite the Gospel of John as the basis of this dual naming of Mary: "At the departure of the Lord Jesus Christ, He gave Miriam, or Mary, to the nations in one act, giving her as 'The Lady of All Nations'. For He spoke the words, 'Woman, behold your son; son, behold your mother.' One act, and by this Miriam, or Mary, received this new title."[10]

The Lady asked a prayer be said throughout the world:

The use of the phrase "who once was Mary" was immediately controversial. Peerdeman's bishop edited the prayer to remove the phrase, but relented after Peerdeman reported that the Lady was not happy with this change.[11] In 2005, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered that the phrase "who once was Mary" be replaced with the phrase "the Blessed Virgin Mary" for pastoral reasons.[12] [13] [14] [15]

Development

The apparition directed that a picture of her be distributed throughout the world. The painting was made in 1951 by artist Heinrich Repke. Small prints were widely disseminated. The picture depicts Mary standing in front of a large wooden cross. Christ is not represented. According to Margry, the image caused controversy by appearing to suggest that Mary had replaced Christ as co-redemptrix. Adherents of the Amsterdam cultus began to press for the promulgation of a fifth dogma.[2]

Despite a declaration by the Bishop of Haarlem that he "found no evidence of the supernatural nature of the apparitions", the movement continued to spread. In March 1973, Marie-Paule Giguère, founder of the Army of Mary, met Peerdeman in Amsterdam.[16]

Rulings by Church authorities

In the Catholic Church, the task of judging the supernatural character of an alleged apparition normally falls to the bishop of the diocese in which the apparition takes place: in this case, the Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam (formerly known as the Diocese of Haarlem).

The reaffirmation of the Church’s position means that the devotion to “The Lady of All Nations” is not recognized as stemming from a supernatural origin. The faithful are advised to draw appropriate conclusions based on this official stance, adhering to the Church’s guidance on matters of faith and devotion.

Commentary

Peerdeman's account was one of four apparitions claimed to have taken place in the Netherlands between 1937 and 1950. Dutch historian and ethnologist Peter Jan Margry sees the popular spread of the cultus arising from a reaction on the part of traditional or conservative believers (originally among Dutch Catholics), to the movement for renewal and liberalization in the 1970s in the Church establishment.[2]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/lady-of-all-nations/ Maunder, Chris. "Lady of All Nations", World Religions and Spirituality Project, Virginia Commonwealth University, August 22, 2016
  2. https://books.google.com/books?id=6vUjg9ByERgC&dq=peter+jan+margry+amsterdam&pg=PA183 Margry, Peter Jan. "Paradoxes of Marian Apparitional Contestation", Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, Anna-Karina Hermkens, Willy Jansen, Catrien Notermans, eds., Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009, p. 183 et seq
  3. Web site: Note 23 on the 24th Message (November 16, 1950), "The Messages of the Lady of All Nations, Amsterdam, 1999", The Lady of All Nations Foundation.
  4. Web site: 35th Message (August 15, 1951). "As Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate I stand here now in this time, in Our time. The dogma of the Assumption had to precede. The final and greatest dogma is to follow."
  5. Web site: Council of Ephesus. "If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, The Word was made flesh] let him be anathema."
  6. Web site: Second Council of Constantinople, Canon 2. "If anyone shall not confess that the Word of God has two nativities, the one from all eternity of the Father, without time and without body; the other in these last days, coming down from heaven and being made flesh of the holy and glorious Mary, Mother of God and always a virgin, and born of her: let him be anathema."
  7. Web site: 27th Message (February 11, 1951), The Lady of All Nations Foundation.
  8. Web site: 28th Message (March 4, 1951), The Lady of All Nations Foundation.
  9. Web site: 34th Message (July 2, 1951). The Lady of All Nations Foundation
  10. Web site: 43rd Message (October 5, 1952), The Lady of All Nations Foundation.
  11. Web site: Note 44 on the 41st Message (April 6, 1952). "Initially the prayer was published without the words 'who once was Mary', due to the intervention of the bishop. Here, however, the Lady expresses her explicit wish that the prayer remain as she gave it. This wish having been communicated to the bishop, the omitted words were then reincorporated into the prayer."
  12. Web site: Letter. Rev. Gabriel. Heinzelmann. December 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20191218082348/http://www.de-vrouwe.info/images/stories/pdf/061218_change_of_the_prayer.pdf. 2019-12-18. live.
  13. Web site: Our Lady of All Nations. Colin. Donovan. EWTN. https://web.archive.org/web/20190517183732/https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/our_lady_of_all_nations.htm. 2019-05-17. dead.
  14. Web site: The Lady of All Nations, the CDF, and 'Who Once Was Mary'. Catholic Online. Mark. Miravalle. The letter begins with the direct acknowledgement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) that the Lady of All Nations apparitions have received local ecclesiastical approval from the local bishop, Bishop Josef Maria Punt. The CDF consistently instructs that the responsibility of discernment and judgement concerning the supernatural quality of any reported private revelation lies with the authority of the local bishop. The CDF has concern only with "one particular aspect of the devotion" where the Blessed Virgin is invoked with the clause "who once was Mary.".
  15. Web site: Our Lady of All Nations: The Fifth Marian Dogma. Catholic Exchange. 2013-10-21.
  16. https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/army-of-mary/ Margry, Peter Jan. "Army of Mary / Community of the Lady of All Peoples", World Religions and Spirituality Project, Virginia Commonwealth University, October 28, 2013
  17. Web site: Letter from the Office of Public Affairs of the Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam. Raphael. Soffner. 2002-05-03. 2019-06-04.
  18. Web site: Notification regarding the alleged apparitions and revelations of Our Lady of All Nations in Amsterdam. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. L'Osservatore Romano. 1974-06-27. 12.
  19. Web site: Notification for the catholic faithful of the diocese of Haarlem. Hendrik. Bomers. 1996-05-31.
  20. Web site: HB-97-403. Hendrik. Bomers. 1997-12-03.
  21. Web site: In Response to Inquiries Concerning the Lady of All Nations Apparitions. Jozef. Punt. 2002-05-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20190224115822/https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/OLAN2002.pdf. 2019-02-24. dead.
  22. Most Rev. Angelo. Amato. Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. 2005-08-08. With regard to the devotion known as 'Lady of All Nations' .
  23. News: Frank. Dan. Warning against prayer to 'Lady of All Nations'. Catholic Herald. 2005-08-12. 5.
  24. Web site: Vatican reaffirms rejection of so-called apparitions of Our Lady of All Nations . 20 October 2020 .
  25. Web site: Vatican's doctrinal office: Don't promote alleged apparitions connected to 'Lady of All Nations' .
  26. Web site: Press Release about Alleged Apparitions in Amsterdam from 1945 to 1959 (11 July 2024) .

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