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“Die Muttergottes und ihre Erscheinungen” (The Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Apparitions)
A murmur goes through the crowd, the white-robed woman takes a deep breath, looks to the heavens and falls into a torpor: Mirjana Soldo is having a “Marian apparition”. The 46 year old seer was one of six children who are said to have seen a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the first time in 1981 on a hill behind the village of Medjugorje. Since then, Blessed Virgin Mary tourism has boomed in Medjugorje. Today, one million pilgrims come each year to the once poverty-stricken region. Lourdes, a small town in southern France, is also visited by millions of pilgrimage tourists each year. Mostly the sick come to Lourdes because of the supposed “healing spring” located there. What is it about the “Blessed Virgin Mary” that fascinates so many people? What do the church and theology experts think about the adoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Do modern people need healing miracles and Marian apparitions to emotionally experience their faith?
Documentary, 52 min
Conception: Thomas Grusch and Elisabeth Krimbacher
Broadcast date: Tuesday, Dec. 6th, 2011, 10:30 p.m., ORF 2, kreuz & quer
A tausend Rosen production on behalf of ORF, 2011
