On the Apparitions of D. Antónia – Oral Report

Collection of Maria Inocência Silva’s oral account of the apparitions of D. Antónia Ferreira, to be sent to the Vatican with the intention of sanctifying the ‘Blessed Ferreirinha’.

1st Report: Collected soon after the first apparitions

‘If you want to believe me, believe me, I know that nobody came to me, and I’ve also had a hard time since I lost my Carlos back in Lalys. I haven’t lacked food, that’s fair, I have a good piece of land, and I can’t complain about that, what you plant is what you get, maybe that’s why D. Antónia didn’t show up at my door. I don’t know what to tell you, I really don’t. I mind my own business, but Herminia, who takes care of the chapel with me, told me the haunting appeared to her, skinny, skinny, with all her pretty clothes and lace on her head. She said it gave her food for over a month! Just look at that! I didn’t want to intrigue, Herminia is a decent woman, I’ve never known her to be addicted to anything, but sometimes she exaggerates, you know? And I don’t know what the hell it was, if it wasn’t one of those ladies, the alive ones, who go around doing good deeds, you see. But then Adelaide, who was coming with the new lace for the altars, joined her, and chorused that she had seen her too and what a relief it had been, since the little ones did nothing but cry, that she had nothing but water to put in their bellies. I always thought she had too many children, but that’s not my business. I started to get suspicious, you know? There were already two of them, and they got chatting, the descriptions matched, they even said the same thing about the rain. Then Adelaide said she was making a trousseau for the saint, and I had to get involved, I really did, I don’t like to do it at all, but you don’t play around with saints, and she was already thinking of putting D. Antónia in the procession instead of Our Lady of Sorrows, and that can’t be. But Herminia chided her and, well, I shut up, but I didn’t let it go. I went to see the priest. You understand, I’m not one for intrigue, but it had to be done, and I was right, because the priest agreed with me that these things shouldn’t be done like that, that it was disrespectful to the Mother of Our Lord, who is also the Mother of us all, and that it was even a sin to fall prey to these superstitions. After that, you can’t imagine, there was a war. The people wanting D Antónia in the procession, and the priest saying no. It was disrespectful! Some people stopped going to mass and went to the one in the closest village. Even more! They wanted us to join them in the disrespect they created towards a man of God. There’s no forgiveness, there really can’t be any forgiveness! Can you believe they were checking who was going to our priest’s mass and trying to trap us, saying the priest was blind, that the saint was real and that we would lose her favour, blasphemy! But look, it’s best you talk to someone else, because I don’t know much, I’m going about my business, I just think that Our Lady is the Mother of Christ, and mothers are to be respected. You can ask other people, and they’ll know better than me.’

2nd Report: Collected after the episode of The Revelations, about seven days after the first apparitions

‘My soul has yet to return to my body. You don’t even know. That’s why you came back, isn’t it? I don’t know why to me, I’m not one to talk and I don’t know much, but if you want, I’ll share what I’ve heard. Can you believe that Maria Austera’s little girl caught some Republican spies? Apparently, the saint told her! You know about those pigs, of course, that’s why you’re here. Who’d have thought it! To hide between us! I did have my suspicions, I did! I warned Hermínia and Adelaide, ‘Look, three lads like that, loitering around, it’s not to be trusted’, but there are so many others who wander around these lands looking for work, and here on the farms people are always needed, especially now, at harvest time, every pair of hands helps. To think I must have harvested with one of them next to me! I even get goose bumps, do you see? Well then, Austera told me that she was bent over in the vineyard when she heard her daughter say ‘What do you want from me?’ and that she got up to ask the girl who she was talking to, but she saw her looking at one of the vines, and she swore to me that there was nobody there, but the damn girl was so attentive that Austera didn’t dare say anything. And then the rest of the people stood up and looked at the little girl. ‘Which ones are they?’ she asked. Then, as you know, she walked off without a peep and went to see the priest, locked in his house, as the people were still angry with him, and it was later known that she told him that a woman dressed in black had appeared to her and said that there were three republicans among the grape pickers. She said the names straight out and the priest took them to the council, which arrested them, and it soon became known that it was true. What to say! Anyway, Adelaide was very happy, since the priest has finally authorised the procession with the Blessed Ferreirinha. About the republicans, I don’t know, I’m not one for gossip, but a friend of mine told me that they were going to send them to a lady who is doing some experiments, a certain D. Isabel Mendonça Travassos.’