Japan’s weeping Madonna
Our Lady of Akita is the Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who manifested herself through her statue to Sr. Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in Akita, Japan. It was in 1973 that Sr. Agnes of the Handmaids of the Eucharist received visions of an angel and messages emanating from a wooden statue that wept 101 times.
The 3 feet high statue was carved by a Buddhist woodcarver on the request of the sisters of the institute founded by the local Bishop, Most Rev. John Shojiro Ito, of the Diocese of Niigata. This statue, which resembled the features of Our Lady venerated all over the world, from which the voice came, wept over a course of several years. The statue also perspired abundantly, exuding sweet perfume. Its right palm bled from a wound that had the form of a cross.
Miraculous events
The extraordinary events began on June 12th 1973, when Sr. Agnes saw brilliant mysterious rays emanate suddenly from the tabernacle and fill the entire chapel. This happened for 3 days, where she finally noticed a multitude of angels surrounding the altar in adoration before the Host.
On 28th June 1973, another mysterious event occurred: a cross – shaped wound appeared on the inside left hand of Sr. Agnes. As days went by, the pain became grew intense.
This phenomenon recurred every week, and Bishop Ito himself witnessed it: on Thursdays and Fridays the wound used to swell up, and blood flowed profusely impregnating the bandage of gauze. On Saturday morning, the wound stopped bleeding and dried out. This phenomenon lasted the whole month of July.
On July 6th, Sr. Agnes heard a voice from the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the chapel, where she was praying. The voice of indescribable beauty stuck her totally deaf ears. It was a call for prayer and sacrifice for the glory of the Father and Salvation of Souls.
On the same day, her Guardian angel appeared to Sr. Agnes and said:
“Do not fear. I am the one who is with you and watches over you. Do not fear. Pray with fervor not only because of your sins, but in reparation for those of all men. The world today wounds the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord by its ingratitude and injuries. The wounds of Mary are much deeper and sorrowful than yours. Let us go and pray together in the chapel.”
In the evening, a few of sisters noticed drops of blood flowing from the statue’s right hand. On four occasions, the blood flow recurred. The wound in the statue’s hand remained until September 29th.
The day the wound on the statue disappeared, the sisters noticed that the statue had begun to “sweat”, especially on the forehead and neck.
On August 3rd, the first Friday of the month Sr. Agnes received a second message. It was for prayer penance and courageous sacrifices to soften the Heavenly Father’s anger.
The third message was delivered on October 13th, the actual anniversary day of the final visions and miracle of Fatima. Here is the message:
“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day, recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and the priests.”
Cures and Signs
The statue wept for 101 times. Her guardian angel explained it with the following: “There is a meaning to the figure 101 (the number of times the statue wept). This signifies that sin came into the world by a woman and it is also by a woman that salvation came into the world. The zero between the two signifies the Eternal God who is from all eternity until eternity. The first one represents Eve and last The Virgin Mary.”
Theresa Chun, a Korean woman diagnosed with a brain tumor, placed an image of Our Lady of Akita under her pillow and prayed to her for a miraculous healing. On August 4, 1981, the tumor was found to have disappeared. This healing was well documented by Fr. Joseph Oh of Seoul, S. Korea.
In May 1982, her angel told Agnes that her hearing would be permanently restored that month, and on May 30 the deafness was cured. (Medical tests performed on Agnes at the Akita Municipal Hospital in 1975 confirmed that she was deaf, and that her deafness was incurable.)
Approval by the Senate
Hundreds of people witnessed many of these events. Scientific analysis of blood and tears from the statue provided by Professor Sagisaka of the faculty of Legal Medicine of the University of Akita confirmed that the blood, tears, and sweat were real human tears, sweat, and blood. They came from three blood groups: O, B, and AB.
In April 22, 1984, after eight years of investigation Rev. John Shojiro Ito, Bishop of Niigata, Japan, recognized “the supernatural character of a series of mysterious events concerning the statue of the Holy Mother Mary” and authorized “throughout the entire diocese, the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita, by proclaiming that “the message of Akita is the message of Fatima”. Later in 1988, the senate of Rome gave approval to the pastoral letter given by Bishop Ito which describes the miraculous events that happened in the shrine of Akita.
