Religion: The Vision Children

As good Bavarian Catholics, Gretl Gugel and Antonie Saam, both 11, and ten-year-old Marie Heilmann were much inspired by the movie The Song of Bernadette. They talked about the miraculous appearance of the Virgin at Lourdes as they walked home to the small village of Heroldsbach (pop. 1,100) where they lived. Suddenly one of them let out a scream. As they described it later, first she, then the others, saw a light and a vision of the Virgin. "Mother Mary came to us," they told their parents when they got home.

Heroldsbach's pious farmers believed them....

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