Queen Virgin Mary & King Child Jesus of the Holy Family

1. In Study of Mariology and Catholicism:
THE FATHER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
Neil Harrington, a Catholic layman of a middle-class suburban family from Connecticut
(United States of America), has reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary during
the rosary at the weekly prayer cenacle at his parents' house.
The visionary layman explained that back in September of 1990, he decided to set one
day aside a week and pray the rosary. People, mostly family at first, started joining them
in their family home; as the group started first from 20 to 40 people.
Then from 1990, Neil Harrington reported that he has been receiving visions and
apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Moreover, in 1991, he has also been receiving
apparitions and secret messages directly from Saint Francis of Assisi.
He said that the apparitions continued weekly from 1992 to 1995, and he continued
receiving verbal messages through 1997.
The admonishment tone of the Marian apparitions were directed at the Catholic priests,
and it was a bit of a warning and an appeal to the (Roman) Catholic religious orders; but
then a select group of Catholic priests have opened up to more Marian pilgrimages (and
praying the Rosary) by then as the messages were shared to them.
On May 3, 1994, there were 4 Catholic priests who brought their own Virgin Mary
statues of the Mystical Rose, while Neil’s family had their our own Virgin statue (also of
the Lady of the Mystical Rose, in reference to an apparition in Italy in 1947, particularly
to an Italian woman named Pierina Gilli).
That night all the Virgin statues began to weep, plus the statue of “Our Lady of Grace”
(depicted as Our Lady in the sky standing on a serpent snake while on top of the global
world). The event was allegedly documented on film, on television, and there were lots
of people.
Then the whole place smelled of roses inside and outside the family home, and the
event brought more people to pray in Neil’s family home. Then at some time, people
were bringing their Virgin Mary statue for a Catholic priest to bless.
The Marian group kept growing and growing; and by 9 years since the apparitions of
1990, more Catholic priests from every place in the world made a pilgrimage to the
Harrington family home (such as from Brazil, Australia, Ireland, Africa, etc.) – while Neil,
the father, never knew how they got word of the miracles happening in their family
home, but the priests continued to come to give homage to the chosen family.
However, the local Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese in (Rome) Italy condemned
the reported Marian apparitions and messages because there was a lot of things in the

2. message that were reprimanding the Roman Catholic priests and religious orders. Thus,
the messages of the Harrington family were suppressed particularly in Italy; and there
was a time when the family did not allow their home to be opened to the public.
But after the Roman Catholic clergy (of the local diocese for that Vatican City in Rome,
Italy) lifted the ban on the Marian messages of the Harrington family, they removed the
forbidding signs and they eventually let people come to their family home that was
converted into a Marian pilgrimage site.
Neil Harrington felt discouraged at a time, considering that his Marian messages never
got to the Vatican (or was not given any importance) – while lots of apparitions were
approved by the local Roman Catholic bishop such as in Japan, Venezuela, etc. and
other approvals given by the local Roman Catholic bishops. Although only a few have
been approved by the Roman Catholic Pope of the Holy See in Vatican (Rome) such as
“Our Lady of Lourdes”, “Our Lady of Fatima”, and “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, etc. when
often they never approve apparitions while they’re ongoing.
But Neil, the father of the family, rather sought the good things that have happened, and
of course the important thing, as he said, that people (as “beautiful people” as he
described), would pray in the family homes. Then he reported that there were lots of
miracles, physical cures, and many conversions.
After the Virgin Mary statues of the Roman Catholic priests were weeping – that
happens in the Harrington home quite frequently - the local Roman Catholic bishop and
clergy then appointed a commission that included the monsignor, a canon lawyer, and
two priests.
Then Neil said: “You know they always try to get the ‘good guy, bad guy’ thing - some
that aren’t responsive to it, and some that might be, that investigation began years ago
(in the 1990s). But they did not see any (Virgin statue) weeping – as it didn’t happen
when they were here. So they just let it go - they didn’t say anything in favor or
opposed. They just let it go, and I’m happy with that.”
However, a private Catholic team has worked to transcribe and compile all the
messages received by Neil Harrington. After the reports were submitted to the Roman
Catholic diocese, a church commission was also formed to investigate the authenticity
of the apparitions, but several members left on academic assignments.
Then he made a prayer room for the Virgin statue with other religious images (such as
the crucified of the “Crucified Jesus”, Divine Mercy and a saint). The Mystical Rose
Virgin Mary statue that wept was placed at a corner, as the centerpiece of an altar with
kneeling pads for prayer.
Then more people visited their family home in 1999, and there were about 100 people in
attendance on the evening of August 10, including a Catholic priest and several Catholic

3. nuns. Just before the centacle, they asked to see the actual Virgin Mary statue that had
wept.
Father John the Catholic priest and the pilgrims were all accompanied to the bedroom
that became known as the “Apparition Room”. And it was explained where the visions
occurred (near a window), and the Virgin statue that wept.
The priests, nuns and other Catholic laity believed in the authenticity of the visions.
While Neal also sought counsel from the Catholic priest about the difficult challenging
life he lived, that included ailments in the eyes.
Then as the visionary layman and the priest had a good relationship, at times when the
priest have questions to humbly ask the laity about the Virgin Mary, that after they
finished praying the Rosary, that the layman would tell him the answer of the Virgin to
the priest (and he told the priest that the Virgin Mary was eyeing on him during prayer).
The Catholic priest Father John said that they sent away the media after a burst of
interest, including television coverage – so that they could keep the private revelations
to a smaller Marian congregation.
However, at the height of the Marian visions, the family home had crowds of up to 800
faithful praying the Rosary. The opening statement of the Marian visionary has also
asked for the special intervention against the sin of abortion. The message includes a
special thanks to a “guardian angel” of the United States.
And there was a message that the guiding saint is Saint Lawrence (meaning "laurel
wreath crowned as a symbol of triumph"; 225-258AD), as one of the 7 deacons of the
city of Rome (Italy), under “early Christian” Pope Sixtus II, who were martyred in the
persecution of the Christians that the Roman Emperor Valerian ordered in 258AD. Then
Saint Lawrence became the patron saint of librarians, students, miners, chefs, and
firefighters.
Then Neal Harrington said that he was also given a vision of the martyrdom of Saint
Lawrence and other early Christian deacons, with heard audible sighs and sympathetic
moans as they were persecuted by the Roman soldiers in Rome (as the same Roman
Empire that persecuted Jesus, Peter, Paul and other Christian martyrs).
Neil also explained about “The Way of Light” in reference to many holy images of
spiritual light, as an "intimate penetration to the heart" by the healing light of Jesus
Christ, particularly in these times of the “Second Advent” (known as the secret arrival of
“The Second Coming of Jesus Christ”).
The rest of the Christian Catholic religious services includes the conventional Catholic
prayers – the Holy Rosary – and the Holy Eucharist (or Mass in the family home), etc.
The Harrington family then formed a non-profit corporation to manage the site,
donations and contributions - that has been shared to the newly-formed Marian

4. congregation, as a Holy Family (“The Family of the Mystical Rose”, with the guidance of
a chosen father who then leads other fathers of other families for family love).
(researched)