Our Lady of Akita

Sasagawa, originally from a Buddhist family, had encountered many health problems for most of her life. She was born premature and, following a bad appendix operation, was immobile for over a decade. Her health reportedly improved after drinking water from Lourdes while under the care of a Catholic nun. After going completely deaf, she went to live with nuns near Akita. Sasagawa died on August 15, 2024, at the age of 93, in Akita, Japan, at the convent where she lived. ==Apparitions==

In 1973, Sasagawa reported apparitions, as well as manifesting the stigmata and a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary which was said to have wept on 101 occasions. The nuns at Yuzawadai also reported stigmata on the statue that supposedly appeared before the tears started, and disappeared after the tears. Sasagawa said she received three messages from the Virgin Mary in 1973, while the statue itself is reported to have continued weeping thereafter. Messages Sasagawa claimed to have received the first message on July 6, 1973. She said the Virgin's statue became illuminated as it acknowledged her stigmata and hearing impairment. She was then instructed to recite the Prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist, which the Virgin Mary said would cure her deafness. The other reported messages ask for more praying of the Rosary and Acts of Reparation. The second message includes the following: "Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and ingrates." The third message was communicated on October 13, 1973. It was also claimed that the statue became animate for an extended period, a phenomenon witnessed by several nuns. Yasuda wrote that according to Chun and other October 1983 Korean pilgrims, the cure "had been declared miraculous by Church authorities of Korea". ==Stigmata==

Sasagawa "claimed to have had a stigmatic-like experience". Her left hand developed bleeding marks. Yasuda wrote that in June 1973 "in the center of palm were two red scratches in the form of a cross" which seemed to have "been engraved in the skin" and began to bleed a few days later. "There were two red traces in the form of a cross and they seemed to cause pain", according to one nun. According to Sasagawa's account, the stigmata emerged after she began seeing supernatural beings, which appeared to be angels, and two incidents where she felt piercing pain in the palm of her hand. When the wound appeared in her hand, there were several explanations proposed, including the theory of ectoplasmic capability, although theologians said that the stigmata on Sasagawa and the statue's hands were meant as signs. ==Weeping statue==

The palm of the statue's right hand oozed a liquid from two, short intersecting lines. It was described as "a blackish mark," by one nun; "one would have said that it had been traced with a fine point of a pencil." According to a second nun, "On these lines there stood out two darker points. It resembled very much ink which had spread under the effect of heat. I said to myself that the Novice Mistress must have spoken of these points when she saw blood flow through a hole as large as that of a needle." A third nun, who had been the sacristan, described that she "saw in the middle of the palm of the right hand that a wound in the form of a cross had been cut with something like the tip of a blade." TV Tokyo Channel 12 videotaped the weeping statue in December 1978. The blood type of the statue and its sweat and tear type were found to be types B and AB, respectively. The dates and times (in the local Japanese time (UTC +9 hours)) of when each and every one of the 101 tears happened (from the 1st tear which was on January 4 1975, to the final 101st tear which was on September 15 1981) can be found in books and on the internet. One place that has a convenient chart of all of the tears’ dates and times is the Japanese-language version of this Wikipedia page. ==Investigation==

In 1975, Bishop Ito began initial consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Having been advised that preliminary jurisdiction resides with the local ordinary, the following year he convened an inquiry commission which arrived at the conclusion that it is "not in a position to prove the supernatural events". In light of new CDF norms for examining "presumed apparitions or revelations", which had been published the previous year, Bishop Ito requested a CDF intervention to create another inquiry commission. In 1981, the CDF, being "unfavorable to the events", responded that it will not initiate a new examination. In 1982, Bishop Ito, stating that the 1981 CDF response "contained some misunderstandings", sent a "complete dossier, augmented with the new facts" to the CDF. and met with CDF officials in 1983 while the case remained under examination. On April 22, 1984, Bishop Ito, noting that the case had been under examination for eight years, In 1990, Peter Shirayanagi, Archbishop of Tokyo and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan told the Italian periodical 30 Giorni that "the events of Akita are no longer to be taken seriously." The Holy See, meanwhile, never gave definitive judgment on the matter, either positive or negative. Because Bishop Ito's declaration of approval has not been reversed by his successors or by the Holy See, the apparition remains officially approved for the Diocese of Niigata according to Canon law. ==New message==

On October 27, 2019, WQPH 98.3 FM, a Catholic radio station broadcasting in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, broke the news that Sasagawa had received a new message. On October 6, 2019, Sasagawa was awakened by her guardian angel and told, "Cover yourself in ashes, and please pray a rosary of reparation every day. Become like a child. Please offer sacrifices every day." ==See also==