Bronx Marian apparitions

, the Catholic church near the Vitolo family home, as pictured in 2005 Joseph F. Vitolo, Jr. was born on March 25, 1936. He was nicknamed "Joe" and "Jo Jo", and was the 18th child (11 of whom lived past infancy) of two poor Italians in the Bronx. Their Catholic family lived at 3194 Villa Avenue, Vitolo was considered the baby of the family, and was small for his age. By his own account, Vitolo was not greatly familiar with religion as a child, attending public school instead of Catholic school. His mother actively attended church, but not his father, who he said was an alcoholic and abusive towards his mother. == Events ==

The sightings occurred every night for 17 days in 1945, starting on October 29 and ending on November 14. Timeline First appearance (October 29) After dinner on October 29, nine-year-old Joseph Vitolo was playing with four other children on a fifteen foot rocky ledge on the west side of the Grand Concourse. A figure appeared to Vitolo, invisible to the other children. This was a lady, dressed in various colors. First in white, then in blue, and then in black. She told him to not be afraid, to pray, and gave him a candle invisible to the other children. As Vitolo trembled, another child, Jeannette Nocerino, told him to "pray like you mean it". Finally, the lady told Joseph to return the same time the next night. Vitolo told the other children what happened, and then returned to his home to tell his parents. His father did not believe him, but his mother told him to return to the spot the next night. By November 14, Vitolo denied ever being told of a spring or a well by the lady. A few dozen neighbors watched the sighting, many of whom brought devotional items such as rosary beads and candles. The candles were arranged in the shape of a cross, and several witnesses reported all but the center candle suddenly being extinguishing. From here news of the apparition spread. The Bronx Home News was tipped on the events, and other major media outlets picked up the story. Most spectators on October 29 and 30 were members of the St. Philip of Neri church, whose leaders declined to comment. On the night of October 31, Vitolo said the lady asked him if he knew of Bernadette of Lourdes, to which he said no. She told him to do what Bernadette did. Many in the crowd were skeptical, but relented after the candles again mysteriously extinguished. By November 5, the nightly amount of visitors reached 8,500 people, arriving from as far away as Cleveland, Ohio. During the days during this time, Joseph stopped attending school, spending all day sitting on the ground floor of his family's home attending to the large streams of people (often injured or ailing) who came to ask for his prayers. Vitolo was brought out at 7:00 pm, and the prayer service continued as it had in previous days. Vitolo said he saw the lady standing in blue with stars above her head, while he stood at a makeshift shrine covered in statues and other devotional material. and many witnesses saw a part of the sky open up during the vigil. The Calgary Herald stated that the crowds failed to see a miracle, while the Toronto Daily Star reported that many left the vigil "convinced they had witnessed a miracle". Vitolo was reported as being emotional, and shouted at the press to leave and to stop taking pictures. , host of the radio show The Catholic Hour, met with Joseph Vitolo in 1945 at the height of public interest in the apparitions Involvement of high-profile Catholics Numerous high profile Catholics were involved, or rumored to be involved in the events. Monsignor Fulton Sheen met with Vitolo during the apparitions. Vitolo was brought to the radio station in Times Square where Sheen hosted his show, The Catholic Hour. After listening to Vitolo's account of the visions, Sheen gave him a dollar to buy lunch at the automat. Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York, met with Vitolo as well. He arrived late one night in a limousine, and spoke privately with Vitolo. Others connected the Bronx apparitions to those at Lourdes, seeing parallels between the situations and the seers. == Aftermath and later life of Vitolo ==

Aftermath Immediately after the conclusion of the events, Vitolo was brought by his family to Indiana for some time in order to evade the press. Interest waned in the events as time went on, and by the early 21st century, the apparitions were described as largely forgotten, even by local Catholics. Vitolo's later life Once Vitolo returned to normal life, he began to attend the parish school at Saint Philip Neri, rather than go to public school. Students at the school sometimes mocked him as "Saint Joseph". He, along with members of his family, began to pray at the apparition site nightly at 7:00 pm. Vitolo considered the events the end of his childhood. His new lifestyle caused him to lose friends, and he grew to be a lonely and sad child. Vitolo married a woman named Grace in 1963. The couple had two children. Before the marriage, Grace was a Catholic woman very interested in mysticism. She had visited Padre Pio, who predicted that her future husband's name would begin with the letter "J". From around this point Vitolo had a "rejuvenation" in interest in the shrine, particularly after one of Grace's companions, Catherine Passananti, approached him about the shrine. The shrine never accepted donations, and Vitolo continued to live in poverty for the rest of his life. From 1985, he worked at Jacobi Medical Center, and continued to pray daily at the shrine as his health allowed. == Legacy ==

Ecclesiastical status of the apparition The Catholic Church has never made an official statement on the apparitions, Analysis of the events Connections with the Bronx visions and the Lourdes apparitions have been discussed. Contemporary media reported that the then popular The Song of Bernadette had been playing in the local theater, Once in an empty lot, the site is now in the middle of dense urban architecture and is surrounded by apartments and stores. The shrine contains a statue of Mary on the exact site of the apparition, along with other statues and a rendering of the Ten Commandments. ==See also==