Gallagher, Christina (1953-)

Brigid Christina Gallagher, a contemporary visionary in Ireland, has reported a series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Gallagher was born on June 4, 1953, in the town of Calladashan, County Mayo, and grew up to marry and settle into the life of a housewife and mother of two children. She had her initial vision in 1985 when she saw the head of Jesus crowned with thorns. She was to see a number of visions over the next few years that included various heavenly personages and scenes. Then in 1988, while visiting relatives in Dublin, the Virgin Mary appeared to her. She held a clear glass sphere in her hand and invited Gallagher under her mantle. She made the sign of the cross and left. Another person present at the time saw nothing. Back in County Mayo, Mary appeared a week later accompanied by Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879), the visionary of Lourdes.

At the third vision, on February 4, 1988, Mary spoke and identified herself as the Queen of Peace. She suggested that time was short and called the Irish people to pray the Rosary. Subsequent apparitions occurred to her privately in her home and in a few locations in Gortnadreha, where she now resides. On several occasions a small group gathered with her at a local grotto for a few of the apparitions. While the apparitions remained fairly private occurrences, word of her receiving messages soon spread throughout the predominantly Catholic land. Among her messages, the Virgin suggested that beginning in 1992 a series of terrible things would begin to happen and the number of calamities would multiply. She also indicated that the Antichrist was behind the Maastricht Treaty (that was leading to a united Europe).

Into the early 1990s, Gallagher experienced a broad spectrum of spiritual/psychic experiences including glossolalia, bilocation, and the apparitions of different personages. These were anchored by some 25 major messages from the Virgin in 1988. In one of these apparitions, the Lady requested the striking of a medal, the Matrix Medal, showing the Virgin on her knees before the cross. Through the 1990s more than a million Matrix Medals were distributed. In 1989 Gallagher began to show the stigmata, as wounds like those traditionally believed to have been inflicted upon Jesus during His last days appeared on her body. She also had visions of a number of the popular saints such as Padre Pio and St. Therese of Lisieux. The overall message of the experiences was one of warning of future disasters, a call for non-Christians to convert, and a plea for Roman Catholics to become more pious.

Gallagher's experiences have continued to the present.

Sources:

Petrisko, Thomas W. The Sorrow, the Sacrifice, and the Triumph: The Apparitions, Visions, and Prophecies of Christina Gallagher. New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1995.