Editing Palmarian Catholic Church (section)

====Apparitions of Our Lady of Palmar and Devotion to the Holy Face====
{{Main|Our Lady of Palmar|Holy Face of Jesus}}

[[File:VirgenCarmen Rute.jpg|thumb|right|220px|The [[Virgin Mary]] in the mantle of [[Our Lady of Mount Carmel]]. Her alleged appearance at [[Palmar de Troya]] from 1968 onwards formed the basis of the Palmarians.]]
On 30 March 1968, four Spanish Catholic girls,{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=42}}<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite journal|date=22 March 2005|periodical=El Mundo|title=Clemente Domínguez, el 'Papa' de El Palmar de Troya|url=http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2005/03/22/obituarios/1111488599.html}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=37}} aged 12 and 13—Ana García, Rafaela Gordo, Ana Aguilera and Josefa Guzmán—reported that the [[Virgin Mary]] had appeared to them in the field of ''La Alcaparroa'' farm, close to the village of [[El Palmar de Troya]], which at that time was a district of the municipality of [[Utrera]], in the [[province of Seville]], [[Andalusia]], Spain.<ref>{{cite journal|date=9 May 1976|periodical=José Jiménez Lozano|title=El barroco asunto de El Palmar de Troya: Un aluvión de apariciones|url=https://www.infocatolica.com/blog/infories.php/1107230214-los-origenes-del-palmar-de-tr-1}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><ref>{{cite journal|date=14 April 1968|periodical=ABC|title=Las Supuestas apariciones del Palmar de Troya|url=http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/sevilla/abc.sevilla/1968/04/14/102.html}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> On 11 April 1968, a devout Catholic woman named Rosario Arenillas reported seeing the Virgin Mary with the mantle of [[Our Lady of Mount Carmel]] in the same place.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=38}} On 20 May 1968 a neighbor from Utrera named María Marín also said she had seen the Virgin in the same place.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=38}} On 6 June 1968, María Luisa Vila from [[Seville]] went to the farm and said she had a mystical ecstasy in which [[Jesus Christ]] administered communion to her and, according to witnesses, when she opened her mouth there was a [[Eucharistic miracle|bloody host]] inside.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=40}} In the summer of 1968, Antonio Romero, Manuel Fernández, José Navarro, Antonio Anillos and Arsenia Llanos also said they suffered [[Religious ecstasy|mystical ecstasies]] there.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=39}}

On 15 October 1968, [[Clemente Domínguez]] and [[Manuel Alonso Corral]] visited the site for the first time. Manuel "Manolo" Corral worked in an insurance brokerage{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=64}} that [[:es:Serafín Madrid|Serafín Madrid]] used to finance his charitable works. When Corral became involved in the situation at Palmar de Troya he was expelled from the insurance company (belief in the apparitions were strongly opposed by [[José Bueno y Monreal]], [[Archbishop of Seville]], who refused to examine the seers or even open up any enquiries).{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=65}}<ref name="patheos">Hall, Maria. (2016). [https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionnow/2016/04/the-palmarian-church-new-rome-or-fanatical-sect/ The Palmarian Church: New Rome or Fanatical Sect?]. Patheos</ref> On 15 August 1969, the two men attended a [[Holy Mass]] celebrated by a [[Jesuit]] priest there and during it María Luisa Vila said she had a vision of the Virgin ([[Josemaría Escrivá]], founder of [[Opus Dei]], drawn to mystical phenomenon, held a long interview with Vila who he had met previously at [[Jerez de la Frontera]], [[Province of Cádiz|Cádiz]]).<ref>Infante, Jésus. (2002). [https://www.opuslibros.org/libros/Santo_fundador/capitulo_1.htm Turbosantidad del Fundador del Opus Dei]. Opus Libros</ref> Later they ran into María Marín and [[Nectario María]] who said they had a vision of Jesus Christ. After this point, Domínguez and Corral visited far more frequently.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=57}} There they talked with the visionaries and witnessed their ecstasies and on 14 September 1969, both declared that they had an appearance of a luminous cross.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=58}}

[[File:Santa Faz, de Alonso López de Herrera (Museo de América, Madrid).jpg|thumb|left|220px| ''Santa Faz'' by Alonso López de Herrera. Based on alleged apparitions in 1969, devotion to the [[Holy Face]] of [[Jesus Christ]] would become a prominent aspect of the Palmarians.]]
On 30 September 1969, Rosario Arenillas and Domínguez said they had a vision of Jesus Christ and [[Padre Pio]].{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=59}} A few days later María Luisa Vila declared that she had the same vision.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=60}} On 8 December 1969, Domínguez claimed to have a vision in which the Virgin and the angels gave him a Dominican habit and on 10 December 1969, Domínguez said that [[Dominic de Guzmán]] had appeared to him to recommend praying the [[Rosary]] and the ''[[Pater Noster]]''. On 10 December 1969 he also said that [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]] appeared to him. On 12 December 1969, Domínguez said he had another vision of Dominic and next to him he said he saw the [[Holy Face of Jesus]]. Then he said that Dominic had given him the message that he should expand devotion to the Holy Face, the [[Stations of the Cross]] and the [[Acts of reparation|reparative communion]] on the [[First Thursdays Devotion|first Thursday]] of each month, to repair the outrages to the divine face of the Lord. Domínguez and Corral began to carry a portrait of the Holy Face for prayers in which ecstasy occurred.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=62}}

Domínguez claimed to suffer [[stigmata]] of the [[Five Holy Wounds|Holy Wounds]] during his visions, such as a cross-shaped cut on his forehead{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=77}} and cuts on his hands.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=103}} These visions and stigmata, according to Domínguez himself, also occurred in the boarding house in Seville where he lived. At one point he revealed a 10-centimeter cut on his side, which was a supposed stigmata, representing where Jesus Christ had been pierced in his side by Roman soldier [[Longinus]] with the [[Holy Lance]].{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|pp=108, 109 & 111}} On 16 July 1970, a supposed Marian apparition told him that the waters from a well in the area were miraculous and that it produced healings.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=84}} A [[Pistacia lentiscus|mastic tree]] in the area became the main location associated with some of the visions and on 2 February 1970, the believers put a picture of the Holy Face on it (in Palmarian discourse this is called the "Sacred Place of the Lentisco"). A large number of people were drawn to El Palmar de Troya, with 40,000 people witnessing one of Domínguez' mystical ecstasies and his stigmata.<ref name="elc"/> On 2 February 1970 they put a photo of the Holy Face in the mastic and on 2 March 1972, an image of the ''Divina Pastora'' was blessed. The Virgin of Palmar was placed in the mastic on 12 September 1972.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=62}} On 8 February 1971, there was a reported apparition of Jesus Christ in the mastic to encourage the faithful who gathered at the farm.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=80}}

With the duo of Domínguez and Corral now the people most closely associated with visions at Palmar; the former the visionary stigmatist and the latter the one who wrote down, copied and distributed the information; they set about spreading the message far beyond Spain. The visions were translated into [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]] and [[German language|German]] languages and the newsletter, ''Ecos del Palmar'', was published from [[Barcelona]] by supporter Jóse María Andreu Magri from 1972.{{sfn|Lundberg|2020|p=58}} In the early 1970s, as well as receiving donations form ordinary Catholic followers, they gained some substantial benefactors.{{sfn|Lundberg|2020|p=58}} Most notably, the Baroness de Castillo Chirel, then 90 years old, a devout Catholic woman who had been a follower of Garabandal, gave Domínguez and Corral a donation of 16 million pesatas in 1972 (worth roughly €1.8 million in 2023).{{sfn|Lundberg|2020|p=59}}<ref name=revista>{{cite journal|author=Moisés Garrido Vázquez|date=March 2008|number=84|periodical=Misterios y fenómenos insólitos|title=El Palmar de Troya: Cuatro décadas de integrismo mariano|url=http://www.ignaciodarnaude.com/ufologia/Rev.%20Misterios,Marzo-2008.pdf}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> As part of their quest to spread the message, throughout the 1970s, the duo, often joined by their ally, Carmelo Pacheco Sánchez (1948–1997), they travelled throughout Spain and Western Europe, before eventually making annual trips across the Atlantic to [[Latin America]] and the [[United States]]. The traffic was not all one way, as pilgrims came to visit El Palmar de Troya from many different countries in the Catholic world, with [[Irish people]] and [[German-speaking people]] ([[Germans]], [[Austrians]] and [[Swiss people]]) being overrepresented.{{sfn|Lundberg|2020|p=107}}{{sfn|Lundberg|2020|p=108}}

They went to [[Rome]] several times, first on 8 July 1970, where Clemente jumped over a barrier, avoiding [[Swiss Guard]], to kneel before a procession of Pope Paul VI and present a letter (taken by a priest).<ref name="perlado">Perlado, Miguel (1976). [https://hemerosectas.org/palmar-de-troya-12/ El barroco asunto del Palmar de Troya]. HemeroSectas</ref> Corral claimed later the Palmarians met with Cardinal [[Alfredo Ottaviani]] who informed Paul VI. Earlier, on 27 December 1969, they attempted to deliver a letter to the Spanish head of state, Francisco Franco, asking him to read a secret from God to the Spanish nation as part of his end-of-year speech.<ref name="perlado"/> The duo turned up at ''[[Royal Palace of El Pardo|El Pardo]]'' unannounced and ''ad hoc'' meetings were not accepted, they were instead directed to deliver the letter to his private secretariat in the ''[[Royal Palace of Madrid|Palacio de Oriente]]''.<ref name="perlado"/> Stopping off to pray at a Carmelite church on the way, Domínguez had a vision of the Virgin Mary who told him he had been deceived by the devil and to not deliver the letter.<ref name="perlado"/> Another substantial benefactor, gained during their trips to the United States, was the business woman Marguerite Mary Paul (1921–2001) from [[Necedah (town), Wisconsin|Necedah]], [[Wisconsin]] and her husband.<ref>The Daily Tribune (Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin) (2001). [https://wisconsinrapidstribune.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-tribune-marquerite-paul-obit/22292514/ Marguerite Paul Obituary]. The Daily Tribune</ref><ref name=revista/><ref group=lower-alpha>Although compared to their presence in Europe and Latin America (as well as later Africa), the Palmarian following in the [[United States]] was modest in terms of numbers, they had a localised spike in Wisconsin. In 1949, at [[Necedah (town), Wisconsin|Necedah]] there had been Marian apparitions witnessed by Mary Ann Van Hoof (1909–1984), which the Vatican did not accept. Thus a groundwork had been prepared before the Palmarians arrived in the town. The [[Necedah Shrine]], known officially as Queen of the Holy Rosary, Mediatrix of Peace Shrine, exists in the town.</ref> By 1974 Domínguez and Corral were able to purchase the 15,000 square meter plot of land at ''La Alcaparroa''.{{sfn|Lundberg|2020|p=60}} Following an alleged apparition of Jesus Christ on 30 May 1975, the devotees of Palmar were requested to construct a sanctuary at ''La Alcaparroa''.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=96}} Along with the money from donors, a loan was taken out from the Central Bank of Utrera in the name Francisco González, Carlos Girón and Manuel Alonso.{{sfn|Gómez Burón|Martín Alonso|1976|p=96}}