Seuca, Romania: apparitions and pleas of the Virgin Mary, "Queen of Light"

Rozsika Marian, a Romanian Gypsy of Hungarian origin and a mother, became blind at the age of thirty. Since 1995, she has seen the Virgin Mary three or four times a year in the Catholic parish church of Seuca. The Church authorities are closely monitoring the phenomenon and have noted the already numerous fruits of conversions, new-found peace, a return to the sacraments, etc. An altar has been set up in the Catholic churchyard where, on the day of the apparitions, ten to fifteen thousand pilgrims accompany the visionary, taking part in Eucharistic adoration and praying the rosary.

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Les raisons d'y croire :

According to her family and social circle, and her spiritual director, Father Istan Görgy, Rozsika is a very well-balanced woman, with no psychological problems or major life impediments despite her disability. On the contrary, she is known for her joy, unshakeable faith, love for her family, availability to others, and humility.

Rozsika has no personal interest in inventing such an account: many people have been checking her every move since the first day of the events, and this "surveillance" is very unpleasant to her.

Rozsika is completely blind, as numerous medical reports prove; yet she sees the Virgin and every detail of the apparition scenes perfectly, with remarkable visual acuity, and then loses her sight again at the end of each apparition.

The messages she has received are in perfect harmony with the Gospel: Mary calls people to pray, to convert, to fast, to receive communion, to make peace and to stop fighting. On 21 March 1999, the apparition left an extraordinary message of reconciliation between Christians, asking for the setting up of two prayer groups, one Catholic, the other Orthodox - an exceptional event in the annals of Marian apparitions.

In calling for Christian unity, the messages wonderfully echo the religious and cultural context of Seuca, located in a multi-ethnic and multi-denominational region, where Romanian Orthodox, Hungarian Catholics, Gypsies and followers of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania try to live side by side.

In 1996, during the harshest winter weather, an apple tree blossomed at the site of the apparition.

Rozsika had visions of Jesus and evil beings. The latter gave her a terrible fear that could not be faked.

There was never the slightest theological or spiritual error in her interpretation of these complex scenes, which, given Rozsika's low socio-economic background and complete lack of religious education, is truly inexplicable.

Dozens of unexplained healingshave been reported and ex-votos placed along the wall of the Catholic church cemetery.

The visionary has a gift of healing; she prays for people's deliverance, and blesses pilgrims. Before the first apparition, Rozsika did not have any charismatic gifts. It was the Virgin who granted her these gifts, and she has gained no financial or human benefit from them.

On several occasions, at the end of the apparitions, hundreds of people saw the sun "dance" for fifteen minutes, without being able to explain this phenomenon, characterised by unusual movements of the sun and the ability of the witnesses to look at it directly without their vision being harmed.

The human and spiritual quality of the visionary, the prevailing peace between the faithful of different faiths, the doctrinal orthodoxy of the messages, the permission given to pilgrims to take part in times of prayer in public, the joint presence of Catholic and Orthodox priests at the apparitions and the various miraculous events make the Seuca apparitions one of the most credible cases in this part of Europe for half a century.

Synthèse :

The Virgin Mary appeared to Rozsika Marian, 33, for the first time on 17 July 1995, at around 11pm, in the Catholic church in Seuca. The young woman had become blind three years earlier. This handicap was an ordeal that she overcame admirably, thanks to her faith. The mother of a teenage son, she finds the time to pray, often late into the night. As she explains, that day of 17 July will remain etched in her mind forever. From the middle of the day, she felt that her prayers were much more fervent than usual. This emotionally-charged event marks the boundary between her "old" and "new" life. Rozsika distinguishes between a "before" and an "after" the first apparition: she was profoundly and permanently converted at that moment.

The second time, the Virgin Mary appeared in a slightly different guise: Rozsika was contemplating a statuette of the Virgin, when the latter began emitting an extraordinary light, from which appeared a living woman of supernatural beauty. Apart from the first apparition, on 17 July 1995, the Virgin Mary appeared to Rozsika on specific dates (day and time) that she announced to the visionary during the previous apparition.

In addition to the miracles of healing that occurred in the church where the apparitions took place, and the inexplicable blossoming of an apple tree in the middle of winter (1996), the apparition delivered messages stressing the urgent need for the conversion of the world, prayer, peace, penance, fasting, reconciliation, and the practice of the Stations of the Cross, the rosary and Bible reading. These messages states that the faithful must not delay their conversion, because Jesus is angry with sinners who knowingly do evil on earth. Such considerations are in perfect harmony with the messages of the greatest previous apparitions.

More than focusing on apocalyptic possibilities, these messages express Mary's maternal desire to see people pray to their heavenly Father and unite with her Son in order to overcome evil in all its forms in the world.

Since 1995, Our Lady has taught Rozsika a number of prayers and entrusted her with "secrets". The visionary has publicly revealed four of them, which concern the urgent need for conversion, specifying that she had not yet received permission to reveal the others.

Some accuse the visionary of focusing attention on the devil and the risk of apocalyptic events, to the detriment of God's all-powerful love. But the theology of the messages is perfectly clear: they never pit God against a demonic figure who would be his equal, but on the contrary contextualise Satan's action here on earth within the economy of Christian salvation.

Many people come to Rozsika Marian, whom some of them consider to be a "healer". She explains to them that she has no powers or gifts other than those entrusted to her by Heaven to proclaim the Gospel; to this end, Mary told her that her charism of healing was a necessary instrument so that all might believe. She makes no distinction between those who were physically ill and those who suffered from ailments of the soul: in her eyes, they were all ill because they did not love Jesus and their fellow human beings enough.

Until 2001, the apparitions took place in the presence of a few people: parents, neighbours and residents, and then in the presence of several pupils from the local secondary school. Gradually, the circle of pilgrims widened, without any publicity, and the apparitions became public, with the prudent authorisation of the Archbishopric of Alba Iulia, which followed the development of the phenomenon very closely thanks to the information provided by the visionary's spiritual director.

On 17 July 2001, around 5,000 people surrounded Rozsika during the apparition of the day. Since then, the Catholic church in Seuca has been the only site of apparitions. On some occasions, the capacity of the building is too small and pilgrims gather on the square.

In addition to the celebrations organised to mark the anniversary of the apparitions, and the activities of the two prayer groups (Catholic and Orthodox) founded by Rozsika, pilgrims are invited to take part in monthly Stations of the Cross, confessions, catechism classes for young people, etc., on the night of the 17th.

Pilgrims usually pause in front of a large neon-lit cross set up on a concrete pedestal in front of the town's Catholic church, with a spiritual inscription in several languages. They then pray in front of a row of smaller crosses, at the end of which is displayed the Virgin's latest message. A small replica of the grotto at Lourdes has been built nearby, on the walls of which people hang messages addressed to Mary. In the centre of the cemetery is a covered platform, on which mass is celebrated on the anniversaries of the apparitions.

At the end of the apparition on 17 July 2007, the Virgin Mary gave the following message: "My name here in this place is "Queen of Light"". This is now the name by which Mary is honoured in Seuca. The church sells religious books, writings about the story of the apparitions, and the visionary's biography.

Based on Rozsika's testimony, an artist painted the "Queen of Light" dressed in blue, crowned and surrounded by a beautiful light. The image is on display in the church. A life-size statue of the Virgin was made and placed in front of the altar in the cemetery, under the covered platform. Messages and photos of pilgrims who have received a special grace are pinned to an adjacent wall.

Among the alleged miracles, that of the "sun dance" occupies a special place. Observed by hundreds of people after several public appearances, this dance lasts around 15 minutes. In 2008 and 2009, it took place after Rozsika had announced the message that Mary had just given her. Surprisingly, the witnesses were able to stare at the sun without any harm to their vision. Some wore sunglasses, took photos and films, but no eye problems have been reported.

At Seuca, ecumenism makes sense: the crowds accompanying the visionary are made up of Romanians, Hungarians and Gypsies, as well as Germans and Moldovans... The majority of pilgrims come from Transylvania and Moldavia. Hungarians also come in large numbers.

On 17 June 2004, the apparition gave the following message, which sums up the Seuca phenomenon: "Dear children, I thank you for having responded to my call, transmitted to you by this daughter of mine [...]. Seek to walk the path of holiness and peace that leads to my Son. It is only through holiness that you will be able to reach his heart."

Patrick Sbalchiero

Au-delà des raisons d'y croire :

Rozsika Marian communicates with the "Queen of Light" in Romanian, with the exception of the apparition of 17 July 2007, which was in Hungarian, as if to be better understood by all the inhabitants. This kind of linguistic inculturation should be noted, as it is extremely rare: although the Virgin sometimes speaks in the language of the visionary, even in a minority dialect (such as the Pyrenean dialect at Lourdes), she almost never delivers her messages in two different national languages.

Aller plus loin :

Patrick Sbalchiero, "Seuca (Roumanie)", in René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero, Dictionnaire encyclopédique des "apparitions" de la Vierge Marie, Paris, Fayard, 2007, p. 1323-1324.

En savoir plus :

Stella Maris,^no. 384, September 2002, pp. 24-25;^no. 385, October 2002, pp. 3-4;^no. 386, November 2002, pp. 23-24;^no. 388, January 2003, pp. 28-29;^no. 406, September 2004, p. 32. Lehel Peti, " Apparition de la Vierge Marie de Seuca dans le contexte de l'ingérence religieuse et ethnique. L'apparition mariale de Seuca/Szokefalva dans le contexte des interférences religieuses et ethniques",Études en atelier. Research on national minorities in Romania. Working papers on Romanian minority studies. Institute for the Study of National Minority Issues, Cluj-Napoca, 2009.
The article in the Marian Encyclopaedia (on the Mary of Nazareth website): "Seuca (Romania, 1995-?)".