Our Lady of Beauraing

Between November 29, 1932, and January 3, 1933, five children from two families in Beauraing, Belgium — the Voisin and Degeimbre children, aged nine to fifteen — reported thirty-three apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the garden of the local convent school. The woman identified herself as the Immaculate Virgin and the Queen of Heaven and displayed a golden heart, calling the children to pray always, make sacrifices, and convert sinners. Crowds of up to thirty thousand gathered at the site during the apparitions. Bishop Thomas-Louis Heylen of Namur opened an investigation; in 1943 the Holy Office affirmed there was no obstacle to permitting public devotion, and in 1949 Bishop André-Marie Charue formally approved the apparitions as worthy of belief. Healings reported at the site were among the evidence considered in the approval process.