Still time to push back Divine chastisement?
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Many today may not have heard about a series of jaw-dropping supernatural events that played out in Japan fifty-one years ago that bear relevance for everyone living on planet Earth today.
Many may also not have heard about how Our Lady tapped a seemingly unremarkable nun, Sr. Agnes Sasagawa, living in a rural convent outside the city of Akita, to convey her stunning message to the world.
As she had to the three children at Fatima a half-century earlier, Our Blessed Mother warned Sr. Agnes of the cataclysm that would surely befall humankind if it does not make amends for its many sins and perverse deviations from God's laws:
"If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead."
And as she had to the visionaries at Fatima, Our Blessed Mother provided Sr. Agnes the surefire way to avert the inevitable consequences of sin and evil-doing through prayer and penance.
"The whole Marian message ... bespeaks Our Lady trying to intercede so that we do not face the full consequence of sin [and] injustice ... That presupposes our cooperation, and I think that's why Akita is quintessentially relevant." — Mark Miravalle, US Theology professor
Sister Agnes, who grew up in a Buddhist family, experienced many health problems during her life. She was born premature, and a botched appendix operation in her teens left her suffering paralysis of the nervous system in her hands and legs. For the better part of the next 20 years, she was in and out of hospitals.
One of the Catholic nurses tending to Agnes during her hospital stays lent her a copy of The Bells of Nagasaki (1949), a book written by Dr. Takashi Nagai, a Catholic convert and a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. The book recounts the author's care for the victims of the plutonium bomb attack even while he himself was wounded and dying of leukemia.
"When I read this book, I thought Catholicism wonderful. I was enthralled," Agnes said, "I asked [the nurse] how I could become Catholic."
Sister Agnes did, indeed, become Catholic; and eventually found her way to the convent of the Handmaids of the Eucharist near Akita, first as novice and then as nun.
It was in Akita, beginning in the summer and fall months of 1973, that the then 43-year old nun experienced a series of Heavenly apparitions.
At first, she experienced brilliant lights emanating out of the tabernacle. She also saw angels worshipping the Holy Eucharist even as she was adoring the Blessed Sacrament.
Most notable among the Heavenly occurrences is Sr. Agnes' hearing the voice of Mary emanating from the direction of the three-foot wooden statue of Our Lady of All Nations in the convent chapel.
As she had in other apparitions, Our Lady warned of the calamities that necessarily ensue when people in society — and in the Church — separate from God, and how it is only by turning to God in prayer and penance that can spare humanity from His righteous wrath.
Mariology expert Robert Fastiggi, a theology professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Milwaukee, said that while it may be difficult to imagine God as wrathful, the messages to Sr. Agnes indeed reflect Scripture.
"Wrath is there in the Bible, there's no doubt about it," he said. "St. Thomas Aquinas says that God's wrath is really the effects of our sins. It's what we experience, a kind of wrathful effect when we are not following God. It's not like God is not loving and He's a wrathful, angry God. But it's just that He wants conversion, and there are effects of sin. ..." — Robert Fastiggi
In 1975, two years after Mary first spoke to Sr. Agnes, the statue inexplicably began to shed tears flowing from the eyes and down the cheeks. Tears continued to flow from the statue intermittently over a hundred times until 1981.
Thousands of people witnessed the "statue of the weeping Virgin Mary" in person, and the event was even broadcast on Japanese television in 1975.
The diocesan bishop, John Shojiro Ito, gathered a sample of the tears and sent it to the Akita University Department of Biochemistry for testing. The tears were confirmed to be of human origin by forensic experts.
"Mary's message at Akita is a universal message." — John Miravalle, US theology professor
A brief chronology of the supernatural events compiled from the words of Sr. Agnes follows.
HOLY MONTH OF JUNE 1973
It was during the month of the Sacred Heart that Our Lady began preparing Sr. Agnes for the momentous messages she was about to receive, each one increasing in intensity.
On June 12, during adoration, Sr. Agnes saw brilliant rays emanating from the tabernacle in the convent chapel. She immediately prostrated herself, understanding this as a sign of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Two days later, she again saw a brilliant light during adoration — this time an intense red flame that radiated in every direction, she said.
Then on June 28, the nun saw the brilliant light once more while she also beheld "angels surrounding the altar in adoration before the Host."
On the following day, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an angel appeared to her as she was about to begin praying the Rosary.
The angel instructed her to add the word "truly" to a prayer that Bp. John Shojiro Ito of Niigata, the diocese in which Akita is located, had composed for the sisters. The recitation of the prayer from then on was begun with the words: "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus" who is "TRULY present in the Holy Eucharist."
During this time, Sr. Agnes began to experience the stigmata, a wound on the palm of her left hand in the shape of a cross that bled profusely. Bishop Ito, who witnessed the stigmata, said the wound would flare up on Thursday, bleed on Friday and heal on Saturday, week after week.
JULY 6, 1973: OUR LADY'S "INFINITELY BEAUTIFUL VOICE"
On the First Friday of that July, at 3:00 in the morning, Sr. Agnes said an angel led her to the chapel, saying she would find a wound similar to her own that had developed on the right hand of the statue. Indeed, the other nuns testified to the occurrence.
"The angel's voice was hard to define. It was a voice that penetrated my deaf ears and penetrated my innermost heart." — Sr. Agnes
During the July 6 event, Sr. Agnes saw a bright illumination surrounding the statue of Our Lady of All Nations in the convent.
Then she heard an "infinitely beautiful" voice coming from the statue that she understood to be that of Our Lady.
Our Lady began by commending Sr. Agnes for "abandoning all to follow me" in her vocation as a religious. She also asked the nun about her inability to hear — promising one day she would be able to hear again. "Persevere," Our Lady said.
"Pray in reparation for the sins of mankind." — Our Lady to Sr. Agnes
The Blessed Mother requested that both she and Sr. Agnes together pray the convent of Handmaids of the Eucharist's community prayer:
"Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart, being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father pleading for the coming of His Kingdom."
"Please receive this humble offering of myself. Use me as You will for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls."
"Most holy Mother of God, never let me be separated from Your Divine Son. Please defend and protect me as Your Special Child. Amen."
When the prayer was finished, Mary's Heavenly voice said:
"Pray very much for the Pope [Pope Paul VI at the time], Bishops, and Priests. Since your Baptism you have always prayed faithfully for them. Continue to pray very much ... very much."
"Pray very much for the Pope [Pope Paul VI at the time], Bishops, and Priests. Since your Baptism you have always prayed faithfully for them. Continue to pray very much ... very much."
Finally, Mary advised Sr. Agnes to tell her superior [Bp. Ito] all that had transpired and obey him in everything that he recommends.
AUGUST 3, 1973: CALAMITIES HANGING OVER THE WORLD
Our Lady again, according to Sr. Agnes, spoke about the importance of prayer and repentance in averting the just wrath of God.
The Blessed Mother said she was seeking groups of souls who would console Christ and soften the anger of the Heavenly Father.
"Many men in this world afflict the Lord," she lamented. "I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will make reparation, by their suffering and their poverty, for the sinners and the ungrateful."
"In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls."
"Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father's anger," she added. "I desire this also from your community ... that it love poverty, that it sanctify itself and pray in reparation for the ingratitude and outrages of so many men."
Our Lady reminded the nun that she and her fellow sisters must "recite the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist with "awareness of its meaning" and "put it into practice."
"Endeavor to pray with enthusiasm." — Our Lady to Sr. Agnes
"Offer in reparation — whatever God may send — for sins. Let each one endeavor, according to capacity and position, to offer herself entirely to the Lord," she concluded the visit.
OCTOBER 13, 1973
Mary's final message to Sr. Agnes was delivered on October 13, the same day the Miracle of the Sun occurred in Fatima fifty-six years earlier.
It was on this day that Our Lady delivered her most urgent message:
"My dear daughter, listen well to what I will say to you," and "inform your superior."
"As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will have never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead."
"The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son [many people question the meaning of the latter]."
"Pray the Rosary everyday. Pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests."
"The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres. ... churches and altars will be sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord."
"The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. There will be no forgiveness if sins continue to increase."
"There will be no forgiveness if sins continue to increase." — Our Lady to Sr. Agnes
Our Lady told the nun, "Today is the last time that I will speak to you in living voice."
THE APPROVAL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: HOLY MOTHER OF AKITA
After having been an eyewitness of the extraordinary events in real time and having carefully investigated them for years, Bp. Ito declared the events of Akita, Japan, to be of supernatural origin and authorized the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita throughout the entire diocese.
In a message which was read in every parish of the diocese on Easter Sunday, April 22, 1984, he advised that “the message of Akita is the message of Fatima” — pray the Rosary, repent, and make peace with God.
Bp. Ito went to Rome in June of 1988 to gain the opinion of the Holy See. “I was worried because of the seriousness of the message,” he said. Pope Benedict XVI, then Cdl. Ratzinger, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reassured the bishop that he had acted properly and gave definitive judgement on the Akita messages as reliable and worthy of belief.
Despite the stunning spiritual and physical, life and death, stakes of the Marian messages of Akita, many are not familiar with them.
Fewer still may know that Sr. Agnes herself is still alive in a nursing home in Tokyo. Reports from people close to the 93-year-old Japanese visionary say she is close to death as of this writing.
Catholic deacon Nick Donnelly of the UK, former EWTN radio host, posted this request on July 22 upon hearing Sr. Agnes is in the last days of her life:
In your charity, please pray for Sister Agnes Sasagawa, the privileged soul through whom Our Lady at Akita gave prophecies and requests.
That Sr. Agnes and Our Lady of Akita may not be well-known — indeed the convent in which she once lived near Akita presently bears no public mention of Sr. Agnes nor the Marian message delivered there, although it once attracted pilgrims from around the world.
In an ironic twist this may be a fulfillment of Our Lady's prophecy that those "who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres."
As Our Lady has done so many times before her visit to Akita, she appeared to simple, uncluttered souls; those inclined to understand Her ways and means of communication — St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes and the children of La Salette, in France; the villagers of Knock in Ireland; the three children of Fatima; and, the schoolgirls in Kibeho in Rwanda, to name a few.
It seems clear that Mary, as the loving mother of all nations, intervenes directly in our lives, warning us of fatal pitfalls and advising us of ways to avoid them and live according to God's laws.
With current rumors of coups d'état in the US increasing, real fears that wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are erupting into WWIII, and speculation swirling that the end of the age is approaching — what Our Lady told Sr. Agnes could not have greater significance.
But it would be a mistake to just rant about the real and evil problems "out there." We must first pray and make reparation for our own sins "right here," wherever we are.
We can, indeed, at this very moment push against the coming chastisement by picking up our Rosary, repenting of our sins and firmly resolving, by the help of God's grace, to sin no more.
This is the momentous message Our Blessed Mother delivered to Sr. Agnes in Japan not so very long ago.
Note to our readers: A variety of beautiful rosaries, scapulars and chaplets, as well as other Marian sacramentals, are available at the Souls and Liberty online store. Inspirational books and videos about Our Lady are also available. Click on this link to browse the store for all kinds of great religious gifts for your family and friends – and yourself!
Dr. Barbara Toth has a doctorate in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She has taught at universities in the US, China and Saudi Arabia. Her work in setting up a writing center at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahmen University, an all-women's university in Riyadh, has been cited in American journals. Toth has published academic and non-academic articles and poems internationally.
I was unaware of Sr. Agnes and her story. Thank you for telling us.