Table of Contents

Preface List of Illustrations 1: Introduction 2: Immaculate and Sorrowful Mary: Apparitions 1830-1917 3: Sister Lucia's Narrative of War and Peace 4: Catholic Interpretations 5: Women as Visionaries 6: Children as Visionaries 7: Basque Raggle-Taggle: Ezkioga 8: Between the Wars: the Belgian Visionary Epidemic 9: 'When the Gestapo Hounded the Apparitions': Mary in Nazi Germany 10: Hearts and Nations: Visionary Women as Popular Theologians 11: The Cold War and the Marian Cult 12: Vatican II: Visionary Reactions to Change in the Church? 13: Medjugorje: the Queen of Peace and a Civil War 14: Grottos, Statues, and Visions in Ireland 15: The 1980s: Italy, Spain, France, and England 16: Conclusion Bibliography

About the Author

Chris Maunder is a senior lecturer in Theology & Religious Studies at York St John University; he has worked there as Head of Department and Head of both B.A. and M.A. programmes, but is now semi-retired. Since completing a PhD at the University of Leeds in 1991, he has written several articles on the European apparitions of Mary. Whilst being a scholar of Catholic popular religion in his professional life, he is also passionate about Marian shrines as a personal interest, visiting them across Europe and helping to maintain his local shrine, a 15th-century rock chapel in Knaresborough, Yorkshire.

Reviews

The novelty and value of Our Lady of Nations is that it brings supernatural forces, mystical experiences, and religious visions back into the Western European political landscape. Traditionally, modern European societies saw themselves as a stark contrast to their own colonies. Europe was characterized by secularization and rationalism and the colonies were associated with mysticism and irrationalism. Maunder challenges binary dichotomies between modern rationality and premodern irrationality by demonstrating how religious visions of Mary played a political role in 20th-century Europe. This book will be of great use for anyone interested in studying and understanding collective memory, propaganda, ideologies, popular consciousness, culture wars, or silent resistance. * Rasa Balockaite, Reading Religion *
[Maunder] is a judicious guide to the main themes and his book can be recommended as an introduction. * David Blackburn, Common Knowledge *