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December 8, 1932, Beauraing, Namur, Belgium, several people:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

This case entered into ufology by Albert Rosales who noted it in his catalog of "encounters with humanoids" around 2005, saying it took place on December 8, 1932, in Beauraing, province of Namur, Belgium.

He says that at 8 p.m., several people standing on a railway embankment claimed to have seen a vision of a "whitish light having a human form."

When the witnesses were questioned the next day, they were in a frightened and emotionally upset state, and some said they had seen something like "Our Lady of Lourdes", but others made different reports.

I show below in this case file that this description of the event has little to do with what it really was.

I later discovered two versions cited by the Belgian "skeptical" ufologist Godelieve van Overmeire. One is that on November 29, 1932 in Beauraing, it was the beginning of about thirty appearances, when towards 06:45, the ladies Hennicken, Jacquemin, Dubois and Delruche, then children, observed "an elongated object surrounded by stars and making no sound, white in color, that comes to rest above a railway embankment", a phenomenon that would have occurred during the "miracles", and Notre Dame de Beauraing is still today it is a place of pilgrimage.

Her second version comes from the ufologist Eric Zürcher who in his 1979 book on "appearances of humanoids" would have said that "the witness is praying on the scene, suddenly she sees a bright red ball 1 m 50 of diameter. It explodes and, inside, the Virgin appears immediately."

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. ed1:] ERICH VON DANIKEN:

[Ref. go1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Beauraing, Belgium, on December 8, 1932, in the evening, "Several persons standing on a railway embankment claimed to have seen a vision of "a whitish light having a human form." When questioned the next day they were in a frightened and emotionally upset state, and some said they had seen something like Our Lady of Lourdes, but others gave different accounts."

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Theotokos.org".

[Ref. ud1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The source is indicated as: "Rosales, Albert, Humanoid Sighting Reports Database".

[Ref. pr1:] PETER ROGERSON:

Points to consider:

"Theotokos.org", given as the source of this case by Albert Rosales, is the website of the Coptic Church "Holy Virgin Mary Church" in Los Angeles... The web page needs to be found on another website, at http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/approved/appariti/beaurain.html

In reality, what is presented in the above sources as "CE3" or "humanoid encounter" with as witnesses "several persons" is a series of alleged apparitions of the "Virgin Mary", between November 29, 1932 and January 3, 1933, by five children from the village of Beauraing, province of Namur, Belgium: Fernande, Gilberte and Albert Voisin, as well as Andrée and Gilberte Degeimbre.

This would have occurred in the garden of the Notre-Dame du Sacré-Coeur boarding school, 6 rue de l'aubépine, run by the "Sisters of the Christian Doctrine of Nancy."

The first "apparition" took place on November 29, 1932. Around 6 p.m., Fernande Voisin, 15, her brother Albert, 11, their friend Andrée Degeimbre, 14, were sent to get the sister of the Voisins, Gilberte, 13 years old (9 years according to other sources), at the boarding school held by these "Sisters of the Christian Doctrine of Nancy". The kids rang at the door of the boarding school, when Albert turns around, looks in the direction of the bridge of the nearby railway and exclaims: "Look at the Virgin who walks over the bridge!" He would tell that it is was woman dressed in white, "all light", who walks a meter above the bridge. When the girls start to look, they see her too, as well as the Gilberte when she comes out of the school. At first they are scared and run home.

It was Sister Valeria who had opened the door of the boarding school. The children showed him the "Blessed Virgin" on the bridge, but sister Valeria "not believing in these nonsense" apparently does not see anything at all since she went back inside to find Gilberte Voisin.

The next day, the same kids come back to get Gilberte gain at the boarding school, at the same hour, and see the same "beautiful lady" over the bridge. They see her again on December 1, but this time she joins the children when they pass by the holly (hawthorn according to other sources) in the garden, then under a hawthorn branch near the entrance gate. She appeared standing on a small cloud that hides her feet, wearing a long white dress crossed by three fine blue reflections that start from her left shoulder and disappear at the bottom of the dress, on the right.

Beams of light forming a crown came out of her head covered with a long white veil that fell on her shoulders. She had her hands joined and smiles. She has, in her arms, "her heart illuminated, like a heart of gold."

There will be about thirty of these manifestations, until January 3, 1933. At one of them, she speaks and says "I am the immaculate Virgin, the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven," and asks the children "to be well behaved" and: "Pray, pray a lot, pray always." She requests the construction of a chapel and that on "comes here on pilgrimage." At the last appearance, she said, "I will convert sinners." To Fernande, she says, "Do you love my Son, do you love me?" As Fernande agrees, she sais, "So, sacrifice to me, goodbye."

For some of these appearances, after the first ones, there are hundreds of people around the children when they see their "Blessed Virgin", but only the children saw her.

André-Marie Charue, bishop of Namur, investigated and concluded to the "supernatural character of the facts" on July 2, 1949, and the public worship and pilgrimage of Our Lady of Beauraing began.

(See for example http://www.sanctuairesdebeauraing.be/en-bref)

One may wonder what makes a story "appearance of the Virgin" appear in writings about UFO.

Myself, I wonder. But since at least one UFO source considers that this is part of ufology, classifying the case as a "close encounter of the third type" according to the Hynek classification, I have to take it into account myself, to evaluate the meaning that this "apparition of the Virgin" would have that would make it an ufology-related affair, I must see clearly what is going on before contesting or admitting the relevance of the connection.

Some ufologists, usually those who consider the idea of extraterrestrial visitorss as false or foolish, occasionally blame those who do not find this idea false or stupid of "censoring" a whole series of "phenomena", such as the "apparitions of the Virgin". They consider that such demonstrations teach something to ufologists and that to dismiss them is a methodological mistake, or a ase of "closed mind" or even a denial of facts.

I therefore give them wrong here, since I did not "dismiss" the case from the outset at the mere discovering of its "apparition of the Virgin" kind, but that I sought the best possible documentation on the case, and make an assessment, and only then will I say if this case teaches something useful to ufology.

I must briefly explain to the reader possibly "profane" ufology, the reasoning that some ufologists hold to justify that an "apparition of the Virgin" is a ufological matter. These reasons are many, some are contradictory; but they exist:

• Some "UFO-skeptical" ufologists, arguing that UFO sighting were never anything else than mistakes or hoaxes, believe that contemporary UFO sightings are of the same nature as "apparitions of the Virgin" ", among others, reported in the past. "UFOs and extraterrestrials" would be the "modernized" versions, with the themes of technology and spatial conquest replacing the religious themes of yesteryear, the whole never having any other reality than that of hoaxes or misunderstandings of all kinds.
• Some ufologists argue that any "abnormal" or "paranormal" manifestation, are all different aspects of one and only one global phenomenon, that of the "paranormal". Ufology, they say, is just a "sub-discipline" of the study of the "paranormal". Ufologists who do not recognize this are somehow "stubborn", they say. This speech is often held. We do not get explanations of what this set of "paranormal" stuff is, we are not exposed what "theory of everything" would connect all this. The "trademark" of this school of thought seems to be as much to refuse that UFOs and associated "extraterrestrials" occupants ar just that, as to refuse that they are "explained" as being all misunderstandings and hoaxes. Sometimes, however, wome "explanations" have been attempted; these are the ones that follow.
• Some ufologists consider that all the paranormal phenomena including UFOs and extraterrestrials have as a common cause, apart from hoaxes and misinterpretation, a certain "intelligence" that coexists with ours in some "other dimension" - the nature of which is rarely specified - and this intelligence of another realm that would not come from any planet other than ours, although concealed, would make paranormal phenomena occur for the purpose of "deception", manipulation of humanity with a certain goal. They speak of an "intraterrestrial", "supraterrestrial", "ultraterrestrial" intelligence, some claiming that it would be a kind of "giant thinking crystal in the center of the earth" that would cause all these worries for "the purpose of making us believe in aliens" for some ultimate goal - or for the goal of making us "ecologists" or "pacafists" or something else like that...
• Some ufologists exactly share the views above, except that for them, the "deceptive intelligence" causing paranormal phenomena in general would be an extraterrestrial intelligence. It would be "real extraterrestrials" who would manufacture for us "fake extraterrestrials" but also "virgin Mary", ghosts, poltergeist etc.
• Some ofologists defending the idea that extraterrestrials visit us propose, systematically, or occasionally, that all or such "apparition of the virgin" had been the erroneous interpretation, in a context of religiosity, of what was in reality an encounter with extraterrestrial beings. The existence of a very small number of cases in which some kind of "Virgin Mary" is associated with some kind of "UFO" - or even a classic saucer from which the "Virgin Mary" comes out, or some vague light in the sky seen in the sector and more or less "at the same time" - is used as argumentation for this thesis.
• Other "ideas" exist. I was told about "random quantum phenomena", the real existence of appearances of the "virgin Mary", two French author wrote that all the paranormal is explained by a "microbe" that would make infected people "see things", etc. etc.

Here, very summarily, why cases of "apparition of the Virgin Mary" are sometimes found in the UFO literature.

My approach is that before "theorizing", I want to check if the events alleged are real, if they were as we are told, that is to say if they are invented, if they are misintepretation, and "theorize" only from cases that are neither misunderstandings nor hoaxes.

Here, one can certainly rule out any possibility of misintepretetations. But a pure invention by the children cannot be ruled out. It is clear that when others than children are present, only the children have the "vision", the others do not see anything. If the "faithful" can ignore this, I refuse to ignore it, and interpret it as evidence that the children invented the story. It goes without saying that inspiration is not lacking, with all the previous and well-known stories of "appearances of the Blessed Virgin" (Fatima for example), it goes without saying that these children are raised in contact with the Catholic religion, since they come to get a child at the "Notre-Dame du Sacré-Coeur" boarding school, run by the "Sisters of the Christian Doctrine of Nancy."

I therefore consider that the case can enlighten the ufologist on the affairs of the "contactees" kind, but that it does not tell us anything about UFOs or extraterrestrial visitors.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Children invention, not UFO-related.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [ed1] * "Erscheinungen: Phänomene, die die Welt erregen", book by Erich von Däniken, Econ-Verlag publishers, Germany, 1974.
• [ed1] * "Le Livre des Apparitions, book by Erich von Däniken, French translation of "Erscheinungen", A. Michel publisher, France, 1975.
• [ed1] * "Miracles of the Gods - A Hard Look at the Supernatural, book by Erich Von Daniken, English translation of "Erscheinungen", Bukupedia publishers, USA, page 178, 2000.
• [mc1] ? "Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary", book by Kevin McClure, Aquarian Press publishers, U-K., page 87, 1983.
• [ez1] ? "Les Apparitions des Humanoïdes", book by Eric Zürcher, Alain Lefeuvre publisher, France, page 200, 1979.
• [go1] * "Chronologie OVNI", compiled by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 1999, was on the web.
• [ar1] * "1932 Humanoid Reports, compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2006, at www.aforteanosla.com.ar/albert/anuarios/1932%20Humanoid%20Reports.pdf
• [ud1] * "8 Dec 1932 - Beauraing, Namur, Belgium, case record at the UFOdna website, USA, circa 2009, at https://thecid.com/ufo/uf19/uf4/194821.htm
• [pr1] * "INTCAT - International Catalogue of close encounters and entity reports", compiled by Peter Rogerson, U-K., not dated, circa 1971-1972, updates 2005-2018, available at http://intcat.blogspot.com/2012/08/intcat-1930-1939.html

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This page was last updated on November 5, 2018.