Marian apparitions in Olsene (Belgium) in 1933
“I am Our Lady Above All…”
The Marian apparitions of Beauraing and Banneux, both in Belgium, are well known. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in the former place to five children between November 29, 1932 and January 3, 1933 and by decree of the then Bishop of Namur in 1943, the authenticity of the apparitions in Beauraing was recognized. In Banneux the Blessed Virgin appeared several times to the girl Mariette Beco in the period from January 15 to March 2, 1933 and in 1949 the final decree of Mgr. Kerkhoffs van Liège, in which the authenticity of these apparitions was also definitively recognized.
What is less known is that shortly after these two series of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, Marian apparitions also took place elsewhere in Belgium. We mention Onkerzeele, Chaineux, Etikhove, Olsene and Lokeren and in all these places the apparitions began in the same year 1933. The meaning of these various apparitions, some of which were condemned by the church authorities, has only been incompletely investigated; one hardly hears talk about it anymore. However, one cannot escape the impression that these apparitions are also closely related to the accepted apparitions of the Virgin with the Golden Heart (Beauraing) and the Virgin of the Poor (Banneux) and therefore form an integral part of the Marian Apocalypse.
The village of Olsene in East Flanders is located on the river Leie, approximately halfway between Ghent and Kortrijk; it had about 2,000 inhabitants at the time. On the evening of Sunday, October 29, 1933 (Feast of Christ the King), the then 26-year-old unmarried factory worker Maurice van den Broecke (he works at a weaving mill) is on his bicycle on his way home. It is then about ten o'clock and he plans to have a drink in the café “de Hondenjacht” which is close to the parental home. However, when he is close to home, the handlebars of his bicycle suddenly refuse, so that he cannot go in the direction of the café and he feels that the bicycle is, as it were, being steered towards his house. When he enters the yard of the house, he suddenly sees a ditch above, about 80 cm away. above the ground an apparition of the Blessed Virgin. She wears a beautiful light blue dress of indescribable beauty. There are gold-colored motifs on it, which at first look like twinkling stars, but on closer inspection they have a kind of diamond shape, consisting of four points each and one in the middle, so that in a stylized form they resemble the flames that rise above the candle at the first Pentecost. heads of the Blessed Virgin and of the Apostles floated. Four of these ornaments are located on the garment of the Blessed Virgin at the level of the breast and all at the same height, while the rest are located at equal distances on that part of Her garment which is visible under Her joined hands. A palm branch can be seen between Her folded hands.
The apparition wears a crown that seems “of gold and yet not of gold”, and seems to be made of beautiful light. This crown has an ornament in the middle of the forehead, which at first looks like a star, but on closer inspection it is a small round ball, ending upwards in a brilliant spark of light.
The apparition is surrounded by a luminous oval of blue color, topped with an equally oval wreath of small white clouds. During this first manifestation the apparition remains silent. Finally, the vision disappears because the Blessed Virgin slowly moves upwards and thus withdraws from Maurice's eyes.
Deeply moved, the man goes inside. He doesn't tell his housemates anything and goes straight to bed. He has a sleepless night and when he goes to the factory with his brother the next morning, he tells him what he has experienced. The other family members hear his story at the dinner table in the afternoon, but no one believes it, except his father. He is also mocked at the factory when he tells his experience there in the afternoon. Without having eaten and accompanied by no one, Maurice is back at the place of the apparition that Monday evening and begins to pray.
Suddenly the Virgin appears to him and Maurice falls to his knees. He contemplates the apparition for about five minutes and then asks: “Are you the Blessed Virgin?” Maria nods Her head affirmatively and to his further question: “Why are You here?” he is answered: “I will tell you that tomorrow.” When the apparition has disappeared, Maurice tells his story again and now his mother also believes him. The next day, after another sleepless night, Maurice tells his story again everywhere and this time people begin to believe his story.
On that Tuesday evening, many people are already present in the yard when Maurice is drawn to the place of the apparition as if by an invisible force. The Blessed Virgin now appears to him three times in succession and asks him to pray the Our Father and Hail Mary nine times. Maurice obeys and further asks for a cure and also for an apparition to someone else, because people do not believe him. The Blessed Virgin then tells him: “There is someone else who sees Me”, which - as it turns out - actually happened. That evening, a young woman, Susanne Desmytere, also sees the Blessed Virgin in the same place, albeit smaller in stature than She is perceived by Maurice. In the last apparition of this evening, the Blessed Virgin says: “Pray much! I will appear for five more days in a row.” When asked by Maurice what She wants, She says: “I want a beautiful chapel here and an annual pilgrimage on the feast day of All Saints. Keep quiet about this until tomorrow.”
The following day is the feast day of All Saints' Day (November 1). Once again the Blessed Virgin appears three times in succession. Maurice tells those who have gathered what the Blessed Virgin had confided to him the previous day about the chapel and the annual pilgrimage. On All Souls' Day (November 2) there is only one very brief appearance of the Mother of God. The next day Mary appeared to him five times. During the fourth apparition of that evening, Mary leans over to Maurice, extends Her hand to him and says: “A small palm branch for you.” The bystanders hear Maurice's words: “A palm branch for me?” and see the man make a movement forward with wonderful grace. Maurice adopts a position that he could not possibly have assumed in a normal state. Mary tells him: “You must pray a lot.” During the last apparition of that evening, Maurice is heard sighing: “How beautiful that is! How beautiful that is!” It had rained heavily that day and the ground was soaked. The shoes of those present were therefore full of mud. However, despite the fact that Maurice had crawled on his knees through the mud to get closer to the apparition, when he later got up his clothes showed no trace of mud or rain. The rest of the people, however, were soaked and returned from the place of the apparition covered in mud.
There will be three more apparitions on Saturday, November 4. On this occasion the Blessed Virgin tells him: “I am Our Lady Above All.” Maurice repeats this title, which is spoken by the Blessed Virgin. In the meantime, at the beginning of the apparitions, pious souls had hung a small wooden niche against a tree in the immediate vicinity of that place and placed a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in it. this modest show of devotion receives special attention from Mary during the apparitions of the following days.
There are five apparitions to report on Sunday, November 5. At the first apparition of this day, the hands of the Blessed Virgin separate. While She points with Her left hand in the direction of the statue hanging against the tree, She raises Her right hand, containing the palm branch. Then She very slowly brings the right hand containing the palm branch, which She holds between her thumb and index finger, to the left hand and lets it rest there. She then remains in that position until a cloud comes around Her and She ascends into Heaven. Maurice says that the Blessed Virgin looked at him very intently while performing these gestures. Furthermore, only during the fourth apparition on this day did Mary speak. She then pronounced the words “Holy Mary”.
There will be six apparitions on November 6. The gesture of the day before is repeated four times on this Monday; the Blessed Virgin did not speak. The last two apparitions take place on the evening of November 7. At the first apparition, the Blessed Virgin says: “I am the Mother of God. Farewell!" During the last apparition, the Blessed Virgin blesses the crowd (there are approximately 4,000 of them) with the palm branch that She holds in Her hand.
The chapel desired by the Blessed Virgin was built on the spot by the care of Maurice and was completed a year later. The statue of Mary remained placed against the tree, where it had been placed immediately after the start of the apparitions. Of the crown which Mary wore, Maurice says that it was like gold, without any decoration except the emblem on the point above the forehead, which resembled the decorations which She wore on Her garment. Her dress was closed at the top of the neck with a gold band; the garment sloped downwards almost without folds and also covered Her feet. These rested invisibly on a kind of rectangular elevation of a brown-red color. When someone later asked Maurice why the Blessed Virgin did not hand him the palm branch that She held out to him, he gave this explanation: "Oh, that is very simple..., because we will never have peace on earth." and we will only have that peace in heaven. There, with God's grace, I will be able to receive my palm branch.....
Maurice van den Broecke, the second child in a family of nine, was certainly not a paragon of religiousness before the apparitions. He did go to church regularly on Sundays, but his interest in matters of faith did not go much further. Maurice was completely changed by these apparitions. In the years that followed he received the Sacraments as often as he could and every evening he prayed fervently at the place of the apparitions and it was difficult for him to move away from it.
What is striking in this series of apparitions (about thirty in a period of 10 days) is the title that the Blessed Virgin Mary gives herself: “I am Our Lady Above All”. In Her hands, which She holds together in a prayer position, She already carries, as it were, the palm branch of victory. Both on the crown and on Her garment She wears, as it were, the symbols of the Pentecostal fire. These appearances of Olsene thus form, as it were, a prelude to Her later arrival as “The Lady of All Nations”. The time for this had not yet come in the critical years before the Second World War. The Fatima message was also in the spotlight. year 1933 is not yet known. This is also how one can explain Maurice's subjective explanation about the palm branch, which was held out to him, but not handed over. Maurice interpreted it as if we will never achieve peace on earth, but from the Fatima message and especially from later apparitions we know that this will eventually happen. However, the intention seems to be that peace on earth would come through Mary, but that the time for that had not yet come. In the gesture repeated five times, the Blessed Virgin on the image of Her Immaculate Conception, holding aloft the palm branch of peace. Peace therefore comes about through Her Immaculate Conception, from which all Her prerogatives (privileges) arise.
The above representation of the simple, yet profound events in Olsene in 1933 is taken from private notes. It is not known whether any other details were published.
The apparitions have not been approved by the Holy See in Rome.