Were ‘visions’ a people’s protest?

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On August 21, 1879, a significant religious apparition occurred in a remote village in Mayo, where around a dozen witnesses reported seeing bright lights and life-size figures of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John outside a local Catholic church. This event lasted for several hours, with the figures remaining silent and motionless. Following the incident, a panel of priests investigated and deemed the testimonies of local residents credible. Today, Knock has become one of the world's major Marian shrines, attracting approximately 1.5 million visitors annually. The discussion also touches on the varying levels of belief in supernatural sightings, influenced by cultural and temporal contexts, while humorously questioning the physical appearances of these religious figures.
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On August 21, 1879, in a poor and remote village in Mayo, about a dozen people saw a bright light outside the gable of the local Catholic church and within it figures of the Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John. The apparition persisted for several hours, though the life-size figures neither spoke nor moved.

A subsequent investigation by a panel of priests concluded that testimony given by local people about the apparition was acceptable, and nowadays Knock is one of the leading Marian shrines in the world, drawing about 1.5m visitors a year.

While social scientists are in no position to decide whether supernatural persons visit this world, claims of such sightings have been given different levels of credence depending on place and time...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article5438678.ece
 
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Who knows what Mary, John, or Joseph looked like?
 
Well Jesus is easy - he appears on tortillas all the time.
I guess if he had his mother's eyes Mary should be easy.
Joseph should be easy - how many saints wear Yamulkes?
 

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