The Organizational Development of Marian Apparitional Movements

Abstract

This article examines the histories of thirteen modern-era Marian apparitional movements in search of key factors related to their origination and development. The formation of these movements is similar to the origination of other new religious groups in some ways, but they are also distinctive. The apparitional movements all occurred in the context of various types of crisis conditions that were interpreted as having religious significance, and initial apparitional events were constructed so as to be credible within Catholic circles. Initial apparitional events were followed by the mobilization of key movement resources (a stable location and financial base, organization and leadership, supporters, and myth/ritual systems) in environments that presented varying degrees of opposition that significantly influenced the ultimate fate of the movements. There were two major types of outcomes: some movements were rapidly domesticated by the Catholic Church while others resisted and faced much more difficult and problematic futures.