Our Lady of Cuapa, Nicaragua
Preceding Mary’s apparition the sacristy lights were mysteriously illuminated on two separate occasions. On April 15, 1980 the sacristan, Bernardo Martinez witnessed the Marian statue in the chapel light up on it’s own. Bernardo believed that the Holy Mother was angry at him for arguing with others. He went out to seek forgiveness from those people, but after retelling what happened to him they laughed at him, disbelieving what he claimed to see. Because of this ridicule he prayed, “Blessed Mother, please do not request anything of me. I have many problems in the church. Make your request known to some other person because I want to avoid any more problems. I have a great many now. I don’t want any more.” Just to be sure he avoided going near that statue.
Returning from a fishing trip on May 8, 1988 Bernardo saw two lightning flashes. On the second flash the Virgin Mary appeared to him. Bernardo describes the event: “It looked like the statue of the Virgin of Fatima. I was immobile. I had no inclination to run, to yell, I felt no fear, I was surprised. I had thought and said: ‘What am I seeing? … Could it be the same statue of the Virgin that they brought and placed here for me? … The statue from the chapel … Is it in order to play a joke on me because I said I saw it illuminated? … Is it a trick? … But no! I would have seen them carrying it.’ I then passed my hand over my face because I thought that what I saw was a dream. And I said, ‘Could it be that I am asleep, but I have not tripped over anything.’
“And when I removed my hands from my face, I saw that she had human skin and that her eyes moved and She blinked. I then said, in my thoughts, because I could not move my tongue … I said: ‘She is alive. … She is not a statue. … She is alive!’ My mind was the only thing that I could move. I felt like numb, my lower jaw stiff and my tongue as if asleep, everything immobilized, as I said, only the ideas moved in my head. I was in those thoughts when She extended Her arms — like the Miraculous Medal, which I never had seen, but which later was shown to me. She extended Her arms and from Her hands emanated rays of light stronger than the sun. She was – She rested up high and the rays that came from Her hands touched my breast. When she gave out Her light is when I became encouraged to speak, although somewhat stammering. I said to her: ‘What is your name?’
“She answered me with the sweetest voice I have ever heard in any woman, not even in persons who speak softly. She answered me and said that Her name was Mary. I saw the way She moved Her lips. I then said: ‘She is alive! She spoke! She has answered my question!’ I could see that we could enter into a conversation; that I could speak with Her. I asked her, then, where She came from. She told me with the same sweetness:
Apparition to Bernardo
“I come from Heaven. I am the Mother of Jesus.’ At hearing this I immediately asked Her — remembering what the priest had told me — I asked Her: ‘What is it you want?’
“I want the Rosary to be prayed everyday.’
“I then interrupted and said to Her: ‘Yes, we are praying it. — The priest brought us the intentions of the San Francisco parish so that we would unite ourselves with them.’
“She told me: ‘I don’t want it prayed only in the month of May. I want it to be prayed permanently, within the family, including the children old enough to understand; to be prayed at a set hour when there are no problems with the work in the home.’
‘Love each other. Fulfill your obligations. Make peace. Don’t ask our Lord for peace because if you do not make it there will be no peace. Renew the Five First Saturdays. You received many graces when all of you did this.’
Mary explained to Bernardo that we should not make prayers in a rush, or in a mechanical fashion, to avoid doing this she told him to read bible passages to go along with the mysteries of the rosary. She continued to speak to Bernardo, “Nicaragua has suffered much since the earthquake. She is threatened with even more suffering. She will continue to suffer if you don’t change. — Pray! Pray, my son, the Rosary for all the world. Tell believers and non-believers that the world is threatened by grave dangers. I ask the Lord to appease His Justice, but if you don’t change, you will hasten the arrival of a Third World War.’
“After She had said these words, I understood that I had to say this to the people and I told her: ‘Lady, I don’t want problems. I have many in the Church. Tell this to another person.’ She then told me:
“No, because Our Lord has selected you to give the message.”
Bernardo was frightened to spread Mary’s message because of the persecution he endured earlier. He kept the vision to himself for eight days until Mary appeared to him again.
“Why have you not told what I sent you to tell?’
“Lady, it is that I am afraid. I am afraid of being the ridicule of the people, afraid that they will laugh at me, that they will not believe me. Those, who will not believe this, will laugh at me. They will say that I am crazy.”
“Do not be afraid. I am going to help you. And tell the priest.”
Bernardo began telling people what he had seen, and when he told his pastor he was instructed to continue telling people what he had witnessed, but if he had any more visions or messages he was to tell no one and talk to the priest only.
On June 8th Our Lady appeared again. This time she had four visions for Bernardo, which she gave to him like “movies in the sky”. The first vision was of the first Christians singing and marching towards heaven. They were dressed in white singing and marching, their bodies glowing with light. The second vision was of another group of people also dressed in white. They held illuminated rosaries in their hands. The leader read from a book, and after meditating on the reading they prayed an Our Father and 10 Hail Marys Mary explained that, “They are the first ones to whom I gave the Rosary. That is the way that I want all of you to pray the Rosary.”
In the third vision Bernardo saw a group of men dressed in brown robes. Mary explained that these were the Franciscans, “These received the Rosary from the hands of the first ones.”
In the fourth vision he saw a large group, like an army, of people in normal dress all holding rosaries. Bernardo described them as, “normal except that they radiated light from their bodies, and their bodies were all beautiful”. He wanted to go join them even though he was not illuminated, because they were dressed like he was but Mary said, “No! You are still lacking. You have to tell the people what you have seen and heard. I have shown you the glory of Our Lord and you people will acquire this if you are obedient to Our Lord, to the Lord’s Word; if you persevere in praying the Holy Rosary and put into practice the Lord’s Word.”
After this apparition Bernardo did as the priest asked and only told him about the vision. This was important, because in order to be a legitimate apparition it needed to be approved by the church first, since the church is the protector of the Word of God. The priest of course gave Bernardo permission to spread the message he was given.
On July 8, 1980 Bernardo had a vision of prophecy, this time from an angel. The angel told Bernardo to tell a woman how and when her brother would get released from jail because he was innocent. He had a message for another woman regarding her alcoholic father and brother as well as her problems teaching in a communist school. Finally the angel warned Bernardo that his cousin would be assaulted and later killed. All of these prophecies came to pass exactly as the angel described.
On the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, October 13, 1980, a large glowing circle appeared above the ground in front of 50 people that had gathered to say The Holy Rosary.
“It was 3:00 in the afternoon. One could feel a small breeze that moved softly. Pleasant, like a fresh shower, but which did not wet us. While we observed this, we were silent and continued seeing that circle of light which gave off colored lights from the exact center, where the sun is at twelve noon.
“All of a sudden a lightning flash, the same as the other times; then, a second one. I lowered my eyes and I saw the Lady.”
Bernardo begged her to appear to those that did not believe in his visions. Her face became pale and her cloths grey, appearing as Our Lady of Sorrows, she said to Bernardo, “It saddens me to see the hardness of those persons’ hearts. But you will have to pray for them so that they will change. Pray the Rosary. Meditate on the mysteries. Listen to the Word of God spoken in them. Love one another. Love each other. Forgive each other. Make peace. Don’t ask for peace without making peace, because if you don’t make it, it does no good to ask for it.
Fulfill your obligations. Put into practice the world of God. Seek ways to please God. Serve your neighbor as that way you will please Him.
They ask of me things that are unimportant. Ask for Faith in order to have the strength so that each can carry his own cross.
The suffering of this world cannot be removed. That is the way life is. There are problems with the husband, with the wife, with the children, with the brothers. Talk, converse, so that problems will be resolved in peace. Do not turn to violence. Never turn to violence. Pray for faith in order that you will have patience.
You will no longer see me in this place.”
Bernardo cried out: “Don’t leave us, my Mother! Don’t leave us, my Mother! Don’t leave us, my Mother.”
“Do not be grieved. I am with all of you even though you do not see me. I am the Mother of All you sinners.
Love one another. Forgive each other. Make peace, because if you don’t make it, there will be no peace. Do not turn to violence. Never turn to violence.
Nicaragua has suffered a great deal since the earthquake, and will continue to suffer if all of you don’t change. If you don’t change you will hasten the coming of the Third World War.
Pray, pray, my son, for all the world. Grave dangers threaten the world. The Mother never forgets Her children, and I have not forgotten what you suffer. I am the Mother of all of you sinners. Invoke me with these words.
Holy Virgin, You are my Mother, the Mother to all of us sinners.”
At this point Mary’s message was complete, “Pray the Rosary, meditate on the life of Christ and the Beatitudes, pray together in the family, never rush or say mechanically your prayers, make peace, never violence, love, forgive, please God, and put into practice the Word of God.” Mary’s message is nothing new; it follows closely the message of Fatima. At Fatima Our Lady urged us to pray The Holy Rosary, in Cuapa she urges us to say it correctly. She also stressed the need to continue the Five First Saturday Devotion. At Fatima The Blessed Virgin requested that we pray for peace, in Cuapa she added that peace must first start in our families and in our hearts.
These Apparitions were officially approved by the church in 1982, and shortly after Bernardo Martinez was ordained a priest.
Prayer
The Virgin Mary encouraged Bernardo Martinez to say this prayer:
St. Mary of Victory, Favorite Daughter of God the Father, give me your faith; Mother of God the Son, give me your hope; Sacred Spouse of God the Holy Spirit, give me your charity and cover us with your mantle.”
She requested that she be invoked with these words:
“Holy Virgin, you are my Mother, the Mother to all of us sinners…”
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Sep 20, 2011 
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