Case file · Apparition / miracle
The apparition at Šiluva
In the summer of 1608 shepherd children at Šiluva in Lithuania reported a weeping woman holding a child standing on a rock where a Catholic church had stood before the land passed to Calvinists.
1608 CE · 55.53, 23.23 · status: account
The account
Villagers and a Calvinist teacher saw the figure the next day, according to the tradition. An old blind man then remembered where church documents had been buried, which helped Catholics win back the property in court in 1622. Pope Pius VI confirmed the apparition in 1775, making it one of the earliest approved in Europe.
The sceptical view
The account was written down long afterwards, in the context of a property dispute between Catholics and Calvinists.