Pontmain, Prophecy, and Protest: A Cultural-Historical Study of a Nineteenth-Century Apparition

Pontmain, Prophecy, and Protest considers the appearance of Mary in Pontmain, France, in its concrete historical and cultural dimensions, and demonstrates that an apparition’s context dramatically affects how it is both perceived and promoted. Highlighting how a private religious experience became a tool of the Roman Catholic Church – which used it for affirmation and promoted it as a kind of protest against contemporary evils – this book offers a new perspective on the processes at work when people turn to religion to shape their perception of reality.