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Ladeira's history had different phases, different stages.

 
Really prodigious events happened there, which are barely known, but I will try to recover,
at least some, since it would be impossible to redo the full story of the most important
events that occurred in Ladeira.
 
I do not intend to write Ladeira's story, not even a complete summary. Simply, I want to
highlight some significant events (in my opinion) and,  especially , tell my experiences
and give the testimony of the most important thing (I would not manage to
remember everything) that I witnessed, felt and lived in Ladeira.
 
The person who starred in these events was called Maria Conceiçao.
 
It all started in October 1959, when Maria Conceiçao, an uneducated and poor peasant,
was admitted, seriously ill, in the Mercy hospital in Golega.
 
She went into the hospital chapel and asked the image of "Nosso Señor dos Passos" (Jesus
with the Cross on her shoulders) to give her proof that He existed and that he was going
to heal her.
 
And so, on the first Sunday in April 1960, he saw the image of Jesus shake his head, and
open and close his eyes. At first she thought it was the nuns who moved the image so that
she would believe. But the fact was repeated on different occasions and even his own
mother, on one of her visits, also saw the image nod its head, open and close its eyes
 
A short time later, he was healed and discharged.
 
From then on and residing in Ladeira he began to have "visions" in Heaven.
 
From June 17, he began to see Jesus carrying the Cross and with a star in front of
him. This "vision" was kept before the eyes of Maria Concepción and the people who
accompanied her until 1962.
On February 18, 1962, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him for the first time. Maria
Concepción was praying with some people at the door of her house.
 
The Blessed Virgin came in a very white cloud, with a rosy glow, with rays of light that
looked like gold threads. The cloud settled on the roof, resembling a sphere of fire, which
everyone present saw, being alarmed to think that the house was burning. The cloud
opened and from it came the Blessed Virgin, dressed in white, with a blue cloak and a
crown of stars.
 
From that date, the Blessed Virgin continued to appear to him, with some frequency,
several times a month.
 
On May 7, the Archangel Saint Michael appeared to him. From then on his presence was
lavished more and more, to the point of seeing him every day.
 
When Maria Concepción tells all these facts to the pastor of Torres Novas, he rejects her
harshly, without studying the case or showing the slightest interest, clearly neglecting her
pastoral duty. Even, in a clear abuse of authority, she denies the sacraments ...
 
However, the Archangel Saint Michael continues to order him to go to Torres Novas to
confess and receive Holy Communion, which were systematically denied.
 
On February 15, 1963, Friday, after being denied Communion in the Misericordia church in
Torres Novas, Maria Concepción returned home crying and drenched in the rain. Then the
Archangel Saint Michael appeared to him and gave him Holy Communion for the first time.
 
From that day until December 8, 1965, Saint Michael gave him Communion every day,
with hundreds of cases in which the Holy Form became visible when Saint Michael
deposited it in his language.
 
I WAS WITNESS TO THIS FACT SEVERAL TIMES.
 
There are many testimonies and graphic documents.
 
This fact was studied by different doctors and by the Judicial Police, who contemplated the
"phenomenon", without finding an explanation.
 
Between 1963 and 1964, Maria Concepción was subjected to 3 brutal attacks. The most
violent of the three took place on April 3, 1964, the date when 5 women and a man (?)
Entered her home, who beat her ( They ground her to sticks), threw her on the ground,
broke her teeth, cut her hair in a bad way and left her lying on the ground, senseless and
with a bruised body.
 
Apparently, from what was learned later, they were people who frequented the church,
the church of Padre Vitorino (proper name of miura), who is the one who denied her the
sacraments and who slapped her publicly in the church when approaching
communion. They only followed his example.
 
They also tried to burn her alive, setting fire to the dress she was wearing, which started
to burn, while she led the prayer. Fortunately, other people helped her and put out the
fire.
 
Talking about the persecution against Ladeira would be endless and really, "incredible",
inconceivable, therefore, the little book that I wrote was titled: "Ladeira of persecution,
thorns and suffering".
 
Precisely, in the trial against Maria Concepción, carried out in 1973 and in which it was
demonstrated that the Patriarchate of Portugal "bribed" a person, to testify falsely against
Maria Concepción, his lawyer Vasco da Gama Fernandes, stated that There has never
been, throughout history, any religious persecution as excessive and brutal, after that of
the Salem witches, as that carried out against Maria concepción.
 
This man, Vasco da Gama Fernandes, was the first President of the Congress of Deputies
in Portugal a few months later.
 
 
Miracle of "The 40 days".

On December 8, 1965, Maria Concepción received the Communion given by Saint Michael,
but unlike other times, she kept the Holy Form in her language for 40 days, always
surrounded by people who accompanied her.
 
In these 40 days, Maria concepción fed only on the Holy Eucharist. Every morning Saint
Michael brought him Holy Communion. At that moment, the Sacred Form, which was on
her tongue, disappeared and passed to a tabernacle in the room. Everyone could
contemplate, with absolute normality, this fact, which was repeated every day.
 
During this time Maria Concepción had numerous ecstasy and even began to live "the
Passion of the Lord".
 
He had many sufferings and many trials, especially hunger and thirst. "I am so hungry,
dear Jesus, and there are still so many days left!"  they heard him exclaim in the early
days.
 
I spoke with several of the witnesses to this extraordinary event and they all confirmed to
me that Maria Concepción was never alone, that those who accompanied and watched her
were continually in prayer, that Maria Concepción prayed with them and that in all this
time she did not prove Not a drop of water, nor any kind of food, other than the Holy
Eucharist.
 
On January 17, this important miraculous event, unique in history, ended: keeping the
Sacred Form for 40 days in the mouth without suffering any alteration. Something unusual
and absolutely extraordinary.
 
This period of the "40 Days Miracle" resembled the fast of Jesus in the desert and was the
preparation for the "Public Mission" of Maria Concepción.
 
 
 Maria Concepción at the Lisbon
Psychiatric Hospital, where she spent two and a half months under observation
 
At the Lisbon Psychiatric Hospital
 
This fact had its repercussion and the reaction of the Portuguese Authorities, at the
initiative of the Religious Authorities, was to admit her to the Julio Matos Psychiatric
Hospital in Lisbon, to have her under observation.
 
There he arrived on March 12.
 
The first thing they did was remove all her clothes, purse, and belongings. When someone
came to visit her, they would also check her, not to bring razors (to make stigmas) or
"shapes" (wafers) to pretend visible ecstatic communions or any other "suspicious" object.
 
But also there the same extraordinary events were repeated: visible communions,
stigmatizations, ecstasy living the Passion. The stigmas on his hands, feet and side first
appeared to him. They left him a bandaged hand and foot and the other normal foot and
hand. Stigmas appeared on both hands and on both feet, both those who had bandaged
and those who had not. A cross was also formed on his chest ...
 
I have a detailed and detailed account of everything that happened between March 25 and
May 16 in the hospital. This I am writing is obviously just a brief reference.
 
Doctors and nurses, including the hospital chaplain, were able to contemplate these
phenomena, without any medical or scientific explanation. I have the names of the doctors
and the chaplain in the account I referred to earlier.
 
After two and a half months of observation, they found nothing pathological or fraudulent
and had to be discharged. 
 
But none of this convinced the Lisbon Patriarchate, which always rejected everything that
was positive and resorted to lies, slander and persecution. So, just as it sounds.
 
Upon her return to Ladeira, Maria Concepción began to have ecstasy through which the
Lord and the Blessed Virgin manifested themselves speaking through her mouth. Some
priests called it a gift of prophecy or "prophetic ecstasy."
 
More and more people came and Ladeira became a "Local de Oraçao", a place of prayer.
 
Stigma of the Cross on the forehead.
 
On June 9, the Feast of Corpus Christi, the stigma of the Cross appeared on his forehead
for the first time. This stigma was not permanent. It appeared like a wound, like a cross-
shaped sore. Then, little by little, it disappeared until the forehead was "almost" normal.
 
This fact was repeated quite frequently for several years. I have personally witnessed this
fact on several occasions, from start to finish. I will tell about it later.
 
As of August 15, of the same year 1966, guards from the GNR (Republican National
Guard) began to go to Ladeira, also at the request of the Lisbon Patriarchate, to prevent
the prayer from being made there . They mainly came on Saturdays and Sundays,
dates of greatest influx of pilgrims.
 
This presence and persecution of the GNR continued until May 1974, reaching extreme
limits in August 1972, as I will tell you later. But none of this managed to end prayer or
the Ladeira Mission, despite the strenuous efforts of the Lisbon Patriarchate.
 
 
V Aryans amazing facts
 
Trip to Heaven?

On June 12, 1966, an event took place that I no longer know how to qualify and that
Maria Concepción had previously announced: She was taken to Heaven by the Angels. A
similar event has recently occurred with 2 of the Medjugorje seers whom Our Lady took to
heaven and physically disappeared from the earth for several hours.
  
Although, that day, Maria Concepción put some pants under her skirt, as she explained to
me, because she was going to be elevated to Heaven and  wanted to be well
"covered".   She took a large quantity of Rosaries and before the expectant gaze of many
people, she said that she was going to collect grass. She moved a few meters away, but
several people followed her and saw how she was rising until she disappeared. It was half
past twelve.
 
Maria Concepción had disappeared.
 
Two and a half hours later, at around three in the afternoon, several people saw her
descend. She went down to the shack where she lived, the bolt on the door opened "by
itself" instantly and her body was deposited on the bed, with her feet on the edge of the
window. 
 
Those who came to her side saw her in ecstasy and with an intense perfume that filled the
entire room.
 
Upon leaving the ecstasy, she said that she had been carried by many angels, including
Saint Michael. She saw 3 lakes: one of water, one of fire and one of blood, through which
souls must pass, after dying to purify themselves.
 
There are detailed descriptions of how he saw Heaven, filled with Light, arranged
hierarchically, with Heavenly Father on a Throne, Jesus on his right and The Stma. Virgin
on your left. The Holy Spirit, also in the Center, but elevated in the air, radiated Light to
all Heaven.
 
It was not the only time. I know testimonies from other occasions. One of them soon
after, on August 25 of the same year. But this time he descended in the cemetery of
Riachos, his native town, where he saw what the Resurrection of the dead will be like in
his day.
 
I heard this testimony from my good friend Manuel Barata Vicente, who for years sent me
"Ocorrencia da Ladeira do Pinheiro". This man, sergeant of the Republica National Guard,
was one of the most important witnesses to the events of Ladeira.
 

Maria concepción showing the hair that is still

kept in a glass urn
 
 
 
The Mystery of "hair".
 
At the beginning of November 1968, a singular event occurred.
 
Maria Concepción had very short hair then. A priest had come to Ladeira, who, given the
persecution against Ladeira, was obviously slandered and discredited. In ecstasy, Maria
Concepción plucked a lock of her hair and the Lord said that she would give a sign with
that hair, to prove the authenticity and sanctity of this priest.
 
Maria Concepción kept this little lock of hair in a locket that she wore around her
neck. Within a few days, the hair had multiplied and the locket opened with increasing hair
volume. She put it, then, in a shoe box. There it continued to grow and multiply until it
also came out of the box.
 
Queluz pilgrims brought to Ladeira a large glass urn. There the hair continued to grow and
multiply until it reached the length of the urn.
 
It is still preserved there, after more than forty years. How many times I saw it on my first
trips, it always emanated a pleasant perfume. And I could see that he was the same
height as Maria Concepción.
 
 

Pot containing the "miraculous" oil, which was

multiplied many times (I was a witness) and with which various cures occurred ...
 

The Miracle of Oil.

 
On September 25, 1969, Jesus said in an ecstasy: "Soon I am going to perform a miracle
similar to that of the Wedding at Cana."

Two days later, following the directions given by Our Lord in an ecstasy of María
Concepción, they put ten liters of water in a container with a capacity of 25 liters. And,
before eight witnesses, they closed and sealed it, after verifying that there was only
water.

On October 1 said container was opened, before the same witnesses, verifying that there
was no longer water, but 15 liters of oil. This oil was taken for analysis and it turned out to
be a new oil, of the best quality, despite it not being a working time in the wineries.

This oil also increased in volume until it reached the full capacity of the container: 25
liters.
 
This fact has been repeated countless times. We all wanted to have some of this oil. And
so, we carried jars, small bottles and even large bottles so that María Concepción would
give us a little of this oil.

One of the most striking events occurred on December 30, 1971. There were plenty of jars
and bottles for María Concepción to give us oil. With a jug, María Concepción, took out
liters of oil to fill, generously, our containers. When finished, after having taken about
eight or ten liters, the container was still full of oil, as if not a drop had been taken out. All
those present, Portuguese, Spanish and French, we could see it with amazement.
 
Normally, he would lower his level and then recover on his own. I slept one night next to
the oil container. I checked that it was halfway, more or less, but within a few hours,
without anyone having entered the room, the container was completely full, overflowing,
with a very beautiful golden color and a fresh smell of oil.
Something similar happened to many people with their Ladeira oil: they distributed it to
other people and then they had the same amount again as before.
 
With this oil there were many extraordinary events, especially cures.
 
I will only tell what happened to a priest, who then resided in San Sebastián.
This priest had the vice of tobacco, he could not go an hour without smoking. One day he
was in the confessional and was approached by a French lady who was returning from
Ladeira. This person was called Armande and he was a great apostle of Ladeira.

Armande spoke to Father J. de Ladeira about the wonders that took place there. He told
her about the oil and said he had a full bottle with him. The priest, with skepticism, said to
him: "If it is miraculous that I take away the vice of smoking ". He dipped his fingers in oil
and made a cross on his tongue.

After a while, he lit a cigarette and had to throw it away because  "it tasted bad . " "Well,
I still have the taste of the oil on my tongue. It will pass . " Well no, it didn't happen. He
tried several times and always tasted bad. Thereafter he quit smoking.
 
Later he visited Ladeira and became one of Ladeira's great defenders.

 
Destruction of Ladeira's houses.
 
On January 15, 1969, in the dead of winter, a picket of people sent by the Torres Novas
municipal chamber, supported by a Bull-Doozer, destroyed the humble homes where
María Concepción and her companions resided. They destroyed the little houses and the
little Chapel.
 
They were not even warned. The bull-doozer began to tear down the houses with the
people inside. 
 
While they were being knocked down, Maria Concepción, with her eyes full of tears, sang
and prayed. The Lord had announced this to him several months before: "The day will
come when you will have to live under an olive tree."
And it was fulfilled to the letter: They lived in the open air, "al pairo", under an olive tree,
in the middle of winter, in inclement weather, for 6 months.
 
Later, a person from Lisbon joined the small Community and they bought some houses,
several meters higher, which is where they lived when I arrived in Ladeira in July 1970.
 

What I saw and felt in Ladeira

 
 
So far I have simply tried to summarize some of the most outstanding or significant
events in Ladeira's "history"; not a complete or exhaustive account at all. 
 
From now on, I will give my personal testimony: what I saw, what I lived, in Ladeira. This
is the main reason that has led me to create this humble page: 
give testimony of my own experiences, not what others told me or what I read, but what I
could see, contemplate, feel; in short: what I experienced in Ladeira.
 
First of all, I want to state that I had studied Philosophy at the Capuchin Seminary in
Zaragoza. In those years I read everything I found on "Ascetic and Mystical", to better
understand everything related to Apparitions and private revelations.
 
It was clear to him that in every private appearance or revelation, 3 factors intervene (or
may intervene) (to call it somehow):
 
- The Celestial Presence: of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin or the Angels and Saints who
manifest themselves. - The demonic presence. The devil disguises himself, or can disguise
himself, as "Angel of Light" (Cor. 11, 14). And, in any case, it is always present to dirty,
poison, confuse, divide, destroy ... - The instrument. The person who receives the
appearance or revelation has her own personality, her mentality, her training, her
subconscious. He can interpret or add from "his own harvest" words or phrases ...
 

 
       
 
For all this, I was always (and I am) clear that in all the appearances and revelations there
are Light and shadows. The normal thing is that the Light predominates and that it
prevails over the shadows. But it is not necessary to reject as authentic apparitions and
revelations in which we also find some negative elements.
For this reason, it is very important to know how to discern, with intelligence and humility.
 
With this clarification, I will begin with my personal testimony about Ladeira.
 
 
I met Ladeira through two priests, one Spanish, who had an important Mariana Diffuser
and author of several books, and another Portuguese, Jesuit resident in Evora.
 
They sent me information periodically about what was happening in Ladeira. I read it with
interest, but with a certain skepticism. It seemed to me somewhat strange, "rare", difficult
to believe.
 
I already knew the Apparitions of Garabandal then, I knew them deeply and was in
contact with the most prominent people related to Garabandal. She had all the books and
publications.
 
 
My first trip to Ladeira (July 17, 1970)

 
I have on the table the testimony that I wrote a few days after returning from my first trip
to Ladeira. They are 6 typewritten pages, but as it seems too long I will make a summary.
 
On July 17, 1970, Friday, taking advantage of a trip to Fatima, a small group of 23 people,
including a priest and 2 nuns, approached Ladeira.
 
I copy directly from what I wrote in my first testimony: “I had been dragging a long and
painful dryness, spiritual aridity, for several months… It was hard for me to pray, I felt
nothing inside me, but on the contrary, I felt the attraction of the world, of the meat…"
 
We arrived in Ladeira around 7 in the afternoon. My first impression of Maria Concepción
was quite negative: I found myself in front of a small, sun-browned peasant with wrinkled
faces. The truth is that I tried to escape, to be alone, to walk.
 
After about an hour, they came looking for me: "Jose Luis, the prayer is going to
start." They had a small chapel, with an altar, tabernacle, a Custody with a large Sacred
Form brought by Saint Michael, a Crucifix hanging on the one and a half meter wall and
the bed of the "miracle of the Forty days".
 
 This was the first ecstasy that I saw in Ladeira
on July 17, 1970
 
Maria concepción and the women of the small Community had put on a blue habit, with
white cuffs, a white collar and a belt of the same color.
 
Maria concepción, standing up, began the prayer and a few minutes later "she entered
into ecstasy". The first thing that struck me was that Maria Concepción's face was no
longer the same: I saw her transfigured, without a single wrinkle, with a special glow and
light.
 
"My Peace be with you", thus began the ecstasy in which the Lord manifested himself
through Maria Concepción.
 
In this first ecstasy he addressed me and I still remember what he said to me (we
recorded the ecstasy and I heard it many times).
 
Honestly, I liked ecstasy. "There was something there."
 
Shortly after, we dined the whole group with the Ladeira Community. They improvised
some tables outside, in front of the house (it was an elongated house, with white walls,
with several doors and quite a few rooms). There was no electricity or running water, so
they put several gas lamps on.
 
Father Martins (name of the Portuguese priest who informed me) had announced our visit
to them. And they welcomed us as brothers.
 
It was an unforgettable dinner, of authentic brotherhood. I spoke a lot with Anastasio, a
sergeant of the GNR, who started out as a “persecutor” of Maria Concepción, but in the
face of the avalanche of evidence he received, he became the greatest propagator of the
Ladeira Manifestations. He witnessed countless prodigious deeds, such as levitations. He
saw her rise on her "journey to Heaven" and saw her descend ...
 
I saw him very firm, very convinced, very confident. He didn't seem like a credulous or
easy-to-fool person.
 
After dinner the prayer began. Prayer at night was very frequent. In fact, later, I found
that in Ladeira they spent whole nights in prayer, especially the night of the first Saturday
to the First Sunday of each month.
 
Maria concepción directed the Rosary. At the end of each Mystery, she said some
spontaneous prayers and some chant: "Come, go, to Ladeira do Pinheiro, pray for peace in
the entire world ...".
 
After midnight, Maria Concepción returned to "enter ecstasy." She was on her knees on
the floor. She arched back, arms raised. Her eyes were closed. One by one, she hugged
the two nuns and gave her details of her superior, which were totally accurate.
 
He took my hand, opened his eyes, and looked at me. It didn't seem like a human gaze to
me, it didn't seem like her. It is as if with her gaze she told me that she knew my inner
state, my aridity, my temptations ...
 
We had filled her arms with Rosaries, which she kept for some time. Then she returned
them all together. I stayed again, a little disappointed. "In Garabandal they gave each one
his Rosary," I thought.
 
But he returned the scented Rosaries, fully scented and with 3 different perfumes. What's
more, some kept the perfume for a few hours, other days and other weeks. Mine had the
perfume of incense (penance) and lasted about 24 hours. Others had the indescribable (at
least for me) "Ladeira perfume", others with roses ...
 
After giving us the Rosaries, Maria Concepción began to live the Passion. Always in
ecstasy, in a very plastic way, she was reliving different moments (pictures) of The
Passion. Those of us in our group followed him with respect and surprise. Those from the
Ladeira community were fully integrated. They saw Jesus suffering his Passion. They sang,
prayed, cried.
 
The ecstasy went on for a long time. There was a moment when he fell on the ground,
with his arms crossed, he began to live the agony. I was terrified: I saw a woman on the
ground living a real agony. And I was scared. "This woman has so assumed that she is
now Jesus and that she is living his Passion, that we are going to really die."
 
I wanted to step in and lift her, but really she was pinned to the ground. Impossible to
move it.
 
I thought we could have problems if something happened to "that woman." For several
minutes I had a really bad time. I even walked away a little, because I felt
overwhelmed. And suddenly, as if powered by a spring, she jumped to her feet. "It is the
Resurrection!" Exclaimed some people.
 
 
He continued in ecstasy, giving a chanted Message. His voice vibrated in the night and he
did not accuse the tiredness, nor the painful scenes of the Passion, that we had
contemplated. We were able to record it on a tape recorder.
 
He said verbatim: "You are the first priest to celebrate Holy Mass with the
ornaments of this Holy Place and the seventh will be Portuguese.
 
"He also said something very important, which went unnoticed, but which I later
understood: " Shapes will appear without consecrating. "
 
I felt tired and also had a bad time. One of Ladeira's "apostles" allowed me to doze for an
hour in his car, while Maria Concepción was lying down, not sleeping, accompanied by the
nuns.

A few hours later we had Holy Mass. In Ladeira they had no Forms without
consecration. They only had the large Sacred Form, brought by Saint Michael from a
tabernacle on earth and placed in the Custody. But, shortly before Mass began, the
unconsecrated forms appeared, announced in the ecstasy of the night. Maria Concepción
and I were alone in the chapel. (For there to be Consecration the priest takes forms
without consecrating (wafers), pronounces the words of the Consecration and the Sacrifice
is carried out).

I must admit that the Mass was very emotional. I was helping the priest, in front of the
people. I saw that most of the people in the Community cried excitedly. I don't think I've
ever seen attending Mass as fervently as that day.
 
 

Maria concepción and the whole

community came to say goodbye to the bus
 
I insist that I was tired. I continued with my aridity and spiritual dryness, I had had a hard
time in some moments of the ecstasy of Maria Concepción and I only wished that all this
would end, go away and forget about Ladeira forever.

As soon as the Mass was over, when I already thought that everything was over and that
we could leave, Maria Concepción went into ecstasy again. I was "giving thanks" because I
was the last to receive Communion.
 
Then I felt within me a very clear, "impetuous" Presence (Acts 2: 2) of the Lord. Nothing
like this has ever happened to me. It was as if the Lord took my dry heart in his hand and
as he closed his hand, my heart was melting like water.

Instantly I understood all the ecstasy of the night before. I understood that the Lord had
shown us his Passion and that the Eucharist and the Passion were the main Mysteries of
Ladeira.

For several minutes I cried like never before in my life. Something was going on inside
me. I felt loved by the Lord and He was what mattered most to me in MY life. Nothing like
this has ever happened to me in my 64 years of life, neither before nor after. Never with
that intensity, with that momentum, with that strength.

It was ten in the morning and we had to leave. I felt Maria concepción and the Ladeira
Community as my family. They accompanied us to the bus. I was very "touched". I did not
know for sure what was happening to me or how long it would last.

Upon returning to Valladolid, where he lived then, the "effects" continued. My dryness had
passed, I was more attracted to going to Las Esclavas where The Eucharist was exposed
and where I felt better. Carnal attraction practically did not exist.

This is difficult to confess and surely more difficult to believe. But it was so. And it lasted
almost a month. Then obviously I went back to normal. But in Ladeira I had had the
deepest spiritual experience of my life. If it had not been so, I would never have returned
to Ladeira. 
 
Second trip - October 10.

I returned to Ladeira at 3 months. We were 4 people, one of them a priest from Valladolid,
who was an eyewitness to The Apparitions of Ezquioga, where the Spanish civil war and
the terrible persecution against the Church were prophesied "with hair and signs".

I am not going to tell you in detail about this trip, but I will stop at some event.

The same day we arrived, after dinner, Maria Concepción began the prayer in the hall -
dining room (when we entered the house we found this dining room, which also served as
"hall", since there was a couch, the table and some chairs).

At the end of the Rosary Maria Concepción continued with songs and spontaneous
prayers. Then I saw her close her eyes, breathe very deeply and change her tone of
voice. "She is ecstatic!" , said someone from the community.
 

How beautiful is
Heaven! It is pure Light. There, at all times and moments, God is praised
I hadn't seen any significant "facial" changes, like the first ecstasy I saw three months
earlier. I was feeling a little skeptical. "Will he really be ecstatic?" , I asked myself.

At that moment, Padre Pio, who was the one who manifested himself through Maria
Concepción, addressed me and gave me a personal detail, which she could not know at
all. My doubts were dispelled.

In this ecstasy, Padre Pio called Ladeira: "Ladeira of thorns and suffering . "  He spoke to
us about the value of suffering. He also told us about Heaven. Then, he opened his eyes
and I saw that they had a shine, a glow, special.

Despite my initial doubts, ecstasy convinced me. Later I verified that Maria Concepción
could have ecstasy either on her knees, standing, sitting or falling on the floor.

I also verified that the deepest, clearest ecstases were those in which the Lord and the
Blessed Virgin were manifested. And I want to state that, in several ecstases in which the
Blessed Virgin was manifested, I saw clearly (many saw it) that her eyes changed color
and were blue.

That same morning, in an ecstasy, Saint Michael had manifested himself with a new
inspired song: "A Ladeira é nossa". Emblematic song, which was recorded and in which it
reached tones that were very difficult to achieve, according to various music connoisseurs.

There are dozens of inspired songs that arose in the ecstasy of Maria Concepción. I have
recorded more than twenty different melodies, which I still listen to when I travel to
Fatima, passing right next to Ladeira.

On the 13th I saw for the first time a "Visible Ecstatic Communion". As I said in the brief
historical review, they were habitual from the year 1963 to December 1965. After the
"Miracle of the 40 days", these visible Communions became occasional (Maria Concepción
continued receiving Communion, but the Sacred form).

It was in the afternoon prayer. We were downstairs, in the "local". We were about eighty
people. Maria Concepción was in front of the group, leading the prayer. She prayed the 3
parts of the Rosary, with songs and spontaneous prayers, as I have previously said. It was
nice to hear her sing.

Suddenly she looked at me and motioned for me to approach her. Maria Concepción, who
was standing, made an indication for me to kneel down. I knelt in front of her and she also
knelt. She was ecstatic, with her eyes open, her gaze fixed on "Someone" that the rest of
us did not see. Her expression was radiant, joyous. She placed her hands behind her back
and stuck her tongue out, a few inches from my chest. I saw her empty tongue and how,
instantly, a white Sacred Form appeared. It was a normal Shape in size, color and
thickness.

After receiving Communion, he closed his mouth and bowed deeply, in an act of
worship. In a few moments, she raised her head and opened her mouth, where she kept
the Sacred Form, exactly as when she received it. The people, “o povo”, when they saw
the Eucharist in their mouth, shouted “Viva Jesús, Viva Jesús!” .

He stood up showing the Form for some time. Then she knelt down and was ecstatic with
the Presence of the Lord within her.

It was a very clear prodigy, that all of us present could see.

 
 
Third trip, December 31.

This trip was truly exceptional. We were 4 people, among them a Passionist priest, a
graduate in Ascetics and Mysticism and a good connoisseur of "extraordinary" phenomena.

A brother of mine also came, Javier, who is the one who drove the car.

I will start on the night of December 31st. That night there was prayer at the "local". We
were not many. Maria Concepción led the prayer as she usually did: Rosary of 15
Mysteries, at the end of each mystery songs and spontaneous prayers.

It was a cold winter night. After more than two hours of prayer, Maria concepción went
into ecstasy. She was on her knees and began a long “ecstatic march” along the “Camino
del Calvario”.

It was like the Passion that I saw on my first trip, but along a path of more than one
hundred meters.

He lived through different moments of the Passion: the lashes, the crown of thorns (he
found branches of hawthorn, which he put on his head), the falls. It seemed that we really
saw the Lord.
One of the people who had come with us, exclaimed impressed: "Divine heart, how much
you have loved me, how much I have offended you!"  . In ecstasy, Maria Concepción
began to sing: "Divine Heart, Divine Jesus, be You My strength, You My life and light ..."

I perfectly remember that melody.

 
 

At the end of the "ecstatic march" living the

crucifixion. I am next to her with the camera
Upon reaching what they called El Calvario, Maria Concepción lived the crucifixion. She
stayed on a cross nailed to the ground. I was right next to her. And I verified that it was
indeed nailed to the ground. It could not be moved or separated from the ground
.
I tried covertly, as if I wanted to improve his posture on the floor, but I couldn't. His face
reflected a great serenity, without accusing the hours of prayer and the long ecstatic
march.

Upon exiting ecstasy, she was surprised to see where he was. When I was ecstatic I was
not aware of what I was doing or saying.
 
I verified that amply, on multiple occasions.
 
The next morning, we observed that Maria concepción had a suffering face and felt great
pain, especially in the palms of her hands.
 
He told us that on several occasions he had had the Sores of the Lord on his hands, feet
and side, but that he asked the Lord to remove them in order to lead a normal life. The
Lord agreed and she felt the pain of the sores, but without making them visible.
Indeed, the Passionist Father examined the palms of his hands and saw slight blood stains
in the center, but nothing more.

What we did observe was that a small droplet, like serum, formed on his forehead. Little
by little, those droplets were transformed into very small drops of blood. Then, also
slowly, a cross formed on his forehead, an open sore, which formed a perfect cross. And
on that cross the 3 nails of the Cross were clearly marked.

It was the first time I saw how the cross formed on his forehead.

The next day, we went down to the First Saturday night prayer. It was the First Saturday
of the year and about three hundred people were present.
 
The prayer was done in what they called the "local oraçao", where there was a column
that ended in an image of Our Lady of Graces.
It was a cold winter night. Maria Concepción led the prayer for more than two hours. She
used a great Rosary of 15 Mysteries. As I have previously commented, at the end of each
Mystery I sang a song and added many spontaneous prayers.

I was close to her, but not beside her. Suddenly, she called me and motioned for me to
kneel on the floor. I knelt down and the same thing was repeated as in last October.
 
He put his hands behind his back, he was ecstatic looking at Someone that the rest of us
did not see and with a serene and smiling face, he stuck out his tongue.

I saw the Sacred Form appear on his tongue. Her tongue was inches from my eyes and I
saw it perfectly. He closed his mouth and made an act of profound adoration. Then he sat
up and opened his mouth. There the Sacred form continued, which all of us present could
contemplate.

Photographs were taken that confirm this fact.

 
 
At the moment when Maria Concepción received Holy Communion, the Passionist priest
saw a cascade of "flowers of light", which sprouted in front of her, ascended and then
disappeared.

That prodigy lasted several minutes. The priest looked elsewhere to rule out the
suggestion, but when he returned his gaze to Maria Concepción, there followed the
cascade of flowers of light. Never in his life had he seen anything like it.

That night several more prodigious events occurred, but I think this is enough.

The next day Maria Concepción told us what she saw on our foreheads. Some had the
mark of the cross (Rev. Chap 7, 3 / Ez. 9, 6). She also told us that she saw people marked
with the three sixes: 666. (Ap, 13, 18).

He said he had a cross and a letter. The letter was F and he drew me on paper how I saw
it.

In the afternoon, we went down to prayer, but not in the "local", but at the entrance, near
the great marble Crucifix. Maria Concepción led the prayer, as always. It started to drizzle,
not very intensely.

Maria Concepción had a coat and a polka dot scarf on her head. While singing the Bird of
Fatima I saw her transformed into a girl. I saw in Maria Concepción the little Jacinta de
Fátima.
 
I didn't believe it, but I was seeing it clearly, clearly. At the same time I felt like a deep
chill and great emotion. I appreciated that it rained, because that way I could hide my
tears. I didn't understand it.

After the prayer, we went up to say goodbye.

 
Then, the dining room was flooded with an intense, pleasant and penetrating carnation
perfume. "It is the farewell of Jesus ," Maria Concepción told us smiling.
 
Even my brother, who was neither credulous nor very believing (but a good person), was
impressed.
We got in the car and went home. It was Sunday, January 3, 1971.
 
YEAR 1971

I am not going to tell all my trips one by one, as I have done with the first 3.

I am going to be telling, for years, some significant events of Ladeira and I am going to
continue with my personal testimony.

February.

 
It was in this month when the prophecy that we heard on our first trip to Ladeira was
fulfilled:  "You are the first priest to celebrate Mass with the ornaments of this
Local Saint. The seventh will be Portuguese" ( July 18, 1970)
 
Father Viegas, a Portuguese priest, was the seventh to celebrate Mass in Ladeira on
February 5, 1971.
 
I want to look at a trip, at the beginning of February 1971, that although I did not
participate, two priests friends of mine and a woman from Valladolid, who accompanied
me on almost all my first trips called Isabelita, did.
 

The Sacred Form of the Custody began to

bleed on the First Saturday of March 1971
These priests saw a wonder in the sun, on the morning of Saturday, February 6.
 
The sun began to spin and change colors. They could see it without any difficulty, with
total clarity.
 
Then they saw the sun turn completely white, as if it were the Eucharist.

But they saw with surprise that it had spots or strokes. Something they did not
understand.
Shortly after, they saw that in the Sacred Form that was in the Custody of the chapel,
small blood spots appeared. Surprisingly, those spots matched what they had seen in the
sun.

The Sacred Form of the Custody began to bleed that day, with those small spots or signs
of blood. But it continued to bleed in the following days, not copiously, but little by little.
 
Those spots or signs sprouted from inside ...
 
 At night they attended the prayer from the first Saturday to the First Sunday, which, as
we have already mentioned, lasted several hours.
 
María Concepción led the prayer in the usual way.
 
And he received Communion again in front of all those present. These two priests had
never seen a visible Communion.

They watched as María Concepción fell to her knees, placed her hands behind her back,
stood ecstatic with her eyes open and a smile on her expression. She stuck out her
tongue, completely empty and on that tongue appeared a white Sacred Form. (See
photos)
 

What most impressed of the visible Communions was the serenity, the normality, with
which María Concepción acted.

The next morning, Sunday, they entered María Concepción's house before eight.
 
She was sitting and looked asleep. So they commented, in a low voice among themselves,
with the fear of waking her: "She is asleep!"

But she, without opening her eyes, replied: "María Concepción is not asleep, she is in
Spain visiting José Luis ... Now she wakes up (she was referring to me)". They looked at
the clock and it was 8:05 in the morning.

When I met them the next day, the first thing they asked me was
 
: "Do you remember what time you woke up yesterday?"

"Yes," I replied, "it was a few minutes after 8."

"Did you notice anything special when you woke up?"

"You won't believe me, but I felt the presence of María Concepción by my side"

Then they told me what had happened and confirmed that, indeed, I had woken up the
moment she said it.
 

One of these two priests also received the "visit" from María Concepción.

It was at Christmas. María Concepción perfectly described her home to her. She said that
she had seen her in the dining room, sitting at the table, before a plate with fish and with
her head resting on her hand ...
 
The priest confirmed, point by point, that it was exactly as she had described it.
 
There are numerous cases of "bilocations" of Maria Concepción.
 
Even in one of them he left a paper written by a handwritten woman in which it said:
"Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora das Graças - Ladeira do Pinheiro".
 
This lady appeared at Ladeira and showed the paper. It was her first visit to Ladeira.
 
 
 March

If in the first days of February there was the bleeding of the Sacred Custody Form, the
following month, on the first Friday of March, bleeding from the Cross took place.
 
This cross, one and a half meters long, was hung in "the Chapel", which was actually a
room with the "40 days" miracle bed and an altar with a tabernacle, the Custody and
various images .
 
On my first trips, I found that he exhaled a soft perfume from his right knee.
 
Firstly, the Crucifix sweated blood, as can be seen perfectly in the photos of the
time. Similar to what happened to Jesus in the garden: "he sweated like drops of blood,
falling to the ground" (Lk. 22, 44). He wanted to remind us of the agony of Jesus before
his Passion.
 
Later, it was a real bleeding.
 
María Concepción saw Jesus alive. Blood gushed from the crown of thorns and ran down
his face, falling from his chin to his chest and down to his legs.
 
Several people from the Community and a pilgrim present in Ladeira that Friday, March 5,
witnessed.
 
I arrived the next day.
 
María Concepción ushered us into the Chapel. The blood was fresh, fresh. The pain of
Jesus was felt and an immense respect shook my whole being. There was an
overwhelming silence.
 
Although the Face of Jesus looked up, I felt that he was looking at me, that he was staring
at me. Not that I saw him shake his head, lower it, and glance at me. I felt His gaze, deep
and painful.
 
Later, I asked María Concepción to allow me to take a small blood sample, so that I could
analyze it. She gave me a small piece of white cloth and I respectfully approached the
Cross, passed the piece of cloth and removed it with a bloodstain.
 
This blood was analyzed at the Madrid Medical Forensic Institute and the result was:
human blood, group 0, RH +.
 
We do not know if Jesus' blood group was really 0, but it does have its meaning: universal
giver. His blood served, serves and will serve for all men.
 
In those days María Concepción was very depressed. She suffered the flogging. Isabelita,
from Valladolid, could see her back and it was a real wound.
 
I always saw the bleeding as sensitive signs of the Lord's pain in the face of the attacks
that Ladeira received.
 
I have previously said that the Lisbon Patriarchate had requested the presence of the
Republican National Guard to prevent prayer in Ladeira. And indeed, although I have not
reviewed it, the GNR used to go there and the prayer had to be done, many times, at
night, when they had already left the Prayer Room.
 
To this must be added the presence of authentic vandals, who approached Ladeira to
insult, provoke and even attack pilgrims. The GNR never acted against them. It only acted
against pilgrims.
 
On several occasions we were stoned. One night I saw a stone hit María Concepción in the
face, while she led the prayer. She received the impact, but continued to pray normally.
 
A person from the Community suffered such a brutal beating that he had to be admitted
to the hospital and died a short time later, as a result of that savage attack.
 
Her name was Carmelinda. She was the tireless companion of María Concepción. She had
a permanent smile on her face. She was charming.
She was an authentic martyr, who witnessed with life her total dedication to the Lord in
Ladeira.
 
 

Carmelinda also walking

on her knees with Maria Concepción
 
HOLY WEEK
 
I have before me a 23-page "story", written by a good friend of mine, in which he narrates
his experience in Ladeira during Holy Week in 1971.

My first intention was to transcribe it in its entirety, as it is an exercise in objectivity,

discernment and clarity.
 
This friend was a highly educated person, who studied Theology and was a teacher in
Valladolid.

I 'm not going to transcribe in full, but I will be based on this story-witness copying whole
paragraphs and putting them in " letter italic" to distinguish them well.

The expedition, a sixty-seater coach, left Valladolid in the early hours of Holy Thursday,
April 8, thickened by pilgrims from Valladolid, Santander, Bilbao, Logroño, Zaragoza,
Barcelona and Madrid. In the group were two priests.

The four-day program there was not going to be comfortable at all.

 
Our hotel, for all purposes, including sleeping, would be the coach, with the consequent
inconvenience and deprivation, which would later multiply due to other circumstances,
which would be released in due course.

Four days of full sacrifice in which there would be plenty of cold and heat, rain and storms
and, worst of all: the hooligans, the people who came to Ladeira to annoy the pilgrims and
believers in Ladeira.

I briefly describe the place.  From our bus to the "Local" there would be about a hundred
meters. After crossing the Torres Novas road, the ascent of a slope began along a dirt
path. At the top of this rises a marble Crucifix, beautifully shaped, always crowned with
flowers and accompanied by devotees on their knees, some barefoot.

Leaving the Cross on the right, a small sloping esplanade extends to a paltry brick
shack. That is the "abode" of one of the members of Ladeira, a peaceful old man with a
white beard named Jose de Liteiros.
 
There is a well with a high curb and a few meters away a small pond with water, from
whose center a column surmounted by the image of Nossa Senhora das Graças emerges.

From the pond of La Virgen and between the grove, a dirt path leads away towards the
south, leading to the group of houses where Maria Concepción lives. They call this path
“Camino del Calvario”, because it is frequently traveled by Maria Concepción in ecstasy on
her knees.

This trail divides into two, almost at the end: one part leads to the houses of the
Community and the other (continuation of the Camino del Calvario) continues up to a
large tree with 3 trunks, where Maria Concepción lives the crucifixion.
 

The two priests celebrating

Holy Mass in "El Calvario"
 
Since I am transcribing only a few paragraphs, it can be a little disjointed and with
gaps. But, as I said earlier, it is a verbose and detailed account and I prefer to do it this
way: respect his testimony and copy entire paragraphs.

In the afternoon, almost at night, there was prayer.  There are quite a few
people. Candles, lanterns, flashing shots.  Maria Concepción has just gone into
ecstasy.  There is a constant murmur of prayers and songs: Ave de Lourdes, Ave de
Fátima and a repetitive song that says "Holy Spirit, come to our souls, Holy Spirit,
enlighten the priests ..."

It encourages me to see so much pity on men and women.  Everybody wants to get to the
center, where Maria Concepción standing, with a calm gaze, now fixes on a person, now
gathered in a neutral point, does not stop, masterfully, praying and singing.

I have just been told that it is San Miguel who is demonstrating through Maria
Concepción.

I see her begin to move among the people and a growing murmur makes the prayers and
songs intensify. She addresses various people to whom she takes her hand placing it in
her. Everyone wants to have that grace. But it is not "random", rather it is choosing
them.

Disappointed for not understanding what is happening, but moved by the faith that I see,
I ask God from the heart to give me a little light.

I observe the effort of some people to get closer and the tears and emotion of the
favored, both men and women.

I pray, I invoke the Virgin and at the height of my anxiety, I ask verbatim: "That I come
to me now".
 
He had just approached a young man from Valladolid, shaking hands with him.

Immediately, he looks with his gaze and fixes it where I am, quite far from it. Later, it
makes its way between bodies and hands, which it gently avoids, and reaches me.
 
In complete amazement at what I see, I still look back in case I am not the chosen
one.  But Maria Concepción takes my hand very smiling.

I had to lie down on a tree not to fall. Intense heat rose in my throat. That was incredible.

I left the scene overwhelmed with emotion.  Inside I had made a request to God, born
from the need to have peace instead of anxiety, because of what I was seeing.  If Maria
Concepción selected my request “at random” among dozens and dozens of people, much
closer, she created the greatest number of coincidences that I remember. But my
personal opinion, for many reasons that it is not time to explain, is that Maria Concepción
was moved by a will other than her own, responding to my request.

Tests like this would take place on those days in Ladeira "in bulk".

 
Good Friday, April 9

It had been agreed to have a prayer in the last hour of Holy Thursday, but seeing the
panorama in the "local oraçao", taken by a horde of savages who shouted and shouted
without stopping, it was agreed to postpone it.

The hubbub reached our coach. In our shelter we discuss the surprising parallelism of this
hour, with the historical one of the night of Holy Thursday in Jerusalem: Everything is at
the mercy of Satan and his minions. It was the hour of the Power of Darkness.

Ladeira, in those four days, was going to be an exact double of the Passion of Jesus.
When, after a few hours, everything had calmed down and we started to give some nods
while sitting in our coach, genuinely surrendered, a warning came to us: Maria Concepción
was going to start the prayer ...
It is a few minutes past four in the morning on Good Friday. Without having rested and
without having "cleared" we ran to the place of prayer.

The contrast with the preceding hours is formidable.  There are several hundred
people. Peace in those moments is sovereign. Maria Concepción raised on a stool leads
the prayer.  It is the best baton of mercy one can imagine.  Sometimes she measures the
outline with her eyes as if assuring the calm of that flock that she has as hypnotized with
fervor around her.
 
Godliness is truly magnificent. It is prayed in bulk, men and women.  There are no
curious.

The prayer lasts more than an hour, but it is a pleasant prayer, which tires no one.
 
Suddenly Maria Concepción gets off the stool and gets down on her knees. She is
ecstatic.  It begins to march on the muddy ground, full of puddles from the rain that had
fallen in previous hours.
 

Maria Concepción has a face marked by pain, her expression is suffering.  Nothing in her
gestures resembles a morbid trance, nor studied gestures. Everything is serene.

This ecstatic march along the Camino del Calvario will last about three hours.  Some follow
behind, others go ahead, some climb the slopes of the trail to see better.

Maria Concepción will experience every step of Christ from the Praetorium to Golgotha.  It
has several falls and is smeared with mud up to the hair.
I see men and women cry loudly and without blushing. I see the young man from
Santander I mentioned before cry (  I have not copied those paragraphs) and a young
nurse from Valladolid who only succeeds in saying: "My God, there is no one who can
resist this!"

Like many others, I end up on my knees and crawling through the mud. It seems to me a
desecration to stand up.

During the march he spoke several times, asking for penance, prayer and complaining
about those who persist in their sins.

During this "Via Crucis", I had, like many others, the opportunity to verify the
phenomenon that they had told me about, very typical of Ladeira: Ladeira exhales a soft
and delicious perfume.
 
It is in the environment or around Maria Concepción. The wind does not bring it, nor does
any plant dismiss it, nor does it come from any person or object. It comes suddenly and it
goes, too, suddenly.

It is a little after eight in the morning when the Via Crucis ends.
 
Maria Concepción opens her eyes as if waking up from a dream, but without signs of
weariness. She stands up and quite naturally begins to converse with people.
 
 
The day of the “Via-Crucis” had been long in the morning, but it was still going to fall
short before the afternoon prayer.

It starts at two and doesn't end until after six.  And scenes were to be produced, which
would be recorded in all of us who followed that act forever and ever.

A noble Portuguese family offers Maria Concepción her car so that she can lead the prayer
from it.  The crowd is imposing, most devoted and sympathetic, but there is no shortage
(as almost always) of a large number of thugs and villains who would bring our patience
to the brink of explosion.

Maria Concepción, raised on a stool, begins her prayers, followed by everyone with
enormous fervor.  An elderly priest, who sits on a stool, approaches Maria Concepción.

The sky is cloudy. And before long it begins to rain torrentially, a true deluge.

Maria Concepción looks at the priest and sees that he is getting wet.  He gets off his stool
and with the mime of a mother who takes care of her son, she takes off her coat and
covers the old cleric.  Then go back up to your stool.

Then there is a general commotion.  I do not realize it because I am a bit distant (it is
impossible to penetrate that network of people).  Immediately comes the wave of what is
happening: that curtain of water does not touch Maria Concepción.  Many are watching the
rain fall to within a few inches of their head and then describe a parable around it to go
directly to the ground.

Impossible to describe the effect.

A nun standing at the foot of Maria Concepción, holding a microphone to collect her
words, experiences the marvelous fact that her hand and the microphone next to Maria
Concepción remain dry, while the rest of her arm and all of her are soaked .

Indeed, Maria Concepción, her clothes and head are dry.

People kneel down. Many cry ...

Here I want to intervene as a witness.

I was in the front row and I saw it perfectly, very close. Maria Concepción had taken off
her coat to put on the priest, who was sheltered with an umbrella. They also wanted to
cover Maria Concepción and she, smiling, said no. It was raining intensely, “jugs”. We all
saw, very clearly, how the water did not fall on Maria Concepción. It was as if an invisible
umbrella covered her.

This portentous act lasted as long as the downpour. It was not fleeting and temporary, but
it lasted a long time and we all could verify it perfectly.

When the rain stopped, Maria Concepción was totally dry.

I have never seen anything like it.

And it is totally true that the nun, who came with us from Valladolid, not only saw that
Maria Concepción did not get wet, but that her hand, her wrist and the microphone, which
were closer to Maria Concepción, also remained completely dry.
 
Holy Saturday .

I will make a summary, because the story of this day is 4 pages, but a summary based on
the testimony of my friend, so I will write it in "italics".

In the afternoon prayer, Captain Silva, known to everyone in Ladeira, presented himself,
as he was the highest authority of the GNR in the Region.  Arrogant and arrogant person,
authoritative and arrogant. His goal: to warn that he was going to end Ladeira.

Some people reply, "We come here just to pray.  We don't mess with anyone.  You can see
it yourself… ”

And then a formidable storm breaks out. Maria Concepción falls to the ground, on her
back, as if struck down.  There are puddles and mud, so her hair is completely wet and
muddy. She sits up, ecstatic, without any effort.

Captain Silva, with a dismissive gesture, takes refuge in his car.

In ecstasy Maria concepción contemplates Our Lady: "There are those who trample on the
holy works of this Holy Place!"

Maria Concepción has her eyes fixed on Heaven, completely open in her "vision".  A real
downpour is falling and the water hits hard. But her eyes don't close, they don't even
blink.  Water respects your face.

A Passionist priest testifies, after questioning several people: “As far as I have been able
to observe and according to what I have heard from those who are closest, the rain does
not fall on Maria Concepción.  Therefore, this leads me to argue that it represents proof of
the supernatural nature of what is happening. ”
 

Here I want to clarify that the day before, during the storm, I saw and verified, like
everyone else, that it was raining "jugs" and Maria Concepción remained completely dry,
not a drop fell.

But Saturday was different. I saw her, like everyone else, in ecstasy contemplating the
Blessed Virgin, with her eyes wide open, without blinking. It seemed that the water did
not touch her face, but she had it wet, perhaps because she had fallen to the ground, with
puddles and mud and had remained there for several minutes, with her eyes closed.
For this reason, I want to bear witness and defend what I have seen clearly, not the
doubtful: On Good Friday I saw clearly how it was raining and Maria Concepción remained
completely dry. But on Holy Saturday it was different: she was wet, her head, her body
and her clothes, although she kept her eyes open, without blinking and her face serene.

I continue with the story.

When the storm passes and the downpour stops, Captain Silva returns and still sees the
last moments of ecstasy.  His expression is of self-sufficiency and contempt. "This is all
going to end," he says flatly.

My personal impression of how things were in Ladeira, was that Maria Concepción and her
work seemed like a mouse at the mercy of the powerful grip of the "cats" of authority.

Humanly, with such strong enemies, his "Work" was doomed to disappear ...
 
Easter Sunday

In the morning, in a clandestine environment, almost hidden, a small group of pilgrims

attended the Holy Mass concelebrated by the two priests at the end of the "Camino del
Calvario". In this small group there were pilgrims from Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium,
the Philippines, the United States.

It seems incredible that in the twentieth century, in a Catholic nation and with the
experience of what happened in Fatima, we have to go through these vicissitudes.

A clear and pleasant Perfume made itself felt, in waves, at various moments of the Mass.

This day the presence of GNR guards was evident.  They had placed themselves at the
entrance to Ladeira, preventing us from passing.  You couldn't enter!  The threat from
Capital Silva was carried out the day before.

In the afternoon the pilgrims were scattered and somewhat bewildered.  But we had a
"mission": Enter Ladeira.  Mission Impossible?

I detected some fear in the pilgrims. "Whatever happens you have to get to the
esplanade."  "There may be injuries." "There is no need to replicate with force. Hold on
and move on. ”

When I contemplate that disorder of the people and the little idea that we all have of the
way in which we have to act, I assure failure. It looks like this is going to be chaos.

But I observe that despite the fear we feel from the imminent crash, no one, male or
female, plans to back down. There is a unanimous decision to move forward, whatever
happens.
And the instructions arrive: the Spanish will open the march with their banner, then the
foreigners and then the Portuguese.

My young colleague from Valladolid will be the standard bearer, whom I reinforce together
with the boy from Santander to defend the banner.  Therefore we will be at the forefront.

We put ourselves in the lead and behind us women.  And the order arrives, but the most
perplexing order that one can imagine: it comes without words. A tall and strong
Portuguese woman gets down on her knees and moves determinedly towards the path
that goes up to the Cross.  Instinctively, we follow it en bloc.  The woman advances like a
steamroller, smoothing everything in her path, ecstatic, undaunted by the police, who
come out to meet us.

I look back and I contemplate a panorama full of emotion: in perfect order of march come
some twenty banners surrounded by numerous pilgrims singing and praying.  The
encouragement and courage that those songs and prayers inspire us make us despise
everything in front of us. 
 

Nothing stops us, neither the muskets nor the policemen's batons. We arrived at the
Cross. There we meet the pale, disjointed Captain Silva. I have not seen a more shocked
and surprised face than that.

The contrast with the previous day is tremendous. The captain even seems to tremble.
We continue advancing before the total impotence of the gendarmes and the
unprecedented surprise of the "hostiles", who look at us from a distance without daring to
approach.

A new look at the general panorama of the esplanade makes me calculate the number of
pilgrims at about two thousand.

Captain Silva, without any control of the situation, asks for Maria Concepción to come,
who soon arrives. And she with a calm and serenity that contrasts with him
nervousness of the chief of the gendarmes, tells us to go back to the Cross at the
entrance and to pray there.
 
The captain now looks like a doll at the mercy of Maria Concepción.

We all obeyed and went backwards, calmly to the Cross. There we fall to our knees in
triumphal prayer.  Maria concepción, smiling and calm, returns home.  She has succeeded
on every line!

Capital Silva left with his car to look for reinforcements. But we end our prayer with songs
and live Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Only at the end did the reinforcements arrive,
but we had fulfilled our mission: we had entered Ladeira, we had reached the esplanade
and then we retreated submissively obeying the instructions of Maria Concepción, and the
prayer was said, which is what we intended.

I want to briefly contribute my testimony.

 
Indeed, I carried the banner of Spain, flanked by my friend Juan Antonio de Valladolid and
by a young man from Santander. I don't consider myself brave, but I felt a special
strength, a strength that was not mine.
 
I went forward and saw the guards in front of me. One unloaded the force of his carabiner
against the banner that I was carrying and hit him hard, but I kept walking. I was never
afraid and the same thing happened to many people.

Maria Concepción told us that the Blessed Virgin, Queen of the White Army, was coming
upon us, advancing with us. With the cloak open, extended.
 
Yes, I felt sheltered and protected under His Cloak and at no time did I fear for my
integrity or for the integrity of any of those who came behind.

It was the wonderful culmination of this Easter Sunday.

 
 
 
 
 
Month of May
 

On May 13, 1971, a very important event happened. Several members of the Judicial
Police were present in Ladeira during the prayer.
In Ladeira it was a normal day, so there were not many people.

María Concepción led the prayer as usual. And at the end she went to her knees to a small
garden that was in the "Local of prayer" and there she received Holy Communion, which
Saint Michael the Archangel gave her.

But out of one of the flowers in that small garden came an unconsecrated form, which
María Concepción turned over to the Judicial Police for examination.

That is, a Sacred Form received it in the mouth, as always. The other came out of a
flower, for the members of the Police to take away.

The policemen saw with complete clarity how a Sacred Form appeared on their tongue,
before their attentive gaze, "without cheating or cardboard."

And how another, white, equal shape came out of a flower and was picked up by María
Concepción, who gave it to one of the policemen.

All this was photographed by one of the pilgrims who came that day, sensing that
something special could happen that day.
 

We do not know what report they would take to the Portuguese Authorities or to the
Patriarchate. The truth is that the Patriarchate NEVER admitted anything that was
favorable to Ladeira.
 
NEVER INTERESTED IN THE TRUTH, BUT FINISHED WITH LADEIRA!
Curiously, in the same month a similar event was repeated, that of the shape coming out
of a flower. I was present and I was able to witness it several times:

María concepción en ecstasy cut a flower with her hands (“jug” in Portuguese), advanced
on her knees, raised the flower and when she lowered it, as if it were a “sacred vase”, we
saw one or several Sacred Forms that had miraculously appeared . Those Sacred Forms
she gave them, then, to one of the priests present.

He made several trips: cut a flower, totally empty, advance on his knees, lift that flower
while, with a smiling gesture, he fixed his gaze on "Someone" that the others did not see
and when he lowered it, we saw the flower, or flowers, with several Sacred Shapes inside.

It happened several different days.

 
Jesus called Ladeira: MYSTERY OF MY SAGRARIOS. 
 
"My Bread cannot be lacking where there is hunger and thirst for My body and
My Blood."
 
Let us not forget that Maria Concepción and all members of the Ladeira Community were
denied all the sacraments ...
 

In August I spent part of my vacation in Ladeira. I had already been to Ladeira living
several times, but this time it was my longest stay in number of days.
 
It was a wonderful and very revealing experience. There we lived in an environment of
poverty and without fundamental things today. But I was happy and did not change that
rustic, rudimentary and poor Ladeira for any palace.
I realized that the more we are filled with God, the less we need material goods and the
more empty we are inside, the greater need we have for material things. I knew it in
theory, but then I could experience it.

It reminded me of the life of the pastorinhos in 1917. It is as if we had gone back more
than fifty years and returned to the times of the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin in
Fatima.

I spoke a lot with María Concepción and she told me many things about her life. I knew in
detail the places where she had to hide for months and months because the GNR was
chasing her. They even smuggled their food into the pigs' pool. Unimaginable situations,
that she had to endure and that she told me smiling.

He spoke to me about a “very cute little girl” who visited him many nights. She had very
long hair. She asked who she was and told her that Saint Agnes.

María Concepción had no culture or religious training. She knew very few saints, but many
appeared to her: Saint Agnes, as protector, Saint Rita who announced that she would live
under an olive tree, Padre Pio, Saint Elizabeth of Portugal ...

In this month of August a French lady, Madame Gaultier, appeared who had an important
role in Ladeira. Madame Gaultier lived in Orleans, the city of Joan of Arc and took groups
of pilgrims to Marian Shrines in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal.

He visited Ladeira and on that afternoon, he had a response to a request from him, which
he had not expressed aloud, but which the Lord granted him through María Concepción.

At night, she was with her group at the hotel (40 km from Ladeira) praying to Santa
Teresita to demonstrate in Ladeira. We were in Ladeira praying and, indeed, Santa
Teresita manifested for the first time in Ladeira, in an ecstasy sung with a beautiful
melody. Santa Teresita had responded to her request.

And the next day Saint Joan of Arc manifested herself, of which Maria Concepción had
never heard of and who became one of the most assiduous saints in Ladeira, along with
the Archangel Saint Michael.

Madame Gaultier had a great devotion to Saint Joan of Arc, for it was not in vain that she
lived in the city of "Pucelle", the Maid of Orleans. It can be said that it was she who with
her presence and her devotion took Santa Juana de Arco to Ladeira.
......

On August 14, the stigma of the cross reappeared on his forehead. It was a totally
different process from that of January, in which I was also present. We were talking to her
in her room and suddenly, she fell to the ground as if struck down. I noticed that her
forehead was bleeding and a cross was forming. A perfect bleeding cross was etched on
her forehead.

I had a clean handkerchief and I brought it to his forehead, engraving the shape of the
cross. I still have that scarf.
 
On October 10 we were several people praying in the chapel with Maria Concepción and
she was ecstatic. She took a picture that was on the altar and before our eyes, it began to
bleed. The picture showed the Face of Jesus crowned with thorns.

It was one more sign of the persecution against Ladeira and, more specifically, against
Maria concepción.

Indeed, the persecution increased. On the 20th the Judicial Police appears, they seize the
Custody and many other objects. They did not confiscate the Crucifix that had bled,
because Maria Concepción, days before, cleaned his blood with some canvases.

They took her to Lisbon and put her in jail for 3 days. It was a very tough test. They had
taken away the rosary and a cross that she was carrying. She could only save a tiny
image of San Martin de Porres.

In those days she had no Heavenly Appearance, but the demon who laughed, mocked her,
insulted her and told her that she was going to stay in jail forever. It was 3 days of
darkness, purgatory, hell.
They only gave him a piece of bread and some water to eat ...

We returned a few days later and she showed us a crust of bread that she had saved from
those days.
 
 This stamp bled in front of
several people on October 10, 1971, announcing further persecutions ...
 
Month of December.

The Alliances . God established an Alliance with his chosen people and he reiterated it
through the prophets (Canon IV of the Mass).

This Covenant reached its culmination in the sacrifice of the Cross: The New and Eternal
Covenant. 

But it is clear that we live in a paganized world, that lives behind the back of the Gospel
and that only a small number of people try to live to the last consequences the Call of
Jesus.

For this reason, in Ladeira, they wanted to become aware of this Alliance and the initiative
to celebrate 7 Alliances was carried out.

The first took place on December 28, 1971. It was a rainy, cold and unpleasant day, but
this did not detract from the influx of pilgrims who came in several thousands, nor of
priests, since the Holy Mass was concelebrated by 24 priests of different countries: France,
Spain, Italy, Belgium ...

After the Holy Mass, Maria Concepción had an ecstatic march, along the “Camino del
Calvario”, over the mud and puddles.
 
I have previously referred to and described several ecstatic marches of knees by Maria
Concepción, along the “Camino del Calvario”.
 
This time, the people who walked closest to her were the priests, some truly impressed
and all filled with fervor and recollection.

The photos of that march are a good testimony.

 
 
  
 
YEAR 1972
 
 
 Saint Joan of Arc
The year 1972 began with an ecstasy of Saint Joan of Arc. We were a small group of
people accompanying Maria Concepción throughout the year. Santa Juana demonstrated a
few minutes before midnight.

"Year 72, march, march, march ... To the great battle ." With a bell, standing up, it
imitated a military march.

Saint Michael and Joan of Arc were our holy "warriors", our captains.
I immediately thought that those words were prophetic, that a hard, difficult year awaited
us, but I did not know to what extent . The great battle! What could she mean? I keep
that ecstasy that we recorded that night and it seems like a real military march, for
Ladeira's Army, The White Army.

It was a prophetic ecstasy.

 
2nd Alliance.
 
On February 2 the Second Alliance took place. The First Alliance was held on a rainy day,
but with some clearing. However, day 2 was a day of continuous rain.

It was a business day, a Wednesday, raining all day, but still several thousand people
gathered.

In the morning there was a “bleeding” in the Sacred Forms that contained a Ciborium that
was in the chapel. Maria Concepción went to the chapel, accompanied by several priests
and when they opened the tabernacle they found the Sacred Bleeding Forms. The blood
was fresh, fresh.

I have already clarified previously that the bleedings were signs of "persecution" against
Ladeira.

I was one of the first lay people to see the “Copón”. The Bleeding Forms were small. I saw
a heart in one of the shapes and it seemed to beat. I took it as a personal impression,
because I saw it clearly, but in the photo it does not appear with the clarity that I saw it.

But something really important happened. Dr. Jean Caux, an eminent French doctor and
attentive student of the events in Ladeira, was in Ladeira. Dr. Caux asked Maria
Concepción to allow her to take a Sacred Form to France to analyze the blood. There was
some controversy, as some did not like it. The truth is that Maria Concepción asked Our
Lord and She allowed it. So one of the priests put a Form into a "rack" and gave it to Dr.
Caux, who took it to France.
When Dr. Caux arrived in France and opened the carrier, he was surprised that the Form's
blood was still fresh, fresh, as if it had just bled at the time. That is materially impossible,
a truly prodigious fact. And he did so in a testimony that he himself sent to the Lisbon
Patriarchate and that we publish here.

The results of the analysis were the same as the blood of the Crucifix: human blood, group
0, RH +. (In the Lisbon Patriarchate they affirmed that it was chicken blood. Stupid way of
lying !!!)

I continue with the story of the Second Alliance.

In the afternoon, in the incessant rain, the Alliance Mass was celebrated, concelebrated by
11 priests. There were several priests present, who had come as "observers".
After the Mass, the songs and prayers led by Maria Concepción began. It was not long
before she entered into ecstasy and began an ecstatic march along the Camino del
Calvario, as in the First Alliance.

In the ecstatic march of the First Alliance, a month earlier, Maria Concepción wore a
raincoat. This time she wore a purple wool sweater and skirt, meaning no protection from
the rain.

It was an impressive ecstatic march, the most impressive of the many I have seen. I dare
not describe it.

It lasted over an hour. It was very cold. Upon reaching the place of the "crucifixion",
where Maria Concepción remained nailed to the cross, her face was serene, very beautiful,
despite having her hair completely muddy.

When the ecstasy ended, he opened his eyes as if waking up from a dream and, as he
usually did, he began to pray aloud to everyone.

From there he went home. Several people accompany you. She was completely soaked
and already felt the intense cold, which she did not feel during ecstasy. Her clothes
breathed an intense and pleasant perfume.

However, he did not catch bronchitis, pneumonia, or the smallest cold, despite the hours
he was in the cold and intense rain.
 
 
 

February 2, 1972:
Bleeding Forms
 
HOLY WEEK

At Easter the number of foreign pilgrims was considerable, especially Spanish and French.

The Ladeira community had also grown. For some time they had several “abandoned”
children, children of an alcoholic woman, whom María Concepción and Humberto had
welcomed as their own. I was at the birth of one of them in August 1971. Then they were
collecting more. At that time, they had 7 children who were cared for as their true
children.

They also had a large nave or barrack (as we called it), in which there was a large table
that served as an altar for Eucharistic Celebrations and as a table to feed pilgrims
(sometimes free of course).

On several occasions we saw how dishes and more dishes were served from the pot full of
soup and the soup was not finished. We also saw how the soup was kept warm, after
more than an hour singing and praying ...

These extraordinary events were totally ordinary in Ladeira.

I go to my notes from those days, where I highlight some facts, which I will refer to.
 
 
HOLY THURSDAY. Visible fellowship.

It was in the afternoon, in the barracks I referred to earlier. It was full, crowded. We could
hardly move. Maria Concepción got down on her knees and advanced to the table that
served as the altar. I was next to her, a little behind. I watched him spread his arms, head
slightly raised and staring at Someone. In a few moments, the Sacred Form appeared in
their language.

He did the usual act of worship, lowering his head deeply. Then she opened her mouth
again to show the Form, turning her head to the right and left. Those who were in front
and those who were on the sides, we saw her again perfectly. It was the day of the
Eucharist.

Soon after, in ecstasy, he took a basin and a towel and washed the feet of twelve men,
who had chosen one by one. Next, he also chose twelve women and washed their hands.

HOLY FRIDAY. Ecstatic gait.

At night, in prayer, he had an ecstatic walk on his knees and entered a field that was
fenced with a chain link fence. The pilgrims went by with her. Two priests held her, one on
each side. On his knees, he delimited a large area of land and said: "Someday there will
be a cathedral here."

Those words were a little crazy to me. That land had an owner and it was not easy to buy
it. Nor was it logical to believe that a temple was built there given the situation of Ladeira,
so persecuted.
Almost thirty years had to pass, so that in that same place, exactly, where Maria
Concepción, on her knees, had marked the measurements of the temple, a “cathedral”
would be built.

And there is now a "cathedral", a small cathedral, as predicted 28 years earlier.

HOLY SATURDAY. Bleeding

It was Saturday morning, similar to what happened on February 2.

Maria Concepción accompanied the priests to the chapel to open the tabernacle. When
they opened it, they saw in the Ciborium many Forms bleeding, almost all large.

It is not that the blood was fresh, recent, it was that it remained that way until the
afternoon, when the priests gave us Communion with these Sacred Forms.

One of the priests testified that the "Shapes kept bleeding on my hands ."

Those who receive Communion clearly feel the taste of blood. But it was a nice taste. The
truth is that it was not Communion under "the two species", since they were not species of
bread and wine, but meat and blood. Yes, I have written “flesh and blood”, since many of
us feel that this is what we received: flesh and blood.

Really hard to believe and hard to explain, but it was, as I tell it.
 

 
In the afternoon prayer he had an ecstasy of the Blessed Virgin.
 
In the morning, I had asked the Blessed Virgin to kiss my "little flower" (emblem of the
White Army) through Maria Concepción. She needed confirmation for something precisely
related to the emblem of the White Army.

Well, in the afternoon prayer he had a beautiful ecstasy. There were many hooligans with
their motorcycles making noise, shouting and accelerating, to disturb the sentence.

Maria Concepción had a megaphone microphone in one hand (in the other she was holding
the rosary) and began to sing a beautiful melody. The melody was so beautiful, so sweet,
that the “thugs” stopped screaming, stopped making noise with the motorcycles and there
was a silence in which only the voice of Maria Concepción was heard.
 
Then he released the microphone and ducked into the pilgrims. We were in the "prayer
room". I was away from her. He was moving and hugging various people.

He looked for me, reached me, and took my hands. He gathered them together and raised
them to heaven. He took the flower, still holding it from my sweater, and kissed it, as I
had asked him in the morning. Her face was embellished, transfigured. Looking into her
eyes I noticed that they had a blue, clear, beautiful color ...

I was filled with the Presence of the Blessed Virgin. Never in my life, until then, had I felt
the presence of the Blessed Virgin so clearly, so deeply.

If I had to describe it with just one word, that word would be: SWEETNESS.

It filled me with joy, it brimmed with joy. I just wanted to hug people and sing to the
Blessed Virgin.

I remember that I came to a tent where there was a group of French pilgrims and hugging
Armande (it could be my mother) we started singing a song that I really liked: “Prends
mon coeur, le voilá…”

Only in Medjugorje, years later, did I feel the Presence of the Blessed Virgin again, which
completely enveloped me.

EASTER SUNDAY. 3rd Alliance.

In the afternoon the Covenant Mass took place, concelebrated by 13 priests. Several

thousand pilgrims attended.
 
PROPHETIC ADS

 
On May 13, in the afternoon prayer, Maria Concepción had an ecstasy in which she went
to a small garden, which was next to the "Local of Prayer" and clung tightly to the thorns
of various branches of a rosebush.

" Embrace the thorns (in Spanish the thorns). Don't be afraid of thorns . "

Then he plucked off some rose petals and a small Sacred Shape appeared in each of his
hands. In each hand she carried rose petals and a Sacred Shape.
Two Spanish priests were present who were the recipients of the Sacred Forms.

I have a short recording of that ecstasy (then the movies were only 3 minutes long).

The meaning was very clear: not to be afraid of thorns (or thorns), to embrace thorns (all
the sufferings we were going to meet) and to always seek our support in the Eucharist.
 
On the first Sunday in June the 4th Alliance was held. 13 priests concelebrated and
numerous pilgrims attended.

The Lord, through María Concepción, announced:

“ For a time I will speak to you and then I will not speak to you. Then I will speak
for a few and then I will speak for everyone. "

He also told us:

"For the 5th Alliance (August 20) Ladeira will be very changed ..."
"In the 5th Alliance there will be wounded ..."

So we did not understand those enigmatic words, which were fulfilled to the letter.

A few days later, on June 7, a small group of people, including a priest, went to Fatima
with María Concepción. We were in the Valinhos. There, at noon, next to the statue of the
Angel giving communion to the shepherds, he had an ecstasy in which the Lord told us:

“Be like this rock. Live for Me and for the Father. All of you who follow my path
have much to suffer ... Suffer with resignation. Do as I did, that I gave you my
whole heart and offered my arms for the cross and thus I opened the doors of
Heaven to you ...
FOR THE 5TH ALLIANCE LADEIRA WILL ALREADY BE MODIFIED, OTHERWISE.
YOU WILL FIND MANY PROBLEMS AND MANY OBSTACLES TO COME TO
LADEIRA… ”
We were surprised again, but without realizing the true scope of these words. We guessed
that something very hard was going to happen against Ladeira, but we did not know what
it could be.

The following month, on July 17, on a peaceful and calm night, while outside the house,
María Concepción fell to the ground, in ecstasy, as if struck down. There were hardly any
people from the community and some pilgrims. I pick up some phrases of that ecstasy:

"The Portuguese Authorities have come together and combined to end Ladeira ...
You are going to have a lot to suffer.
You are going to suffer a great fence.
One of the worst attacks carried out against Ladeira is being prepared.
The men want to destroy Ladeira.
Get ready.
You are going to be as harassed as rabbits when they are chased by hunters… ”

Those words of Maria Concepción in ecstasy overwhelmed me. Honestly, I must confess

that I did not believe them. She could not understand that the "Portuguese Authorities",
no less !, Came together and combined to end Ladeira.

He knew that the Lisbon Patriarchate had a real persecution mania against Ladeira, that
he had managed to get the GNR to go to Ladeira frequently, to put Maria Concepción in a
Psychiatric Hospital for two and a half months, to put her in jail ...

I knew all this, but what else could they come up with? "Uniting and combining the
Portuguese Authorities against Ladeira" seemed too much to me.

Two days later I returned to Spain, without taking into account those "exaggerated"
words, which I had heard the night before.

I returned to Ladeira on Saturday, August 5. The sunset caught my attention during the
trip, because the whole landscape was dyed red, it seemed something special, it seemed a
sign.

He was accompanied by a lady from Valladolid. We arrived in Ladeira around ten at

night. When we went up the slope that leads to the marble Crucifix, two members of the
GNR met us with flashlights.

-Where are you going?

- To Ladeira.
- You cannot enter Ladeira, it is prohibited.  Ladeira has been closed ...

I was really distressed by that situation. I went to look for another entrance, by a not very
good path, but which reached the "Calvary". I went slowly, idling, without lights. But when
they arrived at “Calvario” (where the “Camino del Calvario” ended), two other guards
came out, also with flashlights.
In a bad way they told us the same thing: that you could no longer enter Ladeira.

I went, uneasy, to a bar-restaurant called Ritonicho, which was near Ladeira. There I met
a French family, pilgrims from Ladeira.

They explained the situation to me: At the request of the Lisbon Patriarchate, the Ministry
of the Interior had ordered the GNR (Republican National Guard) to surround Ladeira and
not let anyone in. They had even improvised a barracks there to stay for months.

At that time all the previous prophetic announcements made sense and especially, the
ecstasy of a few days ago:
"The Portuguese Authorities have come together and combined to end Ladeira"
The French pilot was called Michel and he was camped inside Ladeira. They were out for
dinner and talking on the phone. We asked them to put us in the car and let us go with
them lying on the ground. The night was dark and Michel agreed.

We went to Ladeira by the second path, the one that led near the “Calvary”.
 
Upon arrival two guards came out with a flashlight. They did not want to let him
pass. Michel alleged that he was already inside days before the GNR arrived, that he had
his tent there and that he would speak to his Consulate the next day.

They insisted on not letting him pass, but Michel accelerated and left calmly. The whistle
and carabiner latch blew (they made the move to load the carabiner to fire).
I was admired for Michel's decision and courage.
 
He arrived at his tent near the barracks and they left, he, his wife, and their children. We
waited a bit and left, protected by the darkness and by the "wings of San Miguel", to reach
the house of María Concepción. We stayed there for several days.

The guards were stationed at the entrances, especially at the main entrance, and they
stayed in an uninhabited house near the entrance, where María Concepción had originally
lived. There they set up a barracks.

They made rounds and frequently approached the houses of the Ladeira community, but
they were not there (next to the house) permanently.

In the Ladeira houses (houses all in a row, as seen in a photo) there were also 2 women
from Burgos, who were already there when the guards arrived and two other women from
France.

On the third day of my hidden stay in Ladeira, day 8, I witnessed one of the most
extraordinary events of my life.
 
We were in the dining room when María Concepción got up and walked ecstatically
towards the chapel. I followed her and the others too, but not so close. She was with her
eyes open, with a special glow and smiling.
 
When he reached the door of the chapel, without entering, he opened his arms looking up
and slowly closed them. When he finished closing them, the Cross that was nailed to the
wall of the chapel appeared in his arms.
 
I felt tremendous emotion, it was a clear miracle. I got down on my knees and everyone
else too. María Concepción advanced with the Cross in her arms until she carried her to
the dining room and left her standing on the floor there.
 
 This Cross (the one that bled) was peeled
from the wall of the chapel and appeared, before our eyes, in the arms of Maria
Concepción
Four people from Spain (Isabelita, Pilar, Margarita and I), two from France (Armande and
a friend of hers who always accompanied him) and several from the community were
present.

When leaving the ecstasy, María Concepción looked surprised at the Cross. I didn't know
why she was there. He tried to pick her up and carry her back to the chapel, but he
couldn't get her. Between two people we later took her to the chapel and put him on the
bed of the "40 days miracle".

I left Ladeira after three days, at night, walking, to get to my car and return to Spain.
 
August 17, 1972.
 
A procession made up of 8 priests (Spanish, French and Italian) and 3 laymen (including
myself), we went to Lisbon to learn about the situation in Ladeira and see what could be
done.

We start with our "dear" Lisbon Patriarchate.

 
At 5 in the afternoon, we were received by the Vicar General D. Joao Filipe de Castro. We
introduced ourselves politely and politely to ask about Ladeira and find out what
arguments they had to reject everything that happens there.

The vicar, with incredible impudence and impudence, began to say that everything about
Ladeira was a lie: María Concepción never received Communion when there were people in
front of her, she herself made the stigma of the cross on her forehead, the blood of the
Crucifix was blood chicken that she herself put, and the same in the bleeding of the
Forms, she pays the Spaniards to bring coaches to Ladeira ...
 
In the height of cynicism, he dared to affirm that  the Patriarchate had nothing to do with
the presence of the GNR in Ladeira.
As it was something we already expected, we let him talk to know the nonsense they said
and then we started to refute him.
 
“You say that you do not receive visible communion if there are people in front of
you. Well, I have seen her receive Communion, several times: in her language there was
absolutely nothing and there appeared a very white Form, like the Forms that are
commonly communicated. Even photographs were taken, which are in our power. ”
 
This was witnessed by several of the priests, who had witnessed "Visible Ecstatic
Communions."
 
“A picture bled in front of me, it was completely clean and I still have it. After analyzing it
we learned that it is group 0 human blood,  added another priest.
 
“I had the Ciborium with bleeding forms and I saw how the blood increased and soaked
them all. I distributed Communion with these Forms (Holy Saturday 1972) and my fingers
were drenched in blood, "  another priest intervened.
 
“We have directly taken blood samples from the Crucifix and have them analyzed at the
Forensic Medical Institute in Madrid.  The result has been human blood group, RH positive
(like the one in the picture).
 
A French doctor (Dr. Caux) took a Bleeding Form and took it to France for analysis.  At 48
hours the blood was still fresh, "defying the laws of blood clotting and trickery."  And it
was not chicken blood, but human blood of group 0, RH positive.
 
We were refuting all his lies and he was completely overwhelmed and bewildered. It was
not expected. He adjourned and dismissed us. But before we left, one of the priests told
him:  "If you have any real proof    against Ladeira, show it to us and we promise that,
publicly, we will tell all the pilgrims that Ladeira is a falsehood and that they should not go
back there."
 
The truth is that I have only seen so politely and cynically lying to some politicians who
have no scruples, but in a priest it seemed to me something inconceivable.
 
Valuations abound: Jesus is THE TRUTH, the devil is the father of lies.

The next day, a smaller group, 3 priests and I, went to the Ministry of the Interior, where
we were received by the Minister's Secretary.
 
He received us coldly, dryly, and confirmed, in effect, that the Patriarchate had addressed
them to destroy Ladeira. He showed us a letter from the Patriarchate signed by the
Archbishop of Mytilene (belonging to the Lisbon Patriarchate) in which the Ministry of the
Interior was asked to intervene against Ladeira.
 
The Cardinal's secretary had told us the day before that " they had nothing to do with the
presence of the GNR in Ladeira."

Our third visit was to the Republican National Guard Command. They received us badly, as
if we were criminals, and reaffirmed that  "by order of the Ministry of the Interior and at
the request of the Lisbon Patriarchate, Ladeira had been closed and a permanent
detachment of guards had been placed to prevent anyone from entering there."

They also warned us  "not to   try to enter Ladeira, as the guards had orders to shoot if
someone tried to enter ." 
I remembered again the ecstasy of Maria Concepción on the afternoon of July 17, when
she told us:  "Today the Portuguese Authorities have met to end Ladeira."
 
When I heard it I hesitated, it seemed to me like an “interference” of Maria
concepción. She could not believe that Ladeira was so important to the Lisbon Patriarchate
and that the Interior Minister (who fled Portugal two years later) and the GNR Commander
General could be involved.

It was further proof that she was not the one speaking when she was ecstatic.

We returned to our bases happy, singing songs with the music of some songs from
Ladeira, songs that one of the group's priests composed:

"Come and go from all over the world / to Ladeira do Piñeiro / whether you come or do not
come / they will beat your pandeiro"

"We think that in Lisbon / the bearing is very little serious / especially the secretary /
Interior Ministry"

We had been warned not to enter Ladeira. But we were clear: We had to enter Ladeira and
speak to María Concepción. And, of course we entered! Three priests and me. At night, at
dawn. Very risky, very stealthy, but we get in.
 
We spoke with María Concepción, who listened seriously, thoughtfully.

He went into ecstasy and left the house on his knees. We stay inside waiting. He returned
with a bun in his hand and said that the priests should keep it in the tabernacle and that
someday the meaning of that fact would be known.
 
It was a reference to the Orthodox Church, which at that time was not known at all in
either Ladeira or Portugal.
 

Sever
al of the priests who went to the Lisbon Patriarchate on August 17, 1972
 L
etter from the Vicar of the Patriarchate in which he alludes to the visit we paid him on
August 17 and affirms that the dossier (what dossier? If they only told lies and falsehoods)
was not completed. And if they admit that it was not completed, why do they condemn
Ladeira?
 
 The "battle" of August 20

On August 20, María Concepción's birthday, the 5th Alliance had to be celebrated. The
outlook was bleak: Ladeira closed and the Ministry of the Interior and the GNR, at the
request of the Lisbon Patriarchate, determined to end Ladeira and that no one enter or
approach the Local of Prayer.

The truth is that had it not been for the tremendous opposition that we encountered, a
memorable Alliance could have been celebrated in Ladeira.

Never have so many foreigners come to Ladeira as that day. If Ladeira had not been
“closed”, more than thirty priests would have concelebrated.
The devil knew what he was doing!

In spite of everything we prepare for the "battle".

In the morning, several hundred pilgrims gathered in Fatima. We had "our" Mass in a
chapel in the basilica. The Mass was presided over by a bishop and 16 priests
accompanied him.

In the afternoon, after eating, a large caravan made up of coaches and passenger cars left
Fatima for Ladeira. Other coaches would join near Ladeira. Our purpose was to perform
the prayer as close as possible to Ladeira.

The caravan was very long. The road then was very bad. In Ladeira more than a hundred
guards with jeeps, motorcycles and horses, armed with sabers, carabiners and even
submachine guns, were waiting for us. We carried rosaries and crucifixes.

Upon arrival many coaches and cars were unable to park, they were diverting them. We
pilgrims could not meet, form a large group. We are separated, scattered, in various
groups, unable to get together.

The guards were charging against the pilgrims who were approaching Ladeira, especially
with motorcycles and horses. But the pilgrims, for the most part, did not back down.
 
Many of us were beaten, as if we were criminals or criminals. I saw guards viciously
trample on rosaries and crucifixes.

In spite of everything, many of us arrived in front of the Ladeira entrance, although for a
short time, and we were able to pray some Hail Marys, before they charged us again.

They took me between two guards on horseback and put the saber on my back. I was
caught between the two and thought that if they got together they would beat me. But he
was not afraid at all, not a bit afraid.

They led me to a group of pilgrims who were on the side of the road. Some were
Spanish. When I was there, with that group, a jeep stopped and a certain Jorge, a
corpulent guard (I think he was a corporal) and declared an enemy of Ladeira, who
already knew me and had a special annoyance, got out of it.

He came shooting at me with a riding crop in hand. He stopped in front of me, looked at
me with hatred and hit me hard on the leg. I noticed the blow, but felt no pain. I didn't
flinch.

Angry and furious, Jorge hit me again, this time on the thigh. The same thing happened to
me, I felt it, but it didn't hurt and I kept calm looking at him without fear.
For the third time, he hit me, this time on the back, but with the same result.

Even more furious, he told 2 guards to catch me . Then an R-12 arrived, driven by the
"seer" of El Remei (José Casasampere). He opened the door and said:

-Run up!

I hesitated for a moment (I didn't want to "run away"), but another friend pushed me
saying:

- They want you, not us, go up ...

I got in the car and we left.

There were guards everywhere, but we managed to get to Barquinha, where I was staying
with other Spanish people.

At night I saw the marks of Jorge's 3 blows on my back and on my leg: 3 large bruises,
which lasted several days, but never came to hurt. Incomprehensible.

Something similar had happened to a Dominican priest, days before, on the night of June
3: Jorge himself gave him a tremendous "butt" in the chest with his carabiner and Father
Luis neither flinched nor felt the blow ...

It had been several hours "of struggle". We had prayed in groups around Ladeira. It was
funny to see the policemen charging and us saying the rosary out loud.

Quite a few people claimed to have seen Maria Concepción praying on her knees on the
Cross at the entrance, when she really was at home, heavily guarded so that she did not
move from there ...

It was an afternoon of "Glory". We were beaten for love of God. The pilgrims were
exemplary. Some were taken prisoner. It was a journey that we will always remember,
those of us who live it, like a glorious journey ...
 

Several snapshots that could be taken of the "battle"

on August 20.
Testimony of a Spanish priest, present at the battle of
August 20
 The days after August 20 were very hard in Ladeira. People in the community, including
two Spanish women, were actually incarcerated, unable to leave Ladeira.
 
But they continued with the usual prayers, even if they were inside the house. Maria
Concepción received visible communion several times, given by San Miguel and even had
ecstatic marches, on her knees, outside the house.

So Jose Augusto and Carolina took on a very important role. They were groomsmen of
Maria Concepción and since they had bought some land in Ladeira, they could enter there
normally. They witnessed countless extraordinary events.

As the days went by, Maria Concepción was allowed to leave Ladeira to shop,
accompanied either by her husband Humberto or by Jose Augusto and Carolina.

I stayed many times at Jose Augusto's house and so I could see Maria Concepción outside
of Ladeira.
 
From the month of October I went back to Ladeira, well, to Jose Augusto and Carolina's
house and with them I could see Maria Concepción outside of Ladeira.
 
On the November trip, accompanied by Isabel de Valladolid and a Spanish priest,
something happened to me that was important to me.
It was November 23. I was with the flu: severe headaches and back pain, high fever,
chills, general malaise ... I had told Father F. that we could not return to Spain the next
day, because I was ill.

That afternoon we had visited the tomb of Saozinha in Alenquer. This Portuguese saint
had manifested herself several times through Maria Concepción. When we returned, in
Jose Augusto's car, Saozinha manifested through Maria Concepción.

It was a brief ecstasy, of thanks for having visited the place where she is buried. When
she was saying goodbye, I mentally went to her and said :
 
"Are you leaving without saying anything to me?"
 
At that very moment, as if he had heard me, he addressed me and said :
 
"No, I do not forget you, rapazinho ..."
 
He put his hand on my head and I felt healed. My pain, my chills, my fever disappeared. I
felt perfectly.

I didn't say anything until the next morning, given the possibility that it might have been
temporary. But I felt perfectly and we were able to make the trip as normal: Saozinha,
through Maria Concepción, had cured me.

That same day Maria Concepción announced to us: Jesus has sadly told me that before
the end of the year a city will be destroyed. Several people, including a priest, witnessed
this announcement.

Indeed, a month later, on December 23, the city of Managua was destroyed by an
earthquake. We were able to see how his prophecy was exactly fulfilled.

On several occasions I witnessed concrete prophecies that were later fulfilled ...
 
YEAR 1973

Throughout 1973 Ladeira was "closed".

However, pilgrims went to Ladeira on certain dates. We were not going to the main
entrance, as the guards were nearby. We entered "cross country", at dawn, until we
reached "Calvary". There we prayed the Rosary, we lit some candles when we finished and
we left happy and happy.

We did so, for example, on December 28, 1972, the anniversary of the First Alliance. We
were several coaches from Spain and Portugal. We parked at a certain distance from
Ladeira and, as I said before, we advanced “cross country” until we reached
Calvario. There we prayed and even allowed ourselves to sing without raising our voices
much.

I admired the Faith and dedication of so many people, seeing them walking at dawn,
almost without light, through the field, to pray a Rosary in El Calvario.

I remember a young married couple from Valladolid, who were with their 2 young
children. The father carried one on the shoulders and the mother the other by the
hand. For me it was something really admirable!

Some of us "privileged" people met María Concepción outside Ladeira: at the home of
Humberto's family, her husband, or at the farm that one of Ladeira's brothers had in
Almeirim.

We were with María Concepción, we prayed with her and we attended various ecstasy.
This is how those enigmatic words of the Lord were fulfilled through María Concepción in
June of the previous year, shortly before Ladeira “closed”:

“For a time I will speak to you and then I will not speak to you. Then I will speak
for a few and then I will speak for everyone. ”

He spoke to us for a time, until Ladeira closed. Then she stopped talking to us for a
while. Then he spoke to a few ...

The question was: will the announcement "and then I will speak for everyone" be
fulfilled ?

Amazing and extraordinary events continued to happen in Ladeira, even when it was
closed. Very often María Concepción had ecstatic marches on her knees, always
accompanied by someone, usually María José or Carolina. The guards saw her like this
many times. On several occasions they tried to lift her off the ground, but their efforts
were in vain, realizing that there was irresistible strength in her.

On one occasion Carolina, who accompanied her on an ecstatic march, saw her rise into
the air and disappear. Carolina was scared to be left alone, but a few minutes later she
found her again on the ground and in ecstasy.

Also, on some occasions, he received the Communion that the Archangel Saint Michael
brought him and the Sacred Form was visible in his language.

Maria Concepción told us that some guards told her that on the night of the first Saturday
to the first Sunday she had heard terrible screams and moans for a long time. “They were
clearly heard.  We are heard by all the guards. ”

María Concepción replied that they were the souls in Purgatory that could not be rescued
on those nights because when Ladeira was closed, she missed the prayer that hundreds of
pilgrims did during most of the night ...

Certainly, on the nights of the first Saturday to the first Sunday of each month, many
hours were spent in prayer and prayers were continually prayed for by the souls in
Purgatory.

 
 
The Trial against Maria Concepcion
 
Without doubt, the most significant event in 1973 was the trial against Maria Concepción.

These were the accusations against Maria Concepción: Giving blessings, administering the
sacrament of Communion, doing exorcisms, giving the anointing to the sick ... Curious
accusations for wanting to put a person in jail!

I have previously stated that this is only a “ summary summary” of how much happened
in Ladeira and especially of what I personally witnessed and lived. I left for this moment
the matter of "administering the sacrament of Communion" and "doing the exorcisms."
I already related that on several occasions Sacred Shapes appeared to her in some flowers
(jugs in Portuguese) that she cut from a small garden in front of us. I also put two photos
that show it.

The phenomenon of the appearance of Sacred Forms in Ladeira was impressive. Why do I

put Sacred Forms and simply “shapes” us ? Very easy: We were able to verify that once a
large number of Sacred Forms appeared in Ladeira, it coincided with the
disappearance of the Sacred Forms from the tabernacle of a religious convent in
Valladolid. They were the same dates, they were the same dies!
 
All this we check thoroughly. Several priests verified it.

I myself spoke to the superior of that convent, who already knew Ladeira and she related
the event in detail. I summarize it now.

The chaplain of that convent left the Ciborium full of Sacred Forms. The next day, when he
opened the tabernacle, before Mass, he found that the Ciborium was empty. Surprised and
scared, he asked the superior who had the key to the tabernacle.

- "Just you and me."  She replied.

But he was more surprised when when he passed the purifier (I think the cloth used by
the priest to clean the sacred vessels is called that) inside the ciborium, at the end of the
Mass, it was filled with blood.

Two priests from Valladolid, from those who came to Ladeira, spoke with this priest, who
confirmed this fact, rather, the two facts: disappearance of the Sacred Forms of the
ciborium, without any human person intervening, and the purifier soaked in "blood".

The Sacred Forms were transferred from the ciborium of the convent to the ciborium that
was in the Ladeira tabernacle.

The Sacred Forms used to appear in the chapel, but once they appeared on the way to
Calvary, in a small hole. When they were picked up, the priests found that they were
neither dirty nor absolutely dusty. They were clean and white.

That place was perfumed for years and we pilgrims would take land to take it to our
homes and that land remained perfumed for years and years.

On some occasion, while Maria Concepción was ecstatic, Sacred Forms appeared to her
and she gave communion to some people.

It should be borne in mind that both the people of the Ladeira Community, as well as
many pilgrims, were denied Communion for going to Ladeira.

I remember a day when several people returned sad from the Torres Novas Mass, because
they had denied us Communion. Upon entering the Ladeira store, we found Maria
Concepción, who was in the small garden arranging the flowers. We told him what had
happened to us. Maria Concepción raised her eyes to Heaven, knelt down and went into
ecstasy. Several Holy Forms appeared to him and he gave us Communion, which we
received excited on our knees. There were as many Sacred forms as people were there.
Something very similar I could witness on several occasions more.

The Lord called Ladeira: "Mystery of My Tabernacles". And, of course, The Eucharist

was the center of Ladeira.

The few occasions in which he gave communion to pilgrims and people of the
community were always in ecstasy and with Sacred Forms miraculously
appeared at that time.
It is curious that they accused him of giving communion, when today the laity distribute
Communion in the churches as normal. And they are not ecstatic nor do the Forms appear
miraculously!
 
Regarding exorcisms, it was something that I discovered in Ladeira.
 
Of course he knew that "demon possession" existed. I had read a lot on this subject and
had the example of the Lord who so many times cast out demons, unclean spirits, from
many people. But I never thought of encountering these cases. And in Ladeira I saw them.

What surprised me most was the great power and dominance that Maria Concepción had
over evil spirits. I witnessed numerous cases, some very clear.

Maria Concepción did not read any written forms. She used the crucifix, water in large
quantities. On some occasion she used the missal and the stole, when they resisted a lot.
It was a real fight. I witnessed many cases. The spirits never wanted to leave the body of
the possessed person. They screamed, growled, cursed, rolled on the ground. The holy
water burned them. They spoke in strange languages. They understood Latin, when a
priest intervened. It was not a pleasant sight.

I saw very surprising cases. One reminded me of Gerasa's demoniac. It was in front of

Maria Concepción's house. It was a long struggle, applying the crucifix to the possessed's
mouth to make her kiss it. The possessed rejected him, spat on him. Maria Concepción
ordered the spirits, in the name of Jesus, to abandon that body they were tormenting. And
when she managed to drive them out, there was a tremendous stir in the chicken
coop. The chickens leaped wildly, cackled, and there was a loud crash in the chicken
coop. This lasted a few minutes. Then the situation normalized.

The man possessed remembered nothing of what had happened to him. He only
remembered that they wanted to strangle him from inside his body.

They were not suggestive, moronic, or epileptic people.

On one occasion they took Maria Concepción a young woman who seemed to be
possessed by the continuous attacks and transformations that she suffered. We saw two
young girls enter. We did not know who was the one suffering from demon attacks. Seeing
them, Maria Concepción went without hesitation to one of them. She was very pretty. As
soon as she put her hand on her head, the young woman fell to the ground,
slumped. There she writhed on the ground and her face was deformed in such a way that
she did not seem the same person. They sat her on a chair and held her between two
people. Maria Concepción poured over the contents of a jug with holy water. She prayed
over it and was free.

Maria Concepción told her that this had happened to her by attending spiritualism sessions
and that if she returned she would be possessed again. This young woman changed her
life and never had any more attacks or demon possessions.

I wanted to present this case because of the amazing facial change that this young woman
experienced, really attractive and then scary: deformed face, crooked mouth, wild eyes ...

On another occasion, a posese person was brought to Maria Concepción. We were in

prayer. Maria Concepción stayed in the center "Fighting" with the unclean spirits that
tormented that woman. When he managed to free her and the person was getting up as if
waking from a dream, immediately another person from those who were there fell to the
ground with the same "symptoms".

Again the same fight: Invocations to Jesus, to Saint Michael to the Queen of Angels. All
around us we repeated the creed over and over again. When he managed to free this
person, who had never experienced any of this, the unclean spirits got into another, who
fell to the ground, repeating the same scenes. Again the same fight: a person, normal
until that moment, who rolled on the ground, shouted, blasphemed, with a deformed
face ... This time, Maria Concepción, in the name and with the Power of Jesus, ordered the
spirits Evil men who leave without harming anyone else ...

I had never seen or read anything like it: Unclean spirits leaving one body and
immediately entering another to dominate and possess it.

For many priests this was the definitive proof that the Lord was with Maria Concepción.
 
 

 
I go back to trial, once the accusations against Maria Concepción are known.

I will transcribe verbatim what I published in the newsletter that I edited about Ladeira
and that had a very good circulation, in Spain and other countries.

First session.

On May 15, at 10:30 am, in the town of Torres Novas, the first session of the trial against
Maria Concepción began.

The room was packed with people, crowding against the benches as best they could. We
estimate about two hundred people, the vast majority, followers of Ladeira. 6 priests
attended, 3 of them as witnesses (they admitted no more than 3).
The judge, Olimpio da Fonseca, young and arrogant, read the accusations against Maria
Concepción: "Give blessings, administer the sacrament of communion, do exorcisms, give
the anointing of the sick ..."

And began the interrogation of Maria Concepción, who answered calmly and serenely. She
explained that the blessings were given in ecstasy, when her body was moved by a
"Heavenly Force" that acted through it. She was not aware at all of what she was doing or
saying at the time. In that same ecstatic state, on some occasions, he had given
Communion with Sacred forms, which appeared miraculously.

He also explained that the exorcisms made them moved and directed by that "Heavenly
Presence", which is what made people liberated and healed.

The judge listened carefully and his statement was collected in writing.

From that moment, Maria Concepción sat on the "bench", between the judge, as accused.

Subsequently, one by one, Adriana, Laura and Lourdes, 3 people who attended Ladeira
assiduously and who were eyewitnesses to numerous extraordinary events, intervened. All
3 testified that they had witnessed various healings: a paralytic from Carregueira, another
from Peniche (from where, as a result of that healing, large groups of pilgrims began to
come), a girl who was born with bloody eyes and was cured in Ladeira , instantly, on May
13, 1971.

Each of them declared that they never heard Maria Concepción claim the power to heal
and that they only asked for Faith and prayers .
 
Then Mr. Ferreira entered, as a witness to the accusation. This man had sold the houses of
Ladeira to Carmelinda, a few months after the houses in which they lived were
destroyed. This man simply stated that he did not believe in Ladeira and that he never
saw miracles in Ladeira.

At 12:10 the most important witness of the accusation entered the room: Fernando
Ribeiro.
How can I describe it? I knew him very well, as he frequently went to Ladeira as a "spy"
and talked a lot with me. He was physically strong, loaded with shoulders. He had carried
out acts of savagery against Ladeira and was sentenced to pay a fine for said
acts. Honestly and dispassionately: he was undesirable. It is the most gentle and
charitable thing I can say.

I remember once that Maria concepción had an ecstasy in which we were few people with
her. Fernando had a thistle in his hand. He approached Maria Concepción and applied the
thistle, pressing tightly his thick hand to Maria Concepción's small hand. We look at him in
amazement. She expected a scream, a fuss, a gesture of pain from Maria Concepción,
which revealed that her ecstasy was not real. But Maria Concepción did not flinch. With
tremendous ease, he removed the stinging thistle from her hand and squeezed it tightly in
his own hand (from Maria Concepción) until it was almost pulverized. Then, he returned it
to him, cut into pieces and said: "Go and take it to the Judicial Police."

Well, this was the important witness to the prosecution. We were all expectant.
He was sworn in and began his statement. He said that he did not believe in Ladeira and
that he saw many frauds there. Of course, he did not explain any, absolutely none.

But he had to answer questions from Maria concepción's lawyer, Vasco da Gama
Fernandes, one of the best lawyers in Portugal and who would later become the president
of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal.

He stated that Fr. Manuel Alves, vicar of Torres Novas, put him in contact with the
Archbishop of Mytilene (Patriarchate of Lisbon), HE Antonio Xavier de Castro Monteiro. His
first interview lasted 5 hours. Subsequently, he received him very frequently.
He declared that the archbishop of Mytilene pressured him to say that everything that
happened in Ladeira "was witchcraft and spiritualism" , which he refused. This very
important affirmation, he repeated on 3 different occasions and was included in writing in
the minutes of his statements.

He also stated that the fine of 7,000 escudos imposed on him for acts of savagery against
the Ladeira well, was paid with money that came out of the Lisbon Patriarchate, donated
by the Archbishop of Mytilene and delivered through Father Vitorino de Torres Novas.

He also stated that the vicar of Torres Novas and the archbishop of Mytilene put him in
contact with the Judicial Police. The Judicial Police paid him for the trips to Lisbon and the
material for photographs and films that he took in Ladeira.

He ended by saying that when he saw Maria Concepción giving Communion, she was
ecstatic and he never heard her say that she had the power to heal the sick. She prayed
about the sick.
………………………………………………………………….

These statements merit comment. The prosecution witness, the main dish of the
accusation, exposed the Lisbon Patriarchate.

What low, vile and creeping behavior!

They pressure him, not to tell the truth, but to declare something that even he himself
does not dare to defend: "that what happened in Ladeira was witchcraft and spiritualism."

Nice way to represent Jesus who is THE TRUTH!

Satan is the Father of lies.

I have never seen honesty or cleanliness in the performance of the Patriarchate. I say this
with pain, without resentment, but being true to the truth.

They pay the fine for the acts of savagery against Ladeira!

I don't want to dwell on the subject.

Nor did he discover anything new. We knew all this beforehand, but we never thought that
Fernando would declare it before the judge and that it would be recorded in the record.

.................................................. .......
 
 Ferna
ndo Ribeiro declared that the Lisbon Patriarchate pressured him to declare that what was
happening in Ladeira was witchcraft and spiritualism. They gave him 7000 escudos to pay
a fine with which he was convicted of committing acts of savagery in Ladeira.
 
In the afternoon Vitorino testified. He declared having witnessed numerous extraordinary
events :
Visible communions, the sores, the cross on the forehead, cures, expulsions of demons ...
He added that in ecstasy Maria Concepción was "most beautiful", that she had answered
her thoughts and that she had witnessed how they pricked and burned her , without the
slightest flinch.
 
Julio Vilhais, one of the first companions of Maria Concepción, followed. He declared,
under oath, to have received on many occasions the Communion given by Saint Michael,
making the Sacred Form visible in his language.

Indeed, when Maria Concepción began receiving the Communion given by Saint Michael,
from the beginning of 1963, before the doubts and attacks of many people who said that
she was preparing it, she asked the Lord that another person could also receive
communion and that the Sacred Form was seen on their tongue.

The Lord granted it to him and Julius received communion on many occasions, also
making the Sacred Form visible in his language. Not for this reason did Ladeira's enemies
change their attitude or stop rejecting and attacking Ladeira.

Antonio Lopes, Jose de Liteiros and Jose Maria also gave a statement. All in the same line
of testifying the extraordinary events that they witnessed and that we have already
described previously: stigmatizations, visible communions, cures (in Ladeira there were
dozens and dozens of cures).

And it was the turn of the 3 priests.

The first priest bore witness to some extraordinary events that he witnessed in Ladeira:
Visible Communion, the formation of the cross on the forehead, raining heavily and Maria
Concepción remaining completely dry, perfumes ... He defended the authenticity of the
ecstasy of Maria Conception both for the transformation of the face, as for body rigidity,
response to interior requests, etc.

He affirmed that the Hierarchy must respect and study the charismatic facts, not
repress them. He clarified the difference between exorcisms done in a liturgical and
solemn way - reserved only for priests with the permission of the bishop - and the normal
exorcism, of defense against the devil, that any Catholic faithful can perform. There is an
exorcism printed with a formula that can be used by all the faithful. The same occurs with
the anointing of the sick: any faithful can pray over a sick person, lay hands on him, apply
oil, etc.

The second priest also gave testimony of numerous extraordinary events that he
witnessed in Ladeira: Visible communions, bleeding of Sacred Forms… He declared that he
had found nothing in Ladeira that was against moral or theological principles. He wrote
several times to the Lisbon Patriarchate giving an account of his trips to Ladeira, especially
of the spiritual fruits he saw there, but he never received the slightest response.

He alluded to the visit he made to the Lisbon Patriarchate with 8 other priests on August
17, 1972, where he was able to verify the lack of consistency and evidence of the
accusations against Maria concepción.

Regarding the expulsion of demons, he affirmed that it had been the definitive test of
Ladeira, since Maria Concepción did not use liturgical rites, but followed her own
inspiration, with spontaneous prayers and helping herself with the cross and stole, which
is allowed any baptized person to defend himself against the devil.

The third priest declared having made more than 10 trips to Ladeira. He also claimed to
have witnessed numerous extraordinary events, for example, the appearance of Sacred
Forms in the chapel, without Maria Concepción being present. These Sacred Forms
featured very different dies and not common in Portugal. But he focused, especially, on
the bleeding from Sacred Forms (some of them bled on his hands), from the Crucifix, from
a picture.

He showed photographs to the judge of some of the bleeding and the results of the
analyzes carried out on one of the Forms (Dr. Jean Caux in France, whose testimony
appears on these pages), the blood of the Crucifix, and the blood of the print, which bled
before him. The results were always the same: human blood, group 0 Rh +.
With the testimony of the 3 priests the first session ended.
 
Second session
 
It was held on Monday June 18.

An hour and a half before the room began it was completely crowded and many people,
unable to enter, crowded into the corridors. Eight priests attended, 7 Spanish and one
French.

Given the impossibility of being heard verbally as witnesses of Maria Concepción in the
courtroom, many priests (more than twenty) from different countries, had sent their
personal testimony to the judge, defending the supernatural nature of Ladeira and the
innocence of Maria Concepción.

At eleven in the morning Maria Concepción entered and occupied her bench. We saw her
calm, serene, even happy.

A little later the judge entered. In the morning 5 witnesses passed, who openly defended
Maria Concepción. They were firm, clear, resounding testimonies.

I remember Odete speaking of the impressive ecstatic marches of Maria Concepción in the
rain, on the mud, of the long nights of prayer, of her authority before the possessed
people who brought before Maria Concepción ...

The prosecutor, as in the previous session, listened carefully, but did not intervene in the
interrogations.
In the afternoon, the intervention of the defense lawyer of Maria Concepción, Exmo. Mr.
Vasco da Gama Fernandes. Her speech lasted 70 minutes and we can describe it as
masterful and inspired.

I am not going to transcribe in full, the 70 minutes of your speech, but simply, I will make
an extract.

“… After my first contacts with this process, I saw that I was facing one of the greatest
religious persecutions in this country. A miserable conspiracy had been drawn against this
poor woman ...

The priests became whistleblowers. The ecclesiastics, instead of studying Ladeira's case,

did the worst: persecute him. And in this post-conciliar era, an unfortunate persecution
was staged, with a stage setting of tragicomedy: attempts to lock up Maria Concepción in
a psychiatric hospital; Subsequent imprisonment for 3 days, from where I got it out by
sending a telegram to the National President Marcelo Caetano. And finally, using the
Concordat, the performance of the Republican National Guard with sabers, carabiners,
pistols, horses, etc.

He cannot help but repugnate this scientific persecution against this poor peasant. To the
extent that Father Vitorino took one of the witnesses to the Archbishop of Mytilene, to
pressure him to declare something that, because it was false, this witness did not agree to
testify. And they handed over to said witness, Fernando Ribeiro, a sum of 7000 escudos,
to pay the fine with which he was condemned for the acts of savagery carried out in
Ladeira ...

The church must begin a clean, hygienic and noble study of Ladeira. And lean on the Cross
and on the example of Christ, not on sabers and carabiners ...

We have to recognize that Maria Concepción became a pole of religious attraction for
hundreds and thousands of people, as the pastors of Fatima once were. If people in good
faith go to Maria Concepción, there is no disturbance of public order. They are purely
spiritual relationships, since no subscriptions or material contributions are requested.

And what fault does Maria Concepción have that sick people come to her asking for a
cure? She limits herself to praying and asking for Faith, without ever supplanting the
doctors, even advising them to go to them. And so cures have arisen ...

The priests demonstrated with their testimony that the acts carried out by Maria
Concepción do not go against Canon Law.

She has also not violated any rule of Portuguese positive law, nor of the Concordat. She
never tried to impersonate an ecclesiastic, a priest, a bishop, a cardinal ...

Let's save the freedom and independence of Justice. Justice must never bow to political or
religious pressure, as it would be a serious offense to the integrity of our nation ...

I have used my toga, my word and my knowledge, to defend this humble woman. It is
very possible that this is the last judgment in which I deposit the illusion and surrender
that I now put… ”

When it was over it was 4.25 in the afternoon. We held back so as not to break into
applause, because that speech deserved it. We were all admired and grateful for his
intervention.
 
 Vasco da Gama Fernandes: "... I saw that I was facing
one of the greatest religious persecutions in this country ..."
 
Last session: The sentence
 
The afternoon before the last session, several people were able to be with Maria
Concepción. I was very calm. She told us: “Jesus has made me know that tomorrow I will
be condemned, because She, being innocent, was also condemned. But I won't go to jail. "

I was fully convinced that this would happen.

And so it happened.

On Monday, July 9, in the afternoon, the last session of the trial took place. As in the
previous sessions, the room was completely packed. Many people were left out, unable to
enter.

At 3 in the afternoon Maria Concepción entered accompanied by her husband

Huberto. Soon after, the judge did it. She read the accusations to her, exposed before and
imposed a sentence of 30 days in prison, commutable by 30 escudos each day, plus
justice taxes, more expenses ...

Maria Concepción listened standing up, with her hands behind her back. When the judge
finished her sentence, Maria Concepción was struck down on the ground. The platform
rumbled and more when she gave 3 strong blows on the ground screaming: Ay, ay, ay ...!

We were all dumbfounded. The noise had been enormous. Maria Concepción remained on

the ground, as if nailed to the cross. The crowd in the room shouted, Long live Jesus, long
live Jesus!

The priests present calmed the spirits, calmed the people and asked for silence.
 
The judge, from his table, looked contemptuously at Maria Concepción and smugly said to
two of the officials present: "Get that woman up!"
 
Obediently, they went to Maria Concepción and before our attentive looks, tried to lift
her. They couldn't move it! They tried it between 4 people with the same result.

The judge, bewildered, ordered the courtroom vacated. We obeyed and went out
orderly ...

Minutes later, we saw Maria Concepción leave accompanied by Humberto and his
lawyer. She returned to her prison in Ladeira, where the members of the Community
awaited her expectantly.
 
 
 

 
If the judge needed any proof of the authenticity of the ecstasy, he had it there before his
eyes: Mª Concepción nailed to the ground on a cross and among several men, it is not
that they could not lift it, it was that they could not even move it (the photo is from
another ecstasy
 YEAR 1974 

The trial against María Concepción helped us to verify what we already knew:
THERE IS NO LITTLE FOUNDATION OF FRAUD OR DECEIT IN LADEIRA'S FACTS!

At the same time, he revealed what we also knew: The Lisbon Patriarchate was not
interested in the truth, he was only interested in ending Ladeira, in whatever way:
hospitalizing María Concepción in a psychiatric hospital, requesting that the Guard be
there Republican National to prevent pilgrims from coming to pray (and if necessary they
should be violently repelled), or pressuring a witness, to whom they had given money, to
say something, that even that witness did not dare to declare BECAUSE IT WAS A LIE.
Of course, Fernando Ribeiro declared the truth, because the lawyer Vasco da Gama
Fernandes "reminded" him that he was under oath and that "perjury" was a crime. And, of
course, because the lawyer was aware of Fernando Ribeiro's contacts with the Patriarchate
...

The situation did not change after the trial. Ladeira was still closed, although we pilgrims
continued to come on certain dates, reaching the Camino del Calvario to pray.

Likewise, some of us continued to see María Concepción outside Ladeira.

And so, at the end of 1973 they told us a rather strange fact, humanly speaking. On
November 15, María Concepción had an ecstatic walk on her knees, accompanied by a
person from the community: María José.
 
In that ecstatic march, María Concepción found some dry branches of a rose bush. He
gave them to María José and ordered her to put those dry branches in a vase with dry
sand. And the Lord said:  "These dry thorns you must give a rose and when this
happens, Ladeira will open . "

María José fulfilled the mandate and put the dry branches in a vase with dry sand.

They told us this in December 1973.

Could it be that a rose sprouted from some dry branches?

It was hard to believe, both because of the fact itself and because of the prophecy that on
that day Ladeira "would open up." And more in the situation in which Ladeira was: closed,
guarded by the GNR and with no human hope that it would “open” again.

February 2, 1974

On February 2, 1974, the Feast of the Purification of Mary and the anniversary of the 2nd
Alliance, we decided to enter Ladeira through the main entrance, as we had done once
before at Easter in 1971.

The truth is that they  told us  that we had to enter Ladeira on this very Marian date,
" because if we entered, it would be the foretaste that Ladeira would open very soon."

We were several hundred pilgrims, but less than on other occasions.

 
We meet in the pine forest that is in front of the path that goes up to the Cross. At the
entrance of Ladeira were the guards, forming a barrier.

Several times we had gathered in this pine forest, praying and singing, but without trying
to enter.

I must confess, with sincerity, that I saw this as an "impossible mission". When on Easter
Sunday of 1971 I put myself in front of the pilgrims carrying the banner of Spain, I felt a
"special force". This I have already related previously.

But not this day. Nothing made me think that we were going to get to the Cross, not even
that we were going to try.

But suddenly, unexpectedly, Margarita, a delicate woman from Burgos, began to run alone
towards the Cross. She crashed into the guards, fell to the ground, and rose like a spring.

Three other women, on their knees, also advanced towards the Cross. They were Lourdes,
Adriana and Cecilia. The guards used the butts of their carabiners, to reject them. But
many other people had already set in motion.
The guards beat the pilgrims, who continued to advance until they reached the Cross.
 
I was still standing, as if paralyzed, when Odete took my hand and dragged me towards
the Cross.

We arrived together at the Cross, which was beginning to cover itself with bouquets of
flowers.

I saw Soledad, a distinguished assiduous lady from Ladeira, on her knees, with open
arms, while a guard pointed the carabiner at him. Soledad shouted: "I am not afraid, I am
not afraid. I die for Jesus!"

The guard was very nervous and another guard made him lower the carabiner, because he
could have fired. This was not a game!

We pilgrims gather around the Cross. Not all arrived. Some stayed at the beginning of the
path that led up to the Cross. Others did not even move.

After a few minutes and before the imminent arrival of reinforcements, we left.

We had opened Ladeira, reaching the Cross, filling it with flowers, praying and singing
around it! There were quite a few injured and people beaten. But we were happy and
proud of what we had done.

Would this be the foretaste that Ladeira would soon be opened, as we had been
told? Humanly nothing invited to believe it.
 

On February 2 several hundred

people managed to enter Ladeira again (the photo is not from that day)
At the end of March, on the 25th, the feast of the Annunciation, I was with María
Concepción at the home of Humberto's family, her husband. We were a small group. We
were talking and praying together.

María Concepción went into ecstasy and the Blessed Virgin spoke to us. That ecstasy was
mainly for me. She said something that no one knew and that she could not know
either ... Her words surprised and moved me. It was a very clear test for me. She had
never spoken to me so clearly. It was very personal.
 
  
April 25: Revolution of "The Carnations"

On April 25, the so-called “carnation revolution” broke out, which changed the Portuguese
regime. Not a single one of blood was spilled. It was a revolution led by the military, led
by General Espinola, among others. They wanted to bring freedom and democracy to
Portugal.

I do not want to enter political comments, which I do not like. But the truth is that God
used that fact to liberate Ladeira.

An order was given to withdraw the members of the Republican National Guard, who had
spent 17 months turning Ladeira into a prison for that small community and a prohibited
place for pilgrims.

We were told that Ladeira would “open” on May 5, three months after we had a preview of
what it was like to re-enter Ladeira.

Hundreds of people went to Ladeira on May 5. The famous and arrogant Captain Silva,
who had said that he would "tear his pack" if Ladeira reopened, was in charge of
withdrawing the guards and releasing Ladeira.

Upon reaching the houses where the small community of Ladeira lived, Maria Concepción
showed us the vase with the dry branches. Indeed, from some dry branches, planted in
dry soil, green leaves had been born and in one of them a rose was emerging.
 
We saw it perfectly. I don't know if the photo we took that day shows so clearly. It was a
fulfilled prophecy and a unique wonder. 
They had not managed to finish off Ladeira. It would return to being a “Local de oraçao”,
as El Señor had requested.

By the way, Vasco da Gama Fernandes, the lawyer who defended María Concepción in the
trial, was named president of the Assembly of the Republic (equivalent to our Congress of
deputies).
 

Green leaves and a rose sprouted

from dry branches planted in dry soil ...
 
On May 13, a week after the opening of Ladeira, in the afternoon prayer, María
Concepción received the Holy Communion given by San Miguel again.

The prayer was made on the small esplanade at the entrance to Ladeira, to the left of the
Marble Cross. There they would go to carry out the prayers in successive years.

There was a large group of pilgrims, several priests, including a Spanish Dominican who
was coming for the first time.
 
After more than an hour leading songs and prayers, María Concepción entered a small
garden in whose center, on a column, was a statue of the Blessed Virgin. She knelt down,
placed her hands behind her back, and with an ecstatic gaze, stuck out her
tongue. Moments later, a Sacred Form was seen on her tongue. As usual, María
Concepción made a deep adoration and then showed the Sacred Form again on her
tongue.

Shortly after, he plucked a precious rose from the garden and presented it to the Spanish
priest, who accepted it with great joy.
This "visible Communion" was not only photographed, but also filmed with a super-8
camera, which is what existed at that time. There are several "visible Communions" filmed
with a super-8 camera. The clearest corresponds to the trip that D. Francisco Sánchez-
Ventura made in early 1971, when he witnessed a visible Communion in which María
Concepción kept the Sacred Form on the tongue for about two hours, without undone it.
 

 
MONTH OF AUGUST

In this new stage of "open Ladeira" the situation improved a lot. The guards no longer
came to prevent prayer, nor did the savages (charitably, we called them "thugs"), who
were dedicated to provoke, insult and even attack pilgrims.

The prayer of the first Saturdays of the month returned at night and the presence of
priests and Masses in Ladeira increased considerably. Ladeira was once again a "Local de
oraçao".
In order not to make this story endless and repetitive, I will focus mainly on two days in
August.

August 18th.

A caravan of cars we headed in the morning to a small bay near the town of de Foz de
Arelho. In that caravan there were several priests.

Officially we were going to get clams and cockles for lunch on the 20th, Maria
Concepción's birthday.
Indeed, in the morning, we were gathering clams and cockles. We fill several buckets. We
went into the water dressed, since most of us had not brought swimsuits. We were singing
and praying in the water, with great joy.

In the afternoon there was a prayer led by Maria Concepción. We prayed on our knees on
the beach. 

At the end of the Rosario, Maria Concepción began to walk towards some small rocks,
which were next to the beach. Several people followed her a few meters away. I saw her
perfectly. When she reached the rocks, on the shore of the beach, she knelt down. She
spread her arms. This time her hands were not behind her back, but her arms were open,
her head slightly raised, looking up. As in the previous cases, the Sacred Host became
visible in its language. It was a normal Sacred Host, in size, color and shape.

We approached her, who began to march on her knees into the water, on the edge of the
beach. Two people, one on each side, were helping him to move forward in the water.

I was walking in front of her a meter away. I realized that the Sacred Form was not
dissolving, but was increasing in thickness. Some claimed that it was in the form of a
small book. I cannot testify, but I did clearly see that the Host, completely normal at first,
was increased in thickness on her tongue.

I witnessed several visible communions in Ladeira, but I had never seen the Host increase
in size, as it did this time before us.

He held it on his tongue for about twenty minutes. Then he swallowed it and the Lord
manifested himself through Maria Concepción. He told us to read chapter 10 of the
Apocalypse.
 
This chapter relates how an Angel, with one foot in the sea and the other on the land,
gives the prophet a roll (book) to eat, soft on the palate and bitter in the bowels, telling
him to continue prophesying. The parallelism was great ...
 
 Maria Concepción
received the Communion given by San Miguel. The Host, completely normal at first, was
increasing in thickness before our eyes ...
August 20 .

Maria Concepción's birthday and anniversary of the “great battle”, in which members of
the Republican National Guard brutally charged pilgrims two years earlier.

It was a tremendous day, triumphant, with thousands of pilgrims from Portugal, Spain,
France, Italy, England, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Jamaica,
Vietnam ...
 
Coaches from Valladolid, Asturias, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada and dozens and dozens of
private cars arrived from Spain. There were about twenty priests.

2 "curious" events occurred, such as the oil and hair, but in a minor tone.

They announced that a fish and some loaves would appear. So, between several people
we made a small well on the Camino del Calvario. This well was about 70 centimeters
deep and about 50 in diameter. We put plastic so that the water does not filter and we fill
it with water.

A Jesuit brother from Valladolid wanted to stay at night by the well, “on duty”, to ensure
that no one put a fish there.

At daylight, Angel, the Jesuit brother, reached into the well and saw that there was
something alive that was moving: it was a fish.
 
He ran to warn Maria Concepción and several people got out, we saw the fish (a carp
about 18 centimeters). We put it, alive, in a basin with clean and clear water for all to see.

Another person, Jose Augusto, found some bagels and 3 carnations in the early hours of
the morning, next to the Cross of the eighth station of the Via Crucis. Many times Maria
Concepción had passed in ecstatic march living the Passion.

He found 12 muffins, tender, recent. They were placed on a tray and went from 12 to 33.
Soon after there were more than a hundred. They were at a table, in full view of
everyone. They were not hidden. No baker came, nor did anyone place bread rolls there.

A large table had been prepared, the Alliance table, where he was going to place the
food. Everyone who came up with a plate would receive their food. The food was: Soup,
clams, cockles, rice, lamb and bread. And as a drink it came.

Quite a few women with the blue habits of the White Army were in charge of serving the
food. They first served the priests. Then to the other people.

It was impressive to see very long lines of people with a plate and a glass passing by to
have their portion of rice, lamb, cockles, bread and wine. Where did so much food come
from? Apparently it was multiplying. They told me that only 3 lambs had been killed. It is
true that the portions were not very large, but everyone received their share of soup, first
and clams, rice, lamb, bread and wine, then ... Many, even, repeated.

In the afternoon, we go down to the "Local de oraçao" for prayer. Maria Concepción had
on her head a white, very white, multi-story cake. She placed the cake on a table and
began the prayer. Saint Joan of Arc manifested itself. Maria Concepción brandished a
candle in her right hand and sang in ecstasy. There were thousands of people. Portuguese
priests "in civilian clothes" also came, some of whom spoke with Spanish priests and
confessed that they could not go freely to Ladeira for fear of the Patriarchate.

After the prayer, Maria Concepción was distributing pieces of cake to all the people
present, to all!

Here I can affirm that there was multiplication, very clearly. Each and every one received
their piece of cake. I saw it and did not believe it. I saw Maria concepción cutting pieces of
cake and thought: “They are very big. They will not come for everyone, not even for a
quarter.  You have to make them smaller. "

But, I insist, it is not that it came for everyone, but that the first floor, the base, the
largest, was complete, untouched.

It was a tremendous journey, which compensated us for so much suffering and

persecution.

I stayed several more days and continued eating from the remains of the rice, the lamb
and the cake, which lasted several days!

There is a movie of that day, both of the meal and the afternoon prayer and the
multiplication of the cake. (The movie is much better than the photographs below. Maybe
someday we can post that and other movies)
 
 FINAL SUMMARY

As I said at the beginning of this page:

I do not intend to write Ladeira's story, not even a complete summary. Simply, I want to
highlight some significant events (in my opinion) and,  especially , tell my experiences
and give the testimony of the most important thing (I would not manage to
remember everything) that I witnessed, felt and lived in Ladeira. 
 
And those experiences, the best of my life, which I have always defended and will defend
as something heavenly supernatural, occurred between the years 1970 and 1974.
 
There were other important events in which I witnessed and participated.
 
For example, in the prayer room there was a small garden with some fruit trees. When
maneuvering with a truck they split a small pear tree. Time passed and the trunk, cut at
its base and splintered, dried up. 4 people were asked to water it with a pitcher of
water. Among those 4 people were my wife and me.
 
So we did it. We watered the dry and splintered trunk, as we were told it would grow
green. So it was. A few months later, a young green branch sprouted from the dry trunk,
which gradually became a new pear tree ...
 
The case of the rose that sprouted from dry sticks was repeated.

 
Very important to me was what happened in December 1977.
 
We had our first daughter on December 13 of that year. My wife received several points
when giving birth. She needed rest to recover.
 
On December 23 Christmas Eve, my wife and I were debating whether to go to Portugal or
not, to see his family. We were excited to be able to take the girl to meet her maternal
grandparents.
 
But the circumstances did not advise it. My father, who was a doctor, advised us not to
travel, stating that it was "crazy", especially due to my wife's condition.
But the word madness made me think of Ladeira: "Blessed are the madmen of My Love!"
 
Overall, we decided to set out on the road to Lisbon, without having warned anyone. We
wanted to get to my in-laws' house before midnight. We did not plan to enter Ladeira.
 
But when we were a few kilometers from Ladeira (our route to Lisbon passed through
there) we felt an irrepressible desire to get closer to Ladeira.
 
"Well, we entered Ladeira, kissed the Cross and continued on our way.  No one waits for
us there or knows anything about our trip ” , we said.
 
Overall, we entered Ladeira, kissed the Cross at the entrance and said: "Let's go to the
image of Our Lady of Graces and see the pear tree that we water and it blossomed ..."

But as we advanced to the image of Our Lady of Graces we met Antonio López, one of
Ladeira's apostles. He hugged us very effusively and told us that "they were waiting for us
upstairs, because Maria Concepción in the afternoon prayer had said: Jose Luis is on his
way ..."

We were very surprised because nobody, not even us, knew that we were going to make
this trip. We felt compelled to go up to Maria Concepción's house, since “they were waiting
for us”.
 
When we arrived at Maria Concepción's house we saw that there were many people. The
first one who approached us was a Peruvian priest, Father Jesus and a Canadian religious.
 
They told us that the Lord, through Maria Concepción, had asked them to prepare the
ground with straw, because that night a newborn was going to arrive to make a "living
Nativity Scene". Our surprise increased with the detail that a "newborn" would arrive.
 
We asked about Maria Concepción and they told us that she was at her house and had not
been out for a while. As we were in a hurry, we went to Maria Concepción's house and
knocked on the door. Nobody answered. So we, the 3 of us, my wife with the girl and I
entered.
 
Maria Concepción was lying on an old red sofa, which was in the living room of the
entrance to her house.
 
We realized that she was not asleep, but ecstatic, with her eyes closed and a serene
countenance. We knelt on the ground next to her. Maria Concepción, without opening her
eyes, smiled, caressed our daughter and told us: "It had to be a girl ..."
 
How did Maria Concepción know she was a girl?
 
Next, he took off a gold chain that he was wearing around his neck and put it on our
daughter (she is still wearing it today).
 
Then he got up, got down on his knees, took our daughter in his arms and went
outside. She asked for a little lamb to be brought to her. And she took the lamb in one
arm and our daughter in the other. Then he placed our daughter in the straws and sang a
Christmas carol.
 
I must record that our daughter was serene all the time, without shedding a single tear,
without making a single "pout".
 
The people present were passing to kiss our daughter, lying on the straws, playing "Baby
Jesus", while we sang: "Come in shepherds, come in, through this sacred portal ..."
 
Keep in mind that it was December 24, on a cold night. With so much kiss, our daughter
had lost the shawl and was a little uncovered. My wife was scared and thought: "With the
cold that the girl is going to get pneumonia ..."

Instantly, Maria Concepción, who was still in ecstasy, went to her and said: "Woman,
don't be afraid that nothing will happen to your daughter."

Indeed, our daughter did not have the slightest cold, nor a cough, nothing at all.
 
From Ladeira we went to my in-laws' house and we arrived before midnight to spend
Christmas with them.
 
There are many more things that I could tell about later trips, but I insist that the most
important thing I experienced in the 70s and that is what I defend, because I feel morally
obligated, as the Work of God.  
 
 …………………………………………… ..
 
And now, I am going to try to make a “final summary” to conclude this page, once my
objective has been accomplished.
 
I already spoke of the prophecy of the month of November 1973: "When a rose sprouts
from these dry sticks, Ladeira will open up."

Indeed, on May 5, 1974, a rose (pink) emerged from some dry sticks and that same day
Ladeira opened.
 
Later there was another prophetic announcement: "When a white rose sprouts, the
Authority will shake hands with Ladeira."

It was a long-awaited prophecy and one that created great expectation.

 
And so, one day a white rose sprouted, the expected white rose.
 
Precisely that day a tall gentleman appeared in Ladeira, with a good presence, aristocratic
bearing, not very long beard, dark suit. The prayer was performed in front of Maria
Concepción's house. During the prayer, Maria Concepción was ecstatic, plucked the white
rose and gave it to the man we mentioned earlier.
 
All present were surprised. Who was that man to whom Maria Concepción had just given
the white rose? Hadn't it been announced that when the white rose sprouted, the Religious
Authority would shake hands with Ladeira?
 
Well, this gentleman was D. Joao Gabriel, Archimandrite of the Greek Orthodox Synod
Vetero Calendarista, maximum Authority of this Church in Portugal.
 
Monsignor Joao Gabriel was very impressed on his visit to Ladeira. He was talking to Maria
Concepción and they told him the prophecy of the "white rose".
 
He became a regular of Ladeira, because on a subsequent visit he received an indisputable
"personal test". He told me himself.
 
I do not know what the test consisted of but he did tell me that among other extraordinary
events, he had seen Maria Concepción elevated, suspended in the air, in ecstasy, for
several minutes.
 
For a time, more than two years, Monsignor Joao Gabriel attended Ladeira's prayer,
remaining in the background. Masses were celebrated, concelebrated, by Catholic priests
and Monsignor Joao Gabriel preached more than once, who really preached very well. It
was nice to hear him and also, being Portuguese, they understood him perfectly.
 
And in 1977, Ladeira depending on the bishopric of Santarem, an official Note was issued
against Ladeira. IT WAS THE LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE OF THE PERSECUTION AND
INJUSTICE COMMITTED AGAINST LADEIRA FROM THE BEGINNING!
 
Then Monsignor Joao Gabriel said to Maria Concepción: "Your church rejects you, but mine
accepts you and welcomes you."

From then on a new phase began in Ladeira. Monsignor Joao Gabriel began to have an
important role in Ladeira. And his Church, which hardly had any faithful, began to grow
and grow with the support of Ladeira. Vocations of priests, monks and nuns
flourished. With the passage of time, several more parishes and a Seminary were created.
 
It was a time of Ladeira boom and splendor. At first the religious, orthodox ceremonies,
the Holy Masses, were celebrated in the barrack at the entrance, remodeled and converted
into a church.
 
Ladeira continued to grow. More buildings were made. There were many children collected
and a school was made for them. A home for the elderly was also built.
 
The Lord had originally asked for a children's house, an old people's house, and a house of
prayer.
 
Ladeira became a great Community with dozens of people living there.
 
And the construction of the cathedral began, which the Lord had announced in an ecstasy
on Good Friday in 1972. Then it seemed something unthinkable, totally utopian. Maria
Concepción, at the end of an ecstatic march along the Camino del Calvario, climbed an
embankment, passed between the barbed wire fences that surrounded that terrain and on
her knees delimited a large rectangle. And he said: "someday there will be a
cathedral."

The number of vocations and faithful that emerged in Ladeira grew so much that
Monsignor Joao Gabriel was consecrated Bishop on May 19, 1978. He was the first Latin
bishop.
 
On March 17, 1984, he was named Metropolitan Primate and founder of the metropolis of
Portugal, Spain and Western Europe.
 
Later, at the end of the eighties, he passed to the self-defeating Orthodox Church of
Poland with the same hierarchical rank: Metropolitan Primate of the ecclesiastical Province
of Portugal, Spain and Brazil, with the name of D. Gabriel I of Portugal. 
 
I had a good relationship with Monsignor Joao Gabriel (I always called him that). He even
proposed me to be an orthodox priest, since I had finished my philosophy studies at the
seminary of the Capuchin Fathers in Zaragoza.
 
He seemed to me a very spiritual person, really exceptional. The story of why he became
orthodox is very interesting, although I am not going to capture it here.
 
It had its headquarters in Lisbon, but who maintained the church: priests, seminary,
parishes, all in all, was Ladeira.
 
Maria Concepción continued to pray the traditional Rosary as always, although she also
prayed the Orthodox Rosary. He even had several ecstatic Communions, making the
Sacred Form visible, which was the usual Host, the one that Saint Michael took from some
tabernacle of the earth. by means of a teaspoon ...)
 
His Masses were precious with songs, incense and keeping the same liturgy that Saint
John Chrysostom wrote in the first centuries of Christianity, when there was only one
Church.
 
But after the death of D. Gabriel I of Portugal (February 18, 1997) there came a time that
I personally call “decomposition”.
 
His successor distanced himself from Maria Concepción, although Ladeira continued to
maintain the entire framework of this Orthodox Church ...
 
We had been told that Satan, the great divider (the one who divides), would try to destroy
Ladeira from within, since he had not succeeded from without.
 
Internal struggles arose and Maria Concepción was left with a very small group of priests.
 
All this caused him great suffering.
 
When I went to Ladeira I saw a great human work, but I no longer recognized the Ladeira
from before, my Ladeira.
 
The last time I was with Maria Concepción was in May 2003. I still remember her sitting
behind a table, outside the community dining room, surrounded by several people.
 
I was with a priest and several other people. Maria Concepción continued to have great
trust with us (the priest and me).
 
He told us about his sufferings, his tremendous sufferings, both physical and, above all,
spiritual.
 
He even proposed to the priest that he take over the entire Work of Ladeira.
 
When we left I felt great pain, because I had seen Maria Concepción very tired, very
sore….
 
On August 10, I was at the home of my wife's family in Portugal, watching television. The
telejornal of the night (let's say the news) started with this news: "The saint of Ladeira
has died."  Shouting, I called my wife, who saw the news in shock. We were shocked.
 
The next day we showed up at Ladeira. The cathedral was crowded. One by one we went
on to say goodbye to Maria Concepción. Most of the people cried. I was also excited.
 
He had announced his death saying that she would not go to sea (9 days later) nor would
she even be at Sunday Mass ...
 
No one sensed his death, which surprised us all.
 
I have returned to Ladeira quite a few times after the death of Maria Concepción and the
phrase from the poem by Mío Cid came to mind: "God, what a good vassal there is if there
were a good lord!"
 
So much war, so much persecution, so much lies, so much fury, so much injustice against
this peasant ...!
 
In the Patriarchate I was twice, accompanied by priests (although I have only narrated the
first time) and only heard lies and falsehoods. They never showed us a test, a study. They
condemned her without even hearing her, without a canonical process ...
 
If Monsignor Joao Gabriel, then Gabriel I of Portugal, achieved everything he achieved
thanks to Ladeira, what would have happened to Ladeira with the support of the Catholic
Hierarchy?
 
When Monsignor Joao Gabriel arrived in Ladeira, he was barely Archimandrite (archpriest)
and, thanks to the faithful of Ladeira, he arrived at the Metropolitan Primate of the
Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Poland, where he died, with thousands of faithful.
 
Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrin, leading him to death with false testimonies. At
least they tried him. The priests were so “pure” that when they went to ask for the death
of Jesus on the Cross, they did not want to enter the Palace of Pilate in order not to
become contaminated. They were the "pure" and Jesus was a blasphemer, a sinner, an
evildoer ...
 
So far my testimony and my contribution.
 
As I said in my lectures on Ladeira: "My intention is not to demonstrate or convince, but
simply to be faithful to the truth and bear witness to what I witnessed, lived and felt in
Ladeira." 
Ladeira's history had different phases, different stages.
 
Really prodigious events happened there, which are barely known, but I will try to recover,
at least some, since it would be impossible to redo the full story of the most important
events that occurred in Ladeira.
 
I do not intend to write Ladeira's story, not even a complete summary. Simply, I want to
highlight some significant events (in my opinion) and,  especially , tell my experiences
and give the testimony of the most important thing (I would not manage to
remember everything) that I witnessed, felt and lived in Ladeira.
 
The person who starred in these events was called Maria Conceiçao.
 
It all started in October 1959, when Maria Conceiçao, an uneducated and poor peasant,
was admitted, seriously ill, in the Mercy hospital in Golega.
 
She went into the hospital chapel and asked the image of "Nosso Señor dos Passos" (Jesus
with the Cross on her shoulders) to give her proof that He existed and that he was going
to heal her.
 
And so, on the first Sunday in April 1960, he saw the image of Jesus shake his head, and
open and close his eyes. At first she thought it was the nuns who moved the image so that
she would believe. But the fact was repeated on different occasions and even his own
mother, on one of her visits, also saw the image nod its head, open and close its eyes
 
A short time later, he was healed and discharged.
 
From then on and residing in Ladeira he began to have "visions" in Heaven.
 
From June 17, he began to see Jesus carrying the Cross and with a star in front of
him. This "vision" was kept before the eyes of Maria Concepción and the people who
accompanied her until 1962.
On February 18, 1962, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him for the first time. Maria
Concepción was praying with some people at the door of her house.
 
The Blessed Virgin came in a very white cloud, with a rosy glow, with rays of light that
looked like gold threads. The cloud settled on the roof, resembling a sphere of fire, which
everyone present saw, being alarmed to think that the house was burning. The cloud
opened and from it came the Blessed Virgin, dressed in white, with a blue cloak and a
crown of stars.
 
From that date, the Blessed Virgin continued to appear to him, with some frequency,
several times a month.
 
On May 7, the Archangel Saint Michael appeared to him. From then on his presence was
lavished more and more, to the point of seeing him every day.
 
When Maria Concepción tells all these facts to the pastor of Torres Novas, he rejects her
harshly, without studying the case or showing the slightest interest, clearly neglecting her
pastoral duty. Even, in a clear abuse of authority, she denies the sacraments ...
 
However, the Archangel Saint Michael continues to order him to go to Torres Novas to
confess and receive Holy Communion, which were systematically denied.
 
On February 15, 1963, Friday, after being denied Communion in the Misericordia church in
Torres Novas, Maria Concepción returned home crying and drenched in the rain. Then the
Archangel Saint Michael appeared to him and gave him Holy Communion for the first time.
 
From that day until December 8, 1965, Saint Michael gave him Communion every day,
with hundreds of cases in which the Holy Form became visible when Saint Michael
deposited it in his language.
 
I WAS WITNESS TO THIS FACT SEVERAL TIMES.
 
There are many testimonies and graphic documents.
 
This fact was studied by different doctors and by the Judicial Police, who contemplated the
"phenomenon", without finding an explanation.
 
Between 1963 and 1964, Maria Concepción was subjected to 3 brutal attacks. The most
violent of the three took place on April 3, 1964, the date when 5 women and a man (?)
Entered her home, who beat her ( They ground her to sticks), threw her on the ground,
broke her teeth, cut her hair in a bad way and left her lying on the ground, senseless and
with a bruised body.
 
Apparently, from what was learned later, they were people who frequented the church,
the church of Padre Vitorino (proper name of miura), who is the one who denied her the
sacraments and who slapped her publicly in the church when approaching
communion. They only followed his example.
 
They also tried to burn her alive, setting fire to the dress she was wearing, which started
to burn, while she led the prayer. Fortunately, other people helped her and put out the
fire.
 
Talking about the persecution against Ladeira would be endless and really, "incredible",
inconceivable, therefore, the little book that I wrote was titled: "Ladeira of persecution,
thorns and suffering".
 
Precisely, in the trial against Maria Concepción, carried out in 1973 and in which it was
demonstrated that the Patriarchate of Portugal "bribed" a person, to testify falsely against
Maria Concepción, his lawyer Vasco da Gama Fernandes, stated that There has never
been, throughout history, any religious persecution as excessive and brutal, after that of
the Salem witches, as that carried out against Maria concepción.
 
This man, Vasco da Gama Fernandes, was the first President of the Congress of Deputies
in Portugal a few months later.
 
 
Miracle of "The 40 days".

On December 8, 1965, Maria Concepción received the Communion given by Saint Michael,
but unlike other times, she kept the Holy Form in her language for 40 days, always
surrounded by people who accompanied her.
 
In these 40 days, Maria concepción fed only on the Holy Eucharist. Every morning Saint
Michael brought him Holy Communion. At that moment, the Sacred Form, which was on
her tongue, disappeared and passed to a tabernacle in the room. Everyone could
contemplate, with absolute normality, this fact, which was repeated every day.
 
During this time Maria Concepción had numerous ecstasy and even began to live "the
Passion of the Lord".
 
He had many sufferings and many trials, especially hunger and thirst. "I am so hungry,
dear Jesus, and there are still so many days left!"  they heard him exclaim in the early
days.
 
I spoke with several of the witnesses to this extraordinary event and they all confirmed to
me that Maria Concepción was never alone, that those who accompanied and watched her
were continually in prayer, that Maria Concepción prayed with them and that in all this
time she did not prove Not a drop of water, nor any kind of food, other than the Holy
Eucharist.
 
On January 17, this important miraculous event, unique in history, ended: keeping the
Sacred Form for 40 days in the mouth without suffering any alteration. Something unusual
and absolutely extraordinary.
 
This period of the "40 Days Miracle" resembled the fast of Jesus in the desert and was the
preparation for the "Public Mission" of Maria Concepción.
 
 
 Maria Concepción at the Lisbon
Psychiatric Hospital, where she spent two and a half months under observation
 
At the Lisbon Psychiatric Hospital
 
This fact had its repercussion and the reaction of the Portuguese Authorities, at the
initiative of the Religious Authorities, was to admit her to the Julio Matos Psychiatric
Hospital in Lisbon, to have her under observation.
 
There he arrived on March 12.
 
The first thing they did was remove all her clothes, purse, and belongings. When someone
came to visit her, they would also check her, not to bring razors (to make stigmas) or
"shapes" (wafers) to pretend visible ecstatic communions or any other "suspicious" object.
 
But also there the same extraordinary events were repeated: visible communions,
stigmatizations, ecstasy living the Passion. The stigmas on his hands, feet and side first
appeared to him. They left him a bandaged hand and foot and the other normal foot and
hand. Stigmas appeared on both hands and on both feet, both those who had bandaged
and those who had not. A cross was also formed on his chest ...
 
I have a detailed and detailed account of everything that happened between March 25 and
May 16 in the hospital. This I am writing is obviously just a brief reference.
 
Doctors and nurses, including the hospital chaplain, were able to contemplate these
phenomena, without any medical or scientific explanation. I have the names of the doctors
and the chaplain in the account I referred to earlier.
 
After two and a half months of observation, they found nothing pathological or fraudulent
and had to be discharged. 
 
But none of this convinced the Lisbon Patriarchate, which always rejected everything that
was positive and resorted to lies, slander and persecution. So, just as it sounds.
 
Upon her return to Ladeira, Maria Concepción began to have ecstasy through which the
Lord and the Blessed Virgin manifested themselves speaking through her mouth. Some
priests called it a gift of prophecy or "prophetic ecstasy."
 
More and more people came and Ladeira became a "Local de Oraçao", a place of prayer.
 
Stigma of the Cross on the forehead.
 
On June 9, the Feast of Corpus Christi, the stigma of the Cross appeared on his forehead
for the first time. This stigma was not permanent. It appeared like a wound, like a cross-
shaped sore. Then, little by little, it disappeared until the forehead was "almost" normal.
 
This fact was repeated quite frequently for several years. I have personally witnessed this
fact on several occasions, from start to finish. I will tell about it later.
 
As of August 15, of the same year 1966, guards from the GNR (Republican National
Guard) began to go to Ladeira, also at the request of the Lisbon Patriarchate, to prevent
the prayer from being made there . They mainly came on Saturdays and Sundays,
dates of greatest influx of pilgrims.
 
This presence and persecution of the GNR continued until May 1974, reaching extreme
limits in August 1972, as I will tell you later. But none of this managed to end prayer or
the Ladeira Mission, despite the strenuous efforts of the Lisbon Patriarchate.
 
 
V Aryans amazing facts
 
Trip to Heaven?

On June 12, 1966, an event took place that I no longer know how to qualify and that
Maria Concepción had previously announced: She was taken to Heaven by the Angels. A
similar event has recently occurred with 2 of the Medjugorje seers whom Our Lady took to
heaven and physically disappeared from the earth for several hours.
 
Although, that day, Maria Concepción put some pants under her skirt, as she explained to
me, because she was going to be elevated to Heaven and  wanted to be well
"covered".   She took a large quantity of Rosaries and before the expectant gaze of many
people, she said that she was going to collect grass. She moved a few meters away, but
several people followed her and saw how she was rising until she disappeared. It was half
past twelve.
 
Maria Concepción had disappeared.
 
Two and a half hours later, at around three in the afternoon, several people saw her
descend. She went down to the shack where she lived, the bolt on the door opened "by
itself" instantly and her body was deposited on the bed, with her feet on the edge of the
window. 
 
Those who came to her side saw her in ecstasy and with an intense perfume that filled the
entire room.
 
Upon leaving the ecstasy, she said that she had been carried by many angels, including
Saint Michael. She saw 3 lakes: one of water, one of fire and one of blood, through which
souls must pass, after dying to purify themselves.
 
There are detailed descriptions of how he saw Heaven, filled with Light, arranged
hierarchically, with Heavenly Father on a Throne, Jesus on his right and The Stma. Virgin
on your left. The Holy Spirit, also in the Center, but elevated in the air, radiated Light to
all Heaven.
 
It was not the only time. I know testimonies from other occasions. One of them soon
after, on August 25 of the same year. But this time he descended in the cemetery of
Riachos, his native town, where he saw what the Resurrection of the dead will be like in
his day.
 
I heard this testimony from my good friend Manuel Barata Vicente, who for years sent me
"Ocorrencia da Ladeira do Pinheiro". This man, sergeant of the Republica National Guard,
was one of the most important witnesses to the events of Ladeira.
 

Maria concepción showing the hair that is still

kept in a glass urn
 
 
 
The Mystery of "hair".
 
At the beginning of November 1968, a singular event occurred.
 
Maria Concepción had very short hair then. A priest had come to Ladeira, who, given the
persecution against Ladeira, was obviously slandered and discredited. In ecstasy, Maria
Concepción plucked a lock of her hair and the Lord said that she would give a sign with
that hair, to prove the authenticity and sanctity of this priest.
 
Maria Concepción kept this little lock of hair in a locket that she wore around her
neck. Within a few days, the hair had multiplied and the locket opened with increasing hair
volume. She put it, then, in a shoe box. There it continued to grow and multiply until it
also came out of the box.
 
Queluz pilgrims brought to Ladeira a large glass urn. There the hair continued to grow and
multiply until it reached the length of the urn.
 
It is still preserved there, after more than forty years. How many times I saw it on my first
trips, it always emanated a pleasant perfume. And I could see that he was the same
height as Maria Concepción.
 
 

Pot containing the "miraculous" oil, which was

multiplied many times (I was a witness) and with which various cures occurred ...
 

The Miracle of Oil.

 
On September 25, 1969, Jesus said in an ecstasy: "Soon I am going to perform a miracle
similar to that of the Wedding at Cana."

Two days later, following the directions given by Our Lord in an ecstasy of María
Concepción, they put ten liters of water in a container with a capacity of 25 liters. And,
before eight witnesses, they closed and sealed it, after verifying that there was only
water.

On October 1 said container was opened, before the same witnesses, verifying that there
was no longer water, but 15 liters of oil. This oil was taken for analysis and it turned out to
be a new oil, of the best quality, despite it not being a working time in the wineries.

This oil also increased in volume until it reached the full capacity of the container: 25
liters.
 
This fact has been repeated countless times. We all wanted to have some of this oil. And
so, we carried jars, small bottles and even large bottles so that María Concepción would
give us a little of this oil.

One of the most striking events occurred on December 30, 1971. There were plenty of jars
and bottles for María Concepción to give us oil. With a jug, María Concepción, took out
liters of oil to fill, generously, our containers. When finished, after having taken about
eight or ten liters, the container was still full of oil, as if not a drop had been taken out. All
those present, Portuguese, Spanish and French, we could see it with amazement.
 
Normally, he would lower his level and then recover on his own. I slept one night next to
the oil container. I checked that it was halfway, more or less, but within a few hours,
without anyone having entered the room, the container was completely full, overflowing,
with a very beautiful golden color and a fresh smell of oil.

Something similar happened to many people with their Ladeira oil: they distributed it to
other people and then they had the same amount again as before.
 
With this oil there were many extraordinary events, especially cures.
 
I will only tell what happened to a priest, who then resided in San Sebastián.
This priest had the vice of tobacco, he could not go an hour without smoking. One day he
was in the confessional and was approached by a French lady who was returning from
Ladeira. This person was called Armande and he was a great apostle of Ladeira.

Armande spoke to Father J. de Ladeira about the wonders that took place there. He told
her about the oil and said he had a full bottle with him. The priest, with skepticism, said to
him: "If it is miraculous that I take away the vice of smoking ". He dipped his fingers in oil
and made a cross on his tongue.

After a while, he lit a cigarette and had to throw it away because  "it tasted bad . " "Well,
I still have the taste of the oil on my tongue. It will pass . " Well no, it didn't happen. He
tried several times and always tasted bad. Thereafter he quit smoking.
 
Later he visited Ladeira and became one of Ladeira's great defenders.

 
Destruction of Ladeira's houses.
 
On January 15, 1969, in the dead of winter, a picket of people sent by the Torres Novas
municipal chamber, supported by a Bull-Doozer, destroyed the humble homes where
María Concepción and her companions resided. They destroyed the little houses and the
little Chapel.
 
They were not even warned. The bull-doozer began to tear down the houses with the
people inside. 
 
While they were being knocked down, Maria Concepción, with her eyes full of tears, sang
and prayed. The Lord had announced this to him several months before: "The day will
come when you will have to live under an olive tree."
And it was fulfilled to the letter: They lived in the open air, "al pairo", under an olive tree,
in the middle of winter, in inclement weather, for 6 months.
 
Later, a person from Lisbon joined the small Community and they bought some houses,
several meters higher, which is where they lived when I arrived in Ladeira in July 1970.
 

What I saw and felt in Ladeira

 
 
So far I have simply tried to summarize some of the most outstanding or significant
events in Ladeira's "history"; not a complete or exhaustive account at all. 
 
From now on, I will give my personal testimony: what I saw, what I lived, in Ladeira. This
is the main reason that has led me to create this humble page: 
give testimony of my own experiences, not what others told me or what I read, but what I
could see, contemplate, feel; in short: what I experienced in Ladeira.
 
First of all, I want to state that I had studied Philosophy at the Capuchin Seminary in
Zaragoza. In those years I read everything I found on "Ascetic and Mystical", to better
understand everything related to Apparitions and private revelations.
 
It was clear to him that in every private appearance or revelation, 3 factors intervene (or
may intervene) (to call it somehow):
 
- The Celestial Presence: of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin or the Angels and Saints who
manifest themselves. - The demonic presence. The devil disguises himself, or can disguise
himself, as "Angel of Light" (Cor. 11, 14). And, in any case, it is always present to dirty,
poison, confuse, divide, destroy ... - The instrument. The person who receives the
appearance or revelation has her own personality, her mentality, her training, her
subconscious. He can interpret or add from "his own harvest" words or phrases ...
 

 
       
 
For all this, I was always (and I am) clear that in all the appearances and revelations there
are Light and shadows. The normal thing is that the Light predominates and that it
prevails over the shadows. But it is not necessary to reject as authentic apparitions and
revelations in which we also find some negative elements.
For this reason, it is very important to know how to discern, with intelligence and humility.
 
With this clarification, I will begin with my personal testimony about Ladeira.
 
 
I met Ladeira through two priests, one Spanish, who had an important Mariana Diffuser
and author of several books, and another Portuguese, Jesuit resident in Evora.
 
They sent me information periodically about what was happening in Ladeira. I read it with
interest, but with a certain skepticism. It seemed to me somewhat strange, "rare", difficult
to believe.
 
I already knew the Apparitions of Garabandal then, I knew them deeply and was in
contact with the most prominent people related to Garabandal. She had all the books and
publications.
 
 
My first trip to Ladeira (July 17, 1970)

 
I have on the table the testimony that I wrote a few days after returning from my first trip
to Ladeira. They are 6 typewritten pages, but as it seems too long I will make a summary.
 
On July 17, 1970, Friday, taking advantage of a trip to Fatima, a small group of 23 people,
including a priest and 2 nuns, approached Ladeira.
 
I copy directly from what I wrote in my first testimony: “I had been dragging a long and
painful dryness, spiritual aridity, for several months… It was hard for me to pray, I felt
nothing inside me, but on the contrary, I felt the attraction of the world, of the meat…"
 
We arrived in Ladeira around 7 in the afternoon. My first impression of Maria Concepción
was quite negative: I found myself in front of a small, sun-browned peasant with wrinkled
faces. The truth is that I tried to escape, to be alone, to walk.
 
After about an hour, they came looking for me: "Jose Luis, the prayer is going to
start." They had a small chapel, with an altar, tabernacle, a Custody with a large Sacred
Form brought by Saint Michael, a Crucifix hanging on the one and a half meter wall and
the bed of the "miracle of the Forty days".
 

This was the first ecstasy that I saw in Ladeira

on July 17, 1970
 
Maria concepción and the women of the small Community had put on a blue habit, with
white cuffs, a white collar and a belt of the same color.
 
Maria concepción, standing up, began the prayer and a few minutes later "she entered
into ecstasy". The first thing that struck me was that Maria Concepción's face was no
longer the same: I saw her transfigured, without a single wrinkle, with a special glow and
light.
 
"My Peace be with you", thus began the ecstasy in which the Lord manifested himself
through Maria Concepción.
 
In this first ecstasy he addressed me and I still remember what he said to me (we
recorded the ecstasy and I heard it many times).
 
Honestly, I liked ecstasy. "There was something there."
 
Shortly after, we dined the whole group with the Ladeira Community. They improvised
some tables outside, in front of the house (it was an elongated house, with white walls,
with several doors and quite a few rooms). There was no electricity or running water, so
they put several gas lamps on.
 
Father Martins (name of the Portuguese priest who informed me) had announced our visit
to them. And they welcomed us as brothers.
 
It was an unforgettable dinner, of authentic brotherhood. I spoke a lot with Anastasio, a
sergeant of the GNR, who started out as a “persecutor” of Maria Concepción, but in the
face of the avalanche of evidence he received, he became the greatest propagator of the
Ladeira Manifestations. He witnessed countless prodigious deeds, such as levitations. He
saw her rise on her "journey to Heaven" and saw her descend ...
 
I saw him very firm, very convinced, very confident. He didn't seem like a credulous or
easy-to-fool person.
 
After dinner the prayer began. Prayer at night was very frequent. In fact, later, I found
that in Ladeira they spent whole nights in prayer, especially the night of the first Saturday
to the First Sunday of each month.
 
Maria concepción directed the Rosary. At the end of each Mystery, she said some
spontaneous prayers and some chant: "Come, go, to Ladeira do Pinheiro, pray for peace in
the entire world ...".
 
After midnight, Maria Concepción returned to "enter ecstasy." She was on her knees on
the floor. She arched back, arms raised. Her eyes were closed. One by one, she hugged
the two nuns and gave her details of her superior, which were totally accurate.
 
He took my hand, opened his eyes, and looked at me. It didn't seem like a human gaze to
me, it didn't seem like her. It is as if with her gaze she told me that she knew my inner
state, my aridity, my temptations ...
 
We had filled her arms with Rosaries, which she kept for some time. Then she returned
them all together. I stayed again, a little disappointed. "In Garabandal they gave each one
his Rosary," I thought.
 
But he returned the scented Rosaries, fully scented and with 3 different perfumes. What's
more, some kept the perfume for a few hours, other days and other weeks. Mine had the
perfume of incense (penance) and lasted about 24 hours. Others had the indescribable (at
least for me) "Ladeira perfume", others with roses ...
 
After giving us the Rosaries, Maria Concepción began to live the Passion. Always in
ecstasy, in a very plastic way, she was reliving different moments (pictures) of The
Passion. Those of us in our group followed him with respect and surprise. Those from the
Ladeira community were fully integrated. They saw Jesus suffering his Passion. They sang,
prayed, cried.
 
The ecstasy went on for a long time. There was a moment when he fell on the ground,
with his arms crossed, he began to live the agony. I was terrified: I saw a woman on the
ground living a real agony. And I was scared. "This woman has so assumed that she is
now Jesus and that she is living his Passion, that we are going to really die."
 
I wanted to step in and lift her, but really she was pinned to the ground. Impossible to
move it.
 
I thought we could have problems if something happened to "that woman." For several
minutes I had a really bad time. I even walked away a little, because I felt
overwhelmed. And suddenly, as if powered by a spring, she jumped to her feet. "It is the
Resurrection!" Exclaimed some people.
 
 
He continued in ecstasy, giving a chanted Message. His voice vibrated in the night and he
did not accuse the tiredness, nor the painful scenes of the Passion, that we had
contemplated. We were able to record it on a tape recorder.
 
He said verbatim: "You are the first priest to celebrate Holy Mass with the
ornaments of this Holy Place and the seventh will be Portuguese.
 
"He also said something very important, which went unnoticed, but which I later
understood: " Shapes will appear without consecrating. "
 
I felt tired and also had a bad time. One of Ladeira's "apostles" allowed me to doze for an
hour in his car, while Maria Concepción was lying down, not sleeping, accompanied by the
nuns.

A few hours later we had Holy Mass. In Ladeira they had no Forms without
consecration. They only had the large Sacred Form, brought by Saint Michael from a
tabernacle on earth and placed in the Custody. But, shortly before Mass began, the
unconsecrated forms appeared, announced in the ecstasy of the night. Maria Concepción
and I were alone in the chapel. (For there to be Consecration the priest takes forms
without consecrating (wafers), pronounces the words of the Consecration and the Sacrifice
is carried out).

I must admit that the Mass was very emotional. I was helping the priest, in front of the
people. I saw that most of the people in the Community cried excitedly. I don't think I've
ever seen attending Mass as fervently as that day.
 
 

Maria concepción and the whole

community came to say goodbye to the bus
 
I insist that I was tired. I continued with my aridity and spiritual dryness, I had had a hard
time in some moments of the ecstasy of Maria Concepción and I only wished that all this
would end, go away and forget about Ladeira forever.

As soon as the Mass was over, when I already thought that everything was over and that
we could leave, Maria Concepción went into ecstasy again. I was "giving thanks" because I
was the last to receive Communion.
 
Then I felt within me a very clear, "impetuous" Presence (Acts 2: 2) of the Lord. Nothing
like this has ever happened to me. It was as if the Lord took my dry heart in his hand and
as he closed his hand, my heart was melting like water.

Instantly I understood all the ecstasy of the night before. I understood that the Lord had
shown us his Passion and that the Eucharist and the Passion were the main Mysteries of
Ladeira.

For several minutes I cried like never before in my life. Something was going on inside
me. I felt loved by the Lord and He was what mattered most to me in MY life. Nothing like
this has ever happened to me in my 64 years of life, neither before nor after. Never with
that intensity, with that momentum, with that strength.

It was ten in the morning and we had to leave. I felt Maria concepción and the Ladeira
Community as my family. They accompanied us to the bus. I was very "touched". I did not
know for sure what was happening to me or how long it would last.

Upon returning to Valladolid, where he lived then, the "effects" continued. My dryness had
passed, I was more attracted to going to Las Esclavas where The Eucharist was exposed
and where I felt better. Carnal attraction practically did not exist.

This is difficult to confess and surely more difficult to believe. But it was so. And it lasted
almost a month. Then obviously I went back to normal. But in Ladeira I had had the
deepest spiritual experience of my life. If it had not been so, I would never have returned
to Ladeira. 
 
Second trip - October 10.

I returned to Ladeira at 3 months. We were 4 people, one of them a priest from Valladolid,
who was an eyewitness to The Apparitions of Ezquioga, where the Spanish civil war and
the terrible persecution against the Church were prophesied "with hair and signs".

I am not going to tell you in detail about this trip, but I will stop at some event.

The same day we arrived, after dinner, Maria Concepción began the prayer in the hall -
dining room (when we entered the house we found this dining room, which also served as
"hall", since there was a couch, the table and some chairs).

At the end of the Rosary Maria Concepción continued with songs and spontaneous
prayers. Then I saw her close her eyes, breathe very deeply and change her tone of
voice. "She is ecstatic!" , said someone from the community.
 

How beautiful is
Heaven! It is pure Light. There, at all times and moments, God is praised
I hadn't seen any significant "facial" changes, like the first ecstasy I saw three months
earlier. I was feeling a little skeptical. "Will he really be ecstatic?" , I asked myself.

At that moment, Padre Pio, who was the one who manifested himself through Maria
Concepción, addressed me and gave me a personal detail, which she could not know at
all. My doubts were dispelled.

In this ecstasy, Padre Pio called Ladeira: "Ladeira of thorns and suffering . "  He spoke to
us about the value of suffering. He also told us about Heaven. Then, he opened his eyes
and I saw that they had a shine, a glow, special.

Despite my initial doubts, ecstasy convinced me. Later I verified that Maria Concepción
could have ecstasy either on her knees, standing, sitting or falling on the floor.

I also verified that the deepest, clearest ecstases were those in which the Lord and the
Blessed Virgin were manifested. And I want to state that, in several ecstases in which the
Blessed Virgin was manifested, I saw clearly (many saw it) that her eyes changed color
and were blue.

That same morning, in an ecstasy, Saint Michael had manifested himself with a new
inspired song: "A Ladeira é nossa". Emblematic song, which was recorded and in which it
reached tones that were very difficult to achieve, according to various music connoisseurs.

There are dozens of inspired songs that arose in the ecstasy of Maria Concepción. I have
recorded more than twenty different melodies, which I still listen to when I travel to
Fatima, passing right next to Ladeira.

On the 13th I saw for the first time a "Visible Ecstatic Communion". As I said in the brief
historical review, they were habitual from the year 1963 to December 1965. After the
"Miracle of the 40 days", these visible Communions became occasional (Maria Concepción
continued receiving Communion, but the Sacred form).

It was in the afternoon prayer. We were downstairs, in the "local". We were about eighty
people. Maria Concepción was in front of the group, leading the prayer. She prayed the 3
parts of the Rosary, with songs and spontaneous prayers, as I have previously said. It was
nice to hear her sing.

Suddenly she looked at me and motioned for me to approach her. Maria Concepción, who
was standing, made an indication for me to kneel down. I knelt in front of her and she also
knelt. She was ecstatic, with her eyes open, her gaze fixed on "Someone" that the rest of
us did not see. Her expression was radiant, joyous. She placed her hands behind her back
and stuck her tongue out, a few inches from my chest. I saw her empty tongue and how,
instantly, a white Sacred Form appeared. It was a normal Shape in size, color and
thickness.

After receiving Communion, he closed his mouth and bowed deeply, in an act of
worship. In a few moments, she raised her head and opened her mouth, where she kept
the Sacred Form, exactly as when she received it. The people, “o povo”, when they saw
the Eucharist in their mouth, shouted “Viva Jesús, Viva Jesús!” .

He stood up showing the Form for some time. Then she knelt down and was ecstatic with
the Presence of the Lord within her.

It was a very clear prodigy, that all of us present could see.

 
 
Third trip, December 31.

This trip was truly exceptional. We were 4 people, among them a Passionist priest, a
graduate in Ascetics and Mysticism and a good connoisseur of "extraordinary" phenomena.

A brother of mine also came, Javier, who is the one who drove the car.

I will start on the night of December 31st. That night there was prayer at the "local". We
were not many. Maria Concepción led the prayer as she usually did: Rosary of 15
Mysteries, at the end of each mystery songs and spontaneous prayers.

It was a cold winter night. After more than two hours of prayer, Maria concepción went
into ecstasy. She was on her knees and began a long “ecstatic march” along the “Camino
del Calvario”.

It was like the Passion that I saw on my first trip, but along a path of more than one
hundred meters.

He lived through different moments of the Passion: the lashes, the crown of thorns (he
found branches of hawthorn, which he put on his head), the falls. It seemed that we really
saw the Lord.
One of the people who had come with us, exclaimed impressed: "Divine heart, how much
you have loved me, how much I have offended you!"  . In ecstasy, Maria Concepción
began to sing: "Divine Heart, Divine Jesus, be You My strength, You My life and light ..."

I perfectly remember that melody.

 
 

At the end of the "ecstatic march" living the

crucifixion. I am next to her with the camera
Upon reaching what they called El Calvario, Maria Concepción lived the crucifixion. She
stayed on a cross nailed to the ground. I was right next to her. And I verified that it was
indeed nailed to the ground. It could not be moved or separated from the ground
.
I tried covertly, as if I wanted to improve his posture on the floor, but I couldn't. His face
reflected a great serenity, without accusing the hours of prayer and the long ecstatic
march.

Upon exiting ecstasy, she was surprised to see where he was. When I was ecstatic I was
not aware of what I was doing or saying.
 
I verified that amply, on multiple occasions.
 
The next morning, we observed that Maria concepción had a suffering face and felt great
pain, especially in the palms of her hands.
 
He told us that on several occasions he had had the Sores of the Lord on his hands, feet
and side, but that he asked the Lord to remove them in order to lead a normal life. The
Lord agreed and she felt the pain of the sores, but without making them visible.
Indeed, the Passionist Father examined the palms of his hands and saw slight blood stains
in the center, but nothing more.

What we did observe was that a small droplet, like serum, formed on his forehead. Little
by little, those droplets were transformed into very small drops of blood. Then, also
slowly, a cross formed on his forehead, an open sore, which formed a perfect cross. And
on that cross the 3 nails of the Cross were clearly marked.

It was the first time I saw how the cross formed on his forehead.

The next day, we went down to the First Saturday night prayer. It was the First Saturday
of the year and about three hundred people were present.
 
The prayer was done in what they called the "local oraçao", where there was a column
that ended in an image of Our Lady of Graces.
It was a cold winter night. Maria Concepción led the prayer for more than two hours. She
used a great Rosary of 15 Mysteries. As I have previously commented, at the end of each
Mystery I sang a song and added many spontaneous prayers.

I was close to her, but not beside her. Suddenly, she called me and motioned for me to
kneel on the floor. I knelt down and the same thing was repeated as in last October.
 
He put his hands behind his back, he was ecstatic looking at Someone that the rest of us
did not see and with a serene and smiling face, he stuck out his tongue.

I saw the Sacred Form appear on his tongue. Her tongue was inches from my eyes and I
saw it perfectly. He closed his mouth and made an act of profound adoration. Then he sat
up and opened his mouth. There the Sacred form continued, which all of us present could
contemplate.

Photographs were taken that confirm this fact.

 
 
At the moment when Maria Concepción received Holy Communion, the Passionist priest
saw a cascade of "flowers of light", which sprouted in front of her, ascended and then
disappeared.

That prodigy lasted several minutes. The priest looked elsewhere to rule out the
suggestion, but when he returned his gaze to Maria Concepción, there followed the
cascade of flowers of light. Never in his life had he seen anything like it.

That night several more prodigious events occurred, but I think this is enough.

The next day Maria Concepción told us what she saw on our foreheads. Some had the
mark of the cross (Rev. Chap 7, 3 / Ez. 9, 6). She also told us that she saw people marked
with the three sixes: 666. (Ap, 13, 18).

He said he had a cross and a letter. The letter was F and he drew me on paper how I saw
it.

In the afternoon, we went down to prayer, but not in the "local", but at the entrance, near
the great marble Crucifix. Maria Concepción led the prayer, as always. It started to drizzle,
not very intensely.

Maria Concepción had a coat and a polka dot scarf on her head. While singing the Bird of
Fatima I saw her transformed into a girl. I saw in Maria Concepción the little Jacinta de
Fátima.
 
I didn't believe it, but I was seeing it clearly, clearly. At the same time I felt like a deep
chill and great emotion. I appreciated that it rained, because that way I could hide my
tears. I didn't understand it.

After the prayer, we went up to say goodbye.

 
Then, the dining room was flooded with an intense, pleasant and penetrating carnation
perfume. "It is the farewell of Jesus ," Maria Concepción told us smiling.
 
Even my brother, who was neither credulous nor very believing (but a good person), was
impressed.
We got in the car and went home. It was Sunday, January 3, 1971.
 
YEAR 1971

I am not going to tell all my trips one by one, as I have done with the first 3.

I am going to be telling, for years, some significant events of Ladeira and I am going to
continue with my personal testimony.

February.

 
It was in this month when the prophecy that we heard on our first trip to Ladeira was
fulfilled:  "You are the first priest to celebrate Mass with the ornaments of this
Local Saint. The seventh will be Portuguese" ( July 18, 1970)
 
Father Viegas, a Portuguese priest, was the seventh to celebrate Mass in Ladeira on
February 5, 1971.
 
I want to look at a trip, at the beginning of February 1971, that although I did not
participate, two priests friends of mine and a woman from Valladolid, who accompanied
me on almost all my first trips called Isabelita, did.
 

The Sacred Form of the Custody began to

bleed on the First Saturday of March 1971
These priests saw a wonder in the sun, on the morning of Saturday, February 6.
 
The sun began to spin and change colors. They could see it without any difficulty, with
total clarity.
 
Then they saw the sun turn completely white, as if it were the Eucharist.

But they saw with surprise that it had spots or strokes. Something they did not
understand.
Shortly after, they saw that in the Sacred Form that was in the Custody of the chapel,
small blood spots appeared. Surprisingly, those spots matched what they had seen in the
sun.

The Sacred Form of the Custody began to bleed that day, with those small spots or signs
of blood. But it continued to bleed in the following days, not copiously, but little by little.
 
Those spots or signs sprouted from inside ...
 
 At night they attended the prayer from the first Saturday to the First Sunday, which, as
we have already mentioned, lasted several hours.
 
María Concepción led the prayer in the usual way.
 
And he received Communion again in front of all those present. These two priests had
never seen a visible Communion.

They watched as María Concepción fell to her knees, placed her hands behind her back,
stood ecstatic with her eyes open and a smile on her expression. She stuck out her
tongue, completely empty and on that tongue appeared a white Sacred Form. (See
photos)
 

What most impressed of the visible Communions was the serenity, the normality, with
which María Concepción acted.

The next morning, Sunday, they entered María Concepción's house before eight.
 
She was sitting and looked asleep. So they commented, in a low voice among themselves,
with the fear of waking her: "She is asleep!"

But she, without opening her eyes, replied: "María Concepción is not asleep, she is in
Spain visiting José Luis ... Now she wakes up (she was referring to me)". They looked at
the clock and it was 8:05 in the morning.

When I met them the next day, the first thing they asked me was
 
: "Do you remember what time you woke up yesterday?"

"Yes," I replied, "it was a few minutes after 8."

"Did you notice anything special when you woke up?"

"You won't believe me, but I felt the presence of María Concepción by my side"

Then they told me what had happened and confirmed that, indeed, I had woken up the
moment she said it.
 

One of these two priests also received the "visit" from María Concepción.

It was at Christmas. María Concepción perfectly described her home to her. She said that
she had seen her in the dining room, sitting at the table, before a plate with fish and with
her head resting on her hand ...
 
The priest confirmed, point by point, that it was exactly as she had described it.
 
There are numerous cases of "bilocations" of Maria Concepción.
 
Even in one of them he left a paper written by a handwritten woman in which it said:
"Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora das Graças - Ladeira do Pinheiro".
 
This lady appeared at Ladeira and showed the paper. It was her first visit to Ladeira.
 
 
 March

If in the first days of February there was the bleeding of the Sacred Custody Form, the
following month, on the first Friday of March, bleeding from the Cross took place.
 
This cross, one and a half meters long, was hung in "the Chapel", which was actually a
room with the "40 days" miracle bed and an altar with a tabernacle, the Custody and
various images .
 
On my first trips, I found that he exhaled a soft perfume from his right knee.
 
Firstly, the Crucifix sweated blood, as can be seen perfectly in the photos of the
time. Similar to what happened to Jesus in the garden: "he sweated like drops of blood,
falling to the ground" (Lk. 22, 44). He wanted to remind us of the agony of Jesus before
his Passion.
 
Later, it was a real bleeding.
 
María Concepción saw Jesus alive. Blood gushed from the crown of thorns and ran down
his face, falling from his chin to his chest and down to his legs.
 
Several people from the Community and a pilgrim present in Ladeira that Friday, March 5,
witnessed.
 
I arrived the next day.
 
María Concepción ushered us into the Chapel. The blood was fresh, fresh. The pain of
Jesus was felt and an immense respect shook my whole being. There was an
overwhelming silence.
 
Although the Face of Jesus looked up, I felt that he was looking at me, that he was staring
at me. Not that I saw him shake his head, lower it, and glance at me. I felt His gaze, deep
and painful.
 
Later, I asked María Concepción to allow me to take a small blood sample, so that I could
analyze it. She gave me a small piece of white cloth and I respectfully approached the
Cross, passed the piece of cloth and removed it with a bloodstain.
 
This blood was analyzed at the Madrid Medical Forensic Institute and the result was:
human blood, group 0, RH +.
 
We do not know if Jesus' blood group was really 0, but it does have its meaning: universal
giver. His blood served, serves and will serve for all men.
 
In those days María Concepción was very depressed. She suffered the flogging. Isabelita,
from Valladolid, could see her back and it was a real wound.
 
I always saw the bleeding as sensitive signs of the Lord's pain in the face of the attacks
that Ladeira received.
 
I have previously said that the Lisbon Patriarchate had requested the presence of the
Republican National Guard to prevent prayer in Ladeira. And indeed, although I have not
reviewed it, the GNR used to go there and the prayer had to be done, many times, at
night, when they had already left the Prayer Room.
 
To this must be added the presence of authentic vandals, who approached Ladeira to
insult, provoke and even attack pilgrims. The GNR never acted against them. It only acted
against pilgrims.
 
On several occasions we were stoned. One night I saw a stone hit María Concepción in the
face, while she led the prayer. She received the impact, but continued to pray normally.
 
A person from the Community suffered such a brutal beating that he had to be admitted
to the hospital and died a short time later, as a result of that savage attack.
 
Her name was Carmelinda. She was the tireless companion of María Concepción. She had
a permanent smile on her face. She was charming.
She was an authentic martyr, who witnessed with life her total dedication to the Lord in
Ladeira.
 
 

Carmelinda also walking

on her knees with Maria Concepción
 
HOLY WEEK
 
I have before me a 23-page "story", written by a good friend of mine, in which he narrates
his experience in Ladeira during Holy Week in 1971.

My first intention was to transcribe it in its entirety, as it is an exercise in objectivity,

discernment and clarity.
 
This friend was a highly educated person, who studied Theology and was a teacher in
Valladolid.

I 'm not going to transcribe in full, but I will be based on this story-witness copying whole
paragraphs and putting them in " letter italic" to distinguish them well.

The expedition, a sixty-seater coach, left Valladolid in the early hours of Holy Thursday,
April 8, thickened by pilgrims from Valladolid, Santander, Bilbao, Logroño, Zaragoza,
Barcelona and Madrid. In the group were two priests.

The four-day program there was not going to be comfortable at all.

 
Our hotel, for all purposes, including sleeping, would be the coach, with the consequent
inconvenience and deprivation, which would later multiply due to other circumstances,
which would be released in due course.

Four days of full sacrifice in which there would be plenty of cold and heat, rain and storms
and, worst of all: the hooligans, the people who came to Ladeira to annoy the pilgrims and
believers in Ladeira.

I briefly describe the place.  From our bus to the "Local" there would be about a hundred
meters. After crossing the Torres Novas road, the ascent of a slope began along a dirt
path. At the top of this rises a marble Crucifix, beautifully shaped, always crowned with
flowers and accompanied by devotees on their knees, some barefoot.

Leaving the Cross on the right, a small sloping esplanade extends to a paltry brick
shack. That is the "abode" of one of the members of Ladeira, a peaceful old man with a
white beard named Jose de Liteiros.
 
There is a well with a high curb and a few meters away a small pond with water, from
whose center a column surmounted by the image of Nossa Senhora das Graças emerges.

From the pond of La Virgen and between the grove, a dirt path leads away towards the
south, leading to the group of houses where Maria Concepción lives. They call this path
“Camino del Calvario”, because it is frequently traveled by Maria Concepción in ecstasy on
her knees.

This trail divides into two, almost at the end: one part leads to the houses of the
Community and the other (continuation of the Camino del Calvario) continues up to a
large tree with 3 trunks, where Maria Concepción lives the crucifixion.
 

The two priests celebrating

Holy Mass in "El Calvario"
 
Since I am transcribing only a few paragraphs, it can be a little disjointed and with
gaps. But, as I said earlier, it is a verbose and detailed account and I prefer to do it this
way: respect his testimony and copy entire paragraphs.

In the afternoon, almost at night, there was prayer.  There are quite a few
people. Candles, lanterns, flashing shots.  Maria Concepción has just gone into
ecstasy.  There is a constant murmur of prayers and songs: Ave de Lourdes, Ave de
Fátima and a repetitive song that says "Holy Spirit, come to our souls, Holy Spirit,
enlighten the priests ..."

It encourages me to see so much pity on men and women.  Everybody wants to get to the
center, where Maria Concepción standing, with a calm gaze, now fixes on a person, now
gathered in a neutral point, does not stop, masterfully, praying and singing.

I have just been told that it is San Miguel who is demonstrating through Maria
Concepción.

I see her begin to move among the people and a growing murmur makes the prayers and
songs intensify. She addresses various people to whom she takes her hand placing it in
her. Everyone wants to have that grace. But it is not "random", rather it is choosing
them.

Disappointed for not understanding what is happening, but moved by the faith that I see,
I ask God from the heart to give me a little light.

I observe the effort of some people to get closer and the tears and emotion of the
favored, both men and women.

I pray, I invoke the Virgin and at the height of my anxiety, I ask verbatim: "That I come
to me now".
 
He had just approached a young man from Valladolid, shaking hands with him.

Immediately, he looks with his gaze and fixes it where I am, quite far from it. Later, it
makes its way between bodies and hands, which it gently avoids, and reaches me.
 
In complete amazement at what I see, I still look back in case I am not the chosen
one.  But Maria Concepción takes my hand very smiling.

I had to lie down on a tree not to fall. Intense heat rose in my throat. That was incredible.

I left the scene overwhelmed with emotion.  Inside I had made a request to God, born
from the need to have peace instead of anxiety, because of what I was seeing.  If Maria
Concepción selected my request “at random” among dozens and dozens of people, much
closer, she created the greatest number of coincidences that I remember. But my
personal opinion, for many reasons that it is not time to explain, is that Maria Concepción
was moved by a will other than her own, responding to my request.

Tests like this would take place on those days in Ladeira "in bulk".

 
Good Friday, April 9

It had been agreed to have a prayer in the last hour of Holy Thursday, but seeing the
panorama in the "local oraçao", taken by a horde of savages who shouted and shouted
without stopping, it was agreed to postpone it.

The hubbub reached our coach. In our shelter we discuss the surprising parallelism of this
hour, with the historical one of the night of Holy Thursday in Jerusalem: Everything is at
the mercy of Satan and his minions. It was the hour of the Power of Darkness.

Ladeira, in those four days, was going to be an exact double of the Passion of Jesus.
When, after a few hours, everything had calmed down and we started to give some nods
while sitting in our coach, genuinely surrendered, a warning came to us: Maria Concepción
was going to start the prayer ...
It is a few minutes past four in the morning on Good Friday. Without having rested and
without having "cleared" we ran to the place of prayer.

The contrast with the preceding hours is formidable.  There are several hundred
people. Peace in those moments is sovereign. Maria Concepción raised on a stool leads
the prayer.  It is the best baton of mercy one can imagine.  Sometimes she measures the
outline with her eyes as if assuring the calm of that flock that she has as hypnotized with
fervor around her.
 
Godliness is truly magnificent. It is prayed in bulk, men and women.  There are no
curious.

The prayer lasts more than an hour, but it is a pleasant prayer, which tires no one.
 
Suddenly Maria Concepción gets off the stool and gets down on her knees. She is
ecstatic.  It begins to march on the muddy ground, full of puddles from the rain that had
fallen in previous hours.
 

Maria Concepción has a face marked by pain, her expression is suffering.  Nothing in her
gestures resembles a morbid trance, nor studied gestures. Everything is serene.

This ecstatic march along the Camino del Calvario will last about three hours.  Some follow
behind, others go ahead, some climb the slopes of the trail to see better.

Maria Concepción will experience every step of Christ from the Praetorium to Golgotha.  It
has several falls and is smeared with mud up to the hair.
I see men and women cry loudly and without blushing. I see the young man from
Santander I mentioned before cry (  I have not copied those paragraphs) and a young
nurse from Valladolid who only succeeds in saying: "My God, there is no one who can
resist this!"

Like many others, I end up on my knees and crawling through the mud. It seems to me a
desecration to stand up.

During the march he spoke several times, asking for penance, prayer and complaining
about those who persist in their sins.

During this "Via Crucis", I had, like many others, the opportunity to verify the
phenomenon that they had told me about, very typical of Ladeira: Ladeira exhales a soft
and delicious perfume.
 
It is in the environment or around Maria Concepción. The wind does not bring it, nor does
any plant dismiss it, nor does it come from any person or object. It comes suddenly and it
goes, too, suddenly.

It is a little after eight in the morning when the Via Crucis ends.
 
Maria Concepción opens her eyes as if waking up from a dream, but without signs of
weariness. She stands up and quite naturally begins to converse with people.
 
 
The day of the “Via-Crucis” had been long in the morning, but it was still going to fall
short before the afternoon prayer.

It starts at two and doesn't end until after six.  And scenes were to be produced, which
would be recorded in all of us who followed that act forever and ever.

A noble Portuguese family offers Maria Concepción her car so that she can lead the prayer
from it.  The crowd is imposing, most devoted and sympathetic, but there is no shortage
(as almost always) of a large number of thugs and villains who would bring our patience
to the brink of explosion.

Maria Concepción, raised on a stool, begins her prayers, followed by everyone with
enormous fervor.  An elderly priest, who sits on a stool, approaches Maria Concepción.

The sky is cloudy. And before long it begins to rain torrentially, a true deluge.

Maria Concepción looks at the priest and sees that he is getting wet.  He gets off his stool
and with the mime of a mother who takes care of her son, she takes off her coat and
covers the old cleric.  Then go back up to your stool.

Then there is a general commotion.  I do not realize it because I am a bit distant (it is
impossible to penetrate that network of people).  Immediately comes the wave of what is
happening: that curtain of water does not touch Maria Concepción.  Many are watching the
rain fall to within a few inches of their head and then describe a parable around it to go
directly to the ground.

Impossible to describe the effect.

A nun standing at the foot of Maria Concepción, holding a microphone to collect her
words, experiences the marvelous fact that her hand and the microphone next to Maria
Concepción remain dry, while the rest of her arm and all of her are soaked .

Indeed, Maria Concepción, her clothes and head are dry.

People kneel down. Many cry ...

Here I want to intervene as a witness.

I was in the front row and I saw it perfectly, very close. Maria Concepción had taken off
her coat to put on the priest, who was sheltered with an umbrella. They also wanted to
cover Maria Concepción and she, smiling, said no. It was raining intensely, “jugs”. We all
saw, very clearly, how the water did not fall on Maria Concepción. It was as if an invisible
umbrella covered her.

This portentous act lasted as long as the downpour. It was not fleeting and temporary, but
it lasted a long time and we all could verify it perfectly.

When the rain stopped, Maria Concepción was totally dry.

I have never seen anything like it.

And it is totally true that the nun, who came with us from Valladolid, not only saw that
Maria Concepción did not get wet, but that her hand, her wrist and the microphone, which
were closer to Maria Concepción, also remained completely dry.
 
Holy Saturday .

I will make a summary, because the story of this day is 4 pages, but a summary based on
the testimony of my friend, so I will write it in "italics".

In the afternoon prayer, Captain Silva, known to everyone in Ladeira, presented himself,
as he was the highest authority of the GNR in the Region.  Arrogant and arrogant person,
authoritative and arrogant. His goal: to warn that he was going to end Ladeira.

Some people reply, "We come here just to pray.  We don't mess with anyone.  You can see
it yourself… ”

And then a formidable storm breaks out. Maria Concepción falls to the ground, on her
back, as if struck down.  There are puddles and mud, so her hair is completely wet and
muddy. She sits up, ecstatic, without any effort.

Captain Silva, with a dismissive gesture, takes refuge in his car.

In ecstasy Maria concepción contemplates Our Lady: "There are those who trample on the
holy works of this Holy Place!"

Maria Concepción has her eyes fixed on Heaven, completely open in her "vision".  A real
downpour is falling and the water hits hard. But her eyes don't close, they don't even
blink.  Water respects your face.

A Passionist priest testifies, after questioning several people: “As far as I have been able
to observe and according to what I have heard from those who are closest, the rain does
not fall on Maria Concepción.  Therefore, this leads me to argue that it represents proof of
the supernatural nature of what is happening. ”
 

Here I want to clarify that the day before, during the storm, I saw and verified, like
everyone else, that it was raining "jugs" and Maria Concepción remained completely dry,
not a drop fell.

But Saturday was different. I saw her, like everyone else, in ecstasy contemplating the
Blessed Virgin, with her eyes wide open, without blinking. It seemed that the water did
not touch her face, but she had it wet, perhaps because she had fallen to the ground, with
puddles and mud and had remained there for several minutes, with her eyes closed.
For this reason, I want to bear witness and defend what I have seen clearly, not the
doubtful: On Good Friday I saw clearly how it was raining and Maria Concepción remained
completely dry. But on Holy Saturday it was different: she was wet, her head, her body
and her clothes, although she kept her eyes open, without blinking and her face serene.

I continue with the story.

When the storm passes and the downpour stops, Captain Silva returns and still sees the
last moments of ecstasy.  His expression is of self-sufficiency and contempt. "This is all
going to end," he says flatly.

My personal impression of how things were in Ladeira, was that Maria Concepción and her
work seemed like a mouse at the mercy of the powerful grip of the "cats" of authority.

Humanly, with such strong enemies, his "Work" was doomed to disappear ...
 
Easter Sunday

In the morning, in a clandestine environment, almost hidden, a small group of pilgrims

attended the Holy Mass concelebrated by the two priests at the end of the "Camino del
Calvario". In this small group there were pilgrims from Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium,
the Philippines, the United States.

It seems incredible that in the twentieth century, in a Catholic nation and with the
experience of what happened in Fatima, we have to go through these vicissitudes.

A clear and pleasant Perfume made itself felt, in waves, at various moments of the Mass.

This day the presence of GNR guards was evident.  They had placed themselves at the
entrance to Ladeira, preventing us from passing.  You couldn't enter!  The threat from
Capital Silva was carried out the day before.

In the afternoon the pilgrims were scattered and somewhat bewildered.  But we had a
"mission": Enter Ladeira.  Mission Impossible?

I detected some fear in the pilgrims. "Whatever happens you have to get to the
esplanade."  "There may be injuries." "There is no need to replicate with force. Hold on
and move on. ”

When I contemplate that disorder of the people and the little idea that we all have of the
way in which we have to act, I assure failure. It looks like this is going to be chaos.

But I observe that despite the fear we feel from the imminent crash, no one, male or
female, plans to back down. There is a unanimous decision to move forward, whatever
happens.
And the instructions arrive: the Spanish will open the march with their banner, then the
foreigners and then the Portuguese.

My young colleague from Valladolid will be the standard bearer, whom I reinforce together
with the boy from Santander to defend the banner.  Therefore we will be at the forefront.

We put ourselves in the lead and behind us women.  And the order arrives, but the most
perplexing order that one can imagine: it comes without words. A tall and strong
Portuguese woman gets down on her knees and moves determinedly towards the path
that goes up to the Cross.  Instinctively, we follow it en bloc.  The woman advances like a
steamroller, smoothing everything in her path, ecstatic, undaunted by the police, who
come out to meet us.

I look back and I contemplate a panorama full of emotion: in perfect order of march come
some twenty banners surrounded by numerous pilgrims singing and praying.  The
encouragement and courage that those songs and prayers inspire us make us despise
everything in front of us. 
 

Nothing stops us, neither the muskets nor the policemen's batons. We arrived at the
Cross. There we meet the pale, disjointed Captain Silva. I have not seen a more shocked
and surprised face than that.

The contrast with the previous day is tremendous. The captain even seems to tremble.
We continue advancing before the total impotence of the gendarmes and the
unprecedented surprise of the "hostiles", who look at us from a distance without daring to
approach.

A new look at the general panorama of the esplanade makes me calculate the number of
pilgrims at about two thousand.

Captain Silva, without any control of the situation, asks for Maria Concepción to come,
who soon arrives. And she with a calm and serenity that contrasts with him
nervousness of the chief of the gendarmes, tells us to go back to the Cross at the
entrance and to pray there.
 
The captain now looks like a doll at the mercy of Maria Concepción.

We all obeyed and went backwards, calmly to the Cross. There we fall to our knees in
triumphal prayer.  Maria concepción, smiling and calm, returns home.  She has succeeded
on every line!

Capital Silva left with his car to look for reinforcements. But we end our prayer with songs
and live Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Only at the end did the reinforcements arrive,
but we had fulfilled our mission: we had entered Ladeira, we had reached the esplanade
and then we retreated submissively obeying the instructions of Maria Concepción, and the
prayer was said, which is what we intended.

I want to briefly contribute my testimony.

 
Indeed, I carried the banner of Spain, flanked by my friend Juan Antonio de Valladolid and
by a young man from Santander. I don't consider myself brave, but I felt a special
strength, a strength that was not mine.
 
I went forward and saw the guards in front of me. One unloaded the force of his carabiner
against the banner that I was carrying and hit him hard, but I kept walking. I was never
afraid and the same thing happened to many people.

Maria Concepción told us that the Blessed Virgin, Queen of the White Army, was coming
upon us, advancing with us. With the cloak open, extended.
 
Yes, I felt sheltered and protected under His Cloak and at no time did I fear for my
integrity or for the integrity of any of those who came behind.

It was the wonderful culmination of this Easter Sunday.

 
 
 
 
 
Month of May
 

On May 13, 1971, a very important event happened. Several members of the Judicial
Police were present in Ladeira during the prayer.
In Ladeira it was a normal day, so there were not many people.

María Concepción led the prayer as usual. And at the end she went to her knees to a small
garden that was in the "Local of prayer" and there she received Holy Communion, which
Saint Michael the Archangel gave her.

But out of one of the flowers in that small garden came an unconsecrated form, which
María Concepción turned over to the Judicial Police for examination.

That is, a Sacred Form received it in the mouth, as always. The other came out of a
flower, for the members of the Police to take away.

The policemen saw with complete clarity how a Sacred Form appeared on their tongue,
before their attentive gaze, "without cheating or cardboard."

And how another, white, equal shape came out of a flower and was picked up by María
Concepción, who gave it to one of the policemen.

All this was photographed by one of the pilgrims who came that day, sensing that
something special could happen that day.
 

We do not know what report they would take to the Portuguese Authorities or to the
Patriarchate. The truth is that the Patriarchate NEVER admitted anything that was
favorable to Ladeira.
 
NEVER INTERESTED IN THE TRUTH, BUT FINISHED WITH LADEIRA!
Curiously, in the same month a similar event was repeated, that of the shape coming out
of a flower. I was present and I was able to witness it several times:

María concepción en ecstasy cut a flower with her hands (“jug” in Portuguese), advanced
on her knees, raised the flower and when she lowered it, as if it were a “sacred vase”, we
saw one or several Sacred Forms that had miraculously appeared . Those Sacred Forms
she gave them, then, to one of the priests present.

He made several trips: cut a flower, totally empty, advance on his knees, lift that flower
while, with a smiling gesture, he fixed his gaze on "Someone" that the others did not see
and when he lowered it, we saw the flower, or flowers, with several Sacred Shapes inside.

It happened several different days.

 
Jesus called Ladeira: MYSTERY OF MY SAGRARIOS. 
 
"My Bread cannot be lacking where there is hunger and thirst for My body and
My Blood."
 
Let us not forget that Maria Concepción and all members of the Ladeira Community were
denied all the sacraments ...
 

In August I spent part of my vacation in Ladeira. I had already been to Ladeira living
several times, but this time it was my longest stay in number of days.
 
It was a wonderful and very revealing experience. There we lived in an environment of
poverty and without fundamental things today. But I was happy and did not change that
rustic, rudimentary and poor Ladeira for any palace.
I realized that the more we are filled with God, the less we need material goods and the
more empty we are inside, the greater need we have for material things. I knew it in
theory, but then I could experience it.

It reminded me of the life of the pastorinhos in 1917. It is as if we had gone back more
than fifty years and returned to the times of the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin in
Fatima.

I spoke a lot with María Concepción and she told me many things about her life. I knew in
detail the places where she had to hide for months and months because the GNR was
chasing her. They even smuggled their food into the pigs' pool. Unimaginable situations,
that she had to endure and that she told me smiling.

He spoke to me about a “very cute little girl” who visited him many nights. She had very
long hair. She asked who she was and told her that Saint Agnes.

María Concepción had no culture or religious training. She knew very few saints, but many
appeared to her: Saint Agnes, as protector, Saint Rita who announced that she would live
under an olive tree, Padre Pio, Saint Elizabeth of Portugal ...

In this month of August a French lady, Madame Gaultier, appeared who had an important
role in Ladeira. Madame Gaultier lived in Orleans, the city of Joan of Arc and took groups
of pilgrims to Marian Shrines in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal.

He visited Ladeira and on that afternoon, he had a response to a request from him, which
he had not expressed aloud, but which the Lord granted him through María Concepción.

At night, she was with her group at the hotel (40 km from Ladeira) praying to Santa
Teresita to demonstrate in Ladeira. We were in Ladeira praying and, indeed, Santa
Teresita manifested for the first time in Ladeira, in an ecstasy sung with a beautiful
melody. Santa Teresita had responded to her request.

And the next day Saint Joan of Arc manifested herself, of which Maria Concepción had
never heard of and who became one of the most assiduous saints in Ladeira, along with
the Archangel Saint Michael.

Madame Gaultier had a great devotion to Saint Joan of Arc, for it was not in vain that she
lived in the city of "Pucelle", the Maid of Orleans. It can be said that it was she who with
her presence and her devotion took Santa Juana de Arco to Ladeira.
......

On August 14, the stigma of the cross reappeared on his forehead. It was a totally
different process from that of January, in which I was also present. We were talking to her
in her room and suddenly, she fell to the ground as if struck down. I noticed that her
forehead was bleeding and a cross was forming. A perfect bleeding cross was etched on
her forehead.

I had a clean handkerchief and I brought it to his forehead, engraving the shape of the
cross. I still have that scarf.
 
On October 10 we were several people praying in the chapel with Maria Concepción and
she was ecstatic. She took a picture that was on the altar and before our eyes, it began to
bleed. The picture showed the Face of Jesus crowned with thorns.

It was one more sign of the persecution against Ladeira and, more specifically, against
Maria concepción.

Indeed, the persecution increased. On the 20th the Judicial Police appears, they seize the
Custody and many other objects. They did not confiscate the Crucifix that had bled,
because Maria Concepción, days before, cleaned his blood with some canvases.

They took her to Lisbon and put her in jail for 3 days. It was a very tough test. They had
taken away the rosary and a cross that she was carrying. She could only save a tiny
image of San Martin de Porres.

In those days she had no Heavenly Appearance, but the demon who laughed, mocked her,
insulted her and told her that she was going to stay in jail forever. It was 3 days of
darkness, purgatory, hell.
They only gave him a piece of bread and some water to eat ...

We returned a few days later and she showed us a crust of bread that she had saved from
those days.
 
 This stamp bled in front of
several people on October 10, 1971, announcing further persecutions ...
 
Month of December.

The Alliances . God established an Alliance with his chosen people and he reiterated it
through the prophets (Canon IV of the Mass).

This Covenant reached its culmination in the sacrifice of the Cross: The New and Eternal
Covenant. 

But it is clear that we live in a paganized world, that lives behind the back of the Gospel
and that only a small number of people try to live to the last consequences the Call of
Jesus.

For this reason, in Ladeira, they wanted to become aware of this Alliance and the initiative
to celebrate 7 Alliances was carried out.

The first took place on December 28, 1971. It was a rainy, cold and unpleasant day, but
this did not detract from the influx of pilgrims who came in several thousands, nor of
priests, since the Holy Mass was concelebrated by 24 priests of different countries: France,
Spain, Italy, Belgium ...

After the Holy Mass, Maria Concepción had an ecstatic march, along the “Camino del
Calvario”, over the mud and puddles.
 
I have previously referred to and described several ecstatic marches of knees by Maria
Concepción, along the “Camino del Calvario”.
 
This time, the people who walked closest to her were the priests, some truly impressed
and all filled with fervor and recollection.

The photos of that march are a good testimony.

 
 
  
 
YEAR 1972
 
 
 Saint Joan of Arc
The year 1972 began with an ecstasy of Saint Joan of Arc. We were a small group of
people accompanying Maria Concepción throughout the year. Santa Juana demonstrated a
few minutes before midnight.

"Year 72, march, march, march ... To the great battle ." With a bell, standing up, it
imitated a military march.

Saint Michael and Joan of Arc were our holy "warriors", our captains.
I immediately thought that those words were prophetic, that a hard, difficult year awaited
us, but I did not know to what extent . The great battle! What could she mean? I keep
that ecstasy that we recorded that night and it seems like a real military march, for
Ladeira's Army, The White Army.

It was a prophetic ecstasy.

 
2nd Alliance.
 
On February 2 the Second Alliance took place. The First Alliance was held on a rainy day,
but with some clearing. However, day 2 was a day of continuous rain.

It was a business day, a Wednesday, raining all day, but still several thousand people
gathered.

In the morning there was a “bleeding” in the Sacred Forms that contained a Ciborium that
was in the chapel. Maria Concepción went to the chapel, accompanied by several priests
and when they opened the tabernacle they found the Sacred Bleeding Forms. The blood
was fresh, fresh.

I have already clarified previously that the bleedings were signs of "persecution" against
Ladeira.

I was one of the first lay people to see the “Copón”. The Bleeding Forms were small. I saw
a heart in one of the shapes and it seemed to beat. I took it as a personal impression,
because I saw it clearly, but in the photo it does not appear with the clarity that I saw it.

But something really important happened. Dr. Jean Caux, an eminent French doctor and
attentive student of the events in Ladeira, was in Ladeira. Dr. Caux asked Maria
Concepción to allow her to take a Sacred Form to France to analyze the blood. There was
some controversy, as some did not like it. The truth is that Maria Concepción asked Our
Lord and She allowed it. So one of the priests put a Form into a "rack" and gave it to Dr.
Caux, who took it to France.
When Dr. Caux arrived in France and opened the carrier, he was surprised that the Form's
blood was still fresh, fresh, as if it had just bled at the time. That is materially impossible,
a truly prodigious fact. And he did so in a testimony that he himself sent to the Lisbon
Patriarchate and that we publish here.

The results of the analysis were the same as the blood of the Crucifix: human blood, group
0, RH +. (In the Lisbon Patriarchate they affirmed that it was chicken blood. Stupid way of
lying !!!)

I continue with the story of the Second Alliance.

In the afternoon, in the incessant rain, the Alliance Mass was celebrated, concelebrated by
11 priests. There were several priests present, who had come as "observers".
After the Mass, the songs and prayers led by Maria Concepción began. It was not long
before she entered into ecstasy and began an ecstatic march along the Camino del
Calvario, as in the First Alliance.

In the ecstatic march of the First Alliance, a month earlier, Maria Concepción wore a
raincoat. This time she wore a purple wool sweater and skirt, meaning no protection from
the rain.

It was an impressive ecstatic march, the most impressive of the many I have seen. I dare
not describe it.

It lasted over an hour. It was very cold. Upon reaching the place of the "crucifixion",
where Maria Concepción remained nailed to the cross, her face was serene, very beautiful,
despite having her hair completely muddy.

When the ecstasy ended, he opened his eyes as if waking up from a dream and, as he
usually did, he began to pray aloud to everyone.

From there he went home. Several people accompany you. She was completely soaked
and already felt the intense cold, which she did not feel during ecstasy. Her clothes
breathed an intense and pleasant perfume.

However, he did not catch bronchitis, pneumonia, or the smallest cold, despite the hours
he was in the cold and intense rain.
 
 
 

February 2, 1972:
Bleeding Forms
 
HOLY WEEK

At Easter the number of foreign pilgrims was considerable, especially Spanish and French.

The Ladeira community had also grown. For some time they had several “abandoned”
children, children of an alcoholic woman, whom María Concepción and Humberto had
welcomed as their own. I was at the birth of one of them in August 1971. Then they were
collecting more. At that time, they had 7 children who were cared for as their true
children.

They also had a large nave or barrack (as we called it), in which there was a large table
that served as an altar for Eucharistic Celebrations and as a table to feed pilgrims
(sometimes free of course).

On several occasions we saw how dishes and more dishes were served from the pot full of
soup and the soup was not finished. We also saw how the soup was kept warm, after
more than an hour singing and praying ...

These extraordinary events were totally ordinary in Ladeira.

I go to my notes from those days, where I highlight some facts, which I will refer to.
 
 
HOLY THURSDAY. Visible fellowship.

It was in the afternoon, in the barracks I referred to earlier. It was full, crowded. We could
hardly move. Maria Concepción got down on her knees and advanced to the table that
served as the altar. I was next to her, a little behind. I watched him spread his arms, head
slightly raised and staring at Someone. In a few moments, the Sacred Form appeared in
their language.

He did the usual act of worship, lowering his head deeply. Then she opened her mouth
again to show the Form, turning her head to the right and left. Those who were in front
and those who were on the sides, we saw her again perfectly. It was the day of the
Eucharist.

Soon after, in ecstasy, he took a basin and a towel and washed the feet of twelve men,
who had chosen one by one. Next, he also chose twelve women and washed their hands.

HOLY FRIDAY. Ecstatic gait.

At night, in prayer, he had an ecstatic walk on his knees and entered a field that was
fenced with a chain link fence. The pilgrims went by with her. Two priests held her, one on
each side. On his knees, he delimited a large area of land and said: "Someday there will
be a cathedral here."

Those words were a little crazy to me. That land had an owner and it was not easy to buy
it. Nor was it logical to believe that a temple was built there given the situation of Ladeira,
so persecuted.
Almost thirty years had to pass, so that in that same place, exactly, where Maria
Concepción, on her knees, had marked the measurements of the temple, a “cathedral”
would be built.

And there is now a "cathedral", a small cathedral, as predicted 28 years earlier.

HOLY SATURDAY. Bleeding

It was Saturday morning, similar to what happened on February 2.

Maria Concepción accompanied the priests to the chapel to open the tabernacle. When
they opened it, they saw in the Ciborium many Forms bleeding, almost all large.

It is not that the blood was fresh, recent, it was that it remained that way until the
afternoon, when the priests gave us Communion with these Sacred Forms.

One of the priests testified that the "Shapes kept bleeding on my hands ."

Those who receive Communion clearly feel the taste of blood. But it was a nice taste. The
truth is that it was not Communion under "the two species", since they were not species of
bread and wine, but meat and blood. Yes, I have written “flesh and blood”, since many of
us feel that this is what we received: flesh and blood.

Really hard to believe and hard to explain, but it was, as I tell it.
 

 
In the afternoon prayer he had an ecstasy of the Blessed Virgin.
 
In the morning, I had asked the Blessed Virgin to kiss my "little flower" (emblem of the
White Army) through Maria Concepción. She needed confirmation for something precisely
related to the emblem of the White Army.

Well, in the afternoon prayer he had a beautiful ecstasy. There were many hooligans with
their motorcycles making noise, shouting and accelerating, to disturb the sentence.

Maria Concepción had a megaphone microphone in one hand (in the other she was holding
the rosary) and began to sing a beautiful melody. The melody was so beautiful, so sweet,
that the “thugs” stopped screaming, stopped making noise with the motorcycles and there
was a silence in which only the voice of Maria Concepción was heard.
 
Then he released the microphone and ducked into the pilgrims. We were in the "prayer
room". I was away from her. He was moving and hugging various people.

He looked for me, reached me, and took my hands. He gathered them together and raised
them to heaven. He took the flower, still holding it from my sweater, and kissed it, as I
had asked him in the morning. Her face was embellished, transfigured. Looking into her
eyes I noticed that they had a blue, clear, beautiful color ...

I was filled with the Presence of the Blessed Virgin. Never in my life, until then, had I felt
the presence of the Blessed Virgin so clearly, so deeply.

If I had to describe it with just one word, that word would be: SWEETNESS.

It filled me with joy, it brimmed with joy. I just wanted to hug people and sing to the
Blessed Virgin.

I remember that I came to a tent where there was a group of French pilgrims and hugging
Armande (it could be my mother) we started singing a song that I really liked: “Prends
mon coeur, le voilá…”

Only in Medjugorje, years later, did I feel the Presence of the Blessed Virgin again, which
completely enveloped me.

EASTER SUNDAY. 3rd Alliance.

In the afternoon the Covenant Mass took place, concelebrated by 13 priests. Several

thousand pilgrims attended.
 
PROPHETIC ADS

 
On May 13, in the afternoon prayer, Maria Concepción had an ecstasy in which she went
to a small garden, which was next to the "Local of Prayer" and clung tightly to the thorns
of various branches of a rosebush.

" Embrace the thorns (in Spanish the thorns). Don't be afraid of thorns . "

Then he plucked off some rose petals and a small Sacred Shape appeared in each of his
hands. In each hand she carried rose petals and a Sacred Shape.
Two Spanish priests were present who were the recipients of the Sacred Forms.

I have a short recording of that ecstasy (then the movies were only 3 minutes long).

The meaning was very clear: not to be afraid of thorns (or thorns), to embrace thorns (all
the sufferings we were going to meet) and to always seek our support in the Eucharist.
 
On the first Sunday in June the 4th Alliance was held. 13 priests concelebrated and
numerous pilgrims attended.

The Lord, through María Concepción, announced:

“ For a time I will speak to you and then I will not speak to you. Then I will speak
for a few and then I will speak for everyone. "

He also told us:

"For the 5th Alliance (August 20) Ladeira will be very changed ..."
"In the 5th Alliance there will be wounded ..."

So we did not understand those enigmatic words, which were fulfilled to the letter.

A few days later, on June 7, a small group of people, including a priest, went to Fatima
with María Concepción. We were in the Valinhos. There, at noon, next to the statue of the
Angel giving communion to the shepherds, he had an ecstasy in which the Lord told us:

“Be like this rock. Live for Me and for the Father. All of you who follow my path
have much to suffer ... Suffer with resignation. Do as I did, that I gave you my
whole heart and offered my arms for the cross and thus I opened the doors of
Heaven to you ...
FOR THE 5TH ALLIANCE LADEIRA WILL ALREADY BE MODIFIED, OTHERWISE.
YOU WILL FIND MANY PROBLEMS AND MANY OBSTACLES TO COME TO
LADEIRA… ”
We were surprised again, but without realizing the true scope of these words. We guessed
that something very hard was going to happen against Ladeira, but we did not know what
it could be.

The following month, on July 17, on a peaceful and calm night, while outside the house,
María Concepción fell to the ground, in ecstasy, as if struck down. There were hardly any
people from the community and some pilgrims. I pick up some phrases of that ecstasy:

"The Portuguese Authorities have come together and combined to end Ladeira ...
You are going to have a lot to suffer.
You are going to suffer a great fence.
One of the worst attacks carried out against Ladeira is being prepared.
The men want to destroy Ladeira.
Get ready.
You are going to be as harassed as rabbits when they are chased by hunters… ”

Those words of Maria Concepción in ecstasy overwhelmed me. Honestly, I must confess

that I did not believe them. She could not understand that the "Portuguese Authorities",
no less !, Came together and combined to end Ladeira.

He knew that the Lisbon Patriarchate had a real persecution mania against Ladeira, that
he had managed to get the GNR to go to Ladeira frequently, to put Maria Concepción in a
Psychiatric Hospital for two and a half months, to put her in jail ...

I knew all this, but what else could they come up with? "Uniting and combining the
Portuguese Authorities against Ladeira" seemed too much to me.

Two days later I returned to Spain, without taking into account those "exaggerated"
words, which I had heard the night before.

I returned to Ladeira on Saturday, August 5. The sunset caught my attention during the
trip, because the whole landscape was dyed red, it seemed something special, it seemed a
sign.

He was accompanied by a lady from Valladolid. We arrived in Ladeira around ten at

night. When we went up the slope that leads to the marble Crucifix, two members of the
GNR met us with flashlights.

-Where are you going?

- To Ladeira.
- You cannot enter Ladeira, it is prohibited.  Ladeira has been closed ...

I was really distressed by that situation. I went to look for another entrance, by a not very
good path, but which reached the "Calvary". I went slowly, idling, without lights. But when
they arrived at “Calvario” (where the “Camino del Calvario” ended), two other guards
came out, also with flashlights.
In a bad way they told us the same thing: that you could no longer enter Ladeira.

I went, uneasy, to a bar-restaurant called Ritonicho, which was near Ladeira. There I met
a French family, pilgrims from Ladeira.

They explained the situation to me: At the request of the Lisbon Patriarchate, the Ministry
of the Interior had ordered the GNR (Republican National Guard) to surround Ladeira and
not let anyone in. They had even improvised a barracks there to stay for months.

At that time all the previous prophetic announcements made sense and especially, the
ecstasy of a few days ago:
"The Portuguese Authorities have come together and combined to end Ladeira"
The French pilot was called Michel and he was camped inside Ladeira. They were out for
dinner and talking on the phone. We asked them to put us in the car and let us go with
them lying on the ground. The night was dark and Michel agreed.

We went to Ladeira by the second path, the one that led near the “Calvary”.
 
Upon arrival two guards came out with a flashlight. They did not want to let him
pass. Michel alleged that he was already inside days before the GNR arrived, that he had
his tent there and that he would speak to his Consulate the next day.

They insisted on not letting him pass, but Michel accelerated and left calmly. The whistle
and carabiner latch blew (they made the move to load the carabiner to fire).
I was admired for Michel's decision and courage.
 
He arrived at his tent near the barracks and they left, he, his wife, and their children. We
waited a bit and left, protected by the darkness and by the "wings of San Miguel", to reach
the house of María Concepción. We stayed there for several days.

The guards were stationed at the entrances, especially at the main entrance, and they
stayed in an uninhabited house near the entrance, where María Concepción had originally
lived. There they set up a barracks.

They made rounds and frequently approached the houses of the Ladeira community, but
they were not there (next to the house) permanently.

In the Ladeira houses (houses all in a row, as seen in a photo) there were also 2 women
from Burgos, who were already there when the guards arrived and two other women from
France.

On the third day of my hidden stay in Ladeira, day 8, I witnessed one of the most
extraordinary events of my life.
 
We were in the dining room when María Concepción got up and walked ecstatically
towards the chapel. I followed her and the others too, but not so close. She was with her
eyes open, with a special glow and smiling.
 
When he reached the door of the chapel, without entering, he opened his arms looking up
and slowly closed them. When he finished closing them, the Cross that was nailed to the
wall of the chapel appeared in his arms.
 
I felt tremendous emotion, it was a clear miracle. I got down on my knees and everyone
else too. María Concepción advanced with the Cross in her arms until she carried her to
the dining room and left her standing on the floor there.
 
 This Cross (the one that bled) was peeled
from the wall of the chapel and appeared, before our eyes, in the arms of Maria
Concepción
Four people from Spain (Isabelita, Pilar, Margarita and I), two from France (Armande and
a friend of hers who always accompanied him) and several from the community were
present.

When leaving the ecstasy, María Concepción looked surprised at the Cross. I didn't know
why she was there. He tried to pick her up and carry her back to the chapel, but he
couldn't get her. Between two people we later took her to the chapel and put him on the
bed of the "40 days miracle".

I left Ladeira after three days, at night, walking, to get to my car and return to Spain.
 
August 17, 1972.
 
A procession made up of 8 priests (Spanish, French and Italian) and 3 laymen (including
myself), we went to Lisbon to learn about the situation in Ladeira and see what could be
done.

We start with our "dear" Lisbon Patriarchate.

 
At 5 in the afternoon, we were received by the Vicar General D. Joao Filipe de Castro. We
introduced ourselves politely and politely to ask about Ladeira and find out what
arguments they had to reject everything that happens there.

The vicar, with incredible impudence and impudence, began to say that everything about
Ladeira was a lie: María Concepción never received Communion when there were people in
front of her, she herself made the stigma of the cross on her forehead, the blood of the
Crucifix was blood chicken that she herself put, and the same in the bleeding of the
Forms, she pays the Spaniards to bring coaches to Ladeira ...
 
In the height of cynicism, he dared to affirm that  the Patriarchate had nothing to do with
the presence of the GNR in Ladeira.
As it was something we already expected, we let him talk to know the nonsense they said
and then we started to refute him.
 
“You say that you do not receive visible communion if there are people in front of
you. Well, I have seen her receive Communion, several times: in her language there was
absolutely nothing and there appeared a very white Form, like the Forms that are
commonly communicated. Even photographs were taken, which are in our power. ”
 
This was witnessed by several of the priests, who had witnessed "Visible Ecstatic
Communions."
 
“A picture bled in front of me, it was completely clean and I still have it. After analyzing it
we learned that it is group 0 human blood,  added another priest.
 
“I had the Ciborium with bleeding forms and I saw how the blood increased and soaked
them all. I distributed Communion with these Forms (Holy Saturday 1972) and my fingers
were drenched in blood, "  another priest intervened.
 
“We have directly taken blood samples from the Crucifix and have them analyzed at the
Forensic Medical Institute in Madrid.  The result has been human blood group, RH positive
(like the one in the picture).
 
A French doctor (Dr. Caux) took a Bleeding Form and took it to France for analysis.  At 48
hours the blood was still fresh, "defying the laws of blood clotting and trickery."  And it
was not chicken blood, but human blood of group 0, RH positive.
 
We were refuting all his lies and he was completely overwhelmed and bewildered. It was
not expected. He adjourned and dismissed us. But before we left, one of the priests told
him:  "If you have any real proof    against Ladeira, show it to us and we promise that,
publicly, we will tell all the pilgrims that Ladeira is a falsehood and that they should not go
back there."
 
The truth is that I have only seen so politely and cynically lying to some politicians who
have no scruples, but in a priest it seemed to me something inconceivable.
 
Valuations abound: Jesus is THE TRUTH, the devil is the father of lies.

The next day, a smaller group, 3 priests and I, went to the Ministry of the Interior, where
we were received by the Minister's Secretary.
 
He received us coldly, dryly, and confirmed, in effect, that the Patriarchate had addressed
them to destroy Ladeira. He showed us a letter from the Patriarchate signed by the
Archbishop of Mytilene (belonging to the Lisbon Patriarchate) in which the Ministry of the
Interior was asked to intervene against Ladeira.
 
The Cardinal's secretary had told us the day before that " they had nothing to do with the
presence of the GNR in Ladeira."

Our third visit was to the Republican National Guard Command. They received us badly, as
if we were criminals, and reaffirmed that  "by order of the Ministry of the Interior and at
the request of the Lisbon Patriarchate, Ladeira had been closed and a permanent
detachment of guards had been placed to prevent anyone from entering there."

They also warned us  "not to   try to enter Ladeira, as the guards had orders to shoot if
someone tried to enter ." 
I remembered again the ecstasy of Maria Concepción on the afternoon of July 17, when
she told us:  "Today the Portuguese Authorities have met to end Ladeira."
 
When I heard it I hesitated, it seemed to me like an “interference” of Maria
concepción. She could not believe that Ladeira was so important to the Lisbon Patriarchate
and that the Interior Minister (who fled Portugal two years later) and the GNR Commander
General could be involved.

It was further proof that she was not the one speaking when she was ecstatic.

We returned to our bases happy, singing songs with the music of some songs from
Ladeira, songs that one of the group's priests composed:

"Come and go from all over the world / to Ladeira do Piñeiro / whether you come or do not
come / they will beat your pandeiro"

"We think that in Lisbon / the bearing is very little serious / especially the secretary /
Interior Ministry"

We had been warned not to enter Ladeira. But we were clear: We had to enter Ladeira and
speak to María Concepción. And, of course we entered! Three priests and me. At night, at
dawn. Very risky, very stealthy, but we get in.
 
We spoke with María Concepción, who listened seriously, thoughtfully.

He went into ecstasy and left the house on his knees. We stay inside waiting. He returned
with a bun in his hand and said that the priests should keep it in the tabernacle and that
someday the meaning of that fact would be known.
 
It was a reference to the Orthodox Church, which at that time was not known at all in
either Ladeira or Portugal.
 

Sever
al of the priests who went to the Lisbon Patriarchate on August 17, 1972
 L
etter from the Vicar of the Patriarchate in which he alludes to the visit we paid him on
August 17 and affirms that the dossier (what dossier? If they only told lies and falsehoods)
was not completed. And if they admit that it was not completed, why do they condemn
Ladeira?
 
 The "battle" of August 20

On August 20, María Concepción's birthday, the 5th Alliance had to be celebrated. The
outlook was bleak: Ladeira closed and the Ministry of the Interior and the GNR, at the
request of the Lisbon Patriarchate, determined to end Ladeira and that no one enter or
approach the Local of Prayer.

The truth is that had it not been for the tremendous opposition that we encountered, a
memorable Alliance could have been celebrated in Ladeira.

Never have so many foreigners come to Ladeira as that day. If Ladeira had not been
“closed”, more than thirty priests would have concelebrated.
The devil knew what he was doing!

In spite of everything we prepare for the "battle".

In the morning, several hundred pilgrims gathered in Fatima. We had "our" Mass in a
chapel in the basilica. The Mass was presided over by a bishop and 16 priests
accompanied him.

In the afternoon, after eating, a large caravan made up of coaches and passenger cars left
Fatima for Ladeira. Other coaches would join near Ladeira. Our purpose was to perform
the prayer as close as possible to Ladeira.

The caravan was very long. The road then was very bad. In Ladeira more than a hundred
guards with jeeps, motorcycles and horses, armed with sabers, carabiners and even
submachine guns, were waiting for us. We carried rosaries and crucifixes.

Upon arrival many coaches and cars were unable to park, they were diverting them. We
pilgrims could not meet, form a large group. We are separated, scattered, in various
groups, unable to get together.

The guards were charging against the pilgrims who were approaching Ladeira, especially
with motorcycles and horses. But the pilgrims, for the most part, did not back down.
 
Many of us were beaten, as if we were criminals or criminals. I saw guards viciously
trample on rosaries and crucifixes.

In spite of everything, many of us arrived in front of the Ladeira entrance, although for a
short time, and we were able to pray some Hail Marys, before they charged us again.

They took me between two guards on horseback and put the saber on my back. I was
caught between the two and thought that if they got together they would beat me. But he
was not afraid at all, not a bit afraid.

They led me to a group of pilgrims who were on the side of the road. Some were
Spanish. When I was there, with that group, a jeep stopped and a certain Jorge, a
corpulent guard (I think he was a corporal) and declared an enemy of Ladeira, who
already knew me and had a special annoyance, got out of it.

He came shooting at me with a riding crop in hand. He stopped in front of me, looked at
me with hatred and hit me hard on the leg. I noticed the blow, but felt no pain. I didn't
flinch.

Angry and furious, Jorge hit me again, this time on the thigh. The same thing happened to
me, I felt it, but it didn't hurt and I kept calm looking at him without fear.
For the third time, he hit me, this time on the back, but with the same result.

Even more furious, he told 2 guards to catch me . Then an R-12 arrived, driven by the
"seer" of El Remei (José Casasampere). He opened the door and said:

-Run up!

I hesitated for a moment (I didn't want to "run away"), but another friend pushed me
saying:

- They want you, not us, go up ...

I got in the car and we left.

There were guards everywhere, but we managed to get to Barquinha, where I was staying
with other Spanish people.

At night I saw the marks of Jorge's 3 blows on my back and on my leg: 3 large bruises,
which lasted several days, but never came to hurt. Incomprehensible.

Something similar had happened to a Dominican priest, days before, on the night of June
3: Jorge himself gave him a tremendous "butt" in the chest with his carabiner and Father
Luis neither flinched nor felt the blow ...

It had been several hours "of struggle". We had prayed in groups around Ladeira. It was
funny to see the policemen charging and us saying the rosary out loud.

Quite a few people claimed to have seen Maria Concepción praying on her knees on the
Cross at the entrance, when she really was at home, heavily guarded so that she did not
move from there ...

It was an afternoon of "Glory". We were beaten for love of God. The pilgrims were
exemplary. Some were taken prisoner. It was a journey that we will always remember,
those of us who live it, like a glorious journey ...
 

Several snapshots that could be taken of the "battle"

on August 20.
Testimony of a Spanish priest, present at the battle of
August 20
 The days after August 20 were very hard in Ladeira. People in the community, including
two Spanish women, were actually incarcerated, unable to leave Ladeira.
 
But they continued with the usual prayers, even if they were inside the house. Maria
Concepción received visible communion several times, given by San Miguel and even had
ecstatic marches, on her knees, outside the house.

So Jose Augusto and Carolina took on a very important role. They were groomsmen of
Maria Concepción and since they had bought some land in Ladeira, they could enter there
normally. They witnessed countless extraordinary events.

As the days went by, Maria Concepción was allowed to leave Ladeira to shop,
accompanied either by her husband Humberto or by Jose Augusto and Carolina.

I stayed many times at Jose Augusto's house and so I could see Maria Concepción outside
of Ladeira.
 
From the month of October I went back to Ladeira, well, to Jose Augusto and Carolina's
house and with them I could see Maria Concepción outside of Ladeira.
 
On the November trip, accompanied by Isabel de Valladolid and a Spanish priest,
something happened to me that was important to me.
It was November 23. I was with the flu: severe headaches and back pain, high fever,
chills, general malaise ... I had told Father F. that we could not return to Spain the next
day, because I was ill.

That afternoon we had visited the tomb of Saozinha in Alenquer. This Portuguese saint
had manifested herself several times through Maria Concepción. When we returned, in
Jose Augusto's car, Saozinha manifested through Maria Concepción.

It was a brief ecstasy, of thanks for having visited the place where she is buried. When
she was saying goodbye, I mentally went to her and said :
 
"Are you leaving without saying anything to me?"
 
At that very moment, as if he had heard me, he addressed me and said :
 
"No, I do not forget you, rapazinho ..."
 
He put his hand on my head and I felt healed. My pain, my chills, my fever disappeared. I
felt perfectly.

I didn't say anything until the next morning, given the possibility that it might have been
temporary. But I felt perfectly and we were able to make the trip as normal: Saozinha,
through Maria Concepción, had cured me.

That same day Maria Concepción announced to us: Jesus has sadly told me that before
the end of the year a city will be destroyed. Several people, including a priest, witnessed
this announcement.

Indeed, a month later, on December 23, the city of Managua was destroyed by an
earthquake. We were able to see how his prophecy was exactly fulfilled.

On several occasions I witnessed concrete prophecies that were later fulfilled ...
 
YEAR 1973

Throughout 1973 Ladeira was "closed".

However, pilgrims went to Ladeira on certain dates. We were not going to the main
entrance, as the guards were nearby. We entered "cross country", at dawn, until we
reached "Calvary". There we prayed the Rosary, we lit some candles when we finished and
we left happy and happy.

We did so, for example, on December 28, 1972, the anniversary of the First Alliance. We
were several coaches from Spain and Portugal. We parked at a certain distance from
Ladeira and, as I said before, we advanced “cross country” until we reached
Calvario. There we prayed and even allowed ourselves to sing without raising our voices
much.

I admired the Faith and dedication of so many people, seeing them walking at dawn,
almost without light, through the field, to pray a Rosary in El Calvario.

I remember a young married couple from Valladolid, who were with their 2 young
children. The father carried one on the shoulders and the mother the other by the
hand. For me it was something really admirable!

Some of us "privileged" people met María Concepción outside Ladeira: at the home of
Humberto's family, her husband, or at the farm that one of Ladeira's brothers had in
Almeirim.

We were with María Concepción, we prayed with her and we attended various ecstasy.
This is how those enigmatic words of the Lord were fulfilled through María Concepción in
June of the previous year, shortly before Ladeira “closed”:

“For a time I will speak to you and then I will not speak to you. Then I will speak
for a few and then I will speak for everyone. ”

He spoke to us for a time, until Ladeira closed. Then she stopped talking to us for a
while. Then he spoke to a few ...

The question was: will the announcement "and then I will speak for everyone" be
fulfilled ?

Amazing and extraordinary events continued to happen in Ladeira, even when it was
closed. Very often María Concepción had ecstatic marches on her knees, always
accompanied by someone, usually María José or Carolina. The guards saw her like this
many times. On several occasions they tried to lift her off the ground, but their efforts
were in vain, realizing that there was irresistible strength in her.

On one occasion Carolina, who accompanied her on an ecstatic march, saw her rise into
the air and disappear. Carolina was scared to be left alone, but a few minutes later she
found her again on the ground and in ecstasy.

Also, on some occasions, he received the Communion that the Archangel Saint Michael
brought him and the Sacred Form was visible in his language.

Maria Concepción told us that some guards told her that on the night of the first Saturday
to the first Sunday she had heard terrible screams and moans for a long time. “They were
clearly heard.  We are heard by all the guards. ”

María Concepción replied that they were the souls in Purgatory that could not be rescued
on those nights because when Ladeira was closed, she missed the prayer that hundreds of
pilgrims did during most of the night ...

Certainly, on the nights of the first Saturday to the first Sunday of each month, many
hours were spent in prayer and prayers were continually prayed for by the souls in
Purgatory.

 
 
The Trial against Maria Concepcion
 
Without doubt, the most significant event in 1973 was the trial against Maria Concepción.

These were the accusations against Maria Concepción: Giving blessings, administering the
sacrament of Communion, doing exorcisms, giving the anointing to the sick ... Curious
accusations for wanting to put a person in jail!

I have previously stated that this is only a “ summary summary” of how much happened
in Ladeira and especially of what I personally witnessed and lived. I left for this moment
the matter of "administering the sacrament of Communion" and "doing the exorcisms."
I already related that on several occasions Sacred Shapes appeared to her in some flowers
(jugs in Portuguese) that she cut from a small garden in front of us. I also put two photos
that show it.

The phenomenon of the appearance of Sacred Forms in Ladeira was impressive. Why do I

put Sacred Forms and simply “shapes” us ? Very easy: We were able to verify that once a
large number of Sacred Forms appeared in Ladeira, it coincided with the
disappearance of the Sacred Forms from the tabernacle of a religious convent in
Valladolid. They were the same dates, they were the same dies!
 
All this we check thoroughly. Several priests verified it.

I myself spoke to the superior of that convent, who already knew Ladeira and she related
the event in detail. I summarize it now.

The chaplain of that convent left the Ciborium full of Sacred Forms. The next day, when he
opened the tabernacle, before Mass, he found that the Ciborium was empty. Surprised and
scared, he asked the superior who had the key to the tabernacle.

- "Just you and me."  She replied.

But he was more surprised when when he passed the purifier (I think the cloth used by
the priest to clean the sacred vessels is called that) inside the ciborium, at the end of the
Mass, it was filled with blood.

Two priests from Valladolid, from those who came to Ladeira, spoke with this priest, who
confirmed this fact, rather, the two facts: disappearance of the Sacred Forms of the
ciborium, without any human person intervening, and the purifier soaked in "blood".

The Sacred Forms were transferred from the ciborium of the convent to the ciborium that
was in the Ladeira tabernacle.

The Sacred Forms used to appear in the chapel, but once they appeared on the way to
Calvary, in a small hole. When they were picked up, the priests found that they were
neither dirty nor absolutely dusty. They were clean and white.

That place was perfumed for years and we pilgrims would take land to take it to our
homes and that land remained perfumed for years and years.

On some occasion, while Maria Concepción was ecstatic, Sacred Forms appeared to her
and she gave communion to some people.

It should be borne in mind that both the people of the Ladeira Community, as well as
many pilgrims, were denied Communion for going to Ladeira.

I remember a day when several people returned sad from the Torres Novas Mass, because
they had denied us Communion. Upon entering the Ladeira store, we found Maria
Concepción, who was in the small garden arranging the flowers. We told him what had
happened to us. Maria Concepción raised her eyes to Heaven, knelt down and went into
ecstasy. Several Holy Forms appeared to him and he gave us Communion, which we
received excited on our knees. There were as many Sacred forms as people were there.
Something very similar I could witness on several occasions more.

The Lord called Ladeira: "Mystery of My Tabernacles". And, of course, The Eucharist

was the center of Ladeira.

The few occasions in which he gave communion to pilgrims and people of the
community were always in ecstasy and with Sacred Forms miraculously
appeared at that time.
It is curious that they accused him of giving communion, when today the laity distribute
Communion in the churches as normal. And they are not ecstatic nor do the Forms appear
miraculously!
 
Regarding exorcisms, it was something that I discovered in Ladeira.
 
Of course he knew that "demon possession" existed. I had read a lot on this subject and
had the example of the Lord who so many times cast out demons, unclean spirits, from
many people. But I never thought of encountering these cases. And in Ladeira I saw them.

What surprised me most was the great power and dominance that Maria Concepción had
over evil spirits. I witnessed numerous cases, some very clear.

Maria Concepción did not read any written forms. She used the crucifix, water in large
quantities. On some occasion she used the missal and the stole, when they resisted a lot.
It was a real fight. I witnessed many cases. The spirits never wanted to leave the body of
the possessed person. They screamed, growled, cursed, rolled on the ground. The holy
water burned them. They spoke in strange languages. They understood Latin, when a
priest intervened. It was not a pleasant sight.

I saw very surprising cases. One reminded me of Gerasa's demoniac. It was in front of

Maria Concepción's house. It was a long struggle, applying the crucifix to the possessed's
mouth to make her kiss it. The possessed rejected him, spat on him. Maria Concepción
ordered the spirits, in the name of Jesus, to abandon that body they were tormenting. And
when she managed to drive them out, there was a tremendous stir in the chicken
coop. The chickens leaped wildly, cackled, and there was a loud crash in the chicken
coop. This lasted a few minutes. Then the situation normalized.

The man possessed remembered nothing of what had happened to him. He only
remembered that they wanted to strangle him from inside his body.

They were not suggestive, moronic, or epileptic people.

On one occasion they took Maria Concepción a young woman who seemed to be
possessed by the continuous attacks and transformations that she suffered. We saw two
young girls enter. We did not know who was the one suffering from demon attacks. Seeing
them, Maria Concepción went without hesitation to one of them. She was very pretty. As
soon as she put her hand on her head, the young woman fell to the ground,
slumped. There she writhed on the ground and her face was deformed in such a way that
she did not seem the same person. They sat her on a chair and held her between two
people. Maria Concepción poured over the contents of a jug with holy water. She prayed
over it and was free.

Maria Concepción told her that this had happened to her by attending spiritualism sessions
and that if she returned she would be possessed again. This young woman changed her
life and never had any more attacks or demon possessions.

I wanted to present this case because of the amazing facial change that this young woman
experienced, really attractive and then scary: deformed face, crooked mouth, wild eyes ...

On another occasion, a posese person was brought to Maria Concepción. We were in

prayer. Maria Concepción stayed in the center "Fighting" with the unclean spirits that
tormented that woman. When he managed to free her and the person was getting up as if
waking from a dream, immediately another person from those who were there fell to the
ground with the same "symptoms".

Again the same fight: Invocations to Jesus, to Saint Michael to the Queen of Angels. All
around us we repeated the creed over and over again. When he managed to free this
person, who had never experienced any of this, the unclean spirits got into another, who
fell to the ground, repeating the same scenes. Again the same fight: a person, normal
until that moment, who rolled on the ground, shouted, blasphemed, with a deformed
face ... This time, Maria Concepción, in the name and with the Power of Jesus, ordered the
spirits Evil men who leave without harming anyone else ...

I had never seen or read anything like it: Unclean spirits leaving one body and
immediately entering another to dominate and possess it.

For many priests this was the definitive proof that the Lord was with Maria Concepción.
 
 

 
I go back to trial, once the accusations against Maria Concepción are known.

I will transcribe verbatim what I published in the newsletter that I edited about Ladeira
and that had a very good circulation, in Spain and other countries.

First session.

On May 15, at 10:30 am, in the town of Torres Novas, the first session of the trial against
Maria Concepción began.

The room was packed with people, crowding against the benches as best they could. We
estimate about two hundred people, the vast majority, followers of Ladeira. 6 priests
attended, 3 of them as witnesses (they admitted no more than 3).
The judge, Olimpio da Fonseca, young and arrogant, read the accusations against Maria
Concepción: "Give blessings, administer the sacrament of communion, do exorcisms, give
the anointing of the sick ..."

And began the interrogation of Maria Concepción, who answered calmly and serenely. She
explained that the blessings were given in ecstasy, when her body was moved by a
"Heavenly Force" that acted through it. She was not aware at all of what she was doing or
saying at the time. In that same ecstatic state, on some occasions, he had given
Communion with Sacred forms, which appeared miraculously.

He also explained that the exorcisms made them moved and directed by that "Heavenly
Presence", which is what made people liberated and healed.

The judge listened carefully and his statement was collected in writing.

From that moment, Maria Concepción sat on the "bench", between the judge, as accused.

Subsequently, one by one, Adriana, Laura and Lourdes, 3 people who attended Ladeira
assiduously and who were eyewitnesses to numerous extraordinary events, intervened. All
3 testified that they had witnessed various healings: a paralytic from Carregueira, another
from Peniche (from where, as a result of that healing, large groups of pilgrims began to
come), a girl who was born with bloody eyes and was cured in Ladeira , instantly, on May
13, 1971.

Each of them declared that they never heard Maria Concepción claim the power to heal
and that they only asked for Faith and prayers .
 
Then Mr. Ferreira entered, as a witness to the accusation. This man had sold the houses of
Ladeira to Carmelinda, a few months after the houses in which they lived were
destroyed. This man simply stated that he did not believe in Ladeira and that he never
saw miracles in Ladeira.

At 12:10 the most important witness of the accusation entered the room: Fernando
Ribeiro.
How can I describe it? I knew him very well, as he frequently went to Ladeira as a "spy"
and talked a lot with me. He was physically strong, loaded with shoulders. He had carried
out acts of savagery against Ladeira and was sentenced to pay a fine for said
acts. Honestly and dispassionately: he was undesirable. It is the most gentle and
charitable thing I can say.

I remember once that Maria concepción had an ecstasy in which we were few people with
her. Fernando had a thistle in his hand. He approached Maria Concepción and applied the
thistle, pressing tightly his thick hand to Maria Concepción's small hand. We look at him in
amazement. She expected a scream, a fuss, a gesture of pain from Maria Concepción,
which revealed that her ecstasy was not real. But Maria Concepción did not flinch. With
tremendous ease, he removed the stinging thistle from her hand and squeezed it tightly in
his own hand (from Maria Concepción) until it was almost pulverized. Then, he returned it
to him, cut into pieces and said: "Go and take it to the Judicial Police."

Well, this was the important witness to the prosecution. We were all expectant.
He was sworn in and began his statement. He said that he did not believe in Ladeira and
that he saw many frauds there. Of course, he did not explain any, absolutely none.

But he had to answer questions from Maria concepción's lawyer, Vasco da Gama
Fernandes, one of the best lawyers in Portugal and who would later become the president
of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal.

He stated that Fr. Manuel Alves, vicar of Torres Novas, put him in contact with the
Archbishop of Mytilene (Patriarchate of Lisbon), HE Antonio Xavier de Castro Monteiro. His
first interview lasted 5 hours. Subsequently, he received him very frequently.
He declared that the archbishop of Mytilene pressured him to say that everything that
happened in Ladeira "was witchcraft and spiritualism" , which he refused. This very
important affirmation, he repeated on 3 different occasions and was included in writing in
the minutes of his statements.

He also stated that the fine of 7,000 escudos imposed on him for acts of savagery against
the Ladeira well, was paid with money that came out of the Lisbon Patriarchate, donated
by the Archbishop of Mytilene and delivered through Father Vitorino de Torres Novas.

He also stated that the vicar of Torres Novas and the archbishop of Mytilene put him in
contact with the Judicial Police. The Judicial Police paid him for the trips to Lisbon and the
material for photographs and films that he took in Ladeira.

He ended by saying that when he saw Maria Concepción giving Communion, she was
ecstatic and he never heard her say that she had the power to heal the sick. She prayed
about the sick.
………………………………………………………………….

These statements merit comment. The prosecution witness, the main dish of the
accusation, exposed the Lisbon Patriarchate.

What low, vile and creeping behavior!

They pressure him, not to tell the truth, but to declare something that even he himself
does not dare to defend: "that what happened in Ladeira was witchcraft and spiritualism."

Nice way to represent Jesus who is THE TRUTH!

Satan is the Father of lies.

I have never seen honesty or cleanliness in the performance of the Patriarchate. I say this
with pain, without resentment, but being true to the truth.

They pay the fine for the acts of savagery against Ladeira!

I don't want to dwell on the subject.

Nor did he discover anything new. We knew all this beforehand, but we never thought that
Fernando would declare it before the judge and that it would be recorded in the record.

.................................................. .......
 
 Ferna
ndo Ribeiro declared that the Lisbon Patriarchate pressured him to declare that what was
happening in Ladeira was witchcraft and spiritualism. They gave him 7000 escudos to pay
a fine with which he was convicted of committing acts of savagery in Ladeira.
 
In the afternoon Vitorino testified. He declared having witnessed numerous extraordinary
events :
Visible communions, the sores, the cross on the forehead, cures, expulsions of demons ...
He added that in ecstasy Maria Concepción was "most beautiful", that she had answered
her thoughts and that she had witnessed how they pricked and burned her , without the
slightest flinch.
 
Julio Vilhais, one of the first companions of Maria Concepción, followed. He declared,
under oath, to have received on many occasions the Communion given by Saint Michael,
making the Sacred Form visible in his language.

Indeed, when Maria Concepción began receiving the Communion given by Saint Michael,
from the beginning of 1963, before the doubts and attacks of many people who said that
she was preparing it, she asked the Lord that another person could also receive
communion and that the Sacred Form was seen on their tongue.

The Lord granted it to him and Julius received communion on many occasions, also
making the Sacred Form visible in his language. Not for this reason did Ladeira's enemies
change their attitude or stop rejecting and attacking Ladeira.

Antonio Lopes, Jose de Liteiros and Jose Maria also gave a statement. All in the same line
of testifying the extraordinary events that they witnessed and that we have already
described previously: stigmatizations, visible communions, cures (in Ladeira there were
dozens and dozens of cures).

And it was the turn of the 3 priests.

The first priest bore witness to some extraordinary events that he witnessed in Ladeira:
Visible Communion, the formation of the cross on the forehead, raining heavily and Maria
Concepción remaining completely dry, perfumes ... He defended the authenticity of the
ecstasy of Maria Conception both for the transformation of the face, as for body rigidity,
response to interior requests, etc.

He affirmed that the Hierarchy must respect and study the charismatic facts, not
repress them. He clarified the difference between exorcisms done in a liturgical and
solemn way - reserved only for priests with the permission of the bishop - and the normal
exorcism, of defense against the devil, that any Catholic faithful can perform. There is an
exorcism printed with a formula that can be used by all the faithful. The same occurs with
the anointing of the sick: any faithful can pray over a sick person, lay hands on him, apply
oil, etc.

The second priest also gave testimony of numerous extraordinary events that he
witnessed in Ladeira: Visible communions, bleeding of Sacred Forms… He declared that he
had found nothing in Ladeira that was against moral or theological principles. He wrote
several times to the Lisbon Patriarchate giving an account of his trips to Ladeira, especially
of the spiritual fruits he saw there, but he never received the slightest response.

He alluded to the visit he made to the Lisbon Patriarchate with 8 other priests on August
17, 1972, where he was able to verify the lack of consistency and evidence of the
accusations against Maria concepción.

Regarding the expulsion of demons, he affirmed that it had been the definitive test of
Ladeira, since Maria Concepción did not use liturgical rites, but followed her own
inspiration, with spontaneous prayers and helping herself with the cross and stole, which
is allowed any baptized person to defend himself against the devil.

The third priest declared having made more than 10 trips to Ladeira. He also claimed to
have witnessed numerous extraordinary events, for example, the appearance of Sacred
Forms in the chapel, without Maria Concepción being present. These Sacred Forms
featured very different dies and not common in Portugal. But he focused, especially, on
the bleeding from Sacred Forms (some of them bled on his hands), from the Crucifix, from
a picture.

He showed photographs to the judge of some of the bleeding and the results of the
analyzes carried out on one of the Forms (Dr. Jean Caux in France, whose testimony
appears on these pages), the blood of the Crucifix, and the blood of the print, which bled
before him. The results were always the same: human blood, group 0 Rh +.
With the testimony of the 3 priests the first session ended.
 
Second session
 
It was held on Monday June 18.

An hour and a half before the room began it was completely crowded and many people,
unable to enter, crowded into the corridors. Eight priests attended, 7 Spanish and one
French.

Given the impossibility of being heard verbally as witnesses of Maria Concepción in the
courtroom, many priests (more than twenty) from different countries, had sent their
personal testimony to the judge, defending the supernatural nature of Ladeira and the
innocence of Maria Concepción.

At eleven in the morning Maria Concepción entered and occupied her bench. We saw her
calm, serene, even happy.

A little later the judge entered. In the morning 5 witnesses passed, who openly defended
Maria Concepción. They were firm, clear, resounding testimonies.

I remember Odete speaking of the impressive ecstatic marches of Maria Concepción in the
rain, on the mud, of the long nights of prayer, of her authority before the possessed
people who brought before Maria Concepción ...

The prosecutor, as in the previous session, listened carefully, but did not intervene in the
interrogations.
In the afternoon, the intervention of the defense lawyer of Maria Concepción, Exmo. Mr.
Vasco da Gama Fernandes. Her speech lasted 70 minutes and we can describe it as
masterful and inspired.

I am not going to transcribe in full, the 70 minutes of your speech, but simply, I will make
an extract.

“… After my first contacts with this process, I saw that I was facing one of the greatest
religious persecutions in this country. A miserable conspiracy had been drawn against this
poor woman ...

The priests became whistleblowers. The ecclesiastics, instead of studying Ladeira's case,

did the worst: persecute him. And in this post-conciliar era, an unfortunate persecution
was staged, with a stage setting of tragicomedy: attempts to lock up Maria Concepción in
a psychiatric hospital; Subsequent imprisonment for 3 days, from where I got it out by
sending a telegram to the National President Marcelo Caetano. And finally, using the
Concordat, the performance of the Republican National Guard with sabers, carabiners,
pistols, horses, etc.

He cannot help but repugnate this scientific persecution against this poor peasant. To the
extent that Father Vitorino took one of the witnesses to the Archbishop of Mytilene, to
pressure him to declare something that, because it was false, this witness did not agree to
testify. And they handed over to said witness, Fernando Ribeiro, a sum of 7000 escudos,
to pay the fine with which he was condemned for the acts of savagery carried out in
Ladeira ...

The church must begin a clean, hygienic and noble study of Ladeira. And lean on the Cross
and on the example of Christ, not on sabers and carabiners ...

We have to recognize that Maria Concepción became a pole of religious attraction for
hundreds and thousands of people, as the pastors of Fatima once were. If people in good
faith go to Maria Concepción, there is no disturbance of public order. They are purely
spiritual relationships, since no subscriptions or material contributions are requested.

And what fault does Maria Concepción have that sick people come to her asking for a
cure? She limits herself to praying and asking for Faith, without ever supplanting the
doctors, even advising them to go to them. And so cures have arisen ...

The priests demonstrated with their testimony that the acts carried out by Maria
Concepción do not go against Canon Law.

She has also not violated any rule of Portuguese positive law, nor of the Concordat. She
never tried to impersonate an ecclesiastic, a priest, a bishop, a cardinal ...

Let's save the freedom and independence of Justice. Justice must never bow to political or
religious pressure, as it would be a serious offense to the integrity of our nation ...

I have used my toga, my word and my knowledge, to defend this humble woman. It is
very possible that this is the last judgment in which I deposit the illusion and surrender
that I now put… ”

When it was over it was 4.25 in the afternoon. We held back so as not to break into
applause, because that speech deserved it. We were all admired and grateful for his
intervention.
 
 Vasco da Gama Fernandes: "... I saw that I was facing
one of the greatest religious persecutions in this country ..."
 
Last session: The sentence
 
The afternoon before the last session, several people were able to be with Maria
Concepción. I was very calm. She told us: “Jesus has made me know that tomorrow I will
be condemned, because She, being innocent, was also condemned. But I won't go to jail. "

I was fully convinced that this would happen.

And so it happened.

On Monday, July 9, in the afternoon, the last session of the trial took place. As in the
previous sessions, the room was completely packed. Many people were left out, unable to
enter.

At 3 in the afternoon Maria Concepción entered accompanied by her husband

Huberto. Soon after, the judge did it. She read the accusations to her, exposed before and
imposed a sentence of 30 days in prison, commutable by 30 escudos each day, plus
justice taxes, more expenses ...

Maria Concepción listened standing up, with her hands behind her back. When the judge
finished her sentence, Maria Concepción was struck down on the ground. The platform
rumbled and more when she gave 3 strong blows on the ground screaming: Ay, ay, ay ...!

We were all dumbfounded. The noise had been enormous. Maria Concepción remained on

the ground, as if nailed to the cross. The crowd in the room shouted, Long live Jesus, long
live Jesus!

The priests present calmed the spirits, calmed the people and asked for silence.
 
The judge, from his table, looked contemptuously at Maria Concepción and smugly said to
two of the officials present: "Get that woman up!"
 
Obediently, they went to Maria Concepción and before our attentive looks, tried to lift
her. They couldn't move it! They tried it between 4 people with the same result.

The judge, bewildered, ordered the courtroom vacated. We obeyed and went out
orderly ...

Minutes later, we saw Maria Concepción leave accompanied by Humberto and his
lawyer. She returned to her prison in Ladeira, where the members of the Community
awaited her expectantly.
 
 
 

 
If the judge needed any proof of the authenticity of the ecstasy, he had it there before his
eyes: Mª Concepción nailed to the ground on a cross and among several men, it is not
that they could not lift it, it was that they could not even move it (the photo is from
another ecstasy
 YEAR 1974 

The trial against María Concepción helped us to verify what we already knew:
THERE IS NO LITTLE FOUNDATION OF FRAUD OR DECEIT IN LADEIRA'S FACTS!

At the same time, he revealed what we also knew: The Lisbon Patriarchate was not
interested in the truth, he was only interested in ending Ladeira, in whatever way:
hospitalizing María Concepción in a psychiatric hospital, requesting that the Guard be
there Republican National to prevent pilgrims from coming to pray (and if necessary they
should be violently repelled), or pressuring a witness, to whom they had given money, to
say something, that even that witness did not dare to declare BECAUSE IT WAS A LIE.
Of course, Fernando Ribeiro declared the truth, because the lawyer Vasco da Gama
Fernandes "reminded" him that he was under oath and that "perjury" was a crime. And, of
course, because the lawyer was aware of Fernando Ribeiro's contacts with the Patriarchate
...

The situation did not change after the trial. Ladeira was still closed, although we pilgrims
continued to come on certain dates, reaching the Camino del Calvario to pray.

Likewise, some of us continued to see María Concepción outside Ladeira.

And so, at the end of 1973 they told us a rather strange fact, humanly speaking. On
November 15, María Concepción had an ecstatic walk on her knees, accompanied by a
person from the community: María José.
 
In that ecstatic march, María Concepción found some dry branches of a rose bush. He
gave them to María José and ordered her to put those dry branches in a vase with dry
sand. And the Lord said:  "These dry thorns you must give a rose and when this
happens, Ladeira will open . "

María José fulfilled the mandate and put the dry branches in a vase with dry sand.

They told us this in December 1973.

Could it be that a rose sprouted from some dry branches?

It was hard to believe, both because of the fact itself and because of the prophecy that on
that day Ladeira "would open up." And more in the situation in which Ladeira was: closed,
guarded by the GNR and with no human hope that it would “open” again.

February 2, 1974

On February 2, 1974, the Feast of the Purification of Mary and the anniversary of the 2nd
Alliance, we decided to enter Ladeira through the main entrance, as we had done once
before at Easter in 1971.

The truth is that they  told us  that we had to enter Ladeira on this very Marian date,
" because if we entered, it would be the foretaste that Ladeira would open very soon."

We were several hundred pilgrims, but less than on other occasions.

 
We meet in the pine forest that is in front of the path that goes up to the Cross. At the
entrance of Ladeira were the guards, forming a barrier.

Several times we had gathered in this pine forest, praying and singing, but without trying
to enter.

I must confess, with sincerity, that I saw this as an "impossible mission". When on Easter
Sunday of 1971 I put myself in front of the pilgrims carrying the banner of Spain, I felt a
"special force". This I have already related previously.

But not this day. Nothing made me think that we were going to get to the Cross, not even
that we were going to try.

But suddenly, unexpectedly, Margarita, a delicate woman from Burgos, began to run alone
towards the Cross. She crashed into the guards, fell to the ground, and rose like a spring.

Three other women, on their knees, also advanced towards the Cross. They were Lourdes,
Adriana and Cecilia. The guards used the butts of their carabiners, to reject them. But
many other people had already set in motion.
The guards beat the pilgrims, who continued to advance until they reached the Cross.
 
I was still standing, as if paralyzed, when Odete took my hand and dragged me towards
the Cross.

We arrived together at the Cross, which was beginning to cover itself with bouquets of
flowers.

I saw Soledad, a distinguished assiduous lady from Ladeira, on her knees, with open
arms, while a guard pointed the carabiner at him. Soledad shouted: "I am not afraid, I am
not afraid. I die for Jesus!"

The guard was very nervous and another guard made him lower the carabiner, because he
could have fired. This was not a game!

We pilgrims gather around the Cross. Not all arrived. Some stayed at the beginning of the
path that led up to the Cross. Others did not even move.

After a few minutes and before the imminent arrival of reinforcements, we left.

We had opened Ladeira, reaching the Cross, filling it with flowers, praying and singing
around it! There were quite a few injured and people beaten. But we were happy and
proud of what we had done.

Would this be the foretaste that Ladeira would soon be opened, as we had been
told? Humanly nothing invited to believe it.
 

On February 2 several hundred

people managed to enter Ladeira again (the photo is not from that day)
At the end of March, on the 25th, the feast of the Annunciation, I was with María
Concepción at the home of Humberto's family, her husband. We were a small group. We
were talking and praying together.

María Concepción went into ecstasy and the Blessed Virgin spoke to us. That ecstasy was
mainly for me. She said something that no one knew and that she could not know
either ... Her words surprised and moved me. It was a very clear test for me. She had
never spoken to me so clearly. It was very personal.
 
  
April 25: Revolution of "The Carnations"

On April 25, the so-called “carnation revolution” broke out, which changed the Portuguese
regime. Not a single one of blood was spilled. It was a revolution led by the military, led
by General Espinola, among others. They wanted to bring freedom and democracy to
Portugal.

I do not want to enter political comments, which I do not like. But the truth is that God
used that fact to liberate Ladeira.

An order was given to withdraw the members of the Republican National Guard, who had
spent 17 months turning Ladeira into a prison for that small community and a prohibited
place for pilgrims.

We were told that Ladeira would “open” on May 5, three months after we had a preview of
what it was like to re-enter Ladeira.

Hundreds of people went to Ladeira on May 5. The famous and arrogant Captain Silva,
who had said that he would "tear his pack" if Ladeira reopened, was in charge of
withdrawing the guards and releasing Ladeira.

Upon reaching the houses where the small community of Ladeira lived, Maria Concepción
showed us the vase with the dry branches. Indeed, from some dry branches, planted in
dry soil, green leaves had been born and in one of them a rose was emerging.
 
We saw it perfectly. I don't know if the photo we took that day shows so clearly. It was a
fulfilled prophecy and a unique wonder. 
They had not managed to finish off Ladeira. It would return to being a “Local de oraçao”,
as El Señor had requested.

By the way, Vasco da Gama Fernandes, the lawyer who defended María Concepción in the
trial, was named president of the Assembly of the Republic (equivalent to our Congress of
deputies).
 

Green leaves and a rose sprouted

from dry branches planted in dry soil ...
 
On May 13, a week after the opening of Ladeira, in the afternoon prayer, María
Concepción received the Holy Communion given by San Miguel again.

The prayer was made on the small esplanade at the entrance to Ladeira, to the left of the
Marble Cross. There they would go to carry out the prayers in successive years.

There was a large group of pilgrims, several priests, including a Spanish Dominican who
was coming for the first time.
 
After more than an hour leading songs and prayers, María Concepción entered a small
garden in whose center, on a column, was a statue of the Blessed Virgin. She knelt down,
placed her hands behind her back, and with an ecstatic gaze, stuck out her
tongue. Moments later, a Sacred Form was seen on her tongue. As usual, María
Concepción made a deep adoration and then showed the Sacred Form again on her
tongue.

Shortly after, he plucked a precious rose from the garden and presented it to the Spanish
priest, who accepted it with great joy.
This "visible Communion" was not only photographed, but also filmed with a super-8
camera, which is what existed at that time. There are several "visible Communions" filmed
with a super-8 camera. The clearest corresponds to the trip that D. Francisco Sánchez-
Ventura made in early 1971, when he witnessed a visible Communion in which María
Concepción kept the Sacred Form on the tongue for about two hours, without undone it.
 

 
MONTH OF AUGUST

In this new stage of "open Ladeira" the situation improved a lot. The guards no longer
came to prevent prayer, nor did the savages (charitably, we called them "thugs"), who
were dedicated to provoke, insult and even attack pilgrims.

The prayer of the first Saturdays of the month returned at night and the presence of
priests and Masses in Ladeira increased considerably. Ladeira was once again a "Local de
oraçao".
In order not to make this story endless and repetitive, I will focus mainly on two days in
August.

August 18th.

A caravan of cars we headed in the morning to a small bay near the town of de Foz de
Arelho. In that caravan there were several priests.

Officially we were going to get clams and cockles for lunch on the 20th, Maria
Concepción's birthday.
Indeed, in the morning, we were gathering clams and cockles. We fill several buckets. We
went into the water dressed, since most of us had not brought swimsuits. We were singing
and praying in the water, with great joy.

In the afternoon there was a prayer led by Maria Concepción. We prayed on our knees on
the beach. 

At the end of the Rosario, Maria Concepción began to walk towards some small rocks,
which were next to the beach. Several people followed her a few meters away. I saw her
perfectly. When she reached the rocks, on the shore of the beach, she knelt down. She
spread her arms. This time her hands were not behind her back, but her arms were open,
her head slightly raised, looking up. As in the previous cases, the Sacred Host became
visible in its language. It was a normal Sacred Host, in size, color and shape.

We approached her, who began to march on her knees into the water, on the edge of the
beach. Two people, one on each side, were helping him to move forward in the water.

I was walking in front of her a meter away. I realized that the Sacred Form was not
dissolving, but was increasing in thickness. Some claimed that it was in the form of a
small book. I cannot testify, but I did clearly see that the Host, completely normal at first,
was increased in thickness on her tongue.

I witnessed several visible communions in Ladeira, but I had never seen the Host increase
in size, as it did this time before us.

He held it on his tongue for about twenty minutes. Then he swallowed it and the Lord
manifested himself through Maria Concepción. He told us to read chapter 10 of the
Apocalypse.
 
This chapter relates how an Angel, with one foot in the sea and the other on the land,
gives the prophet a roll (book) to eat, soft on the palate and bitter in the bowels, telling
him to continue prophesying. The parallelism was great ...
 
 Maria Concepción
received the Communion given by San Miguel. The Host, completely normal at first, was
increasing in thickness before our eyes ...
August 20 .

Maria Concepción's birthday and anniversary of the “great battle”, in which members of
the Republican National Guard brutally charged pilgrims two years earlier.

It was a tremendous day, triumphant, with thousands of pilgrims from Portugal, Spain,
France, Italy, England, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Jamaica,
Vietnam ...
 
Coaches from Valladolid, Asturias, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada and dozens and dozens of
private cars arrived from Spain. There were about twenty priests.

2 "curious" events occurred, such as the oil and hair, but in a minor tone.

They announced that a fish and some loaves would appear. So, between several people
we made a small well on the Camino del Calvario. This well was about 70 centimeters
deep and about 50 in diameter. We put plastic so that the water does not filter and we fill
it with water.

A Jesuit brother from Valladolid wanted to stay at night by the well, “on duty”, to ensure
that no one put a fish there.

At daylight, Angel, the Jesuit brother, reached into the well and saw that there was
something alive that was moving: it was a fish.
 
He ran to warn Maria Concepción and several people got out, we saw the fish (a carp
about 18 centimeters). We put it, alive, in a basin with clean and clear water for all to see.

Another person, Jose Augusto, found some bagels and 3 carnations in the early hours of
the morning, next to the Cross of the eighth station of the Via Crucis. Many times Maria
Concepción had passed in ecstatic march living the Passion.

He found 12 muffins, tender, recent. They were placed on a tray and went from 12 to 33.
Soon after there were more than a hundred. They were at a table, in full view of
everyone. They were not hidden. No baker came, nor did anyone place bread rolls there.

A large table had been prepared, the Alliance table, where he was going to place the
food. Everyone who came up with a plate would receive their food. The food was: Soup,
clams, cockles, rice, lamb and bread. And as a drink it came.

Quite a few women with the blue habits of the White Army were in charge of serving the
food. They first served the priests. Then to the other people.

It was impressive to see very long lines of people with a plate and a glass passing by to
have their portion of rice, lamb, cockles, bread and wine. Where did so much food come
from? Apparently it was multiplying. They told me that only 3 lambs had been killed. It is
true that the portions were not very large, but everyone received their share of soup, first
and clams, rice, lamb, bread and wine, then ... Many, even, repeated.

In the afternoon, we go down to the "Local de oraçao" for prayer. Maria Concepción had
on her head a white, very white, multi-story cake. She placed the cake on a table and
began the prayer. Saint Joan of Arc manifested itself. Maria Concepción brandished a
candle in her right hand and sang in ecstasy. There were thousands of people. Portuguese
priests "in civilian clothes" also came, some of whom spoke with Spanish priests and
confessed that they could not go freely to Ladeira for fear of the Patriarchate.

After the prayer, Maria Concepción was distributing pieces of cake to all the people
present, to all!

Here I can affirm that there was multiplication, very clearly. Each and every one received
their piece of cake. I saw it and did not believe it. I saw Maria concepción cutting pieces of
cake and thought: “They are very big. They will not come for everyone, not even for a
quarter.  You have to make them smaller. "

But, I insist, it is not that it came for everyone, but that the first floor, the base, the
largest, was complete, untouched.

It was a tremendous journey, which compensated us for so much suffering and

persecution.

I stayed several more days and continued eating from the remains of the rice, the lamb
and the cake, which lasted several days!

There is a movie of that day, both of the meal and the afternoon prayer and the
multiplication of the cake. (The movie is much better than the photographs below. Maybe
someday we can post that and other movies)
 
 FINAL SUMMARY

As I said at the beginning of this page:

I do not intend to write Ladeira's story, not even a complete summary. Simply, I want to
highlight some significant events (in my opinion) and,  especially , tell my experiences
and give the testimony of the most important thing (I would not manage to
remember everything) that I witnessed, felt and lived in Ladeira. 
 
And those experiences, the best of my life, which I have always defended and will defend
as something heavenly supernatural, occurred between the years 1970 and 1974.
 
There were other important events in which I witnessed and participated.
 
For example, in the prayer room there was a small garden with some fruit trees. When
maneuvering with a truck they split a small pear tree. Time passed and the trunk, cut at
its base and splintered, dried up. 4 people were asked to water it with a pitcher of
water. Among those 4 people were my wife and me.
 
So we did it. We watered the dry and splintered trunk, as we were told it would grow
green. So it was. A few months later, a young green branch sprouted from the dry trunk,
which gradually became a new pear tree ...
 
The case of the rose that sprouted from dry sticks was repeated.

 
Very important to me was what happened in December 1977.
 
We had our first daughter on December 13 of that year. My wife received several points
when giving birth. She needed rest to recover.
 
On December 23 Christmas Eve, my wife and I were debating whether to go to Portugal or
not, to see his family. We were excited to be able to take the girl to meet her maternal
grandparents.
 
But the circumstances did not advise it. My father, who was a doctor, advised us not to
travel, stating that it was "crazy", especially due to my wife's condition.
But the word madness made me think of Ladeira: "Blessed are the madmen of My Love!"
 
Overall, we decided to set out on the road to Lisbon, without having warned anyone. We
wanted to get to my in-laws' house before midnight. We did not plan to enter Ladeira.
 
But when we were a few kilometers from Ladeira (our route to Lisbon passed through
there) we felt an irrepressible desire to get closer to Ladeira.
 
"Well, we entered Ladeira, kissed the Cross and continued on our way.  No one waits for
us there or knows anything about our trip ” , we said.
 
Overall, we entered Ladeira, kissed the Cross at the entrance and said: "Let's go to the
image of Our Lady of Graces and see the pear tree that we water and it blossomed ..."

But as we advanced to the image of Our Lady of Graces we met Antonio López, one of
Ladeira's apostles. He hugged us very effusively and told us that "they were waiting for us
upstairs, because Maria Concepción in the afternoon prayer had said: Jose Luis is on his
way ..."

We were very surprised because nobody, not even us, knew that we were going to make
this trip. We felt compelled to go up to Maria Concepción's house, since “they were waiting
for us”.
 
When we arrived at Maria Concepción's house we saw that there were many people. The
first one who approached us was a Peruvian priest, Father Jesus and a Canadian religious.
 
They told us that the Lord, through Maria Concepción, had asked them to prepare the
ground with straw, because that night a newborn was going to arrive to make a "living
Nativity Scene". Our surprise increased with the detail that a "newborn" would arrive.
 
We asked about Maria Concepción and they told us that she was at her house and had not
been out for a while. As we were in a hurry, we went to Maria Concepción's house and
knocked on the door. Nobody answered. So we, the 3 of us, my wife with the girl and I
entered.
 
Maria Concepción was lying on an old red sofa, which was in the living room of the
entrance to her house.
 
We realized that she was not asleep, but ecstatic, with her eyes closed and a serene
countenance. We knelt on the ground next to her. Maria Concepción, without opening her
eyes, smiled, caressed our daughter and told us: "It had to be a girl ..."
 
How did Maria Concepción know she was a girl?
 
Next, he took off a gold chain that he was wearing around his neck and put it on our
daughter (she is still wearing it today).
 
Then he got up, got down on his knees, took our daughter in his arms and went
outside. She asked for a little lamb to be brought to her. And she took the lamb in one
arm and our daughter in the other. Then he placed our daughter in the straws and sang a
Christmas carol.
 
I must record that our daughter was serene all the time, without shedding a single tear,
without making a single "pout".
 
The people present were passing to kiss our daughter, lying on the straws, playing "Baby
Jesus", while we sang: "Come in shepherds, come in, through this sacred portal ..."
 
Keep in mind that it was December 24, on a cold night. With so much kiss, our daughter
had lost the shawl and was a little uncovered. My wife was scared and thought: "With the
cold that the girl is going to get pneumonia ..."

Instantly, Maria Concepción, who was still in ecstasy, went to her and said: "Woman,
don't be afraid that nothing will happen to your daughter."

Indeed, our daughter did not have the slightest cold, nor a cough, nothing at all.
 
From Ladeira we went to my in-laws' house and we arrived before midnight to spend
Christmas with them.
 
There are many more things that I could tell about later trips, but I insist that the most
important thing I experienced in the 70s and that is what I defend, because I feel morally
obligated, as the Work of God.  
 
 …………………………………………… ..
 
And now, I am going to try to make a “final summary” to conclude this page, once my
objective has been accomplished.
 
I already spoke of the prophecy of the month of November 1973: "When a rose sprouts
from these dry sticks, Ladeira will open up."

Indeed, on May 5, 1974, a rose (pink) emerged from some dry sticks and that same day
Ladeira opened.
 
Later there was another prophetic announcement: "When a white rose sprouts, the
Authority will shake hands with Ladeira."

It was a long-awaited prophecy and one that created great expectation.

 
And so, one day a white rose sprouted, the expected white rose.
 
Precisely that day a tall gentleman appeared in Ladeira, with a good presence, aristocratic
bearing, not very long beard, dark suit. The prayer was performed in front of Maria
Concepción's house. During the prayer, Maria Concepción was ecstatic, plucked the white
rose and gave it to the man we mentioned earlier.
 
All present were surprised. Who was that man to whom Maria Concepción had just given
the white rose? Hadn't it been announced that when the white rose sprouted, the Religious
Authority would shake hands with Ladeira?
 
Well, this gentleman was D. Joao Gabriel, Archimandrite of the Greek Orthodox Synod
Vetero Calendarista, maximum Authority of this Church in Portugal.
 
Monsignor Joao Gabriel was very impressed on his visit to Ladeira. He was talking to Maria
Concepción and they told him the prophecy of the "white rose".
 
He became a regular of Ladeira, because on a subsequent visit he received an indisputable
"personal test". He told me himself.
 
I do not know what the test consisted of but he did tell me that among other extraordinary
events, he had seen Maria Concepción elevated, suspended in the air, in ecstasy, for
several minutes.
 
For a time, more than two years, Monsignor Joao Gabriel attended Ladeira's prayer,
remaining in the background. Masses were celebrated, concelebrated, by Catholic priests
and Monsignor Joao Gabriel preached more than once, who really preached very well. It
was nice to hear him and also, being Portuguese, they understood him perfectly.
 
And in 1977, Ladeira depending on the bishopric of Santarem, an official Note was issued
against Ladeira. IT WAS THE LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE OF THE PERSECUTION AND
INJUSTICE COMMITTED AGAINST LADEIRA FROM THE BEGINNING!
 
Then Monsignor Joao Gabriel said to Maria Concepción: "Your church rejects you, but mine
accepts you and welcomes you."

From then on a new phase began in Ladeira. Monsignor Joao Gabriel began to have an
important role in Ladeira. And his Church, which hardly had any faithful, began to grow
and grow with the support of Ladeira. Vocations of priests, monks and nuns
flourished. With the passage of time, several more parishes and a Seminary were created.
 
It was a time of Ladeira boom and splendor. At first the religious, orthodox ceremonies,
the Holy Masses, were celebrated in the barrack at the entrance, remodeled and converted
into a church.
 
Ladeira continued to grow. More buildings were made. There were many children collected
and a school was made for them. A home for the elderly was also built.
 
The Lord had originally asked for a children's house, an old people's house, and a house of
prayer.
 
Ladeira became a great Community with dozens of people living there.
 
And the construction of the cathedral began, which the Lord had announced in an ecstasy
on Good Friday in 1972. Then it seemed something unthinkable, totally utopian. Maria
Concepción, at the end of an ecstatic march along the Camino del Calvario, climbed an
embankment, passed between the barbed wire fences that surrounded that terrain and on
her knees delimited a large rectangle. And he said: "someday there will be a
cathedral."

The number of vocations and faithful that emerged in Ladeira grew so much that
Monsignor Joao Gabriel was consecrated Bishop on May 19, 1978. He was the first Latin
bishop.
 
On March 17, 1984, he was named Metropolitan Primate and founder of the metropolis of
Portugal, Spain and Western Europe.
 
Later, at the end of the eighties, he passed to the self-defeating Orthodox Church of
Poland with the same hierarchical rank: Metropolitan Primate of the ecclesiastical Province
of Portugal, Spain and Brazil, with the name of D. Gabriel I of Portugal. 
 
I had a good relationship with Monsignor Joao Gabriel (I always called him that). He even
proposed me to be an orthodox priest, since I had finished my philosophy studies at the
seminary of the Capuchin Fathers in Zaragoza.
 
He seemed to me a very spiritual person, really exceptional. The story of why he became
orthodox is very interesting, although I am not going to capture it here.
 
It had its headquarters in Lisbon, but who maintained the church: priests, seminary,
parishes, all in all, was Ladeira.
 
Maria Concepción continued to pray the traditional Rosary as always, although she also
prayed the Orthodox Rosary. He even had several ecstatic Communions, making the
Sacred Form visible, which was the usual Host, the one that Saint Michael took from some
tabernacle of the earth. by means of a teaspoon ...)
 
His Masses were precious with songs, incense and keeping the same liturgy that Saint
John Chrysostom wrote in the first centuries of Christianity, when there was only one
Church.
 
But after the death of D. Gabriel I of Portugal (February 18, 1997) there came a time that
I personally call “decomposition”.
 
His successor distanced himself from Maria Concepción, although Ladeira continued to
maintain the entire framework of this Orthodox Church ...
 
We had been told that Satan, the great divider (the one who divides), would try to destroy
Ladeira from within, since he had not succeeded from without.
 
Internal struggles arose and Maria Concepción was left with a very small group of priests.
 
All this caused him great suffering.
 
When I went to Ladeira I saw a great human work, but I no longer recognized the Ladeira
from before, my Ladeira.
 
The last time I was with Maria Concepción was in May 2003. I still remember her sitting
behind a table, outside the community dining room, surrounded by several people.
 
I was with a priest and several other people. Maria Concepción continued to have great
trust with us (the priest and me).
 
He told us about his sufferings, his tremendous sufferings, both physical and, above all,
spiritual.
 
He even proposed to the priest that he take over the entire Work of Ladeira.
 
When we left I felt great pain, because I had seen Maria Concepción very tired, very
sore….
 
On August 10, I was at the home of my wife's family in Portugal, watching television. The
telejornal of the night (let's say the news) started with this news: "The saint of Ladeira
has died."  Shouting, I called my wife, who saw the news in shock. We were shocked.
 
The next day we showed up at Ladeira. The cathedral was crowded. One by one we went
on to say goodbye to Maria Concepción. Most of the people cried. I was also excited.
 
He had announced his death saying that she would not go to sea (9 days later) nor would
she even be at Sunday Mass ...
 
No one sensed his death, which surprised us all.
 
I have returned to Ladeira quite a few times after the death of Maria Concepción and the
phrase from the poem by Mío Cid came to mind: "God, what a good vassal there is if there
were a good lord!"
 
So much war, so much persecution, so much lies, so much fury, so much injustice against
this peasant ...!
 
In the Patriarchate I was twice, accompanied by priests (although I have only narrated the
first time) and only heard lies and falsehoods. They never showed us a test, a study. They
condemned her without even hearing her, without a canonical process ...
 
If Monsignor Joao Gabriel, then Gabriel I of Portugal, achieved everything he achieved
thanks to Ladeira, what would have happened to Ladeira with the support of the Catholic
Hierarchy?
 
When Monsignor Joao Gabriel arrived in Ladeira, he was barely Archimandrite (archpriest)
and, thanks to the faithful of Ladeira, he arrived at the Metropolitan Primate of the
Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Poland, where he died, with thousands of faithful.
 
Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrin, leading him to death with false testimonies. At
least they tried him. The priests were so “pure” that when they went to ask for the death
of Jesus on the Cross, they did not want to enter the Palace of Pilate in order not to
become contaminated. They were the "pure" and Jesus was a blasphemer, a sinner, an
evildoer ...
 
So far my testimony and my contribution.
 
As I said in my lectures on Ladeira: "My intention is not to demonstrate or convince, but
simply to be faithful to the truth and bear witness to what I witnessed, lived and felt in
Ladeira."