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In Akita, Japan, Sister Agnes Sasagawa Katsuko, a nun and member of the Institute of the Servants of the Holy Eucharist, renowned for her visions of the Virgin Mary, died on August 15, 2024, at the age of 93, on the Solemnity of the Assumption.
Her story is marked by three Marian apparitions and messages delivered by the Blessed Virgin, recognized as authentic by Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 1988.
Agnes Sasagawa Katsuko was born into a Buddhist family in 1931. At the age of 19, a botched appendix operation left her paralyzed, leading to a series of twenty operations. It was through contact with a nurse that she discovered Catholicism and decided to be baptized. She took the name Agnes when she entered religious life.
On June 12, 1973, Sister Agnes saw rays of light emanating from the tabernacle in her convent, a vision that recurred two days in a row. On June 28, a cross-shaped wound formed on her hand, bleeding profusely. Soon afterwards, messages from Our Lady of Akita began to reach her. On July 6, 1973, a voice coming from a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary asked her to “pray in reparation for the sins of men”. The voice also taught her a prayer of consecration to the heart of Jesus. On August 3, 1973, Mary delivered an “important” message to Sister Agnes, telling her: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls who console him, to appease the anger of the Heavenly Father.”
On October 13, 1973, on the 60th anniversary of the miracle of the Fatima sun, Our Lady warned: “If men do not repent and improve themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible chastisement on all mankind”, adding that the only weapons left to the survivors would be the Rosary and the Sign left by her Son.
From then on, a series of supernatural manifestations began, some of which were filmed by Japanese television: premonitory dreams, demonic attacks, various changes in appearance to the statue of the Blessed Virgin of Akita. The statue wept 101 times between January 4, 1975 and September 15, 1981.
In 1984, Bishop John Shojiro Ito recognized the supernatural nature of the events linked to the statue of Mary and authorized the veneration of Our Lady of Akita in his diocese. The Redemptoris Mater shrine in Akita, completed in 2002, attracts some 7,000 pilgrims each year.