The Sievernich apparitions (Manuela Strack)

Sievernich is a village of about 450 people in the Düren district, about 40 km west of Cologne. Its church, St. Johann Baptist, is a listed monument. Manuela Strack, a legal assistant from Düren, said her story with Mary began early. Around the age of 12, on a pilgrimage to Banneux, she saw a pure-white statue of Mary on a cloud. She later learned no such statue had ever stood there.

8 June 2000. Manuela was praying before an image of the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln. She heard a voice asking for a prayer group led by a priest. On 7 August 2000 the group met in Sievernich church. Fewer than ten people came, the pastor among them, and only Manuela saw what followed.

She described a woman dressed all in white, with a long veil embroidered in gold that reached the floor. On her breast was a red heart circled by a crown of thorns, on her head a gold crown. She usually stood barefoot on a white cloud or on mist, before a large oval light. The figure called herself "Maria, die Makellose", Mary the Immaculate. Others followed, among them the archangels Michael and Gabriel, Padre Pio and the Infant of Prague.

The apparitions were announced for the first Monday of the month. In 2002 the crowds grew from about 800 to 2,000, then 3,000. Pilgrims came from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland, and some smelled roses in the church. On 1 March 2004, rose petals reportedly fell from the Madonna and dissolved before touching anyone. In Manuela's garden, a round mark in the grass reportedly stayed after mowing.

Then came 8 November 2004. During adoration, about 80 people saw a small child in front of the exposed Host. It stayed for at least 15 minutes. One witness from Bonn wrote: "And suddenly I see a lovely little child in front of the Host, in natural colours."

The last public apparition came on 3 October 2005. Smiling, Mary disappeared into the Light.

Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff met Manuela in 2002 and 2003. He would neither comment on nor vouch for the apparitions, and he ruled out Sievernich becoming a pilgrimage site. Parish priest Heribert Kleemann called her "absolut glaubwürdig", absolutely credible, but said he could not judge the apparitions themselves. He died in a car crash on 19 June 2004.

In June 2026 Bishop Helmut Dieser set up a four-member commission chaired by Stefan Mückl. It is the first German case examined under the Vatican's May 2024 norms. Its report will go to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which decides. "We are at the very beginning of the investigation," Mückl said.

The sharpest critic is Felizitas Küble of the Christoferuswerk in Münster. She raised theological objections to the messages and called the child in the Host "religious deception in the 'garb' of pious kitsch". She put the reports down to suggestibility and a craving for the extraordinary. Critics also point to 1984, when a 17-year-old Manuela appeared on RTL's Mystery-Show with claims of messages from Christ.

The visions did not stop. A second cycle centred on the Infant of Prague began on 5 November 2018. Followers still meet in a building put up in 2021. A quarter of a century after the first call, Sievernich is waiting for an answer.