The Nsimalen Marian apparitions

Nsimalen is a village in Cameroon's Centre Region, a short drive south of Yaoundé. Accounts put it 15 or 18 kilometres from the capital. In 1986 it had a church and, beside it, a Catholic school run by the Daughters of Mary.

13 May 1986. Around noon. During the midday break, three girls were playing in the churchyard next to the school. Then they saw her. A very beautiful lady, surrounded by winged beings. She had come to a stop in mid-air, enthroned between two branches of a giant tree. Later descriptions crown her with 12 stars and dress her in a white robe, a white rosary on her arm.

Other pupils joined them. Some threw stones at the apparition. Accounts differ on how many children saw her, six or seven. René Laurentin's dictionary names Clémentine, Adèle, Marie-Pascaline, Jean-Marie, Godefroy, Zacharie and six-year-old Jacqueline Ndoumou Atangana, deaf and mute from birth. Jacqueline is said to have spoken for the first time. "Maria! Maria! Maria!" For the shrine's rector, that cry revealed who the lady was.

The apparition stayed in the tree for nine days. From the third day, witnesses said, the ground began to shine. Bertha Fonyam, who visited in 1986, recalled the ground under the tree glowing. On 16 May the surrounding forest was said to be lit up.

On 19 May, around 4 pm, a group reported a solar miracle like the one at Fatima, and saw the Virgin for ten minutes. A second solar phenomenon followed. A blind catechist, Pierre Zagna Nvondo, aged 41, reportedly regained his sight. The apparitions ended on 22 May.

One young man asked the Virgin for a keepsake. He photographed the sun on the very last shot of his film. His camera never worked again. That picture has never been located.

On 17 May 1986 the Cameroon Tribune ran "Miracle ou mirage ?" by Emmanuel Mayo. He went twice, by day and by night. He saw nothing decisive and fell back on scepticism. He did record the improvised pilgrimage, as a nearby college changed its timetable and transport fares rose. Archbishop Jean Zoa advised prudence and discretion.

In 2004 Archbishop Simon-Victor Tonyé Bakot erected the grotto as a place of public worship, without ruling on the apparitions. An interdisciplinary commission followed. No findings have surfaced. In 2016 Archbishop Jean Mbarga declared that the "Phénomène de Nsimalen" would now be called the "Apparition présumée de Nsimalen". By 2024 the file was in Rome, awaiting the procedural norms of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Mayo began to set out a probable optical illusion. Western clergy on site reportedly spoke the same way. The apparitions remain unrecognised. In 2013 the rector, Abbé Jean Bertrand Mengue Awondo, had his own answer for the doubters. « Marie peut ne pas se montrer à tout le monde ».

Today the Sanctuaire Marie Reine de la Paix stands on the site. Thousands gather for vigils on the 12th of each month. On the night of 2 to 3 April 2024, vandals destroyed four icons and the 14 Stations of the Cross. Mbarga answered that the shrine "lives and will always live." In April 2026, as Pope Leo XIV visited Cameroon, a mother with a blind daughter grasped his hand. She was hoping for a healing like Jacqueline's.