Trip from Conchita to Santander
At the beginning of August, Conchita spoke with Fr. Luis Luna, who was a relative of his family, in order to take her to Santander, for she had been invited by the Bishop of Santander to visit him. On the eve of this event, there appeared in Garabandal a priest in a totally white tunic and who attracted everyone's attention, because a religious of that Order had never been there.
Church of Consolation, Santander. It was in front of this Church that Conchita had a bliss.
On this day Aniceta, the mother of Conchita, ordered her daughter to ask OUR LADY, if it was convenient for her, Conchita, to go to Santander.
It was six o'clock in the afternoon and the girls were already walking to the "Square" (the space reserved in wooden trunks they made in the "Calleja" to protect them from the crowds), when they found four priests who gave them a bundle of candies. While they were dividing the caramels they felt the "second call". They dropped the bundle of the caramels back and "flew" to the usual spot of the apparition. As soon as they knelt, OUR LADY appeared. And as they were curious to know what a priest was, dressed in white, they asked the Virgin Mary. She did not answer, just smiled. The curious girls insisted, and then, She said she was a Dominican Father.
Conchita also asked if she should go to Santander, the VIRGIN did not say no. In fact, in Santander, the people there were living with the doubt about the apparitions: some affirmed that it was self-suggestion by Conchita and transmitted to the others by etero-induction, they also spoke in hypnotism, in hysteria, and whenever made some accusation, then triggered other hypotheses, claiming the need to open a broad interrogation on the phenomena of Garabandal in order to let the truth appear. So they took Conchita to clarify many occurrences, being submitted to a real test. On the first day in Santander, on July 27, at the time of the supernatural demonstration in Garabandal, Conchita went into ecstasy next to "Iglesia de La Consolación" and had an appearance in Santander. At the same time, at the "Pinheiros" in Garabandal, the other three girls also had the Apparition and, OUR LADY told them, that at that very moment, she was also appearing to Conchita in Santander. Later on, Conchita said that in Santander they did a lot of tests with her, that is, both the doctors and the priests did tests in every way, to see if the ecstasy in which she was, was true or not.
After the apparition they took Conchita to the "Sacristy of the Church of Consolation" and a priest and a doctor asked her many and many questions. The priest was Father Francisco de Odriozola and the doctor was Dr. Piñal. They spoke to her:
"How do you do these things? Are you mad? Why do you deceive the world that way?"
Then the Doctor said:
- "Stand firm and look in my nose, that I will hypnotize you!"
When he told her to look at his nose, Conchita could not stand it, she laughed, and then he got angry, saying:
"Do not laugh, this is no joke, it's serious."
And so ended this day. Conchita says that later, they did not ask her any more questions.
The next day, in company with other doctors, they took the girl to a doctor named Dr. Morales, who also had other doctors in her room. She was examined and everyone said the same thing, that everything was fine and that the apparitions were a dream and that she was taken to Santander to distract herself, in order to forget everything that had happened and thus, would not have again more appearances. Madame Aniceta, the girl's mother, was so convinced by the doctors' words, believing that all this was a fantasy of the mind, that she left her daughter in Santander and returned to Garabandal.
A niece and a sister of Father Odriozola, every day they went to the house where Conchita was staying, to take her for a walk, and also on the beach, for she had never seen it before, for she only knew the sea by name. As she went to the beach every day, the Virgin did not appear to her. And so it remained, until eight days later, a gentleman, Dom Emilio Del Valle Egocheaga interfered, because he felt that it was not fair, nor right to do so with such a small girl, and so he sent word to her mother in Garabandal. Conchita said that she will keep this man's name for the rest of her life, for the great favor he gave her. His mother came to get her, and so, after all, everyone got along well with her and ended her visit to Santander with kisses and smiles.
When she arrived in Garabandal on the way back, many priests and several people came to her with affection and joy, saying that Loli and Jacinta had heard from the apparition that she was returning to Garabandal. Then everyone went to meet her.