Apparition Fever

How a series of Marian apparitions across Belgium prompted questions about belief and authority.

Apparition Fever examines a series of Marian apparitions that swept over Belgium in the 1930s and ’40s, tracing how knowledge of the apparitions was formed among bystanders, medical experts, and church authorities as they decided if the visionaries were worthy of belief.

Tine Van Osselaer is associate professor in the history of devotion, mysticism, and spirituality at the Ruusbroec Institute of the University of Antwerp and the author of The Pious Sex: Catholic Constructions of Masculinity and Femininity in Belgium, c.1800-1940.

Tine Van Osselaer is associate professor in the history of devotion, mysticism, and spirituality at the Ruusbroec Institute of the University of Antwerp.

“Continuing a rich historiographical tradition, Van Osselaer presents the Belgian apparition series in fascinating and meaningful detail.” Gábor Klaniczay, Central European University