On the 24th April 1954, the parish church of Alhabia, a neighbouring village to Terque, was broken into, looted and a statue of the Virgin of the Rosary was stolen. The Civil Guard were informed and an investigation carried out but the perpetrators were not located and the crime remained unsolved.
The following year, on the afternoon of 11th April 1955, Easter Sunday (Día de la Resurrección), a teacher from Terque was walking through the countryside on the outskirts of the village with a group of girls in an area known as "La Cañada" when suddenly one of the girls started shouting hysterically that she had seen the Virgin Mary in the cave. Some of the children who were with her also claimed in those first moments to have seen the vision as well. As it was getting dark and the children were clearly perturbed, the teacher demanded that the group returned to their homes.
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| Photo: nuovaciencia.com |
At the insistence of the youngsters and , likely believing that this had something to do with the theft of the statue from Alhabia church, the teacher decided to return to the cave the next day with the same group to check if the thieves had left the image of the Virgin Mary hidden in the cave. But when they got there they found the cave empty. Interestingly, the first girls who had excitedly said that they had seen the Virgin Mary inside the cave, then retracted their story.
However, by this time the rumours in Terque began to spread like wildfire. Numerous neighbours and relatives of the girls began to gather around the cave. Men and women, youths and children fell ecstatic on their knees in front of the cave screaming hysterically that they were seeing the virgin. The visionaries, however, did not seem to agree on what they claimed to be seeing. While for some, in the middle of a great glow, the appearance represented the Virgen del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary), for others it was the Virgen Los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows) dressed in white covered with a dark mantle.
The story gained strength and soon thousands of people began to come to Terque with offerings of flowers and prayers of the rosary. Every day at sunrise, the area of "La Cañada" woke to a population of hundreds eager to see the virgin. People came from far and wide, mainly from local town and cities but some travelled long distances from all over Spain. Numerous people, in full ecstasy, affirmed that Jesus had said Mass and others that the angels had given them communion.
Terque and its Marian apparitions became news throughout Spain.
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| Photo: José Santisteban |
At the height of the mass hysteria, a macabre event occurred. One of the multitude who had come to the cave and claimed to have seen the apparition was a fourteen-year-old local girl who, unbeknown to anyone else, was pregnant at the time. She later gave birth to the child but to hide her shame she killed the baby with a blow to the head. She then attempted to dispose of the body by flushing it down the toilet but was unsuccessful. The Civil Guard were called and under the direction of a judge from Canjáyar, the minor was arrested for infanticide.
The young woman was hospitalized for several years at the school of Las Adoratrices de Almería, until she came of age. The courts then decreed her banishment to Catalonia. According to some local residents, years later the young woman married and even on occasions had returned to Terque where her relatives still lived.
The phenomenon of the apparitions was invariably maintained for about three years, until the diocese of Almería ordered the sealing of the cave. Although the municipal authorities wanted to demolish it, curiously every time the excavators tried they broke down. It is alleged that the owner of the company contracted to carry out the work claimed that the equipment failures "were unnatural". It was finally decided that the cave would remain and it continues as a shrine today. It can be visited at any time. There are still many devoted who believe that the virgin performed numerous miracles among those who came with faith to pray to her.
The stolen image of the Virgin of the Rosary from the parish church of Alhabia was mysteriously returned in 2004, 50 years after its theft, but the culprits remain unknown.
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