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Abstract
This project is a sociological, ethnographic study of the community of believers in a series of apparitions in rural Emmitsburg, Maryland, where a local Catholic woman has reported daily apparitions of the Virgin Mary for over 20 years. It builds on the notion that Marian visionary culture is a new and distinct form of being religious, and explores the work that goes into fashioning Catholic subjectivity for "participants" in this culture, who are agents navigating interactions with one another, with other Catholics, with divine figures, and with the institutional Church. This ethnography addresses what it means for individuals to believe in Our Lady's appearances, in Emmitsburg and elsewhere, and what sorts of cultures and identities are being created through these beliefs.
Believers mold themselves as subjects in terms of this Marian visionary culture in four ways. First, through autobiography—looking back, they see their lives as leading up to their belief in the Emmitsburg apparitions or their participation in the Malian prayer group where apparitions typically occurred. Second, through miracle stories, which effect a re-enchantment of the world and reveal a worldview particular to visionary culture. Third, through relationships with Our Lady, who is immanently present such that believers see her influencing their lives. Fourth, through negotiating obedience and loyalty to the institutional Church on one hand and individual autonomy on the other. By these four modes, believers in the Emmitsburg apparitions constitute themselves as subjects within a visionary culture framework.
There are two important gendered dynamics within visionary culture in general that also can be found in Emmitsburg. First is the social conservativism found among many believers and in modern Marian apparitions, particularly the support for women's traditional roles. Second is the understanding of Our Lady's motherhood, which both reveals the social and political attitudes of apparition believers and raises questions of essentialism and empowerment of women. This dissertation places the Emmitsburg apparitions and the visionary culture that has developed around them in the context of Marian visionary culture worldwide, and in the context of the U.S. political and religious scenes.
