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     Just as an author can partition a book into themes or storylines, a person can try to partition Fatima from Garabandal but, not its partition in time.  With this in mind as in the Second World War, theaters of operations, accruements and personalities, events in time cannot subscribe to any elimination if the volume is honest in encompassing the truth of information.    If a book is on the entire Second World War, the Pacific has to be narrated as well as the European, the American Home Front plus the facets of the air, land and sea etc.  

     You the reader will be traveling along parallel courses in time, relative to Fatima and Garabandal. For example, Saint Padre Pio is linked to the complete story of Garabandal; such as found in this 3 min entry, courtesy of Saint Pio Foundation.  And, while certain Vatican prelates in the 1960s, for example, showed a disdain for our two subjects in equal measure, this author does not feel one should be discredited over the other.  Heaven holds no ambition of Fatima over Garabandal.  Our Blessed Mother and the Archangel Michael appeared in both places.

     There is a tidbit of history that the author feels compelled to add and that is the Communion Host story that appeared on July 18, 1962. Actually, it appeared on the 19th.  The following account appeared in the book The Apparitions of Garabandal, written by F. Sanchez-Ventura y Pascual.  Shortly after the wee hour of one a.m. and in front of many eyewitnesses, the following occurred as related in the wonderful book:  

    In her diary, Conchita wrote,

"Since we insisted so much with the Blessed Virgin and the Angel that they should work a miracle, on June 22nd, when I was about to receive Holy Communion, he [the Angel] said to me: "I am going to work a miracle; not me, God; but through my intercession and yours."  And I asked him: "And what's it going to be?"  And, he said: "When I give you the Sacred Host, people will see It on your tongue."  I reflected a bit.  Then, I said to him: "But, when you give me Holy Communion, the Host can be seen on my tongue, anyway!"  And he told me that is not so, that the people round about could not see It.  But, the day he performed the miracle, It would be seen.  And I said to him: "But, that is only a little miracle."  And he laughed...

     She was told the day of the miracle would be the 18, and to announce it. 

     All day of the 18th of July, the number of visitors grew.  The streets were not only filled with pilgrims and sight-seers, some of them began to dance under the music of bagpipes. At the same time, others prayed the Rosary.  By the time it got dark, however, there were lots of uneasy people.  Shortly after the wee hour of two a.m. and in front of many eyewitnesses, the following occurred as related in The Apparitions of Garabandal, beginning with Conchita's diary:   Later, at two o'clock, the Angel appeared to me in my room.  In the house were my mother Aniceta, my brother Aniceto, my uncle Elias, my cousin Lucia and Maria del Carmen Fontaneda from Aguilar del Campo.  The Angel stayed with me for a while and, as on the other days, he said to me: "Say the 'I confess,' and think of Him whom you are about to receive."  I did as I was told, and then he gave me Holy Communion.  And after he gave me Communion, he told me to say the "Soul of Christ, sanctify me" and make my thanksgiving, and to keep my tongue out until he disappeared and the Virgin came.  And that is what I did.  When the Virgin came, she told me that not everybody believed, yet." 

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Among those outside her house was a man from Barcelona named Don Alejandro Damians, who had with him a small movie-camera which his cousin lent him.  He saw her descend the stairs and quickly go out.  The crowd moved enough to let her go by, and he struggling to adjust his camera for his shoot. We continue with his words: 

I saw people falling to the ground and trampled by others.  As far as I know, nobody was hurt.  But the sight of that fantastic mob on the run, shoving and elbowing one another, could not be more terrifying.  I attempted to follow Conchita, but a crowd, fifteen or twenty feet deep separated us.  I sometimes caught a vague glimpse of her.  She turned left along the lane formed by the side of her house and a low wall.  She turned left again, and there, right in the middle of the alley, which is fairly wide at that spot, she suddenly fell to her knees.  

Her fall was so unexpected that the avalanche of people were carried past on either side of her by the weight of their own numbers.  I was fortunate in not being carried past with them, and before I knew it, I unexpectedly found myself to her right, with her face a mere eighteen inches from mine.  I staunchly withstood the pushing of those behind me, striving with all my might not to be wrenched from my vantage point.  I succeeded.  The shoves gradually ceased and relative calm ensued.

...I could see quite plainly Conchita's mouth was open and her tongue out in the position customary when going to Communion.  She was prettier than ever.  Far from causing laughter or looking the slightest bit ridiculous, her expression and attitude was had about them an awesome, moving mysticism.

Suddenly, without my knowing quite how, without realizing it, without Conchita changing her expression in the slightest, the Sacred Host appeared on her tongue.  It was totally unprepared.  It did not seem to have been deposited there, but might be described rather as having materialized there, faster than the human eye could see.

   It is impossible to describe the feeling that came over me at the moment....and I have never been able to relate this point without experiencing again those marvelous feelings of tenderness, of love and joy that bring irrepressible tears to my eyes.

   

   Afterwards, I was told that Conchita had held the Sacred Host motionless on her tongue for about two minutes, before consuming it normally and finally kissing the crucifix in her hand.  I was told some months later that this long wait was due to the fact that the Angel had instructed Conchita to keep it in sight until the Blessed Virgin appeared to her....I had never filmed anything in my life before, and I only knew that I had succeeded in focusing on the subject.  But, in view of my total lack of experience, I seriously doubted whether the film would come out.   

There was a Frenchman who also happened to be in front of Conchita with his camera, however he did not have the luck to film amidst so much pushing and people.  In the book The Apparitions of Garabandal we are related the story of a farmer from Potes who was in front of Conchita the moment she received her Communion.  Mr. Benjamin Gomez related what he saw on a recording made by tape recorder:  "I was little more than a hand's breath away from Conchita at the moment when she put out her tongue; I saw it was quite bare; there was absolutely nothing on it; I could see her tongue quite plainly, and I assure you it didn't make the slightest motion.  All at once I found the Host before me.  It was white, shining. It reminded me of the snow when it's iced over and the sun glances off it.  But, It didn't dazzle the eyes.  It was the size of a five-euro coin, but thicker, as if there were two coins, one on top of the other.  It was not quite round.  Conchita's face wore that transfigured look this little girl always has in ecstasy.  It was the face of an angel.  Some people said she must have put the Host there with her hand, or else have had it in her mouth all the time; but, I can testify that she didn't move her hands, or raise them to her face either; nor did she draw in her tongue before she stuck it out even further...It was without moving it that she received the Host...And everybody who was there must have seen this, just as I did, and there were a lot of us.

I didn't believe until that day...I say that, because it's the truth, and for no other reason, because I'm not so Catholic as to let myself be taken in over this.  I have never taken any notice of God in the past, except to curse, or else to offend Him....When I began to come to Garabandal, the whole village laughed at me. [He had been there before, and they knew of his excessives.]  They were surprised that I should be the one to come.