CREDIT: https://missiomagazine.com
Father Elias and companions had the opportunity to visit Sister Agnes Sasagawa, the surviving visionary of the apparition of Our Lady at Akita, Japan, during a pilgrimage in April 2023
The readers of the Missio Immaculatae International magazine were aware that there was a pilgrimage organized to visit the Catholic sites of Japan in April of this year. The pilgrimage took place from April 19th to May 2nd and was a success. As well as the pilgrimage, we also had a secondary intention for the trip: to be able to promote the Seibo Maria Roman Catholic Mission to Japan which is an apostolate established to hand out Miraculous Medals and pamphlets to the Japanese after the example of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe. We were able to distribute 2,000 medals and pamphlets on this trip. Only 18,000 more to go! As I have said before, the pearl of our pilgrimage to Japan is the chance to visit and pray at the site of the Marian apparition at Akita to Sister Agnes Sasagawa from 1973 to 1981. This year is the 50th anniversary of the miraculous events at the convent, Seitai Hoshikai, of the Handmaids of the Holy Eucharist, the religious order of sisters of which Sister Agnes is a member. The messages, which were approved by Bishop Ito, are even more relevant in these days with the threat of nuclear war and the turmoil taking place in the Church at the highest levels. On Monday, April 17th, a small group of us had the added grace of being able to visit Sister Agnes. We had heard that Sister Agnes might be living in a care home in Southern Japan. I and two companions, with a Japanese guide, set out on a mission to see if we could find Sister Agnes Sasagawa. The last time anyone from outside of Japan had spoken to Sister in person was in 2015. No one had spoken with Sister Agnes since she appeared in a video entitled, “Akita and the Fatima Secret,” a 2015 documentary. Prior to that, it was in 1990 that she spoke publicly, so occasions for Sister to have access to the public are rare. We were not sure if the information about her location was accurate and if we would even be allowed to meet with her. After a long journey by street car and walking several miles along narrow streets and through many neighborhoods, we eventually came to the care home where we believed Sister was living. It was in the afternoon around 2pm when we arrived and upon entering the facility we were greeted kindly by the staff, who seemed surprised to see Americans visiting their facility. We asked if Sister Agnes Sasagawa was living there and if we could meet with her? They responded “yes” to both of our questions, but they thought Sister might be napping, which might be a problem. So, one of them went and checked and, thanks be to God, Sister was awake and able to meet with us. COVID restrictions were in place and, just like care facilities here in the US during the height of COVID, one could only meet with the residents through an iPad. Of course, COVID and the vaccine, as it is becoming obviously clear to all who have eyes to see, are not about our health and safety, but are a part of a larger plan of social engineering of the world’s social elites and oligarch’s to establish their Godless New World Order. So, we were forced to speaking to Sister via an iPad. We were not sure in what condition Sister would be as her health has never been very good her whole life. From her early childhood, Sister Agnes suffered from a weak constitution but at the age of nineteen due to medical malpractice after an appendectomy, she suffered a paralysis to her central nervous system that kept her for the most part bedridden for 16 years. It was during this time in the hospital that Sister met a nurse who was a fervent Catholic, who introduced her to the Catholic Faith. So suffering has not been foreign to Sister Agnes and may be why she eventually was chosen to be Our Lady’s messenger at Akita.
Sister Teresa Masuda, a fellow religious sister of Sister Agnes and her close friend and confidant, wrote in a letter in 2019 of a miraculous healing that Sister Agnes received on September 22, 2018. Sister Agnes was suffering from a tumor, possibly cancerous, in her throat for some time which caused her difficulty in swallowing. It was so difficult for Sister Agnes that the tumor caused her to choke on a piece of food and if it were not for someone knowing the Heimlich method, she might have gone to meet her maker. Her condition got so severe that Sister could no longer drink water and only ate soft and easily swallowable foods. Sister, who took the words of Our Lady to heart about offering sacrifices said, “I have offered a lot to God so far, but now I wonder if my last offering might be my voice.” Eventually Sister Teresa and Sister Agnes along with three others went to see a priest that they would visit frequently for spiritual direction, confession, and the anointing of the sick. When Sister Agnes’ turn came the laypeople and Sister Teresa put their hands on her while the priest placed his hand on Sister’s throat. While he was praying with his hand on Sister Agnes’ throat his hand began to shake violently and soon his whole body trembled. The priest said twice, “Go away, evil spirits of disease! Then after praying a few minutes more silently he said to Sister Agnes, “You will soon be comfortable because the two evil spirits that were afflicting you are gone now.” No sooner had he said this that Sister’s throat was loosened and she said, “May I have a drink of water?” Someone standing near her, handed her a glass of water which she gulped down with ease. Sister Teresa informed Sister Agnes’ doctor who made an appointment with the ear, nose, and throat department at a local hospital and after undergoing many different tests it was determined that the tumor the size of a one-yen coin (a little larger than our nickel) had disappeared. Sister Agnes’ doctor asked Sister what happened to the tumor, even asking her if she swallowed it. Sister Agnes replied that it was gone in an instant. Her doctor who it seems was not a believer was deeply impressed by the event. The priest said that two evil spirits were behind the physical ailment afflicting Sister’s throat that was preventing Sister from even speaking. One wonders if those evil spirits are trying to silence Sister Agnes and the message of Akita in other ways as well?
Sister has been the recipient of several miraculous physical healings during her long life. Back in 1973, Sister Agnes suffered from a mysterious deafness which did not prevent her from hearing her guardian angel and Our Lady. Our Lady predicted when this deafness would come and go and when Sister Agnes would eventually be healed of it in 1982.
During our visit, Sister was alert and attentive and despite being in a care home and being isolated like so many are in such places — even more with the COVID restrictions — it is a wonder that she was doing as well as she was. I am sure that the contemplative soul she is, with praying at one time in her life 20 to 30 rosaries a day, may find the isolation and quiet to her benefit. Just a humorous note about that. There were so many questions I wanted to ask her, one of which was, How many rosaries does she pray every day? Through a translator, Sister Agnes responded that she prays the rosary three times a day. I responded, Only three…!? I guess I should cut poor Sister some slack as she turned 93 on May 28th of this year. 93 and only 3 rosaries a day! I hope I can remember one Hail Mary if and when I am 93. I also on behalf of a friend wanted some clarification about her message of October 13, 1973, when Sister Agnes was told by Our Lady, “As I told you, if people do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the Flood, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son.” My friend and I wanted to know from Sister if “the sign left by my Son” might be the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel? Sad to say, no one was able to translate this into Japanese, and my attempt at clarification was thwarted. We asked Sister to pray for our Seibo Maria mission to Japan to evangelize the Japanese people and Brother Didacus presented her with a handmade rosary that one of his fellow friars made for her. She commented on how big it was, which brought a laugh to all. After only about 15 minutes the staff said we had to end our conversation and we parted with some sadness for not being able to ask a blessed soul some important questions, but happy to be able to be in the presence of what we believe to be a living Saint.
The situation of Sister Agnes seems to beg a lot of questions. Why is Sister Agnes, a living visionary of an important approved Marian apparition with a very powerful and relevant message for our times, being hidden away in an obscure nursing home? She, a consecrated religious, is not living with her religious community where she can receive the sacraments on a daily basis. This is especially odd, since in Japanese culture, they take great pride in respecting and caring for their elders. In 2019, there was a controversial message that was attributed to Sister Agnes about the need to put on sackcloth and ashes and to pray the rosary in reparation for the events taking place in the Church and the world at the time. It appears that some in the Church would like us to forget Sister Agnes and the message of Akita. Is this on purpose? Some believe that Sister is being “cancelled” and isolated by those in the Church who are the object of Our Lady’s severe warnings at Akita about the work of the devil infiltrating the Church leading to “Cardinal opposing Cardinal and Bishop against Bishop.” Some may think that this is just an over-heated imagination, but back in 2015, a gentleman reached out to Church authorities regarding interviewing Sister Agnes for a video he was producing, he was told that he would be wasting his time as Sister was senile. He was not discouraged and pressed on and was surprised that, when he did meet Sister, she was of sound mind and greatly offended that he was told that she was senile. Also, when we visited Akita in 2019, the sisters, none of whom were stationed at Akita during the apparitions in 1973 to 1981, behaved in an unusual way for a Marian Shrine. For example, we asked in 2019 if one of the sisters would be willing to tell our group about the events that took place there and they refused. Also, a display case, containing relics of the miraculous weeping (101 times) and bleeding of the statue, is kept covered by a white cloth and without any signage indicating its importance. The only reason I discovered it was because I asked a man who was a frequent visitor to the place, “What is this?,” and he pulled back the cover and showed me. Do they act this way at Lourdes and Fatima regarding the miraculous events and significance of their places? Another odd fact is that they publish a book about the convent and its history and after 90 pages they get to the “Mysterious Happenings” in which Sister Agnes Sasagawa is referred to only as “Sister ‘S’” throughout the narrative. Why the big secret? Her name is publicly known and at Fatima they do not refer to the children as Child “F” or Sister “L,” or at Lourdes as Sister “B.” Cardinal Ratzinger, when he was the head of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated that the message at Akita was the same as Fatima and provided further insight into the Third Secret.
Please pray for Sister Agnes. If Our Lady wills that Sister has still much more to say to the world before she goes to eternity, she will be given the opportunity to speak once again as a prophet for our times. Back in 2015, she stated in “Akita and the Fatima Secret” that, “since the events of 1973, she has prayed that people would learn Mary’s message.” This does not sound like a person who is seeking silence and solitude. The message of Akita is so relevant for our times and one would think Sister has much more to say. Her words giving further clarity and understanding would be a source of hope and great benefit to souls.
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PS: Some claim that the Marian apparition of Akita does not enjoy Church approval, but this is not true. After having been an eyewitness of the events and having carefully investigated them for years, Most Rev. John Shojiro Ito, Bishop of Niigata, declared the events of Akita, Japan, to be of supernatural origin and authorized throughout the entire diocese the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita. In a message which was to be read in every parish of the diocese on Easter Sunday, April 22, 1984 he advised that “the message of Akita is the message of Fatima.” Bishop Ito went to Rome a third time in June, 1988 to seek the opinion of the Holy See. “I was worried because of the seriousness of the message,” he said. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reassured Bishop Ito that he had acted properly and gave definitive judgement on the Akita events and messages as reliable and worthy of belief.
That the local ordinary is first stage in Church authority in declaring that an event is of supernatural original and worthy of belief is in accord with the Church’s canon law and is sufficient for the initiation of public expression of veneration and devotions. Cardinal Ratzinger and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith did not add anything further as Bishop Ito’s declaration was sufficient.
