The Virgin Mary Comes to Cold Spring?

Cold Spring, Ky., (AP) - Some of the throng gathered for a predicted appearance by the Virgin Mary said they did see her, but the Bishop said no miracles occurred in St. Joseph Church.

Thousands of people waited inside and outside the church Monday night, when an unidentified visionary had said Mary would appear. Some reported seeing her in pine trees, and others said they saw a statute weep or their rosary beads turn to gold.

“I am convinced that nothing of a miraculous nature occurred in St. Joseph Church last evening,” Bishop William Hughes of the Covington Diocese said Tuesday.

The Rev. Tom Sacksteder, diocese spokesman, said that the church was not taking a position on the dozens of incidents reported by people gathered outside the church.

The faithful flocked to the church after the Rev. LeRoy Smith said two months ago that an Ohio mystic whose identity he would not disclose predicted that Mary would visit the Cold Spring church at midnight on August 31.

Annie Gorman, a 12 year-old from Memphis, Tenn., said she saw Mary in a pine tree. “She had white hands and glowing lights around her. I also saw Jesus and the cross.”

Nicole Stevens, of Anderson Township, Ohio, said, “I saw two bright lights as I was looking through the trees. I can't say one way or the other whether it was Mary.”

Scarlet Noel, of nearby Florence was one of the 1,500 inside the church. She said she focused on a statue of Mary and “I think I saw tears.”

Rose Guasepohl of Florence said she didn't see anything, but added, “I feel good. I feel like she got her message over to the people of the United States.”

Jean Claus of Pittsburgh said her beads turned from silver to gold.

Visitors came from as far away as Texas and Alabama, officials said. Cold Spring is a town of 3,000 in northern Kentucky near the Ohio state line, and about six miles from Cincinnati.

An Associated Press Story