Bronx Miracle: Joseph Vitolo, Jr., Our Lady of the Universe, and Roman Catholic Devotion

John T. McGreevy, University of Notre Dame

History professor John McGreevy of the University of Notre Dame will speak on the experience of Joseph Vitolo, Jr., an Italian American young boy, who claimed to see the Virgin Mary in the Bronx in 1945.  The alleged apparition attracted enormous public interest at the time, and the presentation will discuss how the apparition (and the shrine later constructed on the site) shaped the life of the boy and his immediate circle of family and friends. Professor McGreevy will also suggest the meaning of such phenomena for the workings of religion in the United States, and Catholic piety around the world.