The Coogee Virgin Mary Shrine marks the site where the Marian apparition is believed to have appeared two decades ago. Here’s a look back at the event that many believed to be linked to the tragic loss of young lives at the Sari Club bombings in Bali.
Throughout Catholic history, there have been a number of reported Marian apparitions including the Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, the Our Lady of Lourdes in France and the Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal.
Whilst a number of these reported apparitions have been approved by the Catholic Church, others either received negative judgements or no decisions / formal investigations at all. Such is the case of the reported sighting of the apparition at Coogee Beach.
The first Marian apparition at Coogee Beach was first reported on 22 January 2003 when a local laundrette told a local newspaper about the vision of a veiled woman at the fence about two months earlier.
Numerous other sightings have been reported, allegedly occurring between 3.15 pm and 4.30 pm each day. Many pilgrims, mostly Roman Catholic believers, have since flocked to the site daily. Some brought photos of Mary and flowers whilst others prayed and sang.
Photo Credit: Sardaka (talk) 10:18, 15 October 2008 (UTC), CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Some claimed that the apparition has something to do with the Sari Club bombings which occurred in 2002. The terrorist attack in Bali killed 202 people including 88 Australians. The Marian apparition, some said, was God’s way of comforting those who were grieving the violent death of the young people in the Bali bombings.
The reported sightings of the apparition called by some as “Our Lady of the Fence Post” or “Rail Mary”, however, were never recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as no formal investigation was initiated by the Sydney Archdiocese. There are others, including the Coogee Parish Priest, who debunked the sightings as a mere optical illusion.
Then on 9 February 2003, vandals attacked the claimed apparition site, demolishing the fence, chaining a toilet bowl to the fence, and splashing paint on the fence. Workmen were immediately sent to repair the destroyed fence. No formal report on the vandalism was filed.
Published 19-January-2023
