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Is this book great or ghastly? Read my review and get the inside dope

Supernatural Visions of the Madonna (1981 to 1991) London

Author(s)
Sofia Marie Gabriel (Sister Marie)
Publisher
The Author
Edition / Year
1993
In the section labelled

Supernatural VisionsThose of you who read UK national newspapers in the early 1990s may remember the strange full-page adverts that appeared from time to time in the name of someone called Sister Marie, prophesying doom and cataclysm if its author's words were not heeded. Sister Marie claimed to have successfully predicted in 1986 that Halley's comet would explode in 1991 (which it did), and that global extinction would occur if pornography was not banned immediately (which it didn't).

As part of her campaign against worldly evils, Sister Marie (alias Sophia Marie Gabriel, alias Zoe Richmond) also published this enormous, copiously illustrated book documenting her visions and her attempts to publicise them. Its nearly 800 magazine-size glossy pages are filled with photographs, diatribes (all in uppercase) and reproductions of letters from the hard-pressed representatives of notables politely thanking her for her correspondence. She also includes much material relating to a series of disputes with the authorities, most notably her disturbing accusation that NHS staff deliberately starved her father to death while he was under their care in hospital.

According to her own account, Sister Marie was born Zofia Sagatis in 1941 in Poland. From there her family fled the war, eventually reaching the UK in 1946. At the age of 9 she says she was greatly injured in a road accident which left her with what she calls a heart problem. At 14 she became a "mystic", after, as she puts it, "falling in love with God after a divine romance in the convent chapel" at her Catholic school in Leicester. Here's another passage which describes events closer in time to this publication:

THE VIRGIN MADONNA BEGAN TRANSMITTING IMPORTANT MESSAGES TO A MYSTIC IN LONDON SINCE 1981 SHE COMMANDED SOFIA MARIE GABRIEL TO RECORD ALL THE MESSAGES IN A WRITTEN DOCUMENT WHICH WAS THEN DISTRIBUTED TO ALL THE MAIN EMBASSIES AND NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS IN LONDON SINCE 1982.



Halley's CometSOFIA MARIE GABRIEL IS A PLAIN-CLOTHES, RELIGIOUS SISTER, OR TERTIARY CARMELITE HER RELIGIOUS NAME IS SISTER MARIE GABRIEL. SHE LEADS THE LIFE Of A CONTEMPLATIVE SISTER, PRIVATELY. AT HOME, OUTSIDE THE CONVENT WALLS.



THE ESSENCE OF THE VIRGIN MADONNA'S SERIOUS MESSAGE IS AS FOLLOWS; IT DEALS WITH GOD'S FINAL ULTIMATUM TO BRITAIN, EUROPE, USA AND ALL NATIONS! VIZ, COUNTRIES MUST DRASTICALLY AND IMMEDIATELY REDUCE ALL CRIME BY 85% AND DESTROY ALL TRACES OF PORNOGRAPHY OR MANKIND WILL FACE GLOBAL EXTINCTION BY A COSMIC COLLISION WITH A GIGANTIC FIREBALL ASTEROID VERY SOON. THE EXPLOSION AND ERUPTION OF HALEY'S COMET IS THE WARNING SIGN PRECEDING THE COSMIC PENALTY. THE VIRGIN MADONNA SAID GOD WILL WIPE OUT MANKIND ON ACCOUNT OF THE GROSS OBSCENITY OF WOMEN TODAY.



THE VIRGIN MADONNA ORDERED SOFIA, A RELIGIOUS MYSTIC, TO BE HER MESSENGER, LIKE THE POPE JOHN PAUL II, SHE COMES FROM POLAND. SOFIA. KNOWN AS SISTER MARIE GABRIEL, WENT TO LOURDES TO THE GREAT HEALING SHRINE OF THE MADONNA IN FRANCE AND THERE THE VIRGIN MARY INSTRUCTED HER TO BE GOD'S MESSENGER AND TO MAKE KNOWN HIS FINAL MESSAGE TO ALL NATIONS AND GOVERNMENTS AT TOP SPEED.



Sister MarieFOR OVER TEN YEARS SISTER MARIE HAS BEEN LIVING HIGH UP IN A TOWER BLOCK, NEAR QUEENS PARK, LONDON, WHERE THE VIRGIN MADONNA HAS APPEARED TO HER, AND WHERE CHRIST HIMSELF CAME IN A VISION AND ORDERED HER TO BE HIS AMBASSADOR AND MISSIONARY IN ENGLAND.



SISTER MARIE HAS BEEN DELIVERING COPIES OF GOD'S WRITTEN ULTIMATUM RECORDED IN A MANUSCRIPT, TO ALL THE MAJOR EMBASSIES IN LONDON, RUSSIA, FRANCE, ITALY, SPAIN, GERMANY, POLAND AND SAUDI ARABIA ETC.



ON 29TH NOVEMBER, 1990 TWO YEARS AGO, SISTER MARIE GABRIEL WENT TO THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY TO PERSONALLY HAND IN HER WRITTEN PREDICTION THAT HALEY'S COMET WOULD UNDERGO A MASSIVE COSMIC ERUPTION. THIS AMAZING FORECAST OF HERS CAME TRUE TWO MONTHS LATER WHEN ASTRONOMERS SAW HALEY EXPLODE ON 12 FEBRUARY 1991, EXACTLY AS SISTER MARIE HAD PREDICTED TO THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY. THE SOVIET AMBASSADOR'S SECRETARY SENT HER PREDICTIONS ABOUT HALEY'S COMET, TO THE SOVIET ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN MOSCOW ON DECEMBER 1990. WHEN THE COMET ERUPTION CAME TRUE, IT PROVED SISTER MARIE CAN ACCURATELY FORECAST COSMIC EVENTS WELL AHEAD OF ALL ASTRONOMERS AND IN ADVANCE OF THE MOST POWERFUL TELESCOPES.

In order to pay for the production of this book and the newspaper advertisements, it would seem that some mystery benefactor or benefactors gave her money which must have amounted to thousands of pounds. Sister Marie herself claimed to live in poverty, at one point giving vent to a lengthy complaint against the "sadists" of the DHSS (the Department of Health and Social Security, responsible for state benefits).

LAW AND ORDER

Of course no volume of this nature would be complete without some terrible poetry, and you'd be disappointed if I failed to pass it on. So here's "PLEASE SAVE OUR WORLD", which I presume is meant to be read as a rap as it's addressed to the "kids":

LISTEN BOYS, LISTEN GIRLS

WE'VE JUST GOT TO SAVE OUR WORLD,

IT NEEDS HELP, IT NEEDS A CURE,

IT NEEDS SALVATION AND THAT'S FOR SURE.



WHAT ARE WE ALL GOING TO DO?

LISTEN KIDS I'M TALKING TO YOU.

WE'VE GOT TO SAVE OUR PLANET TODAY,

WE'VE GOT TO HELP IT RIGHT AWAY.



LET'S STOP ALL THE GREED,

LET'S STOP ALL THE CRIME,

LET'S STOP THE WARS WHILE THERE IS TIME.



LET'S STOP ALL THE HUNGER,

LET'S STOP ALL THE PAIN,

LET'S STOP ALL THE TEARS THAT FALL LIKE RAIN.



LET'S STOP ALL THE CHEATING,

LET'S STOP ALL THE LYING,

LET'S STOP ALL THE FIGHTING AND ALL THE CRYING.



LET'S SAVE THE RAIN FORESTS,

LET'S SAVE OUR FRESH AIR,

LET'S SAVE THE OZONE LAYER THINNING UP THERE.



LET'S STOP THE POLLUTION,

FROM MILLIONS OF CARS,

LET'S GIVE UP ALL SMOKING,

THAT FILLS LUNGS WITH TAR.



LET'S SAVE OUR OCEANS, RIVERS AND SEAS,

LET'S SAVE OUR COUNTRYSIDE, MEADOWS AND TREES,

STOP CRUELTY TO ANIMALS, STOP HUNTING FOR FURS.



STOP ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS, WHICH POISON AND HURT.



LET'S SAVE ALL THE ELEPHANTS,

LET'S STOP IVORY'S TRADE,

LET'S SAVE THE DOLPHINS AND THE WHALES

GOD HAS MADE.



LISTEN BOYS, LISTEN GIRLS

WE'VE JUST GOT TO SAVE OUR WORLD,

IT NEEDS HELP, IT NEEDS A CURE,

IT NEEDS SALVATION AND THAT'S FOR SURE.



WHAT ARE WE ALL GOING TO DO?

LISTEN KIDS I'M TALKING TO YOU.

WE'VE GOT TO SAVE OUR PLANET TODAY,

WE'VE GOT TO HELP IT RIGHT AWAY.

EARTH NEEDS LOVE, O LISTEN PLEASE,

OUR WORLD NEEDS MERCY, TRUTH AND PEACE.

I just hope the kids are prepared to listen, unlike Andrew Lloyd-Webber who mean-spiritedly would not even accept her generous gift of a gold-framed picture of Jesus Christ Superstar. Like so many others, he failed to recognise the strange woman on his doorstep as a holy messenger from God. Poor chap, he probably thought she was some kind of nut.

 BUGGED BY MI5

 

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Comments

Submitted by Jill (not verified) on 19 Oct 2020 - 10:30 Permalink

I met her more than once. She had a sickly sweet voice. I was dating her nephew at the time and he would pay her visits just to check in on her.

Submitted by Loes Modderman (not verified) on 23 Dec 2017 - 00:39 Permalink

I ordered the book, because I love books from weird people. It's heavy, and her consequent use of capitals instead of normal print, her absolute belief in her own importance and the truth of her mission reminds me of the schizophrenic people I knew in the line of my work when they were the victim of a psychosis. But what intrigued me most is her dolls head, which is not human, a mask, plastic probably, carefully held with her hand under her chin and a scarf to prevent it falling off. What's under the mask, I wonder. The book is a treasure, nevertheless, from a woman who has all the answers straight from God, Maria, Jesus and the rest of the catholic universe. It must be a complicated existence.

Submitted by Iain Bo Bo beans (not verified) on 24 Sep 2016 - 02:03 Permalink

I have had this book for many years - it is one of my prized possessions. I think that graphically its surrealism is unparalleled. It is also a real opening-up of a really - well - unusual mind. It would be good for teaching students how to empathise with people who have a markedly different world-view. I keep rather disconcerting feeling when I read 'Visions' - I open this vast book often - that she might be right about everything she says; as she was about the massive cosmic eruption of Haley's comet. As the Soviet Academy of Sciences will surely testify. If you are lucky enough to find a copy of this - rare as hens' teeth - definitely buy it - a unique classic.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 13 Jan 2012 - 00:52 Permalink

THIS WOMAN SYLVIA RICHMOND ,SOFIA RICHMOND IS AN EVIL WOMAN AND HAS STOLEN MY THREE CATS .......SHE LOCKS THEM UP AND CALLS THEM HER STRAY CATS......DO YOU KNOW HOW I CAN GET MORE INFORMATION ON HER SHE IS CURRENTLY LIVING IN GLYNNEATH SOUTH WALES AND AM TRYING MY BEST TO EXPOSE HER .....SHE IS LIVING IN A HOUSE THAT SHE PAID CASH FOR AND HAS NO FRIENDS AND DOESNT SPEND A PENNY ON THE UPKEEP OF HER PROPERTY
Submitted by jack gielen (not verified) on 18 Oct 2012 - 23:13 Permalink

I had a vision of the Madonna Light woman at marae marie on the way to Tauramanui.Since then there have been all kinds of coincidences in my life.The weather has gone all wrong, the world is upside down.I often wonder what the fourth sign of Fatima was.Was it the world and humanity destoying itself.Yours sincerely Jack Gielen

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 13 Jan 2012 - 00:52 Permalink

THIS WOMAN SYLVIA RICHMOND ,SOFIA RICHMOND IS AN EVIL WOMAN AND HAS STOLEN MY THREE CATS .......SHE LOCKS THEM UP AND CALLS THEM HER STRAY CATS......DO YOU KNOW HOW I CAN GET MORE INFORMATION ON HER SHE IS CURRENTLY LIVING IN GLYNNEATH SOUTH WALES AND AM TRYING MY BEST TO EXPOSE HER .....SHE IS LIVING IN A HOUSE THAT SHE PAID CASH FOR AND HAS NO FRIENDS AND DOESNT SPEND A PENNY ON THE UPKEEP OF HER PROPERTY
Submitted by pseudonym (not verified) on 11 Sep 2011 - 16:05 Permalink

85% is so weirdly specific and yet vague on what sort of crime, maybe this should be a question on the sociopath test but it seems to me the quickest way to bring about a sudden drop like that is to just legalize everything except murder and rape, which suggest that god is a libertarian