Why Simona and Angela?

Visionaries of Our Lady of Zaro

The alleged Marian apparitions in Zaro di Ischia (an island near Naples in Italy) have been ongoing since 1994. The two current visionaries, Simona Patalano and Angela Fabiani, receive messages on the 8th and 26th of each month, and Don Ciro Vespoli, who provides spiritual guidance to them, was himself one of a group of seers during the initial phase of the apparitions, before he became a priest. (It is Don Ciro who, at least until recently, would read out the messages written down by Simona and Angela after they emerged from their supposed ecstasies or "resting in the Spirit—riposo nello Spirito").

The messages from Our Lady of Zaro may not be well known in the English-speaking world, but a case can be made for treating them seriously on a number of grounds. The first is that the diocesan authorities are actively studying them and in 2014 established an official commission tasked, among other things, with collecting testimonies of healings and other fruits associated with the apparitions. The visionaries and their apparitions, therefore, are therefore subject to intense scrutiny, and to our knowledge, there have been no allegations of malpractice. Don Ciro, himself, has pointed out that he could not have been ordained by Msgr. Filippo Strofaldi, who had been following the apparitions since 1999, had the monsignor judged the apparitions either diabolic or the result of mental illness. A third factor in favor of taking the Zaro apparitions/messages seriously is the clear evidence that in 1995, the visionaries had what appears to have been a precognitive vision (published in the magazine Epoca) of the 2001 destruction of the Twin Towers* in New York. (It was this that attracted the attention of the national press to Zaro). As regards the often sobering content of the messages,** there is a striking convergence between them and other serious sources, with no theological errors.

Sources:

https://www.ildispariquotidiano.it/it/zaro-20-anni-di-apparizioni-fiaccolata-rosario-e-nuovo-messaggio/

Video documentary (Italian) including archival 1995 footage of the seers (among them Ciro Vespoli):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkZ3LUxx-8E