The Miracle Detective: An Investigation of Holy Visions [Hardcover]

Randall Sullivan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2004

In a tiny, dilapidated trailer in northeastern Oregon, a young Mexican woman saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in an ordinary landscape painting hanging on her bedroom wall. After being met with skepticism from the local parish, the Catholic diocese officially placed the matter "under investigation." Investigative journalist Randall Sullivan wanted to know how exactly one might conduct the official inquiry into such an incident and set off to interview "the miracle detectives." These were the theologians, historians, and postulators from the Sacred Congregation of the Causes for Saints who were charged by the Vatican with testing the miraculous and judging the holy. What Sullivan didn't know was that his own investigation would lead from Vatican City in Rome to the tiny village of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where six visionaries have been receiving apparitions of the Virgin Mary. These raptures have been the subject of more medical and scientific examination than any other purported supernatural event ever recorded. An examination of the longest-running Marian apparitions in history, and the author's own faith and beliefs as he himself becomes a miracle detective, are at the heart of Randall Sullivan's stunning new book, The Miracle Detective.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In what often reads like a spiritual whodunit, author and Rolling Stone contributing editor Sullivan takes readers on a journey into the labyrinthine world of religious apparitions and miracle investigations. Sullivan's fascination with the subject began in 1994 when he learned of a spiritual phenomenon in his own backyard—the reported apparition of the Virgin Mary in a rundown trailer in eastern Oregon. Intrigued, he did some cursory research about such occurrences and proposed to his publisher to do a book on "miracle detectives." He began in Rome, where he met with Catholic Church officials charged with investigating such phenomena, and proceeded to the village of Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia, where the Virgin reportedly first appeared to six young people in 1981. It was in Medjugorje that Sullivan encountered an unexpected turn in his investigation—a personal religious experience in which a mysterious young woman came to his aid as he made a pilgrimage up the mountain of Krizevac. This and his subsequent spiritual encounters make for an interesting subplot as Sullivan continues his quest to explain the unexplainable, though he never fully discloses the details of where those experiences led him. Much has been written about Marian apparitions, particularly those at Medjugorje, but The Miracle Detective may well emerge as one of the most comprehensive and engaging modern works on the subject. Well told and expertly researched, Sullivan's book should appeal to skeptics and believers alike.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In 1994, Sullivan, a contributing editor to Rolling Stone and Men's Journal, learned about a vision of Mary appearing in an Oregon trailer and decided he might like to write about how the Catholic Church investigates such sightings. What he didn't know was that his "reporting" would turn into a personal quest leading him to Medjugorie, where six young seers see visions on the backdrop of the Bosnian war; to Scottsdale, Arizona, a seemingly unlikely spot for visionaries but the home of a group of them nonetheless; and to Rome, where Sullivan has brushes with both the pope and the devil. If what Sullivan writes about is astounding--sightings, healings, possession--the breadth and depth of his work is rather astonishing as well. This is a stunning mix of the personal and the historic, interviews and experiences, with Sullivan incredibly nimble at making the worlds overlap--in a way, just as visionaries do. He combines his own questions and doubts--even his anguish over the lives of those who claim to see Mary--with the history that is being played out at the time, especially the war in Bosnia, about which he goes into incredible, painful detail. His writing draws readers into his search for answers, and soon we find ourselves sharing his excitement, depression, and anger. Does he find his answers? Well, as one priest puts it, "true belief is a decision." Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1 edition (March 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871139162
• ISBN-13: 978-0871139160
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,075,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!!, August 5, 2004

By 

John "Kula Kine" (Kula, HI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Miracle Detective: An Investigation of Holy Visions (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book. Very well written and expertly researched, it was a joy to read. I found it to be a very fair and balanced account of Marain visions. The book is 90% neutral investigative journalism and 10% about the author's own spiritual journey through various phases of doubt and faith, which added a lot to the story. It's mostly centered on Medjugorje, though events in Arizona are also given a fair amount of attention. Beyond that, Lourdes and Fatima get a little time along with a few other events. The accounts of various healings and miracles are fascinating.

What I most appreciated about the book was it's neutrality and easy to read style. The author is not a Bible thumper who is looking to convert the reader, nor is he an atheist attempting to disuade us. He maintains a high degree of journalistic integrity throughout, presenting the results of his in depth research and letting the reader make up his or her own mind. Was Medjugorje real? After reading this, I believe, at least in part, that it was. Though one wonders if over the years, due to basic human limitation, the seers and their Franciscan keepers have lost their way a little bit. Reading about the visions of Medjugorje in context of the past and present history of the region, was extremely educational.

I don't agree with some of the criticism found at Amazon. The book is the result of 8 years of research and travel. It's a big story that covers a lot of ground and I found it to be reasonably well organized. As for the editing, the story reads very well and I didn't find virtually any typos or things of that nature.

I'm not a Catholic, but after reading this book, I'm itchin' to travel to Medjugorje and do a little investigating myself. Bravo Randall Sullivan, keep up the good work!

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Inspirational, June 10, 2005

By 

Christopher Bushman (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Miracle Detective (Paperback)

Reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary run from the sublime (At Fatima to three Portuguese children in a pasture) to the silly (In Florida to a jewelry designer on a grilled cheese sandwich). It was news reports of a Boardman, OR Marian apparition in the winter of 1994 skewing toward the silly which first piqued Portland author Randall Sullivan's interest and sent him on a ten year journey that resulted in The Miracle Detective: An Investigative Reporter Sets Out to Examine How the Catholic Church Investigates Holy Visions and Discovers His Own Faith.

Sullivan is an investigative journalist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine specializing in non-rock and roll feature stories often focusing on crime or offbeat themes with a mysterious slant. In 1994, Sullivan was neither a Catholic nor a believer in the divine but he did have the open mind of a journalist. As Sullivan sets the stage early in the book, it was the sincerity of the purported witnesses to a glowing image of the Virgin Mary in an Eastern Oregon trailer park and the fact that the incident was "under investigation" by the Diocese of Baker that induced him to look into how reported miracles were investigated by the Catholic Church.

Dubbing these Church investigators "Miracle Detectives" Sullivan writes that with virtually no firsthand knowledge of the Catholic Church he naively intended to produce an account detailing the official Church process for authenticating miracles focusing on the current apparitions of the Medjugorje seers. Armed with Vatican and Medjugorje introductions supplied by Father Milan Mikulich from St. Birgitta's Parish in Portland and Father Steve Sunborg of the Oregon Curia, Sullivan began his research in Rome and Bosnia.

On a superficial level, Sullivan accomplished what he set out to do. The Miracle Detective does feature interesting and insightful explanations and commentary on the Church's rigorous process for looking into reported miraculous incidents. Sullivan interviewed many clerics including an Eastern Oregon parish priest, a Postulator from the Sacred Congregation of the Causes for Saints at the Vatican and others including Father Benedict Groeschel C.F.R..

Additionally, Sullivan makes a welcome contribution to the body of Medjugorje-themed literature by providing a sober and thorough review of the numerous medical and psychological studies conducted on the six seers from 1981 to the present and objectively reviews the divisive reactions to the reported apparitions among world Catholics and Yugoslav government officials alike. Also, almost unique in writing on the subject, Sullivan masterfully frames the spiritual story of Medjugorje within the broader context of Balkan history from the pagan times of late antiquity through the medieval clash between Christianity and Islam, Communism and perhaps most importantly the Bosnian war of the 1990's.

Although the Church's study of events in Medjugorje was intended to be the focus of the book, it ultimately serves, as one element in a shotgun blast of a story that at times reads like a gripping detective thriller at others like a history text but ultimately becomes a moving faith journey, as the authors own experiences take center stage.
Many people have traveled to Medjugorje and claim to return changed. Unexpectedly and despite his impeccable popular culture credentials, Randall Sullivan spends much of the book detailing the peaks and valleys of his own conversion story. Beginning with an incident in the Purple Room at Powell's bookstore in Portland to his arrival in the Bosnian village, a brush with evil in a Roman piazza and finally circling back to an update on events in Boardman, Sullivan's unlikely story of coming to terms with God is at times fascinating, frustrating and uplifting.

In some ways, Sullivan's tale is reminiscent of The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton. Although he is now remembered as a great spiritual sage, the young Merton outlined in his first book was also a thoroughly secular young man busy listening to jazz records and getting kicked out of college. It was only slowly and through the gift of grace that he refashioned his focus and became the man we remember. If the conversion story detailed in The Seven Story Mountain is told more gracefully than The Miracle Detective it is perhaps because Merton wrote from the benefit of hindsight while Sullivan admits to remaining in the thick of his.

The Miracle Detective is difficult to categorize, it is at once a survey of modern era Marian apparitions and a detailed summary of the major events and personalities that make up the Medjugorje story to date. Mostly it is the personal story of a man deeply immersed in American popular culture whose life takes a much-unexpected turn in response to grace.

Because this book runs in so many different directions and the author freely admits his personal involvement in the subject matter compelled him to throw out the notion of journalistic objectivity, some readers may find the scattershot organization of the book lacking cohesion. I suggest it is a strength; The Miracle Detective is the sprawling output of a well-educated thoroughly organized secular mind reeling from a profound experience of the divine.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and balanced look at miraculous apparitions, December 12, 2004

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Miracle Detective: An Investigation of Holy Visions (Hardcover)

Randall Sullivan spent eight years researching and examining the miraculous apparitions at Boardman Oregon, Scottsdale Arizona and Medjugorje in Bosnia. The results is one of the best books on the phenomenon of miraculous apparitions ever to be written. Although he starts locally with Boardman, he spends most of his time in Medjugorje and Rome.

Medjugorje is undeniably the most important miraculous appearance of our time and is often compared to those at Lourdes and Fatima. Sullivan provides wonderfully balanced reporting, while at the same time he is open enough to show how his interviews have personally influenced him. He does a wonderful job of presenting the many points of view on these events, yet is always reaching for the objective truth behind the presentations of the seers, the Church, the theologians, the believers, and the scientists.

My favorite chapter comes towards the end of the book when he interviews Father Benedict Groeschel. He quotes Groeschel as saying:

"If you no more than dismiss these things, you're simple an obscurantist. If you mindlessly embrace them, you're just a dope. we have to resist the obsessive-compulsive demand for a clear, definitive answer to these questions. This is a field for people who don't have to have it all figured out, who don't need it cast in black and white. There's a lotta gray mist around this stuff, and you have to be prepared to deal with that. Once in a while a bright, shining lightcomes through, and we should be grateful for it. Because the rest of the time we have to feel our way through the twilight."

If you have an open mind, I recommend this book. However, if you come to it to either prove or disprove a preconceived idea, you will probably feel upset with the author's approach.