About the book: In the great eruption of mysticism, in the din of locutionists and visionaries, in the current chaos of private revelation, one voice has managed to stand out. It is the voice, and the vision, of a matronly woman named Maria Esperanza de Bianchini, from the hillside outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela.
During the past several years, I have met dozens of reputed visionaries and have visited more than thirty sites of supposed apparition. I do not like to draw comparisons, but with the exception of the seers in Medjugorje, none have left as deep and lasting an impression as Maria Esperanza.
As you will discover, this is not your standard "visionary." The phenomena go far beyond those normally associated with apparition sites. Maria is a stigmatist, a prophet, a healer. She has been seen in bilocation, and dozens of competent observers have themselves witnessed the Virgin while in Maria's company at a place called Betania.
Others have watched as a Host miraculously appears in her mouth, or as strange luminous clouds appear.
Like some of the more remarkable saints, she has also been seen to levitate in ecstasy.
The bishop himself has witnessed phenomena, and so respected is Maria by the local episcopate that she is allowed to have the Blessed Sacrament in a chapel in her own home, which overlooks the wavering lights of Caracas.
Perhaps the most remarkable event to take place in Betania occurred on 8 December 1991 on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. During the celebration of the Holy Mass, a consecrated Host began to bleed.
No, this is not just another seer. Nor, as far as I can tell, is this the product of imagination, exaggeration, or hysteria. If but half of what they say is true, Maria Esperanza de Bianchini is one of the major mystics of this century.
(The Authors)
The Bridge To Heaven: Interviews With Maria Esperanza of Betania (Revised and Updated) (1993) was republished in 2003.
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