EMMITSBURG -- Gianna Talone-Sullivan says visions she experiences almost daily of the Virgin Mary make her grateful, although attention being generated as a result of them is "a great cross to bear."
The 37-year-old pharmacologist said also in a two-hour interview that her apparitions -- word of which has drawn growing, overflow crowds to a small Roman Catholic church here in recent months -- are the last that will occur in a period of time she cannot define.
She also said that in the six years she's been having the religious visions, she also has infrequently seen Jesus himself, as a man and as an infant. And she said she has received messages she cannot yet reveal.
The visions -- similar to those described by others in various places worldwide for many years -- have changed her life fundamentally, said Dr. Talone-Sullivan, to the point where she has virtually given up her career, attends daily Mass and prays three hours each day. Because she was asked to do so during one visitation, she said, she moved in November across the country from her native Arizona to Emmitsburg, far from her family and friends.
The visions began in 1988 after she visited a well-known shrine in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, but she has no explanation for why they began or continue. They are "not anything I merited," she said. "God chose me, and I feel blessed."
She described herself as having once been a "Sunday Catholic" and "affluent yuppie" focused on the pursuit of prestige and power.
"I was doing what I had to, to get ahead," Dr. Talone-Sullivan said. From 1989 to 1992, she was in charge of the geriatric pharmaceutical section of St. Joseph Hospital in Phoenix, Ariz. She got her pharmacology degree from the University of Southern California after undergraduate study at Arizona State University.
Believers and the curious have traveled to Emmitsburg from as far away as Florida and Ontario to catch a glimpse of Dr. Talone-Sullivan in the front pew of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church during Thursday evening prayers, in which Dr. Talone-Sullivan says she sees and receives a message from Mary -- a message she later shares in writing with the congregation.
"I'm simply an instrument, and I live life for others and do not interpret Our Lady's message," she said. "I unite with her in prayer."
Mary, the mother of Jesus and one of the most important figures in Christianity, is especially revered by Roman Catholics.
Crowds spill from the gray stucco, 152-year-old church, and officials there are installing speakers on the grounds to accommodate them. Thursday, people began arriving in early afternoon for the evening services, which began with dozens kneeling outside the church because all the seats inside were filled.
After the Thursday service, hundreds line the aisles seeking a blessing from her. An increasing number are ill or disabled. Dr. Talone-Sullivan does not claim to be a healer, but hopes her prayers "offer a greater healing" of the spirit.
People wait outside the door of the sacristry, the area behind the altar, hoping for a word with her. She only occasionally attends a reception in the parish hall after the Thursday services because the crowd is overwhelming.
Dr. Talone-Sullivan, who says she is a "private person," eschews the public, taking phone calls only through St. Joseph's rectory, and she guards her personal life. She won't divulge where she lives or where she works.
"I use prudence, especially to guard myself against spiritual pride," she said.
She said she sees visions of the Virgin Mary every day during evening prayer except Fridays, the day by tradition that Christ died.
Dr. Talone-Sullivan said she never heard of Emmitsburg before she and her husband visited the town's Grotto of Lourdes -- a replica of the more famous grotto of the same name in France -- before their marriage a year ago. There, unexpectedly, she received a vision from Mary asking her to move to Emmitsburg to do "good work."
She said she cannot divulge the extent of that work, but it includes the "Mission of Mercy," a mobile health clinic that will help the poor and homeless in several Western Maryland towns.
"It hurt me to leave my friends, family and spiritual community, but I was challenged to change," she said. At one point several years ago, she began preparations to be a nun, but she gave that up to marry about a year ago.
Her father, John Talone, who owns a real estate firm, mortgage company and other businesses in the Phoenix area, corroborated her assertion that moving to Maryland had been difficult.
And, he said, he has believed his daughter from the beginning.
"My children were brought up right," said Mr. Talone, who also has a son and another daughter. "They had a wonderful education. We've given them everything we possibly could. I would never doubt any of my children. My children are not phonies."
Mr. Talone said he attends weekly prayers at the Scottsdale church where Dr. Talone-Sullivan's messages from the Virgin Mary are shared every Thursday night. He said a lot of people there would like to see her return.
Dr. Talone-Sullivan's mother, Tecla, died in January.
Battleground against Satan
Her husband, Dr. Sullivan, said he believes it's no accident the couple were called to move to Emmitsburg, a town rich in Catholic history.
It was home of the first American-born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, the oldest parochial school in the United States and one of the largest seminaries.
"I knew in my heart that I was to bring her to Emmitsburg," said Dr. Sullivan, a tall, soft-spoken man who said that he, at one time, considered the priesthood. "The location is not by accident. Our Lady is setting the battleground here against Satan."
Dr. Talone-Sullivan was among a group of nine men and women at the St. Maria Goretti Roman Catholic parish in Scottsdale who said that in the fall of 1987, they began having visions and messages from the voice of Mary. Most of the men and women still live there, and some are still receiving messages, said Margie Perry, pastoral assistant at the Scottsdale church.
An investigation by the Phoenix Catholic archdiocese concluded that nothing miraculous was occurring in Scottsdale but commended those involved for their devotion to Mary, Ms. Perry said.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore, after meeting with Emmitsburg priests nearly two weeks ago, has not initiated an investigation.
A spokesman in Baltimore repeated a statement first made two weeks ago that Archbishop William H. Keeler plans to discuss the Phoenix investigation with officials there and to review information collected by the Emmitsburg priests.
"The archbishop has not initiated an investigation and made no decision on appointing a committee," said William Blaul, the diocesan spokesman. "Some time will elapse between now and final decision."
Mr. Blaul said the archbishop has no plans to meet with Dr. Talone-Sullivan, who said she "humbly submits herself to the magisterium of the church" and will support whatever the Baltimore archdiocese decides.
"I am not here to authenticate myself," she said. "The Lord will do that when He chooses."
'Very normal person'
The Rev. Frederick Jelly, a professor of theology at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg and Dr. Talone-Sullivan's spiritual adviser, urges patience regarding an investigation into the visions.
"Gianna she is very normal person, very down-to-earth person," he said. "People who are inclined to have visions are often considered to be spacey. There's nothing like that about her. From a psychological view, there doesn't seem to be unrealistic behavior or hallucinations or anything like that."
Dr. Sullivan said that he and his wife "keep our feet on the ground. Our whole life is not on the mystical side. We do what the Lord and Our Lady want."