An anointed piece of property it is, not far from Boston and Providence, near a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima in Medway, Massachusetts.
We speak here of a retreat center known as “Betania II” that is connected, in a strong spiritual sense, to the Church-approved apparition site Betania in Venezuela.
Both are linked to the mystic Maria Esperanza. The Venezuelan site, now a thriving, expanding shrine, was located after Esperanza received the vision of a place where the Virgin Mary said she would one day appear. On August 22, 1954, during a visit to Caracas, Maria, who had been living in Rome, had a dream about a place where miracles would occur and where there would be an unusual blue butterfly. She even consulted her close friend Saint Padre Pio about it.
In the vision Maria had seen an old house, a waterfall, and a grotto. “From 1957 until 1974, we searched for this land in all of Venezuela,” her late husband Geo di Bianchini told us. Then came a visit from a friend who came to ask for help during a drought. The cattle on his land were stricken with hunger and Maria told Geo they should go see it. When they did, in March of 1974, they immediately fell in love with the picturesque hillside about an hour and a half from Caracas. “It corresponded exactly with the vision my wife had been given,” said Geo.
In February of 1976, while Maria was in Italy tending to Geo’s ailing mother, the Virgin told Esperanza to head back for Venezuela and prepare herself for something that was to happen at Betania. Maria did as she was told and at this spot on a hillside encountered an apparition of the Virgin, who called herself “Reconciler of Peoples and Nations.”
It was the onset of apparitions and miracles —in many cases extraordinary, well-witnessed manifestations – that continue to this day. A blue butterfly seemed to flit out from the grotto at the moment Maria went into apparition. The most momentous occurrence came on March 25, 1984, when seven successive apparitions were witnessed not only by Maria but a total of 108 people.
Now jump to April of 1993. While visiting and speaking in the Boston area, her close friend, Sister Margaret Sims, invited Maria to go with her to property Maria had described to Sister Margaret. Maria got off the bus at the Summer Street location in Medway and suddenly moved to a spot, making three crosses in the ground with a stick and telling those with her to dig there.
A rock was unearthed and Esperanza said “see eyes, nose, face ‘Jesus.'” The rock had what can be interpreted as a rough likeness of His Face. The rock is now located in the foyer of a splendid retreat center—one we encourage all in the region to visit for deep prayer and Perpetual Adoration. There are even overnight facilities [see here].
And it is tended to and overseen by one of Maria’s daughters, Esperancita, and her husband James Foley, a retired police officer in the vicinity, as well as a dedicated board of directors and volunteers.
This, she was “told,” was where a version of Betania should be established as a place of refuge and retreat in North America. Betania II Spiritual Retreat and Conference Center offers a serene environment for personal growth and spiritual exploration.
“This is a blessed land, a holy land, just like Betania of the Holy Waters,” said Maria in 1997. “I saw this land before buying it, I came to this land and I saw the green house that was over there; the Lord brought me to this land to express by its means the love He has of all of you here. He wishes purification, renewal of your souls; He wishes you may have a great heart so Jesus may enter into that heart forever. It is a call to reflection, to meditation, to prayer, to the Eucharist.”
Located at 154 Summer Street in Medway, this retreat center provides various programs aimed at fostering inner peace and community connection. With a focus on holistic well-being, Betania II serves individuals and groups seeking a quiet space for reflection and rejuvenation. We came away spiritually rejuvenated after a visit there in May. (Directions and other information are here. Your support is critical.)
Other “Betanias” have likewise been established in the U.S. and elsewhere.
We have come to learn that the Indians may have considered this a special place centuries before.
Says a booklet about the area, once known as Breezy Meadows, “Kate Sanborn has shared with us, her humor, wit and her story of Breezy Meadows. She has left a legacy and there is no question that she truly loved and enjoyed her farm properties, and today, one cannot help but realize that we have perhaps inherited some of her prosperity. The two farms have become religious sites where many gather daily looking for peace and consolation as Miss Sanborn once did, and it is no wonder that the Indians named the Medway property, ‘the land of the holy face.'”
The local Indigenous people of that area—the Nipmuc tribe—spoke an Algonquian language. Their place names were entirely descriptive of the natural geography, such as Wenakeening (which means “pleasant pleasant place” or “good land”).
The nearby Wenakeening Woods adjoins the Betania II property. A local trail-history exhibit says local lore translated Lake Wenakeening as “Smile of the Great Spirit” (but adds that recent research found no documentation that Native Americans gave the name).
“Still a mystery is the ‘Lodge,’ built by Miss Kate Sanborn, and located at the far end of the property where embedded within its walls is a stone face, the significance of which cannot be explained.”
That was obviously a different stone bearing a similar image! The one found by Maria Esperanza was unearthed under what is now the retreat center’s entrance.
“Right now think about your churches, your chapel, the church where your priests are, think of your families, the sick ones you know, the sad, those who have spent years in a wheelchair, those who have been staying in a hospital because their mind got lost, also of those who are paralyzed and cannot speak, those who now have a dark mind and are unaware of this because they have lost their memory,” Esperanza also once said during a visit. “There are so many reasons why the world is suffering: incurable diseases, cancer that is killing so many people, and so many other illnesses.
“Let us think that all of us who are here will be bathed, cured, cleaned, purified of all contamination, of all sin… clean, like brand new. We are being born again by the love of Jesus, by the love of Mary, by the fragrance of Mary, of her roses, of her roses of love, of purification for our souls.”
[resources: Apparitions in Betania, Venezuela and The Final Hour]