Outline of the History of the Palmarian Movement/Church 1968-2016

Here is a list of important events in the history of the Palmarian movement that became the Palmarian Catholic Church.

1968 (March 30): Four girls reported having seen a ”very beautiful lady” at the Alcaparrosa field, just outside Palmar de Troya, a town in Spanish Andalusia. The apparition took place by a mastic tree (lentisco), and the woman was identified as the Virgin Mary.

1968 (April onwards): Several other people, most of them women, claimed to have received apparitions at the site. The stories attracted large groups of people from the region, other parts of Spain, and from abroad.

1968 (October 15): Clemente Domínguez Gómez and his friend Manuel Alonso Corral from Seville visited Palmar de Troya for the first time.

1969 (July onwards) Clemente and Manuel began to travel frequently to Palmar de Troya.

1969 (August 15): Clemente fell in ecstasy by the mastic tree.

1969 (September 30): Clemente had his first vision (of Christ and Padre Pio).

1969 (December 15): Clemente had his first vision of the Virgin Mary.

1970 (February 2): Clemente placed an image of the Holy Face of Christ (La Santa Faz) by the mastic tree

1970 (April 13): Clemente received the stigmata for the first time.

1970 (May 15): Some 40,000 people gathered at the Alcaparrosa, an all-time high.

1970 (18 May). The archbishop of Seville, Cardinal José María Bueno Monreal issues a formal denunciation of the apparitions.

1970 (July 16): The Virgin blessed a well in the Alcaparrosa field, whose water was claimed to have healing effects.

1971: Clemente and Manuel Alonso traveled through Spain, Portugal, France and Italy to spread the messages from Palmar.

1972 (March 2): An image of the Virgin as the Divine Shepherdess (La Divina Pastora) was placed by the mastic tree.

1972 (March 18): The archbishop of Seville reiterated his denunciation of the apparitions and forbade all kinds of Catholic cult activity at the Alcaparrosa field.

1972 (May 9): Clemente proclaimed that Paul VI would be succeeded by both a true pope and an antipope.

1972 (September 12): An image of Our Lady of Palmar was placed by the mastic tree.

1972 (December 8): A group of Palmarians wrote to Pope Paul VI in search of support.

1972: Clemente and his closest followers began to refer to themselves as Marian apostles or Apostles of the Cross and form cenacles (prayer groups).

1973: Clemente and Manuel traveled to Rome.

1973: Clemente and Manuel traveled to North and South America.

1974: Clemente and Manuel made a new journey to the Americas.

1974: Clemente and Manuel acquired the Alcaparrosa field. A more elaborate shrine and a surrounding wall was constructed.

1974 (December 8): A new report about the heavenly messages to Clemente was sent to the pope.

1975 (May 30): Christ ordered Clemente to begin the construction of a larger sanctuary.

1975 (November 20): The Spanish leader, General Francisco Franco, died.

1975 (November 30): Christ appeared to Clemente telling him to found a new religious order.

1975 (December 22) The new order, the Carmelites of the Holy Face, was founded.

1975 (December 24): Archbishop Pierre-Martin Ngô-Dinh-Thuc arrived in Seville.

1976 (January 1): Archbishop Thuc ordained four priests at Palmar de Troya, including Clemente and Manuel.

1976 (January 2): Archbishop Bueno declared the ordinations irregular.

1976 (January 11): Thuc consecrated five bishops at Palmar de Troya, including Clemente and Manuel.

1976 (January 14): Archbishop Bueno declared the consecrations irregular and the newly consecrated bishops suspended.

1976 (January 15): All involved in the consecrations were excommunicated by the papal nuncio to Spain.

1976 (February onwards): The Palmarian bishops consecrated a long series of bishops.

1976 (March 11): The bishops were arrested for wearing the cassock without being Catholic priests.

1976 (May 29): Palmarian bishops were involved in a car accident in the Basque country. Clemente was seriously wounded, and he lost his sight.

1976 (August 4): Clemente receives a message that he would become pope after the death of Paul VI.

1977 (January 20): The Virgin announced that Clemente should change his name to Father Fernando.

1978 (August 6): Pope Paul VI died.

1978 (August 6): While in Bogotá, Colombia, Clemente claimed to have been crowned pope by Christ and that he had taken the name Gregory XVII.

1978 (August 9): Clemente was back in Spain, and the Holy See was formally moved from Rome to Palmar de Troya. The Holy Apostolic Catholic Palmarian Church is founded.

1978 (August 15): Gregory XVII was crowned pope by four newly appointed cardinals.

1978 (August 17): The first canonizations in a very long series took place.

1978-1980: Gregory XVII issued forty-seven papal documents, including dogmatic definitions, decrees and exhortations.

1979 (June-August): Together with a group of twelve bishops, Pope Gregory mades an apostolic journey through Europe and to the Holy Land.

1979: Pope Gregory and other church leaders made an apostolic journey to the Americas.

1980 (March 30): The Palmarian Council was inaugurated. After its opening session, the Palmarian Credo was published.

1981: The Palmarians applied to become an officially recognized religious organization for the first time, but they were denied registration by the Ministry of Justice on several occasions.

1982 (May 19): Gregory XVII and a number of bishops visited the relics of Teresa of Avila in Alba de Tormes. It was rumored that they planned to steal them, and they were attacked by a large group of people.

1982 (July 30-31): Gregory XVII issued a series of apostolic decrees about relics and images in Roman Catholic churches and announced that they were totally devoid of value for Roman Catholics and only powerful to Palmarians.

1983 (October 9): The much briefer Latin-Tridentine-Palmarian mass order replaced the Tridentine rite.

1985: The Palmarians appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court against the decisions of the Ministry of Justice.

1987 (November 2): The Supreme Court gave the Palmarian church official status as a religious organization. Through this decision, the church achieved separate legal status.

1992 (October 12): The Palmarian Council was concluded. The Treatise on the Mass was main result.

1995 (March 30): The cardinalate was suppressed.

1997-2001: The First Palmarian synod was held. Sacred History or Holy Palmarian Bible was its main result.

2000 (October 24): Gregory XVII named Manuel Alonso, Father Isidoro María, as his papal successor.

2000 (November 5): Gregory XVII excommunicated eighteen bishops and seven nuns. Some of them founded an independent Palmarian group in Archidona, Andalusia.

2001: The final five-volume edition of Sacred History or Holy Palmarian Bible was published.

2003 (March 24): The Palmarians sold their remaining real estate in Seville, and all friars and nuns move to Palmar de Troya.

2005 (March 21): Pope Gregory XVII died.

2005 (24 March). Father Isidoro María was crowned pope and took Peter II as his papal name.

2005-2011: Peter II issued a series of apostolic decrees.

2011 (July 15): Peter II died.

2011 (July 17): Father Sergio María, Ginés Jesús Hernández Martínez, was crowned as the third Palmarian pope. He took Gregory XVIII as his papal name.

2012 (January 6): The second Palmarian Council was inaugurated.

2014: The Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar was finished.

2015-2016: Pope Gregory XVIII start to liberalize the “moral teachings” of the Palmarian church, including the strict dresscode.

2016 (April 22): Pope Gregory XVIII resigns the papacy and leave the church, claiming that he does not believe in the teachings anymore.

2016 (April 23): Gregory XVIII is succeeded as pope by his former Secretary of State, the Swiss Bishop Eliseo María (Markus Josef Odermatt), who takes Peter III as his papal name.