Garabandal is a village in northern Spain where four girls had thousands of visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary from 1961 through 1965. Whenever the girls met with the apparition of Mary, they fell into a trance, becoming oblivious to the natural world and their surroundings. These experiences were named 'ecstasies' because the girls could not be distracted, by any means, from the splendor of our heavenly Queen. The girls spoke at length with Mary, often for many hours, telling her stories of their lives. They likened those conversations to that of speaking with one's own mother, who had been away on a trip and come home eager to learn of her children's activities. Thousands of visitors came to the village over that period and gave witness to those extraordinary events.