Our Lady of Absam

A close-up view of the etching.

In his old age, Johann Buecher recounted the following rendition of the apparition in 1857:

"On 17th January 1797, my sister, a grown girl (18 years of age) by the name of Rosina was sitting at the table by the window on the ground-floor room sewing. She then – between 3 and 4 o'clock – suddenly looked up and saw what had never been seen before, drawn on a window pane, an image of Mary, the Mother of God. She called to her mother, who was also present, but in another part of the room. Mother hurried over and was initially not a little frightened, when she saw the image of the Holy Virgin, as she thought an accident could have befallen father or myself in the salt-mine where we worked. She said to sister Rosanna that we should pray; and that is what happened. After saying their prayers, the mother wiped the picture with a cloth, because she thought it was steamed up, but look, scarcely had she wiped it off, but it was back just as it was before. The apparition of the image took place on a Tuesday, and on the Thursday me and my father came home perfectly well from the mountain. We looked with joy and amazement at what we had occurred. On 17th January 1797 I was in my 16th year and have retained in my memory everything that happened on that day."[3]

A different angle taken of the miraculous windowpane.

The parish priest took the windowpane for further examination by experts soon after its removal from the home. They discovered that as soon as the windowpane was submerged in water, the image would disappear, but would reappear again. Attempts to chemically test and treat the window with sand and acid were futile, and the image of the Virgin Mary remained permanently on the window.

A commission from the University of Innsbruck was set up to investigate the matter and consisted of two professors of chemistry, a mathematician, a painter, Joseph Schöpf and two master glaziers. The commission found that applications of chemicals, physical rubbing, and even a mirror grinder with polish could not erase the image. One of the two glaziers then tried to remove the image with an abrasive. With the application of a lead polish, the glass allegedly became transparent and the image had disappeared, leading the commission to report, "As a result of the investigation, a quite natural cause has to be assumed, and so the image should not be regarded as a miracle."[4]

The Coat of Arms of Absam, Austria, which prominently depicts Our Lady of Absam on its upper left quarter.

One theory behind the origin of the etching is that it may have been the work of a young man named Georg Johannes Stebenbauer, the wealthy son of a prominent painter. Stebenbauer was said to have loved Rosina Buecher and wanted to create a painting of her, which Buecher allegedly allowed him to do, but only on the condition that she would not notice him doing so. As an alternative to this, he instead set on capturing Buecher's reflection by attaching a piece of paper, soaked in an unspecified substance made to react to light, to Buecher's window. Stebenbauer had hoped she would longingly gaze out of the window, supposedly as she always did, and capture her reflection in this way. After removing the chemically treated paper from the window, he failed to have the image of her reflection appear on the paper. If true, this method of imagery would have predated the formal invention of photography by approximately 25 years. News of the unusual image on Buecher's window soon spread throughout Absam, and Stebenbauer reportedly left Innsbruck in despair, as Buecher apparently renounced the world as a nun and entered a convent. She later assumed the name "Maria Walburga".[5]