> I have an example of a ninth-century saint (Maurus of Glanfeuil) who

> appears (post mortem) to an abbot, ordering him to carry a message for

> the saint. The abbot fails to carry out the saint's orders; the saint

> appears and second time some days later with the same result, then a

> final time, at which point he lashes the recalcitrant abbot (three

> times) and threatens him with death for non-compliance. I think I have

> seen such "triple appearances" before in early medieval sources, but

> bring them to mind. I would be esp. interested to see whether such

> multiple appearances have some contexts in common.. Does anyone have

> such examples? thanks

I've been collecting information on Marian pilgrimage shrines for some time now, and she often appeared more than once, sometimes on many occasions. Trolling through my notes, I found two instances of triple apparitions mentioned in William A. Christian, Jr., Apparitions in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1981: at Escalona and Santa Gadia del Cid. The Marian apparitions at Guadalupe in Mexico in the early 16th century also, I believe, amounted to three. And the apparition of the Holy Candle at Arras also involved three apparitions of the Virgin: the first two to two separate minstrels, warning them of a third apparition, when she delivered the Candle.