"1 John 4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
Granted young children might not understand and an adult might be in shock by the unexpected. Old testament and new testament examples abound about the reaction of the recipient - usually falls, weakness, and has to be helped up.
The way I see it, the target of the apparition could possess every moral virtue and still be deceived. And then we have an apparition not approved by the church which two successive bishops fought with all their might to maintain integrity and truth and yet the hysteria of many who wanted to believe otherwise wouldn't listen.
Where on Earth did you ever get the notion that the scripture test was NOT the very most important standard by which an apparition was judge. Any heresy at all immediately precludes any apparition from being judged as authentic.