Our Lady of Good Success

Marian Advocation of Brazos de la Sierra (Madrid Community)

Patrona de Braojos, anteriormente conocida como Virgen de la Serna. Según la tradición, en 1718 un vecino llamado don Miguel quedó bloqueado por la nieve en el Puerto de Arcones y rogó a la Virgen; al salir ileso, se cambió la advocación a del ‘Buen Suceso’. Un cuadro de 1723 describe el milagro. La talla se data en el siglo XII, aunque fue dañada en una restauración de 1950. La ermita del Buen Suceso data de 1610.

Main data

Origin and history

Patrona de Braojos, anteriormente conocida como Virgen de la Serna. Según la tradición, en 1718 un vecino llamado don Miguel quedó bloqueado por la nieve en el Puerto de Arcones y rogó a la Virgen; al salir ileso, se cambió la advocación a del ‘Buen Suceso’. Un cuadro de 1723 describe el milagro. La talla se data en el siglo XII, aunque fue dañada en una restauración de 1950. La ermita del Buen Suceso data de 1610.

The account of 1718, as Braulos retains

The tradition of the people, which is remembered year after year in Our Lady's novena, makes the event concrete. It was the 19 February 1718. Miguel Fernández del Pozofrom Braulos, he returned to the village with his servant from Segoviawhere they had gone to solve some issues. When trying to pass the puerto de Arcones They were caught by the snow, to the point of seeing their lives in grave danger. According to the story, Michael raised his hands and eyes to heaven and addressed the Mother of God with this supplication: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, You who always hear the prayer of your children, deliver us from the window and take us to Brains, that we will always be faithful to you."

The traditional account adds that the clouds were opened and that the two travelers saw the Virgin with her Son in their arms, which indicated the way to them; the storm calmed down, the horses went back and both crossed the port promising to honor the Virgin in their people. When they arrived in Brazos they told relatives and friends what they lived, and since then the neighbors began to invoke it by the name of Our Lady of Good Success, instead of Virgin of the Serna that until then he was known.

The two forms of the story that this page contains agree on the essential - the snow storm in the port of Arcones, the supplication to the Virgin and the change of name - but the version transmitted by the parish is more detailed: it gives the name of the protagonist, mentions his servant and the journey back from Segovia, and speaks of a vision of the Virgin, while the short form only says that he went unharmed after begging him. These are both cases of local tradition: there is no pronunciation of the ecclesiastical authority about the supernatural character of the event, and here it is presented as a devotional memory of the people, not as a proven fact.

The 1723 table

In the little one Gothic chapel located under the tower of the parish churchwhere the size of the Virgin is preserved, a picture with a drawing and a description of the event dated 1723, just five years after 1718. The chronicle published by the Archdiocese of Madrid highlights this closeness in time as a guarantee of historical veracity. What the picture certainly attests is that, only five years later, the story was already told in Brazos and wanted to leave a painted memory of it; it is therefore an early and valuable testimony of devotion, which does not amount to a judgment of the Church on the prodigy.

The image and the sanctuary

Image venerated in the parish or main hermitage of Brazos de la Sierra, in the region of Sierra Norte (Community of Madrid).

The size of the Virgin is preserved in the Gothic chapel under the tower of the parish church of San Vicente Martir of Brains of the Sierra, next to the picture of 1723 that tells the event. The people also have the hermitage of the Virgin, meeting place of parishes and faithful in Marian celebrations.

Sponsorship and coronation

The Sierra Brains Pattern. No canonical coronation.

Party and devotion

There is no exact date in the sources consulted.

The devotion is especially lived in the novena of Our Ladyin which the account of 1718 is remembered each year. The anniversary of the event, the 19 Februarywas commemorated with special solemnity in 2018, third centenary: on Monday, February 19, at 18: 30, the parish church of Saint Vincent Martir hosted a solemn Eucharist in memory of the three hundred years of the event. Within the same centenary a Marian mission from 10 to 17 June 2018 y un meeting of parishes and faithful in the hermitage of the Virgin on May 12 That year.

Link to the Rosary

The sources consulted do not show a specific or unique link between this devotion and the Rosary.