Our Lady of Absam

Marian Advocation of Absam (Tyrol)

The verifiable historical core places the fact in January 1797in the small town of Absamnear Innsbruck, in the Austrian Tyrol. A young call Rosina Buecher/Buchler, about 18 years old, he saw himself formed in the glass of his home window imagen de un rostro femenino which was recognized by the family and the neighbors as the face of the Virgin Mary. The local authorities examined the glass without finding satisfactory technical explanation, and the event was soon interpreted as a religious key, giving rise to a very intense local devotion.

Main data

Origin and history

The verifiable historical core places the fact in January 1797in the small town of Absamnear Innsbruck, in the Austrian Tyrol. A young call Rosina Buecher/Buchler, about 18 years old, he saw himself formed in the glass of his home window imagen de un rostro femenino which was recognized by the family and the neighbors as the face of the Virgin Mary. The local authorities examined the glass without finding satisfactory technical explanation, and the event was soon interpreted as a religious key, giving rise to a very intense local devotion.

La Documented history shows that the glass was finally removed from the house and transferred, with the permission of the ecclesiastical authorities, to the iglesia parroquial de Absam, which became church of pilgrimage to venerate this image of the Virgin. From the late 18th century and during the 19th century, the pilgrimages were extended and the fame of the place as a Marian sanctuary was consolidated, especially in the surroundings of Tyrol.

As for the Tradition / Legend, several subsequent devotional narrations adorn the story with pious details (dramatic reactions, immediate miraculous responses to prayers, punishment or prophetic warnings related to the image, etc.). These elements vary according to popular sources and do not contain as verifiable historical data; what does remain stable, both in devotional sources and in historical synthesis, is the central fact of the apparition of the Marian face in glass in 1797 in Rosina Buecher's house and its subsequent veneration in the Absam church.

The image and the sanctuary

La original image is not a traditional painting or a sculpture, but the figure of the face of the Virgin formed in a window glass. It is described as a Marian face with soft, slightly smiling featuresrather popular, perceived as a young Virgin who looks at the observer with serenity. It is therefore a glass imagewhose exceptional character (not painted or recorded by human hand at its origin) has since the beginning fed the interpretation of the phenomenon as an extraordinary sign.

The glass with the image was framed and placed in a prominent place of the Absam pilgrimage church, in Tyrol, Austria. In the sources it is commonly designated as Absam pilgrimage church o Marian sanctuary of Absambut it is not clear from the sources consulted that it has the title of a minor basilica or a national sanctuary; it is above all a regional / diocesan pilgrimage sanctuary. Within the temple, the square-window with the image is venerated on a specific altar, accompanied by exvotes and testimonies of gratitude from the faithful.

A detailed description of an added iconography (for example, body of the Virgin, Child Jesus, painted crown, etc.) does not appear in the sources consulted; the core of devotion remains the face of the Virgin in the glasswhich has traditionally been framed and protected, and in some stories it is referred to that over time its presentation was enhanced with devotional ornaments and ornaments around the original piece.

Sponsorship and coronation

Our Lady of Absam is venerated as patrona local of the people of Absam and their surroundings. Various sources of Marian piety in Spanish point out that it is particularly honoured as patron of the miners of Hall in Tyrol, a nearby town with a mining tradition, which come to the sanctuary or invoke it under this title. Beyond this area, there is no official recognition as a patron of a diocese or of the entire Austrian nation in the documents consulted.

As for the canonical coronation, in accessible sources (devotional, Marian calendars, informative articles) does not contain a documented canonical coronation of the icon of Our Lady of Absam by pontifical mandate or by delegation of the Holy See. If there is a coronation of a purely local or diocesan character, it does not appear clearly, with no date or with reference to a Pontiff in the verified sources.

Party and devotion

In the Spanish-speaking field, various Marian calendars and devotional subsidies point to the feast of Our Lady of Clemency or Mercy of Absam el 9 January, associated with the memory of the apparition of the Marian face in the glass in January 1797. However, other sources mention local celebrations around January without unifying the day; therefore, at the official liturgical level is not clearly a date set in the Roman calendar, falling mainly as local party of the sanctuary.

Devotion is expressed above all by pilgrimage to the Shrine of Absam, especially from Tyrol and nearby areas. The pilgrims come to pray before the glass with the image of the Virginto ask for protection and to thank favors, leaving often exvotes and testimonies of gratitude. The advocation is very linked to situations of danger or need (disease, hard work such as mining, family difficulties), and many popular narrations collect alleged favors and miracles attributed to the intercession of the Virgin of Absam.

The Catholic press sources stress that since its apparition, the image has been the subject of a "uninterrupted devotion" and that the sanctuary of Absam continues to receive faithful who seek there comfort, mercy and mercy of the Mother of God. There are no exact figures of annual inflow in the sources consulted, but it is considered one of the most significant Marian devotions in the Tyrol region.

Link to the Rosary

The specific sources on the of Our Lady of Absam do not explicitly indicate a particular practice or privilege directly linked to the prayer of the Rosary (for example, rosarian copradies of the sanctuary or promises linked to a certain number of rosaries). In this regard, it can be said that no consta a unique and exclusive relationship between this advocation and the Rosary that distinguishes it from other Marian devotions.

However, as in most European Marian shrines, the Rosary es una de las ordinary forms of prayer With which the faithful honor the Virgin of Absam: many pilgrims pray the Rosary before the image, meditating on the mysteries of Christ's life with Mary and entrusting to her intercession the needs of her families, her work (including the mining world of Hall in Tyrol) and peace in the region.

From a general mariological perspective, the fact that Absam's image is almost exclusively reduced to face of the Virgin invites to contemplate, when reciting the Rosary, the Mary's face that reflects the face of Christ: in the joyful, painful, glorious and luminous mysteries, the believer puts himself "in front of the window" of the faith, leaving the look of the Mother - as in the glass of Absam - to accompany, enlighten and sustain the path of spiri