Our Lady of the Lapa

The Virgin of the Rock · Sernancelhe (Viseu)

In the Serra da Lapa, a small image of the Virgin is venerated by a large rock (the "lapa"). The tradition unites it to the mute pastoralist Joana, who regained speech when finding the image, and this sanctuary came to be among the most important of the Peninsula.

Origin and history

The local tradition tells that in 1498 a 12-year-old pastoralist, Joana, a mute of birth, found among the cracks of a great rock a small image of the Virgin, hidden there centuries earlier by religious fleeing the persecutions. By her devotion, the Virgin would have given her the gift of the word; the miracle attracted many rosemary. A narrow cleft under the church is popularly associated with a test for sinners.

Moved by the influx, the first devotees entered the image into a grotto under the rock and raised a hermitage in the early 16th century. In 1576 the sanctuary was entrusted to the Society of Jesus, which built the present temple incorporating the great rock inside it and founded in 1685 the Colégio da Lapa. From here the Jesuits spread devotion to Portugal and to India and Brazil. He became considered, with Compostela, one of the great sanctuaries of the Peninsula.