Our Lady of the Rock

Advocación mariana de São Paulo (São Paulo)

La Basilica of Our Lady of the Penha of France (Our Lady of Penha de France) rises on a hill of district of la Penhain the eastern area of the city of São Paulo (Brazil), and today belongs to the diocesis of São Miguel Paulista. The devotion starts from a chapel erected around 1668; it was parish since 1796, the first archdiocesan sanctuary of the city since 1909 and is a minor basilica since June 7, 1985. An earlier version of this document mixed the advocation with a non-existent "department of São Paulo" in Colombia: in Colombia there is no such department, and the sanctuary is in Brazil.

Main data

Origin and history

This fact sheet came to place the advocation of Our Lady of Penha de France in a "department of São Paulo, Colombia": confusion of countries and administrative divisions, because São Paulo is a state and city of Brazil and in Colombia there is no "department of São Paulo." The Penha de France shrine is in the Penha district of the city of São Paulo (Brazil), and its history is published by the diocese of São Miguel Paulista.

Where is he?

The Basilica of Our Lady of the Penha of France (Our Lady of Penha de France) rises in the Penha district, in the eastern part of the city of São Paulo (state of São Paulo, Brazil), on a hill. Today it belongs to the diocesis of São Miguel Paulista, who publishes the history of the sanctuary on his website. The ensemble brings together two temples: the old, simple colonial style, today called the Diocesan Eucharistic Sanctuary Our Lady of the Penha, and the new, of great dimensions, which is the minor basilica and which keeps on the altar the venerated image.

Documented history

According to the historical reconstruction offered by the diocese, between 1620 and 1668 the brothers Mateus Nunes de Sequeira and Father Jacinto Nunes de Sequeira acquired the lands of the future village, and by 1668 the first chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Penha was erected there. Father Jacinto managed it with great zeal until 1687, reconstructed it in 1673 and left a will for the chapel: land, cattle, money and slaves. In 1682, according to the inscription of a stone that the diocese claims to be preserved on the front of the sanctuary, slaves built a larger church that, after several reforms, gave rise to the present ancient church.

The road that joined São Paulo with Rio de Janeiro, built in 1725, passed on the hill of the Penha, and the devotion to the Virgin of the Penha grew: the diocese says that, from the humble barrio to captains and governors, they went to the small church in search of protection, and that in epidemics (the smallpox is expressly quoted) and in long droughts the image was taken in procession to the church of the Sé, in the center of the city, where special prayers were made. On several occasions, the Municipal Chamber asked for these processions; hence, the Virgin of the Penha was also considered patron of São Paulo.

El 15 September 1796by an alvara of Queen Mary I signed in Lisbon, the unique felligresy of the Sé was divided into three and the one of Our Lady of the Penha of France was created, next to that of Our Lady of the O. The diocese publishes the text of the decree, which justifies the division by the enormous extension of the Felligresy of the Know, of almost eleven thousand people of confession, many of whom died without sacraments through the distance.

The early church was reformed between 1774 and 1801, in a simple colonial style, with a tapia of ground and walls of 1,1 m thick, and served many years as a parent church. On 20 July 1909 the first archbishop of São Paulo, Dom Duarte Leopold e Silva, raised her to archdiocesan sanctuaryIt was the first sanctuary of the city. The diocese collected illustrious visits: in 1816 the French naturalist Auguste de Saint- Hilaire; on August 24, 1822, Dom Pedro I stayed in the Penha as he went to Santos, heard mass in the church the following day and fourteen days later proclaimed Independence on the banks of the Ipiranga; and in 1886 Dom Peter II and Empress Teresa Cristina visited the church. The Redemptorists (the source speaks of the "spiritual children of Saint Alfonso") encouraged in the people piety and romaneries; Father Oscar Chagas de Azevedo, the first Brazilian redemptorist vicar, undertook in 1935 the reform that gave the ancient temple the present form.

On September 15, 1957, Archbishop Dom Carlos Carmelo of Vasconcelos Mota put the first stone of a new church, one of the largest in the city; the works began in 1958 under Vicar José Augusto da Costa and the new sanctuary was opened in 1967. In 1995 the bishop of São Miguel Paulista, Dom Fernando Legal, restructured the ancient sanctuary and gave it its current name as the diocesan Eucharistic Sanctuary.

In Brazil there is a historic devotion to Our Lady of Penha (or da Penha de França), with well-known sanctuaries, especially that of the city of Vitória (Espírito Santo) and that of Rio de Janeiro. The one in the city of São Paulo is the one in the Penha district, whose documented history is summarized above: the old colonial church on the top of a hill and, next to it, the least modern basilica, which keeps the venerated image.

In Colombia, the advocation of Our Lady of the Rock, venerated in the homonymous sanctuary on the eastern hill of Bogotá, with origin in the 17th century, image of the Holy Family and strong local and archdiocesan devotion. However, this advocation is not called "Nossa Senhora da Penha de França," it is not located in São Paulo and has a different history of its own, so it cannot be simply identified with the advocation requested by the consultation.

The image and the sanctuary

The diocese of São Miguel Paulista states that the image that is in the the main altar of the new sanctuary (the lower basilica) is the "miraculous and traditional image" linked to the French traveller's account (see below). On the other hand, no verifiable data on the type of image (size, size, material, style) or on its author or dating have been found in the sources consulted. no constan.

The set brings together two temples: the old, simple colonial style (reformed between 1774 and 1801 and again since 1935), today called Diocesan Eucharistic Sanctuary Our Lady of the Penha, y el newwhose first stone was put on 15 September 1957 and which was opened in 1967, raised to minor basilica in 1985. In the sources consulted it is not known to be a national sanctuary; it was the first archdiocesan sanctuary that the city had (1909).

Tradition

The diocese, as a "popular tradition," has the origin of this image: a French devotee who was travelling from São Paulo to Rio, carried with him an image of the Virgin brought from her homeland. He spent the night on the hill and, at dawn, left with his luggage; in the afternoon he warned that the image was not there and, when he returned, he found it on the top of the hill where he had stayed. He went his way and, as the afternoon fell, the same thing happened. The man, of deep faith, recognized in it that the Virgin had chosen that place and raised a small hermitage; the news ran and the people gradually began to venerate the image. No date or name of the traveller is given, and the source does not quote document: it is transmitted story, not documented history. The same page states that the image on the main altar of the new sanctuary is that "miraculous and traditional image of French traveling hair," an identification made by the diocese itself.

The title "of France" refers, according to the same page, to the devotion born in the Peña de France (Salamanca, Spain), where, according to the popular tradition collected by Father Colunga, the French pilgrim Simon Vela would have discovered an image of the Virgin on 19 May 1434; the page adds that the news came to Guimarães (Portugal) and that King Sebastian had raised a church in Lisbon after a healing that attributed to the intercession of the Virgin of the Penha. The diocese does not document a direct relationship between that image and that of São Paulo beyond the title.

Sponsorship and coronation

According to the diocese of São Miguel Paulista, the Virgin of Penha was also considered patrona de São Paulo: The Municipal Chamber asked on several occasions that its image be taken in procession to the Sé in times of epidemic and drought, and the diocese itself calls it "civil godfather," a title that it attributes to the House of Councillors. The 1985 bull recalls that it was already patron of São Paulo, "honored and venerated" by its inhabitants. The specific municipal document establishing such civil patronage has not been located.

Ecclesial State

Veneration allowed. The new sanctuary was raised to minor basilica by John Paul II the 7 June 1985at the request of Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns; the diocese transcribes the bull, which recalls that the Virgin of the Penha was already patron of São Paulo, "honored and venerated" by its inhabitants (the diocese itself calls it "civil godfather," a title that it attributes to the House of Councillors). It is a recognition of the temple and its pastoral life. The diocese speaks of the image as "miraculous," but there is no opinion of the Church on the account of the French traveller: it is a tradition with allowed veneration.

It does not contain, based on safe sources (Holy See, diocese, official history of the sanctuary or reliable Catholic press), a canonical coronation de la imagen de la Penha de São Paulo. Therefore, following the criteria requested:

> no documented canonical coronation.

Party and devotion

The consultation indicates a party "around September 8." The sources on devotions to Nossa Senhora da Penha in Brazil show various festive dates according to the sanctuaries, and the pages of the diocese of São Miguel Paulista on the Basilica of the Penha do not directly confirm a main celebration exactly on that date. In the absence of any precise reference to the diocese, the sanctuary itself or a local liturgical regulation which ratifies September 8 (or a day near) as the main solemnity, it must be said with rigour that no consta with documented certainty the exact date of the feast of this advocation in that place.

Also, the reference to a "great Marian devotion of the Paulist capital with traditional Romeria" finds support in the diocese itself, although without numbers of faithful nor an official calendar of pilgrimages that can be cited:

The diocese describes a continued devotion: pilgrimages of whole parishes, faithful who come especially on Sundays to ask for the protection of the Virgin and to fulfill her promises, and an ancient custom, today in memory, to bring the image to the Municipal Chamber every year. On June 6, 2010, a mass of thanksgiving was closed, presided over by Bishop Dom Manuel Parrado Carral, the silver jubilee from the elevation to the lower basilica. In an annotation of the Book of Tombo in 1904, the vicar Antônio Benedito de Camargo described the hill as a place of healthy air to which convalescent came.

Link to the Rosary

In the sources consulted no consta a specific and documented relationship between the advocation of Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, venerated in the Penha district of São Paulo, and a particular practice of Rosary (for example, the Rosary's cofradies linked to that sanctuary, special indulgences, or official hours of solemn rosaries that have been documented by the diocese or the same sanctuary).

However, in every authentic Marian devotion, and in a special way in the sanctuaries where the Virgin is honored under any title, the Holy Rosary It is often one of the privileged forms of prayer: it unites the contemplation of the mysteries of Christ with the maternal intercession of Mary, helps pilgrims to meditate on the life of the Lord from the Annunciation to the glory of heaven, and brings communities into the faith of the Church. Where the Virgin is venerated - also under the title of Our Lady of the Peña or Nossa Senhora da Pena - the Rosary becomes a school of filial trust, penance and charity, accompanying the faith of the faithful who come to ask for their protection and to give thanks for the favors received.