Our Lady of Health

Marian dedication of Bento Gonçalves (Rio Grande do Sul)

A specific detailed and documented history of Nuestra Señora de la Salud, patrona de Bento Gonçalves (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), beyond general references to the advocation "of Health / da Saúde" as a Marian title linked to the intercession of Mary by the sick and to epidemics.

Main data

Origin and history

A specific detailed and documented history of Nuestra Señora de la Salud, patrona de Bento Gonçalves (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), beyond general references to the advocation "of Health / da Saúde" as a Marian title linked to the intercession of Mary by the sick and to epidemics.

According to the tradition general collection (not always with local documented basis), devotion to Our Lady of Health It was reportedly spread by settlers of Veneto origin and other regions of northern Italy, who invoked it as a protector against the tabs and diseases, especially in the 19th century, when Italian emigration to the south of Brazil intensified. However, in the specific case of the Bento Gonçalves shrine, the sources consulted do not contain a precise historical narrative (founder, exact date of erection of the sanctuary, circumstances of the arrival of the image), so any detailed account must be considered pious local tradition and not proven history.

As regards documented history, the general sources of mariology and Marian devotions agree that the title "Our Lady of Health / Salus infirmorum" sinks its roots in Christian antiquity, linked to Mary's experience as an intercessor in disease and suffering. The Marian Memory of Our Lady of Health is held in some particular calendars 2 February, coinciding with the feast of the Lord's Presentation, although this depends on local traditions. The specific link of this date with the shrine of Bento Gonçalves is derived by analogy with other homonymous devotions, but no explicitly documented for this place in the sources consulted, so it is kept as probable data, not absolutely safe.

(Geographical warning: Bento Gonçalves is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, not in Colombia; the reference to "department of Rio Grande do Sul, Colombia" is historically-geographically wrong.)

The image and the sanctuary

The accessible sources do not provide a detailed technical description (material, author, dating, dimensions) of the image concrete venerated as Our Lady of Health in Bento Gonçalves. It is therefore not certain whether it is a wooden size, a dress image or a sculpture in other material, or whether it reproduces a Veneto iconographic model or a local creation. In the context of this advocation, it is common for Mary to be represented as Mother who presents the Child Jesus, intercessor for the sickbut this description should be considered a General approach to the iconography of "Salus infirmorum," not a documented data for this particular image.

There is also no clear canonical form of the sanctuary in the form "Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Saúde, Bento Gonçalves" (history of the parish, date of erection as sanctuary, canon status, architecture). It is not known that this temple has received the title of minor basilica nor that it has been declared a national sanctuary; in the absence of official documents, it can only be strictly stated that it is a sanctuary / Marian cult local / diocesan devotion, no additional technical details.

Therefore, any attempt to accurately describe the building's plant, its architectural style, its altars or the chronology of the works would not be supported by verifiable sources and should not be given as historical.

Sponsorship and coronation

The indications of the consultation itself and the context of devotion make it possible to state that Our Lady of Health is patron of the city / municipality of Bento Gonçalves (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), in continuity with the tradition of Italian settlers who invoked it as a protector against epidemics. However, does not contain in the sources consulted an episcopal or pontifical decree published that document formally this patronage (with date, authority and official formula), so we have to talk about patronage traditional and recognized in popular piety, rather than a canonically described patronage in detail.

As for a possible canonical coronation of the image (by pontifical mandate or decree of the Congregation for the Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, or by delegation of the diocesan ordinary), does not contain a documented canonical coronation in accessible sources. Any date or name of the Pontiff / delegate attributed to this advocation would, in this state of research, be a conjecture without documentary support.

Party and devotion

Various sources on the title "Our Lady of Health" point out the 2 February as a date of liturgical or festive celebration in some local calendars and popular traditions, linking it to the Lord's Presentation. It is reasonable to assume that in the shrine of Bento Gonçalves the main party is also held around that date, as the reference of the consultation itself indicates, but it should be stressed that no explicit official confirmation found (for example, in a diocesan calendar or official site of the sanctuary) that establishes it with certainty.

About pilgrimages, inflow of faithful, processions and specific popular traditions (novenas, promises, blessings of the sick, processions with candles, etc.), available sources do not provide quantitative data or specific descriptions for Bento Gonçalves. By analogy with other devotions to Our Lady of Health, one can think of a strong dimension of and protection from epidemicsbut since there are no verifiable local figures or chronicles, no consta how many pilgrims come annually, nor the details of the devotional practices of this sanctuary.

In the theological-spiritual plane, studies on Mary as "Mother of Health" and "Salus infirmorum" they stress that popular piety uses the Virgin as comfort in suffering and support in disease, integrating the search for physical healing with the request for spiritual strength and Christian sense of pain. This perspective illuminates the way in which, also in Bento Gonçalves, devotion to Our Lady of Health is understood as a call to live the disease in union with Christ, under Mary's maternal gaze.

Link to the Rosary

It does not contain, in the sources consulted, a specific historical or regulatory relationship between the advocation of Our Lady of Health in Bento Gonçalves and the prayer of Rosary (for example, an official title as the "sanctuary of the Rosary," Marian promise on the prayer of the Rosary, or a fellowship of the Rosary, which is particularly linked to this image).

However, the Mariology and the teaching of the Church remember that devotion to Mary is expressed in a privileged way in liturgical parties and in the Marian prayer, like the Holy Rosary, "compendium of the whole Gospel". In any Marian sanctuary - also in one dedicated to Our Lady of Health - the Rosary accompanies the life of faith as:

– meditation on the mysteries of Christ with Mary, – school of filial trust in the midst of suffering, – persevering supplication for the sick and for those who care for them, – a simple and popular way to unify personal, family and community prayer.

In this way, although a "exclusive" practice linked to the Rosary is not documented in this sanctuary, the of Health It is fully aligned with the prayer of the Rosary: in every mystery, the community can contemplate Christ with Mary and present to its Mother, Health of the sick, the physical, psychological and spiritual ailments of all humanity.