Our Lady of Sorrows of El Escorial — Prado Nuevo

Alleged apparitions to Luz Amparo Cuevas · Not approved by the Church

Next to a fresno de la finca de Prado Nuevoin El Escorial (Madrid), the simple home employee Luz Amparo Cuevas (1931-2012) stated to see the Virgin, who presented herself with these words: "I am the Blessed Virgin". From those stories - that the Church no ha aprobado- was born a stream of prayer that for more than forty years has gathered pilgrims to pray the Rosary in the meadow, and a social work of care for the poor and the elderly. This page presents it as a testimony of popular piety, not as a supernatural fact.

Main data

The clairvoyant

Luz Amparo Cuevas was born on March 13, 1931 in Pest, a pedesty of Peñascosa (Albacete), in a very humble family. Without studies, he worked as a child and was a home worker; married and mother of seven childrenhe lived in El Escorial when, according to his testimony, the phenomena began: since the fall of 1980 he reported fades and presented estigma in hands, head and side, and the 14 June 1981 He said to see the Virgin for the first time on a New Prado mold. Until 2002 he told that he had seen her in 376 occasions. He died on August 17, 2012 in El Escorial.

The messages

The messages attributed to the Virgin in New Prado - which were recorded and spread to the pilgrims - revolve around what Marian piety knows well: the meditation of the Passion of Christ, "which is very forgotten"; penance and prayerand above all the Rosary: "All who come to pray here daily the Holy Rosary will be blessed by me". In the first message he asked for a chapel in his honor and spoke of a fountain whose water would heal. In June 1983 it requested that "houses of love and mercy for the poor are founded".

The social work

From that request was born the call Work of the Virgin of the Scorial: in 1994 the Fundación Pia Autónoma Virgen de los Dolores together with associations of the faithful repairerswho maintain homes and care homes for the elderly and the needy. Vocations have also emerged around Prado Nuevo: several priests ordained since 2000 and dozens of novices linked to the work.

Ecclesial situation

The position of the Church has been constant and prudent. In the 1980s, the Cardinal Tarancon He asked the priest of El Escorial not to feed the phenomenon. In 1985after the corresponding process, the Archbishop Southern Angel resolvió que "did not contain the supernatural character of the alleged apparitions and revelations" (not constat de supernaturalitate): the resolution does not claim to be false, but the Church does not recognize them. In 2012, el cardenal Rooco Varela authorized the celebration of the Pascual Triduum at the site and the construction of a chapel, by expressly maintaining the resolution of his predecessor: the prayer of the faithful is welcomed without recognizing the supernatural of the facts. As long as there is no other pronunciation, the faithful is not obliged to believe in these apparitions.

Prado Nuevo and the Rosario

What no one is discussing about New Prado is its fruit of prayer: for decades, the devotees - especially the first Saturdays— acuden al prado a pray the Rosary and to meditate on the Dolores of Mary, and from that prayer has sprung a work of charity with the poorest. Rosary, penance and mercy with the needy: three requests that no ecclesial prudence needs to approve, because they are the usual Gospel.

The place in pictures