Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

Atocha, protector of the kings: from Gracián Ramírez to the mantle of Isabel II

Madrid (Spain)

Few images have been as close to the history of Spain as the Virgin of Atocha. His foundational account, preserved as Pious Legend It's the gentleman's. Gracian Ramírez: devotee of the Virgin, venerated her in a hermitage next to the Manzanares. When the image disappeared and found it elsewhere, he understood it as a sign to raise a temple there. The Muslims, believing it a fortress, attacked; in the bitter part of the battle, their wife and daughters had died rather than fallen captive. Vengeance but undone, Gracian returned to the Virgin... and found them alive, on your kneeswith just a thread of blood on his neck. Tradition tells it as a resurrection worked by the Mother of God. There is no coetane documentation: it is the venerable legend that the sanctuary keeps as its root.

What it is documented history is Atocha's bond with the Crown. Felipe IV la proclamó of the Monarchyand since then the custom of to present to it children born in the Royal Family: a tradition that comes to this day - in 2006 the then Princes of Asturias went to the basilica to give thanks for the birth of the infamous Leonor. Atocha was invoked as a patron of the village, of the weapons and of the fleets that crossed the Indias.

The most moving episode is that of Isabel II. El 2 February 1852when he left the Royal Palace to present his newborn daughter, priest Martin Merino stabbed her with a stilette. The clothes and the corset diverted the blow and the queen saved her life. He attributed his salvation to the Virgin of Atocha and, in thanksgiving, offered the dress and the mantle that he was wearing that day, that they were transformed into clothes to dress the image. This attack is a proven historical fact; the exvote of the mantle, the living memory of the sanctuary.

From Gracián's legend to the grateful queen, Atocha teaches the same lesson: that putting one's own life—and that of one's children—in the hands of Mary is not a matter of a century or a class, but of an entire people who, in the face of danger, raise their eyes to their Mother.