Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The well of Sabana Grande and the Virgin of the Well"

Sabana Grande (Puerto Rico) (1953)

In Sabana Grande, in southwest Puerto Rico, is the sanctuary popularly known as the Well of Sabana Grande, linked to a series of Marian apparitions reported in 1953. The devotion is centered on the Virgin, invoked from the Rosary, and on the water of a well in the place, to which the faithful attribute, by tradition, properties of grace and healing.

According to the account, in the spring of 1953 several local children claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary near the well, in a series of encounters that continued for weeks. The news spread rapidly throughout the island, and crowds flocked to the site to pray, especially around the day scheduled for a planned apparition, drawing enormous crowds. Since then, the site has become a center of pilgrimage.

It is important to make a distinction with caution. The historical reality of the events of 1953—the accounts of the child visionaries, the enormous influx of the faithful, and the founding of the sanctuary—is widely attested in Puerto Rican memory. However, the supernatural nature of the apparitions belongs to the realm of faith; the details and words attributed to the Virgin are transmitted through devotion, and anything not supported by solid documentation should be presented with caution. Where there is no certainty, it is honest to say that it is not documented.

The name of the Rosary and the practice of praying it are at the heart of this devotion, for one goes to the source to pray, asking for the intercession of the Mother.