Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The fishermen of Aparecida: the small, broken image that filled the nets"

Guaratinguetá (Brazil) (1717)

Tradition tells that in 1717, the town of Guaratinguetá, on the banks of the Paraíba do Sul River, was preparing a banquet to honor the governor of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, who was passing through on his way to Vila Rica. The authorities asked three fishermen to ensure an abundant supply of fish for the reception. Local memory preserves their names: Domingos Garcia, Filipe Pedroso, and João Alves.

That day the river seemed closed: no matter how many times they cast their nets, they caught nothing. On one of their casts, they pulled from the water the body of a small terracotta image of the Immaculate Conception, about 36 centimeters tall, without its head. They cast the net again, and the head rose up, fitting perfectly with the body. From then on, they called it "Aparecida," the one who appeared.

That abundant catch is remembered as the first favor granted by Our Lady of Aparecida. One of the fishermen, tradition points to Filipe Pedroso, took the image to his home and erected an altar. Over the years, that home became a place of prayer and pilgrimage, and an oratory was established where stories of graces multiplied.

The documented should be distinguished from the transmitted. The 1717 dating is based on early documents, but there is no record of the day of the finding; October 12 is a liturgical feast set by the bishops of Brazil in 1953, not a notarial date of the event. The attribution of the image to the progressive friar Frei Agostinho of Jesus, around 1650, is historically credible but does not demonstrate a preserved contract. What is well documented is the development of the cult: the first temple (1745), the canonical coronation of 1904, the declaration of Pius XI as Patroness of Brazil in 1930 and the visit of John Paul II in 1980.