Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

Mary Help of Christians of Brezje, “Marija Pomagaj”

Brezje (Slovenia)

En Bressin northern Slovenia, is the main Marian sanctuary of the country, known by the enchanting Slovenian name Maria Pomagaj, «María, auxílianos». Es el santuario nacional de Eslovenia, bajo la advocación de Mary Helper of Christians, and its image is a local variant inspired by the iconography of Mariahilf, of Innsbruck.

Unlike other great sanctuaries, Brezje's story is not linked to an apparition with messages, but to the love of the people for a miraculous image venerated since the 19th century. Around it the attributed cures and the exvotes were accumulated, and the Slovenian episcopate ended up proclaiming Brezje national sanctuary. It is the simple and profound devotion to an image before which generations of Slovenes have put their sorrows and their pleas.

It should be said clearly in order not to invent: in the usual documentation no consta que en Brezje haya habido apariciones marianas con mensajes, al estilo de Licheń o Gietrzwałd. No existe aquí un relato fundacional de «la Virgen se apareció a un pastor y pidió el Rosario». Lo que hay es una devoción a la imagen de María Auxiliadora, con numerosos favores atribuidos por los fieles.

As in any Marian shrine, Brezje is a place of deep devotion among its faithful: Masses, confessions, processions, and the recitation of the Rosary. But this belongs to the common practice of Marian devotion, not to a documented message from the Virgin Mary as an apparition. The strength of Brezje lies in what is most humble and enduring: a Mother who helps, and a people who, century after century, never tire of calling upon her.