Our Lady of the Amazon
Itapiranga, Brazil
The Amazon as the stage of apparition
Among the great rivers that cross the Amazon forest, the Amazon River occupies an undisputed place of primacy. It is the most cuddly river in the world, the axis of an unparalleled ecosystem on the planet and, for the populations living on its shores, a presence that defines the whole life: transport, food, climate, culture. On the banks of the Amazon there is a small municipality called Itapiranga, in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. There, between 1994 and 1998, events occurred which the Catholic Church would declare supernatural in 2016.
Itapiranga is not a known place beyond the region. With less than 20,000 inhabitants at the time of the apparitions, it is a typical Amazonian community: a mixture of descendants of Portuguese settlers, indigenous people from different villages and Brazilian north-east migrants arrived in the decades of great internal migration. Religious life is intense, as in much of the interior of Brazil, with a mixture of popular Catholicism, Marian devotion and some practices from indigenous and Afro-Brazilian traditions.
In the 1990s, Itapiranga's Catholicism had a simple and popular profile: processions, novenas, devotion to the patron saints. There was nothing to warn that this municipality would become one of the new Marian pilgrimage centres of Brazil and all of Latin America.
Edson Glauber and Rosana: the seers of the Amazon
The recipients of Itapiranga's apparitions were Edson Glauber Brito Mota, born in 1971, and his wife Rosana Mota, born in 1973. Edson and Rosana were a young couple from Itapiranga, deeply Catholic, active members of their parish. Edson worked as a catechist and, together with Rosana, participated in the community prayer group.
The first apparitions were received by Edson, from July 1994. Rosana became a seer shortly after. This conjugal character of the apparitions - the fact that husband and wife were both recipients of the messages - is unusual in the history of the Marian apparitions, although not unprecedented: in Bethania, Venezuela, the collective apparitions included people of various conditions.
The psychological and psychiatric studies carried out by the diocese of Itacoatiara - the diocese to which Itapiranga belongs ecclesiastically - concluded that they were mentally healthy people, without any disorders that could explain the visions from the pathology. The experts found balanced personalities, without tendencies to deception or uncontrolled fantasy, and with remarkable consistency in their accounts over time.
The content of the messages: conversion and care of creation
The messages received in Itapiranga have a double axis that makes them peculiar in the context of the Marian apparitions of the 20th century. On the one hand, the classic axis of personal conversion: the Virgin calls for prayer, the Rosary, the sacraments, penance and away from sin. This content is consistent with that of other approved apparitions of the same period and before.
On the other hand - and here lies the originality of Itapiranga - the messages include a very explicit ecological dimension: the Virgin calls to care for the Amazon as a creation of God, warns about the dangers of deforestation and environmental deterioration, and presents the Amazon forest not only as an economic resource but as a sacred gift that human beings are obliged to preserve.
This ecological dimension of Itapiranga's messages has been highlighted by the commentators after the 2016 approval, precisely because it coincides with the Church's growing concern for the care of creation, which would crystallize in the encyclical Laudato si of Pope Francis in 2015. For the devotees, it is not a coincidence: the Virgin of the Amazon spoke of the jungle decades before the world put it at the centre of global debate.
«Esta tierra es sagrada. Dios la creó llena de vida para que el hombre la habitara con respeto y gratitud, no para que la destruyera. Cuidad la Creación: es el don que Dios os hace para que sobreviváis y para que vuestros hijos tengan dónde vivir.»
The indigenous connection and the Amazon context
Itapiranga is surrounded by indigenous communities belonging to different Amazonian peoples. The relationship between the popular Catholicism of settlers and indigenous spirituality has always been complex in the region: a mixture of evangelization, cultural resistance and original synthesis that the theologians of inculturation have studied with interest.
Itapiranga's messages do not refer directly to indigenous traditions, but their insistence on respect for land, rivers and the jungle as God's creations connects with values that are central to many Amazonian cosmvisions. Some theologians and historians of religion have pointed out that, in the context of Itapiranga, the Marian message has a particular resonance with the spirituality of the indigenous peoples of the region, even if the apparition itself is of a Catholic character.
The presence of indigenous communities in the area of influence of the Itapiranga shrine has contributed to giving the place a special intercultural dimension. The pilgrims who arrive in the Amazon from the great cities of central and southern Brazil are in a radically different context from that of the sanctuaries of Aparecida or Fatima: they are in the jungle, near the largest river in the world, in a territory where nature still has an overwhelming presence.
The approval of the Archbishop of Manaus (2016)
The process of discerning the apparitions of Itapiranga was long: more than twenty years passed between the first apparition (1994) and the official declaration of approval (2016). During this period, the bishops of the diocese of Itacoatiara acted with the caution that the Church prescribes for these cases: neither actively promoting veneration nor prohibiting it, but allowing the spontaneous devotion of the faithful while theologians and experts did their work.
On 8 December 2016, solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Archbishop of Manaus, Monsignor Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, issued the decree of approval. The document stated that Itapiranga's apparitions are "of a supernatural nature" and that the messages are in conformity with Catholic doctrine and morality. The approval allowed public veneration and the construction of facilities for pilgrims.
Monsignor Steiner - later raised to the rank of Cardinal by Pope Francis in 2022 - was a key actor in the process of discernment. His approval came the same year as that of Bishop Cardelli in San Nicolás (Argentina) and that of the Bishop of Fatima for the apparitions of the Angel of Peace (Portugal): 2016 was, in a remarkable way, a year of simultaneous Marian approvals on three different continents.
- Jul. 1994First apparition of the Virgin to Edson Glauber in Itapiranga, State of Amazonas, Brazil.
- 1994–1998Apparition period. Rosana is a seer. The messages include the call to conversion and the care of the Amazon.
- October 1998Last documented apparition.
- 1998–2016diocesan process of discernment: medical and psychiatric studies, theological analysis of messages, research of possible cures.
- 8 dc. 2016The Archbishop of Manaus, Monsignor Leonardo Steiner, issued the decree of approval. Itapiranga becomes the first approved apparition in the state of Amazonas.
The shrine next to the Amazon
The place of the apparitions in Itapiranga has been turned into a sanctuary that deliberately integrates the natural environment of the Amazon. The river is visible from the sacred enclosure, and the pilgrims who arrive by river - which in the Amazon is often the only means of transport available - land directly next to the sanctuary.
This river accessibility gives the place of pilgrimage a unique dimension: the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Amazon is one of the few of the world that is usually reached by boat. The devotees who live in coastal communities along the Amazon and its tributaries organize pilgrimages in small boats and chalanas, going up or down the river to reach Itapiranga on special occasions.
The construction of the sanctuary has progressed progressively since the approval of 2016. It has a church with considerable capacity, an outside area for mass celebrations, reception facilities for pilgrims and a small museum dedicated to the history of the apparitions. The funds come mainly from the offerings of pilgrims and private donors from all over Brazil.
Laudato si and Itapiranga's message
The convergence between Itapiranga's ecological message and the encyclical Laudato si of Pope Francis (2015) has been the subject of theological reflection. In the encyclical, Francis presents the care of Creation as a moral obligation born of the Christian faith: if God is the Creator of all that exists, human beings are not the owners of nature but their responsible administrators.
The Itapiranga messages, received between 1994 and 1998, already contained this clearly formulated principle. For the devotees, this advance is not casual: the Virgin would have pointed out decades before the path Pope Francis would take in his most influential document on ecology. For theologians, convergence - without the seers having access to the text of the encyclical, of course - is a fact that contributes to the credibility of the message.
The shrine of Itapiranga has become one of the centers of a spirituality that unites Marian devotion with ecological commitment. Groups of young Brazilians who participate in ecclesial movements of an environmental character make pilgrimage to Itapiranga as an expression of this double fidelity: to the Virgin and to the Amazonian land.
The Amazonian message in the context of the 21st century
The Amazon is now at the heart of global discussions on climate change and the preservation of biodiversity. Accelerated deforestation - which in the 1990s was already a serious problem but which has dramatically increased in the following decades - makes the message of the Virgin of Itapiranga about forest care more urgent than ever.
The Synod for the Panamazonia, convened by Pope Francis in 2019, placed the Amazon bioma at the centre of ecclesial and theological reflection. The final document of the Synod, "Dear Amazon," reiterates the call for the care of creation and respect for indigenous peoples. The Itapiranga shrine, located in the heart of the region studied by the Synod, acquired in this context a new pastoral visibility.
For the faithful who pilgrim to Itapiranga, the place has a triple symbolic burden: it is the place where the Virgin appeared, it is the heart of the Amazon forest and it is a constant reminder of human responsibility for Creation. This triple dimension makes the Amazon sanctuary a place of pilgrimage with its own identity, different from the great Marian shrines of the world and adapted to the context and challenges of the twenty-first century.