Our Lady Aparecida
Patroness of Brazil
Our Lady Aparecida, or Our Lady of the Conception Aparecida, is the Marian devotion who is patroness of Brazil. Her small terracotta image, found in the Paraíba River in 1717, is venerated today in the shrine of Aparecida, in the state of São Paulo, one of the largest Marian churches in the world. Her feast is celebrated on 12 October.
Fatti chiave
Central message: in a small image, broken and rescued from the waters by simple men, God showed his predilection for the lowly, making Aparecida the Mother of an entire people.
Tradizione e storia: una distinzione necessaria
Around Aparecida two levels coexist that ought not to be confused.
Tradition recounts that, after these men gathered up the image, their catch, until then meagre, became so abundant that it could scarcely fit in their boats, and that many favours were obtained by those who prayed before her. These are venerable accounts of Brazilian popular piety, which the source records as such and which ought not to be presented as documented facts.
Documented history, on the other hand, rests on two preserved sources —in the archive of the Metropolitan Curia of Aparecida and in the Roman Archive of the Society of Jesus— and attests to the finding of the image in 1717, the construction of the successive churches, the coronation of 1904 and the proclamation of the patronage. Devotion to Aparecida, real and verifiable, does not depend on the legendary details, but on the continued growth of a cult.
Storia del santuario
The finding in the river (1717)
According to the documentation, around 1717 the Count of Assumar, Dom Pedro de Almeida e Portugal, governor of São Paulo and the Gold Mines, was to pass through the village of Guaratinguetá on his way to Vila Rica. To honour him, three fishermen —Domingos Garcia, Felipe Pedroso and João Alves— cast their nets into the Paraíba do Sul River. After many fruitless attempts, on 12 October, at Porto Itaguaçu, they first drew up the body of a headless image of Our Lady of the Conception and, in a further cast, the head. The image, of terracotta, measured only about 36 cm.
It is not known how the image came to be in the river, but its author is known: the São Paulo monk Frei Agostinho de Jesus, who modelled it around 1650.
From the fisherman’s house to the basilica
One of the fishermen took the image to his house, where he made a small altar for it. For some fifteen years it remained in the home of Felipe Pedroso, a place of prayer for the neighbours. Devotion kept growing and a chapel was built, soon too small. On 5 May 1743 a church was begun, inaugurated on 26 July 1745. In 1834 the construction of a great church began, the old Basilica of Our Lady Aparecida, in the face of the continual increase of the faithful.
Coronation and patronage
The image was solemnly crowned in 1904 by Dom José de Camargo Barros, bishop of São Paulo, with a crown offered years earlier by Princess Isabel, in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio and the President of the Republic. On 16 July 1930, Pope Pius XI declared Our Lady Aparecida patroness of Brazil. On 4 July 1980, Saint John Paul II visited the shrine, consecrated it, and granted it the title of basilica. Today the shrine of Aparecida is one of the largest Marian churches in the world and the destination of millions of pilgrims.
The image and its vicissitudes
The image drawn from the river, of terracotta and about 36 cm, was originally polychromed; the brown or cinnamon colour it presents today is probably due to exposure to the smoke of the devotees’ candles. In 1978, after suffering an attack that left it reduced to nearly two hundred fragments, it was completely restored by the artist Maria Helena Chartuni.
The spiritual message of Aparecida
Devotion to Our Lady Aparecida still speaks to us today with simplicity:
🎣 Mary draws near to the little ones. She did not come on a throne, but in the nets of some poor fishermen.
🌊 Out of what is broken, God makes a home. A shattered image rescued from the water became the heart of an entire people.
🇧🇷 Mary is Mother of a whole nation. Under her protection, Brazil acknowledges its patroness and guide.
✝️ Mary always leads to the Son. With her hands in prayer upon her breast, she teaches us to turn the heart to God.
Prayer to Our Lady Aparecida
Our Lady Aparecida,
Mother rescued from the waters and Mother of your people:
look with kindness upon all of us who come to you,
and lead us, as you did with those fishermen,
to the encounter with your Son Jesus.
Sustain the faith of Brazil and of all America,
and teach us to trust in the providence of the Father.
Amen.
A sober Marian prayer, gathered in our section of Preghiere mariane.
🌹 Un fiore per la Vergine
Offer a simple prayer to Our Lady Aparecida. Pray a Hail Mary for Brazil and for America.
Recita l'Ave Maria