Our Lady of Aparecida

In the second half of October 1717, D. Pedro de Almeida, Count of Assumar, Governor of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, passed through Guaratinguetá. As it was a day of abstinence from meat, to honour the illustrious guest, the local council asked the region’s fishermen for an abundance of fish. Many of them set out in their boats on the waters of the mighty Paraíba River. Among them were Domingos Garcia, João Alves, and Felipe Pedroso. In vain, however, they cast their nets from one side of the river to the other, as they always returned empty.

Felipe, already discouraged, wanted to abandon the venture, but Domingos and João insisted as if they were waiting for a miracle.

After many casts in the port of Itaguaçu, João Alves realized that, when he hauled in his net, he had caught something. Surprised, the three fishermen saw that it was the body of a small clay statue, missing its head.

Casting the net again a little lower, the same fisherman retrieved the statue’s head, which left everyone amazed. They soon recognized it as a representation of Our Lady of the Conception, as the Virgin trampled the devil underfoot. From then on, the catch was so plentiful that the three fishermen, their boats now full, returned home.

Felipe Pedroso took with him the “appeared” image, the name he came to use for the image. He kept it for six years in his home near Lourenço de Sá, and another nine when he moved to Ponte Alta. He then gave it to his son Atanásio Pedroso. He built an oratory for the image of the Virgin on a crude altar, before which the neighbourhood would gather on Saturdays to sing and pray the rosary.

On one such occasion, as the group of devotees prayed before the image, the candles on the rough altar suddenly went out for no apparent reason, as there was no wind, and the night was calm. Silvana Rocha got up to light them, but everyone watched in amazement as they lit up on their own. This was, according to ancient chronicles, the first of the great miracles performed by Our Lady of Aparecida. Others soon followed.

Everyone then understood that the Virgin wanted to be especially venerated in that image taken from the waters. To fulfil this manifest desire of Our Lady of Aparecida, the devotees of the miraculous Image, with the support of Father José Alves Vilela – pious Vicar of the Parish of Santo Antônio de Guaratinguetá – built a small chapel for her.

A spectacular miracle that occurred near this little chapel greatly contributed to the spread of devotion to Our Lady of Aparecida. The slave Zacarias had escaped from a farm in Paraná and was captured in the Paraíba Valley. He was being taken back with chains and rings around his wrist and neck. When they passed the church, Zacarias, full of confidence in the power and goodness of the Mother of Heaven, asked to pray before her little image. He prayed with such faith that the rings and chain miraculously fell at his feet. His master, upon hearing of the miracle, immediately set him free.

The fame of the miracles and graces received spread to ever more distant regions, and from all these regions pilgrims began to come to venerate the image of the Virgin Aparecida. Among them were nobles and commoners, rich and poor, masters and slaves, all united in the same devotion to the Mother of God and ours.

Realizing that the humble chapel was already too small to accommodate so many pilgrims, the zealous parish priest Vilela began construction of a larger church. It was inaugurated in 1745, twenty-eight years after the miraculous discovery of the image.

As early as 1743, the cult of Our Lady under the invocation of Conceição Aparecida had been approved by Dom Frei João da Cruz, bishop of Rio de Janeiro (the diocese to which the place where the church stood at the time belonged). This approval was the result of the zeal of the same Father José Alves Vilela, who was also the first historian of the same Lady.

Brazil became independent under the maternal protection of Our Lady of Aparecida.

It so happened that Dom Pedro, then Prince Regent of Brazil, pressured by the Portuguese to return to that country and by the Brazilians to proclaim our independence, separating us from Portugal, on the journey from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo, wanted to stop before the Image of Aparecida to ask for her help and protection. Concerned about the political situation, he promised to consecrate Brazil to Our Lady of the Conception if things went well. This occurred on 22 August 1822.

Fifteen days later, on September 7, standing on Ipiranga Hill, in São Paulo, with the heroic cry of “Independence or death”, he made Brazil an independent nation that, shortly after, as an Empire, would become known among the free nations of the world.

The cult of Our Lady of Aparecida took hold in Brazil. The number of miracles and graces granted are attested to in the Basilica’s “Hall of Miracles.” In 1904, during the pontificate of Saint Pius X, her image was crowned by the bishop of São Paulo, and on 16 July 1930, Pius XI declared her patron saint of Brazil.