The pope greets the Brazilian people at the feast of Our Lady of Aparecida

Vatican City

"On the day of Our Lady of Aparecida, I carry the Brazilian people in my heart and sends them my greetings. And that she, small, humble, continue to cover and accompany them on their way: path of peace, joy and justice. Accompany them in their pains, when they can not grow because of so many political, social or ecological limitations and so many other places. May it help you to grow and free yourself continually. What he bless you, is the wish of Pope Francis to all the Brazilian people who are celebrating today the liturgical feast of Our Lady of Aparecida, patroness of Brazil.

Brazil in the heart of the pope

On the morning of this Saturday, October 12, at the beginning of the seventh congregation of the Special Synod for the Panama Region, the Holy Father declared that "he carries in his heart the Brazilian people" and asked the Virgin Mary, in the invocation of Our Lady of Aparecida, "continue to cover them and accompany them in their path: path of peace, joy and justice. Accompany them in their pains, when they can not grow because of so many political, social or ecological limitations. "

Devotion to Our Lady of Aparecida

Our Lady of Aparecida, proclaimed Patroness of Brazil in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and whose image is preserved in the basilica that bears his name, in the State of Sao Paulo. Devotion was born when a group of fishermen found an image of the 36 cm Immaculate Conception, made of clay, patterned and baked in the Paraíba River. This happened after the fishermen asked Santa Maria's intercession for fish.

The title of "Aparecida" derives from the verb "to appear" because it is at a moment of great necessity that the fishermen found it and realized that this fact indicated a sign of Mary's intercession. The image was dark and blackened by the type of material it was made of and also because it had been lost in the river. After finding the image, the fishermen came back to launch their nets and managed to fish abundantly. The fishermen took the picture and, in the house of one of them, they installed a simple altar. Later, another fisherman, settling in Itaguassú, built an oratory in his new house and put the image on which the neighbors gathered to pray the rosary and sing hymns.

On May 5, 1743, the temple of Our Lady Aparecida was built, which was inaugurated on July 26, 1745. In 1955, the construction of the new Basilica of Our Lady Aparecida in Sao Paulo began. On July 4, 1980, during his visit to Brazil, St. John Paul II consecrated the basilica and proclaimed it the world's largest Marian sanctuary.