Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida (Portuguese) or Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of the Apparition (English) is the patron saint of Brazil. A Marian apparition, the Aparecida is represented by a short, wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, housed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, Aparecida, São Paulo, Brazil. Her feast day is celebrated on October 12, which has been honored as a holiday since Pope John Paul II dedicated the basilica in 1980.
The basilica is the most visited church in Brazil and one of the most visited in the Catholic world[citation needed].
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History
The history of Aparecida begins in 1717, when news arrived that the Count of Assumar, Dom Pedro de Almeida e Portugal, Governor of the Province of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, would be passing by the village of Guaratinguetá on his way to Vila Rica, then an important gold mine site and today the city of Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais State.
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Three fishermen, Domingos Garcia, Filipe Pedroso and João Alves were sent out by the local authorities to find fish in the Paraíba River to be cooked for the banquet in honor of the governor. They went down the river and found nothing. After many unsuccessful attempts, they arrived at a place called Porto Itaguaçu.
João Alves threw his net into the water and brought back a statue of Our Lady of the Conception, but the head was missing. He threw his net in again and soon reeled in the head of the statue. After that, according to the legend, the catch was abundant for the three humble fishermen and their nets were full.
According to most sources, the image had been sculpted by Frei Agostino de Jesus, a monk from São Paulo known for his artistic skills in sacred image making. The image was 40 centimeters tall, made around 1650, and must have been underwater for years. It is a dark brown color, as it was formed with clay, (resulting in many of its replicas being painted black), or perhaps because one of the first miracles attributed to the icon was performed to an enslaved African-Brazilian, or also because of the syncretism that linked Roman Catholic saints to deities brought from Africa. The church probably did not oppose the idea of a black Madonna so the faith would remain popular in a highly miscegenated country. Despite having a dark image of Mary as an icon of Roman Catholicism in the country with the most Catholics in the world, African-Brazilian prelates are almost nonexistent and their last names are often of German, Italian, Dutch, and Portuguese origin. The image is clothed in a stiff, shiny, dark blue robe of richly embroidered cloth with golden clasps, and wears an imperial crown, which was added in 1904. Only her dark face and hands clasped in prayer can be seen.
For the next 15 years, the statue remained with Filipe Pedroso's family and neighbors came to venerate it. The cult began to grow and, according to the story, many prayers were answered by the Virgin. The fame of the miraculous Lady Aparecida spread throughout Brazil and the family had to build her a chapel, which soon became too small. Around 1734, the priest of Guaratinguetá built a chapel on Coqueiros hill, and public visits began in July 1745. The number of faithful increased and in 1834 construction of a larger church (the Old Basilica) began.
In 1904, the statue of Our Lady Aparecida was crowned and in 1908 the church received the title of Minor Basilica.
Twenty years later, in 1928 the village that had grown around the church on Coqueiros hill became a municipality. Finally, in 1929, the Virgin was proclaimed Queen of Brazil and its official Patroness Saint by Pope Pius XI.
The New Basilica
Another, much larger, edifice became necessary as the popularity of the statue grew, and in 1955, construction was begun on the new basilica. Architect Benedito Calixto designed a building in the form of a Greek cross, 173 meters long and 168 meters wide; the naves have 40 meters and the dome is 70 meters high. It can hold 45,000 people. The 272,000 square meters of parking hold 4,000 buses and 6,000 cars.
It is the second-largest Catholic place of worship in the world, second only to Saint Peter's in Vatican City, and in 1984 it was officially declared by the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) "the largest Marian Temple in the world."
In 1980, still under construction, it was consecrated by Pope John Paul II and received the title of Minor Basilica.
While in 1900 the number of visitors was calculated in 150,000, today that number is in the millions. According to the official site of the basilica, in 1999 the number of pilgrims was 6,565,849.
The influence of the cult of Our Lady Aparecida on Brazilian Catholic society is incalculable. In 1992 a study showed that 296 parishes were dedicated to her while five cathedrals had the same title. In addition, many towns are named after the Virgin and so are many Brazilian women and girls. The modern art styled cathedral of Brasilia designed by Niemeyer is dedicated to Nossa Senhora Aparecida, as Brasilia is the capital and she is invoked as Brazil's special protector.
Controversy
On her feast day in 1995, a controversial incident occurred when Sérgio von Helde, a minister of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a growing neo-pentecostal Protestant denomination that focuses on miracle performance and some of the Roman Catholic practices such as novenas and attributing miraculous virtues to water and other articles brought from the holy land) shouted, during a TV church program, before a huge statue of Aparecida saying she was no saint and that God couldn't be compared to such "an ugly man-made figure". He then kicked the statue, destroying it. The incident was considered scandalous and disrespectful and it was widely criticized by the Globo TV network, which competes with TV Record, which is partially owned by that sect. see clip).
Von Helde later stated that he wanted to emphasize his opinion that the image was only a statue of clay. The episode had serious repercussions in the country and von Helde was transferred to Africa until the controversy died down. The initial commotion of the incident found support among the authorities. Complaints in the judicial system against the minister and against the IURD church were made by both private citizens and by prosecutors, with the allegation of crimes such as insult and disrespect for the constitutional right of freedom of religion. Perhaps in retaliation, Globo TV that flip flops between Spiritualist and Catholic themes, ran a soap opera that honored the history of the Aparecida statue & the miracles attributed to her intercession, as it is the position of the Catholic Church that saints do not perform miracles themselves, but intercede before God, who grants them through them, Mary being the epitome of sanctity for being considered born by Catholics to have been born without sin to bear her Divine Son, Jesus.
In other countries
Spain
The town of Aparecida in the Spanish province of Alicante is also named after the Virgin and also has an image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.[citation needed]
USA
The Virgin Mary is also considered the patron saint of the United States by American Roman Catholics. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is located in Washington, DC where popes and dignitaries have visited and the funeral mass of some Catholic politicians were celebrated. Annually, a mass in honor of the patroness of Brazil is celebrated in October for the Brazilian Catholic community of New York.
Portugal
Brazilian Catholics probably inherited their devotion of Mary from Portugal, which has a famous shrine for her in Fatima, where she is said to have appeared personally to three children shepherds numerous times with special messages and warnings. Curiously, though, the patron saint of Portugal (and of anglican England) is Saint George, invoked to protect from its enemies, as the legend says he, like the Archangel Michael, overcame the dragon, or the devil himself.
See also
External links
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