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Article: October 12 + Our Lady of the Pillar

October 12 + Our Lady of the Pillar - VENXARA®

October 12 + Our Lady of the Pillar

While not one of the most widely known titles of Our Lady, it is the oldest and has a most fascinating story. Sometime BEFORE her bodily Assumption into heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the Apostle Saint James the Greater while he was living and preaching in Spain.

When the 12 Apostles dispersed to preach the Gospel all over the world, James the Greater, on one of his apostolic journeys, preached in the Iberian Peninsula in modern-day Spain. He was discouraged that the pagans of that land were not responding to the Gospel and converting to Christianity. He had only a handful of converts to show for his labors. In the face of what he thought was failure in his mission, he prayed with his disciples by the Ebro river in modern day Zaragoza.

To bring him consolation, while she was still alive and living in Jerusalem, Our Lady appeared to him and his disciples accompanied by celestial music, atop a six-foot pillar of jasper carried by angels, while holding a smaller wooden statue of herself holding the Christ Child. The date was October 12 in the year 40 AD.

The Mother of God told James not to worry, that the people to whom he preached would not only be converted, but they would one day have faith as strong as the pillar on which she stood. She gave the pillar and the statue to James and asked that a church be built on the spot in her honor, using the two items for the altar.

“This place is to be my house, and this image and column shall be the title and altar of the temple that you shall build… and the people of this land will honor greatly my Son Jesus.”

After asking for her church to be built, she gave another promise that ... “It will stand from that moment until the end of time in order that God may work miracles and wonders through my intercession for all those who place themselves under my patronage.”

James built a small chapel as Our Lady requested, by the Ebro river in Zaragoza, Spain, the first known Marian shrine in history. It became known as Our Lady of the Pillar, or Nuestra Senora del Pilar. The chapel was replaced by larger churches over the centuries, with the present stunning basilica being erected in the 17th century.

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