In October of 1717, three Brazilian fishermen were out fishing, in order to supply a banquet the townspeople of Guaratinguetá were giving in honor of a visiting nobleman. Since it was outside the season for finding fish, they prayed to the Immaculate Conception for help.

After many hours of coming up empty, the fishermen were about to give up. They cast in their net one last time and brought up the body of a terra cotta statue. Casting their net again, they brought up the head. They cleaned the statue, which turned out to be an image of the Immaculate Conception. Naming the statue “Our Lady Aparecida” (Our Lady who appeared), the fisherman wrapped it in cloth and cast their nets again. This time, they caught so many fish their boat was in danger of sinking.

The statue came to be associated with many miracles brought about by the intercession of the Blessed Mother, and was an object of veneration. A prayer chapel was built; when that became too small, a church was built on the hill of the Coqueiros, around which a village sprang up. When the crowds outgrew that church, a new and bigger one was built; it was given the title of minor basilica in 1908. An even bigger basilica was begun in the 1950s; today, it is the second largest place of Catholic worship in the world, after St. Peter’s, and the largest Marian shrine. Our Lady of Aparecida is the patroness of Brazil, the largest Catholic nation in the world.

Love uCATHOLIC?
Get our inspiring content delivered to your inbox every morning - FREE!

6 COMMENTS

  1. Our Lady of Aparecida please help my business to be fanancially stable, bless my clients and venders and ask Christ Jesus to help us too with our Costa Rican investments. We, each and everyone, came into this world and came to know the blessings of our faith and the grace and the examples of our family, teachers and elders. Truely all enrich our soul and for this we are thankful. Mother, my we grow strong in our process and do our Lord’s will with joy and happiness.

  2. Our lady of Aparecida im so thankful that i’ve come to know you. Please intercede for me to our Lord that he may grant my request for so long…. Help and bless me also about my plan to put up the business i’m eager to invest upon. Bless me financialy, good health for me and my love ones and peace in the family. I offer also to you lord my masters class that i may be able to accompllish my requirements and able to pass the exams…

  3. Our lady of Aparecida pray for my fmaily and husband who can get confidence to look after our family and help us to be stable financially nd help us to come out of all our debts…

  4. Our Lady of Aparecida, you who answered the fishermen’s pleadings for a catch…you have revealed to them that you are the Immaculate Conception who intercedes for those are at most need..Dear Lady, may I humbly ask you to pray for my family that we may be able to put up a business for me and my husband so that we will not rely on our daughter Melanie who kept sending us monthly support. I wish her and her husband to have their own child so that their life will be complete as a family that’s meaningful. Pray for us our Dear and Miraculous Mother that we be stronger and capable to work for a living so that God be praised, worshipped and loved in Jesus mighty name forever and ever. Amen.

  5. Our Lady of Aparecida, pls pray for me especially
    as my job is being threatened by a loan debtor who has refused to pay. Pray that he pays his loans and also for faithful
    Life patners for myself and sister, Joan.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here