Aparecida

Aparecida (São Paulo) on the map of São Paulo

Aparecida (Portuguese the appearing of our love appearing woman, officially Aparecida do Norte) is a municipality in the southeast of the state of São Paulo and counts 35,000 inhabitants ( 2010 census ). Since a Marian apparition in 1717 and currently nearly 8 million annual pilgrims, the city is the most important place of pilgrimage in Brazil.

History

Establishment of the Marie shrine

Aparecida was originally part of the community Guaratinguetá. 1717 appeared the Virgin Mary supposedly three fishermen found a statue of Mary. The statue of Mary was worshiped in a chapel. Your are attributed many miracles, so that a steady stream of pilgrims triggered intumescent to build a larger church and finally a huge Basilica: The Basilica of Nossa Senhora Aparecida huge, after St. Peter 's second-largest Catholic church in the world.

Archdiocese

Declared on April 19, 1958 Pope Pius XII. by the bull Sacrorum antistitum Aparecida archdiocese ( Archdiocese of Aparecida ) and thus confirms the crucial importance of the city for Catholic Brazil. The new diocese was awarded territories of the Archdiocese of São Paulo and the Diocese Taubaté. The previous Bishop Aparecida, Carlos Carmelo Cardinal de Vasconcelos Motta, then Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Aparecida was. Instantaneous Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis is.

Our Lady of Aparecida

1717 announced for a visit to Ouro Preto Dom Pedro de Almeida e Portugal, Count of Assumar and governor of the then State of Minas Gerais and São Paulo. His way led through Guaratinguetá, and so three fishermen were instructed enough fish to get for a reception: Domingos Garcia, Filipe Pedroso and João Alves. Their nets remained empty and they came to a place called Porto Itaguaçu. There Alves threw his net and was surprised when he pulled out a clay statue of the Virgin Mary out of the water - but without a head. He cast his net again and it also held the statue's head. Then, the river filled with fish and the three men went for a bountiful catch on.

To another tradition, after the statue was created in 1650 by brother Agostino de Jesus from São Paulo, got lost and was recovered only after many years under water by the fishermen.

For fifteen years, the allegedly miraculous statue went in the house Pedroso and was worshiped by the neighbors in a self-built small chapel before the city Guaratinguetá 1734 decided to build a public chapel, which was consecrated in 1745.

1834 a new church was (the old basilica) built to meet the ever-growing power of the faithful. On November 6, 1888 Princess Isabella visited for the second time the church and gave the statue the blue coat and a diamond - and ruby -studded crown, they dress today (2004 a new crown was to mark the centenary of her coronation customized). Only the hands and face of the statue are visible and give the figure, the classic shape of a Schutzmantelmadonna. The basilica was awarded the 1908 title of minor basilica. For over 100 years, the pilgrimage is led by Redemptorist Fathers.

1928 Aparecida was a separate city, as around the Basilica a considerable amount of houses had been built. 1929, Pope Pius XI. Our love appearing woman (or Our Lady of Aparecida, depending on interpretation ) to the Queen and Patroness of Brazil. The festival in honor of the saints is October 12. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI visited. the Basilica and consecrated the new church tower, the largest in the world.

Following the Pope's visit, the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate took place on 13 to 31 May 2007 in Aparecida instead, the previous meetings in Medellin (1968 ), Puebla (1979) and Santo Domingo ( 1992) continued.

Modern Basilica

The heart of the sanctuary is a Black Madonna - Nossa Senhora de Aparecida or simply Nossa Mae. 1955, the basilica was again too small and it began to plans by Benedito Calixto with the construction of the modern basilica. The basilica was consecrated in 1980 by Pope John Paul II and also honored with the title of minor basilica. However, the basilica is still not finished: Continuous expansion and repair measures are to, as well as the attachment of interior and exterior ornamentation.

With dimensions of 173 m long, 168 m wide and a height of 40 m (ships ) or 70 m ( dome ) is the pilgrimage church, the central attraction of the city and at the same time the second- largest Catholic church in the world ( after St. Peter ). In 1984, the Brazilian Bishops' Conference declared it to be the largest Marian shrine in the world. The Basilica has a capacity of over 45,000 people in the parking lot of 272.000m ² can 4,000 buses and 6,000 cars park. With almost 8 million pilgrims a year of Marie shrine is not only the third most visited Catholic pilgrimage destination in the world, but also the main source of the city, whose business consists to a large part of hotels and souvenir shops.

Attacks

In 1979, the statue was destroyed in a bomb attack in nearly 200 small pieces. Then it was completely restored by an art collector and the Director of the Art Museum of São Paulo, as well as a make-up artist. Since then she has to be considered only by a bulletproof glass wall in the church. She is now almost completely blackened by light and candle soot.

In 1995, the priest Sergio of Helde the Pentecostal church Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus occurred during a television appearance, a model of the statue and shouted, " Can God really be compared with such an ugly thing? " The public responded with a wave of lawsuits against him and Sergio of Helde had to be moved to Africa.

Distribution of the name Aparecida

The influence of the cult of Mary in Aparecida is enormous:

• 296 Brazilian churches are dedicated to the saints, five cathedrals bear the same title.
• In honor of the National Shrine of Aparecida is a popular Brazilian birth name (nickname Cida ).
• Several Brazilian cities have been named after the place of pilgrimage: Aparecida municipality in Paraíba
• Aparecida de Goiânia, Goiás community in
• Aparecida d' Oeste, community in São Paulo
• Aparecida do Rio Doce, municipality in Goiás
• Aparecida do Rio Negro community in Tocantins
• Aparecida do Taboado, community in Mato Grosso do Sul
• Boa Vista da Aparecida municipality in Paraná
• Conceição da Aparecida municipality in Minas Gerais
• Nossa Senhora Aparecida municipality in Sergipe
• Aparecida (Spain ), community in Alicante