January 2
Virgen del
Pilar, Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain
According to longstanding local tradition, the apostle St. James the Greater (Santiago) was evangelizing Spain with eight followers when, on the night of January 2, 40,
Christ's mother Mary appeared to him, standing on a stone pillar. She asked for a church to be built there, promising help to those who would call on her. When she disappeared, the
pillar remained to mark the spot; some versions also hold that the Blessed Virgin gave St. James a statuette of herself. Although this sounds much like many later apparitions of
the Virgin, it would have occurred when Mary was still alive, not by descent of her glorified body from heaven, but by miraculous transport
or bilocation from the
Middle East. A French document of
835 mentions the presence of a Church of the Virgin Mary in Zaragoza, but its great relic then was the remains of the martyr St. Vincent, not a pillar or statue. Moslems had held
the city since 714; after Alfonso I's Christian reconquest in 1118, a Romanesque Church of the Virgin was built, which burned completely in 1435. The wooden Virgin and Child atop
the jasper pillar in the present baroque basilica of the 1700s dates from around the time of the fire. Our Lady is standing, holding the Child in her left arm. He is naked, but she
wears graceful drapery and a carved crown. Three feasts are celebrated in her honor: January 2, the Venida de la Virgen (Coming of the Virgin); May 20, anniversary of her canonical
coronation in 1905; and October 12, the Fiesta del Pilar. The statue is always displayed "vested"—draped in a magnificent embroidered gown—except on the 2nd, 12th,
and 20th of every month. The Virgin of the Pillar is one of the best-known Marian devotions in the Spanish-speaking world, where Pilar is a common girls' name.
| Himno a la Virgen del Pilar Virgen Santa, Madre mía |
Hymn to the Virgin of the Pillar
Holy Virgin, my dear Mother, |
Sources include:
 | The Basilica's site, www.cabildodezaragoza.org/basilica, now www.basilicadelpilar.es/ |
| "PILAR," Evangelización Católica: Dos Corazones, www.corazones.org/maria/pilar.htm |
| Pictures of Our Lady, immaculata.ch/images.htm, collected by P.O. Schenker, © by Immaculata Center, Appenzell, Switzerland |
| Noe, posting 10-10-07 in response to "Necesito los acordes del Himno a la Stma. Virgen del Pilar," Foros de Ágora Marianista, foros.marianistas.org/tema-8165.html |
Also commemorated this date:
| Mother of God, Novy Dvor, Pinsk, Brest, Belarus. Icon in Orthodox Church of the Dormition (old calendar December 20). |
| Mère Abandonnée, Lyon, Rhône, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. Apparition to Anne-Marie Coste, 21, and healing of her spinal TB, 1883. |
| Nuestra Señora de Valmayor, Potes, Liébana, Cantabria, Spain. Procession (until 1800s; now August 15). |
| Rescuer of the Drowning, Lenkovo, Chernihiv, Ukraine (old calendar December 20) |
| Savior of the Drowning, Novhorod-Siverskyi, Chernihiv, Ukraine. Icon in Holy Transfiguration Monastery (old calendar December 20). |