April 20
La Dolorosa del Colegio, Quito, Ecuador
On the night of April 20, 1906, an oleograph of the Virgin of Sorrows hanging in the refectory of the Jesuit College of St. Gabriel began to open and shut its eyes in front of 35 boarding students and two monks. The image was moved to the school chapel, where the prodigy recurred six times. After a canonical investigation, Church authorities declared that it was possible to believe. The Blinking Virgin changed the mood of the country, where educational anticlericalism had grown since the liberal revolution of 1895; the miracle prevented the expulsion of monks from the college. In June the painting was moved to the Jesuit church in a huge candlelight procession. The waist-up image, said to date from the first Spanish settlement in 1534, depicts Mary in a red robe, white veil, and blue mantle. She has tears on her cheeks and a heart on her chest pierced by seven swords. She holds Christ's crown of thorns and three nails. The image was canonically crowned on April 22, 1956, during the 50th anniversary celebration. (Information from Manetta Lamberty, S.C.C., The Woman in Orbit, Lamberty Company, Chicago, 1966. Picture from "Advocaciones de la Virgen Marķa," Marķa, Madre de Dios, www.mariamadrededios.com.ar.)
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