marian anniversaries     august

August 6

Nossa Senhora das Graças, Pesqueira, Pernambuco, Northeast, Brazil

At her mother's insistence, Artur Teixeira climbed the hill with the girls, who reached the spot long before he struggled up through the brush. He saw nothing unusual, but at his suggestion, the girls together asked the image, "Who are you?" "I am Grace." They asked what she wanted. "I've come to warn of three punishments sent by God. Tell the people to pray much and do penance." 

After this the girls returned to the site daily, where they prayed with a growing crowd of pilgrims. On August  9, the crowd demanded a sign; reluctantly, the girls asked for one. The next day, they found water flowing from the rock and two sets of footprints embedded in stone, one an adult's and one a child's. The apparition confirmed they belonged to her and her son. 

The bishop conducted an investigation. Maria da Luz described Our Lady of Grace as "similar to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Pesqueira Cathedral, but her mantle is blue and her dress cream, with a belt. She has a little child in her left arm, and both have very beautiful crowns on their heads." Eventually the Virgin told her that the people's response had been sufficient to avert the three chastisements, sometimes identified as armed bandits (particularly the notorious Lampião, killed by police in 1938) and the coming of World War  II or a Communist regime to Brazil. Maria da Conceição died young. 

In 1940, Maria da Luz joined the Religious of Christian Instruction, taking the name Sister Adélia. In her absence, pilgrims continued to visit the shrine at the apparition site, where 296 carved stone steps lead to a statue of Our Lady of Grace (right, as depicted on the Miraculous Medal, without the Child, not as the girls saw her), and to report healings there. Sister Adélia participated in some events at the shrine, including the anniversary pilgrimages of 1985 and 1986, and reported some new messages from Our Lady, before her death in 2013. In 2019, the local diocese opened the cause of her beatification and canonization with the Vatican. The seer was also known for founding a daycare center and for her kindness to the poor.

But the apparition site's location in the Xukuru Indian reservation tore the tribe apart. Those closest to the mountain, who favored letting the diocese have some land to build a tourist-attracting shrine, split off from the rest. Conflicts flared between the two groups. 

In 2005, the diocese built a new shrine to Our Lady of Grace closer to town, with a chapel, grotto, and overlook. Pilgrims now visit both locations.

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