Our Lady of Aparecida

About Our Lady of Aparecida

In 1717 three fishermen had been casting their net into the Paraíba river for hours with nothing to show for it. They pulled up first the body of a small dark terracotta statue, then its head. From that moment the catch filled the boat, and word spread through the valley. The figure, barely thirty centimetres tall, became the heart of Brazil's greatest devotion and now rests in the basilica at Aparecida, São Paulo, which welcomes millions of pilgrims a year. Pius XI proclaimed her patroness of Brazil in 1930, and her feast on 12 October is a national holiday.

People turn to Aparecida when they are carrying the whole household on their back: mothers praying for their children, families under strain, anyone asking for work, health and peace at home. Brazilian devotion treats her less as a distant queen and more as a mother who hears what is never said out loud to anyone else.

A message from Our Lady of Aparecida is often sent for birthdays, on Mother's Day, on 12 October, at baptisms, or simply to tell someone they are being held in prayer.

How it works