Municipality of Ourém, Portugal – 1604: Up until she met “the Lady” it had been a rather
unassuming day for the mute shepherd girl. She was keeping watch over her
grazing flock when the Lady suddenly appeared and asked if she
could have one of her sheep. The girl, who could not speak from birth, found
herself able to speak for the first time: “I’m sorry but I can’t give you any
of the sheep without my father’s permission.” The Lady said she would wait for
the girl to run home to Casal de Santa Maria to ask her father’s permission.
Upon hearing his daughter speak, the father was
overjoyed and considered this to be a miracle. He told the girl to give the
Lady whatever she asked for in thanks for the blessing. When the girl returned
to the Lady, the Lady revealed that she was the Blessed Virgin Mary and that she
would like to have a chapel built, from where she would bestow many graces to
the people.
Later that day, the father was taken to where the
apparition had taken place. On that spot, sitting on a rock amidst some
nettles, was a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus with her right
hand, and a Bible with her left. The statue was taken to Casal de Santa Maria
but disappeared overnight. The next morning the father found the statue in the
same place as the day before, on the rock amidst the nettles. This was taken as
a sign that the chapel was to be built there.
In 1801 a plenary indulgence was granted by Pope Pius VII to all pilgrims visiting the shrine on the first Sunday of July and on
the following Tuesday and Wednesday. To gain the indulgence, the faithful are
to go to Confession, receive Holy Communion (being in a state of grace), and
pray for the Holy Father the Pope. This indulgence is still in effect to this
day.
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| POPE PIUS VII |
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