Aparecida (Sao Paulo)

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Aparecida
Coordinates: 22 ° 50 ′  S , 45 ° 13 ′  W
Map: São Paulo
marker
Aparecida​
Aparecida on the map of Sao Paulo
Basic data
Country Brazil
State São Paulo
Residents 35,007  (2010)
City insignia
Brasão de Aparecida.jpg
Bandeira do Municipio de Aparecida-SP.png
Detailed data
surface 121 km 2
Population density 289 inhabitants / km 2
height 542  m
prefix 05517
City Presidency Ernaldo Cesar Marcondes ( MDB )
Website aparecida.sp.gov.br
The Basilica
The Basilica

Aparecida (German "the appeared" for "Our love appeared woman", officially Portuguese Município da Estância Turística de Aparecida ) is a municipality in the southeast of the state of São Paulo and has 35,000 inhabitants (2010 census). Since the apparition of Mary in 1717 and currently with almost 8 million pilgrims annually, the city has been the most important place of pilgrimage in Brazil .

history

Foundation of the Marienschreins

Aparecida was originally part of the Guaratinguetá municipality . In 1717, the Blessed Virgin Mary allegedly appeared to three fishermen who found a statue of the Virgin Mary. The statue of the Virgin Mary was venerated in a chapel. Numerous miracles are attributed to her, so that a steadily swelling stream of pilgrims triggered the construction of a larger church and finally a huge basilica : the huge Basílica de Nossa Senhora Aparecida , the second largest Catholic church in the world after St.

archdiocese

On April 19, 1958, Pope Pius XII declared. by the bull Sacrorum antistitum Aparecida to the archdiocese ( Archdiocese of Aparecida ) and thus confirms the outstanding importance of the city for Catholic Brazil. The new diocese received areas of the Archdiocese of São Paulo and the Diocese of Taubaté. The previous Bishop Aparecidas, Carlos Carmelo Cardinal de Vasconcelos Motta, then became Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Aparecida. The current archbishop is Raymundo Damasceno Assis .

Our Lady of Aparecida

The Virgin Mary statue

In 1717 Dom Pedro de Almeida e Portugal, Count of Assumar and governor of the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo at the time, announced that he would be visiting Ouro Preto . His way led through Guaratinguetá, and so three fishermen were commissioned to get enough fish for a reception: Domingos Garcia, Filipe Pedroso and João Alves. However, their nets remained empty and they came to a place called Porto Itaguaçu . There Alves cast his net and was amazed when he pulled a clay statue of Our Lady out of the water - but without a head. He threw his net again and also hid the statue's head. The river then filled with fish and the three men made an abundant catch.

According to another tradition, the statue was created around 1650 by Brother Agostino de Jesus from São Paulo , but was lost and was only recovered by fishermen after many years underwater.

The supposedly miraculous statue was in Pedroso's house for fifteen years and was worshiped by the neighbors in a small chapel they had built before the town of Guaratinguetá decided in 1734 to build a public chapel, which was inaugurated in 1745.

In 1834 a new church (the old basilica ) was built to meet the growing flow of believers. On November 6, 1888, Princess Isabella visited the church for the second time and gave the statue the blue cloak and a diamond and ruby-set crown that she still dress today (a new crown was made in 2004 for the centenary of her coronation). Only the hands and face of the statue are visible and give the figure the classic form of a protective mantle Madonna . The basilica of that time received the title of a minor basilica in 1908 . The pilgrimage has been looked after by Redemptorist Fathers for a good 100 years .

In 1928 Aparecida became its own town because a considerable number of houses had been built around the basilica. In 1929 Pope Pius XI declared. Our Lady Appeared Lady (or Our Lady of Aparecida, depending on the reading) to the Queen of Brazil and patron saint . The festival in honor of the saints is October 12th .

From May 13 to 31, 2007, the V General Assembly of the Latin American Episcopate took place in Aparecida , which continued previous assemblies in Rio de Janeiro (1955), Medellín (1968), Puebla (1979) and Santo Domingo (1992).

Modern basilica

The original figure in the shrine, since 1988 a national shrine

The heart of the sanctuary is a Black Madonna - Nossa Senhora de Aparecida or simply Nossa Mãe . In 1955 the basilica became too small again and the construction of the modern basilica according to plans by Benedito Calixto began . The basilica was consecrated in 1980 by Pope John Paul II and also honored with the title Basilica minor . However, the basilica is still not completely finished: constant expansion and repair work is pending, as is the affixing of the interior and exterior decorations. In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI visited the basilica and dedicated the new church clock, the largest in the world.

With dimensions of 173 m length, 168 m width and a height of 40 m ( ships ) and 70 m (dome) the pilgrimage church is the central attraction of the city and at the same time the second largest Catholic church in the world (after St. Peter's Basilica ). In 1984 the Brazilian Bishops' Conference declared it the largest Marian shrine in the world. The basilica has a capacity of over 45,000 people, and 4,000 buses and 6,000 cars can be parked in the 272,000 m² car park. With almost 8 million pilgrims annually , the Marienschrein is not only the third most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, but also the main source of income in the city, whose trade consists largely of hotels and souvenir shops.

Assassinations

In 1979 the statue was smashed into almost 200 small pieces in an assassination attempt. It was then completely restored by an art collector and the director of the Art Museum of São Paulo, as well as a make-up artist. Since then it can only be seen through a bulletproof glass wall in the church. It is now almost completely blackened by light and soot.

In 1995 the priest Sergio von Helde of the Pentecostal congregation Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus stepped on a model of the statue during a television appearance and shouted: “Can God really be compared to such an ugly thing?” The public responded with a wave of complaints against him and Sergio von Helde had to be transferred to Africa.

Spread of the name Aparecida

The cathedral of the same name in Brasilia

The influence of the cult of Mary in Aparecida is enormous:

literature

  • Christian Dennys Monteiro de Oliveira: Basílica de Aparecida. Um templo para a cidade-mãe . Olho dágua, São Paulo 2001, ISBN 85-85428-78-3 .
  • José Eduardo Pioli Basseti: Basílica de Aparecida: Santuário do Brasil . Editora Aventura Brasileira, Florianópolis 2004, ISBN 85-98743-01-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Results of the 2010 census
  2. ↑ Vatican Radio : Aparecida: Largest Marian shrine in Brazil ( Memento from October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) May 11, 2007
  3. ↑ Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints : Pilgrimage ( Memento of December 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive )