Our Lady of the Angels - Costa Rica
Our Lady of the Angels - Costa Rica
https://blessedisshe.net/bis-travels-our-lady-of-the-angels-costa-rica
Our Lady of the Angels is the patroness of Costa Rica. She was so named in honor of their patron, Saint Francis’ Basilica in Assisi, by the missionary Franciscan friars who pastored the area in the 1600s when the apparition occurred.
This small, doll-like image in black stone was found by a young girl on a rock when she went out to the woods to collect firewood for the days’ cooking. She hid the doll in her room, only to find it missing the next morning. When she returned to the woods to complete her day’s chore once again, the figure was back where she had found it the day before.
This cycle continued for 3 days, with Juanita hiding the figure more carefully each evening, & always finding it gone from her room & back on that same rock in the morning.
Fearful of what this could mean, she brought the little figurine to her parish priest, who recognized it as an image of the Madonna & child & began to suspect something heavenly was at work. He placed the figure in the tabernacle & said Mass, praying for revelation.
When the Mass was finished & the tabernacle opened, the figure had once again disappeared & was found on the rock in the woods. A church was built there & the apparition was eventually approved by the Church.
To this day, Our Lady of the Angels, or the Negrita (Little Black One), is highly revered by the Costa Rican faithful. We've heard countless tales of miracles in the lives of friends & their families through her intercession, & witnessed a few of our own in the lives of friends we've brought to visit this holy site.
On her feast day, August 2, each year, millions of people visit the Basilica to venerate this miraculous mother & intercessor. A traditional pilgrimage on foot is traversed by many people from every corner of the country to pay homage to this mother whom they honor as protectress & guide.
In the years that we've lived in Costa Rica, we have witnessed many of its most spectacular sights, but the opportunity to pass regularly under the blessing of this beautiful apparition of our Mother Mary is beyond compare.
As missionaries to the indigenous peoples here, we had the opportunity take a village of families on pilgrimage to the Shrine and introduce them to her for the first time. No ocean view, monkey sighting, scarlet macaw in flight, or even erupting volcano, can compare to the seeing the spark of recognition in the eyes of someone meeting his/her heavenly Mother for the first time. It is truly a holy spectacle I will never grow tired of marveling over.
https://blessedisshe.net/bis-travels-our-lady-of-the-angels-costa-rica
Our Lady of the Angels is the patroness of Costa Rica. She was so named in honor of their patron, Saint Francis’ Basilica in Assisi, by the missionary Franciscan friars who pastored the area in the 1600s when the apparition occurred.
This small, doll-like image in black stone was found by a young girl on a rock when she went out to the woods to collect firewood for the days’ cooking. She hid the doll in her room, only to find it missing the next morning. When she returned to the woods to complete her day’s chore once again, the figure was back where she had found it the day before.
This cycle continued for 3 days, with Juanita hiding the figure more carefully each evening, & always finding it gone from her room & back on that same rock in the morning.
Fearful of what this could mean, she brought the little figurine to her parish priest, who recognized it as an image of the Madonna & child & began to suspect something heavenly was at work. He placed the figure in the tabernacle & said Mass, praying for revelation.
When the Mass was finished & the tabernacle opened, the figure had once again disappeared & was found on the rock in the woods. A church was built there & the apparition was eventually approved by the Church.
To this day, Our Lady of the Angels, or the Negrita (Little Black One), is highly revered by the Costa Rican faithful. We've heard countless tales of miracles in the lives of friends & their families through her intercession, & witnessed a few of our own in the lives of friends we've brought to visit this holy site.
On her feast day, August 2, each year, millions of people visit the Basilica to venerate this miraculous mother & intercessor. A traditional pilgrimage on foot is traversed by many people from every corner of the country to pay homage to this mother whom they honor as protectress & guide.
In the years that we've lived in Costa Rica, we have witnessed many of its most spectacular sights, but the opportunity to pass regularly under the blessing of this beautiful apparition of our Mother Mary is beyond compare.
As missionaries to the indigenous peoples here, we had the opportunity take a village of families on pilgrimage to the Shrine and introduce them to her for the first time. No ocean view, monkey sighting, scarlet macaw in flight, or even erupting volcano, can compare to the seeing the spark of recognition in the eyes of someone meeting his/her heavenly Mother for the first time. It is truly a holy spectacle I will never grow tired of marveling over.
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