Today we celebrate Our Lady of the Pillar, which is recognized as the first Marian apparition in the history of Christianity and the only Marian apparition that happened while the Blessed mother was still alive. Technically, it would be a bilocation. According to tradition, the Apostle James the Greater traveled as a missionary to Spain to bring the people there Christ’s Good News. James confronted many challenges and did not see many converts to the faith. In 40 AD, dejected and sitting at the banks of the Erbo River in the city of Zaragoza, Mary appeared to him, accompanied by angels, to console him and encourage him. With the child Jesus in her arms and standing on a pillar, the Blessing Mother asked James to build a church on this site, a place where God would work miracles and wonders through her intercession. The church of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza is the first church dedicated to Mary. During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, bombs went through the roof but did not explode. Three now deactivated bombs are currently on display in one of the Basilica’s walls. The Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar was redesigned and expanded several times. The current church was completed in the 17th century. On Oct. 12, 1492, the feast day of Our Lady of the Pillar, Christopher Columbus arrived on American land and the first Mass in the Americas was celebrated.
Our psalmist proclaims today: “Blessed are they who hope is the Lord.” Our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is always to give us hope. Just as the Blessed Mother appeared to St James to give him hope in a time of desperation, she is there to encourage us and animate us in time of struggle and despair. May we always place our hope in the Lord.
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