Earlier this week, we commemorated Our Lady of Champion, an apparition of Mary that took place in northern Wisconsin in the middle of the 19th century. Today we celebrate another Marian feast, 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. So, technically, it would be a bilocation, not an apparition.
According to tradition, the Apostle James the Greater traveled as a missionary to Spain to bring the people there the Gospel message. 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.
We hear Paul address the theme of faith with the Galatians in the first reading today. Mary has been instrumental throughout the history of the Church in helper believers deepen their faith in her son. Her many apparitions testify to the way Mary has been very active in the Church throughout history. As we honor Mary today, may we recognize the many ways she leads us closer to her Son.
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