OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR

Day 153: October 12

Our Lady of the Pillar, Zaragoza, Spain

According to tradition, on January 2, 40 AD, the Blessed Virgin, still alive, appeared to Apostle James, who, together with a group of disciples, was praying near the Ebro. The Virgin appeared to comfort St James, disappointed by the negative results of his preaching. According to tradition, the original chapel was built by St James the Greater and his companions.

The "Pillar" is the alabaster column on which the Virgin is said to have rested her feet. Some mystics, such as the Carmelite Ruzzola, the Venerable Maria d'Agreda, and Catherine Emmerich, confirmed this ancient tradition, but the first written document mentioning it dates back to the 12th century.

However, the fact remains that the church of “Sancta Maria intra muros” in Saragossa already existed before the Arab invasion, which took place in 711. And the monk Aimoinus, who arrived in Spain in 855 in search of the relics of St Vincent, wrote that “the church dedicated to the Virgin was in Saragossa, the mother of all the churches in the city, and that St Vincent had exercised the functions of deacon there at the time of Bishop Valerius.”

In 1118 Saragossa, freed from Muslim rule, returned to being the capital of the kingdom of Aragon and in 1294 Santa Maria del Pilar was restored to welcome ever-growing crowds of pilgrims.

Originally, a small oratory was built to observe and venerate the "column." A Romanesque church was later erected, but due to a fire, it was replaced by a new Gothic-style building. The current church, which replaced the Gothic-style one, was designed by architect Felipe Perez and, primarily, Francisco Herrera Hidestrosa, at the instigation of John of Austria, who ordered construction to begin in 1681 and be completed in 1711.

The immense basilica presents itself as an exercise in styles: a central dome, four bell towers, and ten smaller domes. The enormous interior has three naves on square pillars, with large vaults and domes decorated with frescoes by A. Gonzales Velázquez, R. Bayeu and the young Goya. In the central nave, the Capilla de Nuestra Señora del Pilar is a small, lavishly decorated elliptical chapel housing a small 14th-century wooden Madonna, 39 cm tall, placed atop a column. The alabaster column is housed in a bronze and silver case and wrapped in a cloak, which varies according to liturgical seasons and circumstances, and is raised to the feet of the statue of the Virgin. This image was crowned on May 20, 1905, with a crown encrusted with approximately 10,000 precious stones, and was blessed by Pope St. Pius X.

The feast day of the Virgin of Pilar, patron saint of Spain, is  October 12th (the celebrations run from October 11th to 18th)  to commemorate the day Christopher Columbus discovered America: according to tradition, at the very moment Columbus set foot on American soil, some nuns were singing and praying before the Virgin of Pilar for the success of the expedition. It was perhaps for these circumstances that in 1958, the feast of the Virgen del Pilar was declared a celebration of "Hispanidad," that is, of Spain and all nations of Spanish-speaking and cultural heritage. 

In 1640, a spectacular miracle made the sanctuary even more famous. A 17-year-old boy, Miguel-Juan Pellicer de Calanda, was driving a cart yoked to two mules. He fell from his mount and fell under a cartwheel, which broke and crushed the tibia of his right leg. Taken to the hospital for treatment, it was deemed urgent to amputate his leg about four fingers from the kneecap. Before the operation, the unfortunate man had gone to the sanctuary of El Pilar to perform his devotions and receive the sacraments. After the operation, he returned to thank the Virgin Mary for keeping him alive.

But, no longer able to work, Miguel-Juan joined the other beggars begging at the entrance to the basilica. Meanwhile, every time the oil in the 77 silver lamps lit in the chapel of the Virgin was renewed, he rubbed his wounds, even though the surgeon had advised against it because the oil delayed the healing of the stump. Returning to Calda, he managed to beg in the neighboring villages with his wooden leg and a crutch.

On March 19, 1640, upon returning home, after invoking, as usual, the Virgin of the Pillar, he fell asleep. In the morning, when he awoke, he found himself with two legs and informed his parents that his right leg, amputated two years and five months earlier, was marked at the calf by scars from before the injury.

The members of the commission of inquiry, appointed by the archbishop, to their great surprise, did not find the leg buried in the hospital cemetery. The fame of the miracle spread throughout Spain and led to the construction of the magnificent sanctuary we see today.

For centuries, the Virgen del Pilar has attracted crowds of pilgrims from all social classes: from the humblest peasants to the greatest kings of Spain, from Ferdinand the Catholic to Juan Carlos, to Pope John Paul II (who in 1982, speaking of the Sanctuary, said: this place is an antenna that attracts to us the wonderful favors of heaven).

Many Spanish families name their girls Pilar and make a point of having a sacred image of her in their homes; numerous altars and chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Pilar can be found throughout Spain and Latin America.

Pilgrimages to the shrine are continuous throughout the year and include attendance at Holy Mass, the recitation of the Rosary, Marian hymns, and kissing the column on the small-exposed section, which, due to this devotion, has a marked furrow. The Pilar Museum, housed in the "Sacristy of the Virgin," is rich in precious objects, including the statue's "mantles," often requested by illustrious dying people wishing to "die under the Pilar's mantle," such as King Alfonso XIII, who died in exile in Rome in 1941.

There are three peculiarities that characterize the Virgen del Pilar: (1) To be precise, this is a "Venida" (a miraculous arrival-presence during life or bilocation) and not an apparition of the Virgin after death, who we remember was still alive around 40 AD in Ephesus. (2) The column supporting the statue of the Virgin is the same one on which the Madonna is said to have rested, and the sanctuary (the first chapel) built on that site represents the first Marian temple in all of Christianity. (3) The third aspect is the strong link between the Pilarist tradition and the Jacobean tradition. Therefore, Zaragoza and Compostela, El Pilar and Santiago have constituted two foundations around which all spiritual devotions throughout Spain have revolved over the centuries.

St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Since all graces come to us through the heart and hands of Mary, we want very much to entrust ourselves and remain very close to that heart and those hands and as deeply as possible within that Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Mother!"

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1997, p. 374)