Our Lady of San Nicolás is one of the many titles given to the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church. She is a highly venerated Virgin in Argentina , and her feast day is the occasion for a significant pilgrimage.
History of the Virgin of Saint Nicholas
In 1884, the town's holy church dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari was opened , and a statue of Our Lady of the Rosary was placed inside. In the 20th century, a woman named Gladys Quiroga de Motta recounted that she had witnessed a series of visions of this saint, the first of which occurred on September 25, 1983. If you would like to learn more about Marian devotions, you can read the novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots.
Chronology
- 1884: The first mass is celebrated in the church dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari, in this ceremony the donation of an icon of the virgin of the rosary.
- 1983: the twenty-fifth of September in the town of Saint Nicholas of the Streams, Gladys Quiroga de Motta, parent of a couple of girls, a humble village midwife who had not even completed primary education, says she had seen and heard an effigy of miraculous origin that she could not identify.
- September twenty-eighth: Originates the second vision of Gladys Motta, who explains it to his family and close neighbors.
- October XNUMX: After a nervous isolation, he consults the effigy what he wanted and then receives the sight of a hermitage.
- October twelve: Gladys Quiroga tells what happened to the priest Carlos perez.
- October fourteenth: Mrs. Quiroga attends a meeting with the bishop of san Nicholas, at this time he was monsignor Antonio Rossi.
- October seventeen: After an extensive review in different temples of the place, he arrives at the church of San Nicolás de Bari, and in this place the image of the virgin who lived there with him appears again. In a niche of the place, he finds the statue of his visions. It was kept and was missing the right hand and the rosary.
- November twenty-fourth: A path of light points to Gladys Motta the place where he was to erect the place of worship.
- November XNUMX: The saint asks the woman to locate her on the banks of the Paraná.
- July XNUMX: The Marian movement of St. Nicholas.
- December XNUMX: The saint gives him a message: "Gladys, you have to have a medallion made with the image that stands out to me as Mary of the Rosary of Saint Nicholas and on the back, the Holy Trinity with seven stars."
- 1985: May twenty-fifth: they begin to go to San Nicholas a large number of believers, causing the entire city to mobilize.
- June thirteenth: Ten thousand pocket books are printed in the town of Rosario that contained María del Rosario's statement.
- August twenty-fifth: The municipality of San Nicolás donates to the institution of the church the land where the sanctuary would be built, the place was called the little field.
- September twenty-fifth: The virgin communicates again with the lady Motta, and indicates that the seven stars represent the seven graces of the son of God, everyone who carries them on his chest will be worthy of grace.
- October twenty-fifth: The new home for the pilgrim and the location of the headquarters for the propagation of the Marian movement begin.
- 1987: Until month six of this year, more than two million cards of the saint had been printed.
- April XNUMX: Monsignor Castagna meets with Juan Pablo II on the journey that Pope made to Argentina.
- October XNUMX: Sign the document with the company that would be in charge of the construction of the sanctuary.
- 1990: On April XNUMX, the largest pilgrimage for this dedication occurs, about sixty thousand religious from all over the world.
marian phenomenon
Every September 25th, the town of San Nicolás receives one of the largest pilgrimages in living memory. Many thousands of believers and parishioners arrive to worship the image of Our Lady of San Nicolás , also known as Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás . In 2003, the twentieth anniversary of the first apparition of this devotion was celebrated, with an estimated 400,000 people in attendance.
People came from all over Argentina ; groups of thousands could be seen walking the great distance between the city of Buenos Aires and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of San Nicolás . It was a very long journey, but that didn't deter the faithful followers of this Marian devotion.
When the thirtieth anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of San Nicolás was reached , more than half a million people visited the shrine, a number greater than the attendance in 2004. Even today, no larger pilgrimage has been recorded. If you would like to learn more about these religious topics, you can read the story of the Mystical Rose.
The sanctuary
The sanctuary is manufactured following an architectural analysis, and thus achieve that in the common areas of the building, ground floor and mezzanines, between eight and nine thousand standing human beings can fit. For acts in outdoor areas, terraces and esplanades were created. It has a dome with a radius of twelve meters and on the outside, it has a radius of thirteen meters, which is designed in sixty-four oval sections.
This building and construction of the dome was made of reinforced concrete, and copper plates were placed on the outside in the form of individual plates. Thanks to this it can be seen from many places in the city. It is still under construction, although by May XNUMX, XNUMX, the internal areas were inaugurated.
Case study
In August of nineteen ninety, the theology scholar René Laurentin published a study called An appeal from Mary in Argentina: the apparitions of San Nicolas , or a call from Mary in Argentina: the apparitions of San Nicolas , with more than one hundred and sixty-three pages.
During a visit to the city, the lawyer noted that he has dedicated himself to researching and publishing on other supernatural apparitions. He expressed his gratitude to those who collaborated with him on this book, including Monsignor Domingo Salvador Castagna , Marie Helene Sutter de Gall , and Father Carlos Pérez, to whom Gladys Motta confided her experience.
In the year nineteen ninety-four, the historian Cayetano Bruno , from the city of Rosario , printed his History of the manifestations of the Virgin, Mary of the Rosary of San Nicolás , a study that was carried out by compiling the official information from the Archive of the Sanctuary.
A book titled Messages was also published about this saint in the year 1990. It compiles the different messages that the Virgin Mary gave to the visionary Gladys Motta ; it is an extract of the 1887 visits that the Virgin Mary made to the woman.
Previously, in the year nineteen ninety-one, a similar publication was written, but with observations and comments; it was titled "Who is this woman?" The author was Victor Martinez.
Approval by the Catholic Church
On May 22, 2016, a decree was signed declaring the visions of the Virgin of San Nicolás to be of a supernatural nature . This officially recognized the Virgin of San Nicolás at the diocesan level within the Catholic Church.
However, in 2017, the bishop of San Nicolás decided to halt the public dissemination of the messages. He claimed that this decision was supported and approved by the Vatican . Before this drastic measure, nine books containing the apparitions had been published, and a massive sanctuary had been built, which provides financial support to the diocese and receives millions of pilgrims.
During all this time, they had not really been able to verify the apparitions, they could never agree on the criteria to use for this purpose. This story became stronger and stronger, until it reached the scale it currently has, but with everything and this has not been verified.
Despite this, faith in this Marian devotion continues to grow. The story has been the subject of numerous studies by theologians, and experts who interviewed the woman documented that both the messages and the image are consistent with Marian devotions. While a consensus is still pending, the reality is that pilgrimages continue, and parishioners continue to pray to Our Lady of San Nicolás . If you would like to learn more about these topics, you can read about Saint Montserrat of the Pregnant Women.