Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida

The story of Our Lady of Aparecida begins in October 1717, when three poor fishermen on the Paraíba do Sul River pulled from their nets a small terracotta statue of the Immaculate Conception — first the body, then the head, caught separately. From the moment they placed the joined image in a boat, their nets filled with an extraordinary catch, and the statue became the focus of local devotion. Successive chapels were built as reports of healings and graces spread across colonial Brazil.

Our Lady of Aparecida was declared the patroness of Brazil by Pope St. Pius X in 1930, and her October 12 feast is a national public holiday. The current Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida — begun in 1955 and dedicated in 1980 by Pope John Paul II — is the second-largest church in the world by interior area after St. Peter's, with capacity for up to 45,000 worshippers at one time.

The original small image of Aparecida, about 16 inches tall and discolored from centuries of river water, is enshrined at the high altar and remains the most venerated religious object in Brazil.

The National Shrine of Aparecida receives approximately 12 million pilgrims annually — more than Lourdes and Fátima combined. The October 12 feast day draws crowds of over 200,000 to a single Mass. Pope Francis visited the shrine as a cardinal in 2007 and as pope in 2013, and Aparecida holds a singular place in the spiritual life of Latin America's largest Catholic nation.