Our Lady of Pilar and the Angels – Zaragoza, Spain
There is no doubt in any of our minds that if the Lord chose, He could do anything and everything He wishes without the help of His Mother Mary, the Saints or the Angels. When Jesus walked the earth and died for the sins of man, He showed the powerful humility of God. He came to us, born of human estate, a helpless, vulnerable, totally dependent Baby. He made Himself dependent on the love and the care of two humans, His Mother Mary and His adopted father Saint Joseph.
As we walk through the history of Salvation, the Angels play a key role, often bringing to the prophets of old: God's message of love and hope. The Lord uses Holy Scripture to send His consoling Word: "Fear not...Be not afraid, I go before you always...I will be with you until the ends of the world," 365 times, once for every day of each year of our lives. Why not, use the Angels to bring the Good News that there is nothing and no one to fear! I am sure it did not appear so to many of those to whom they came.
After our Lord died on the Cross, we know it seemed to be all over. The Apostles and disciples ran and hid. They were without hope. All their dreams of a Messiah were gone; they had died on the Cross with Jesus. Alone and discouraged, without a Leader, they were lost. They stood huddled in a room. And all the while, an Angel was there at the tomb of Jesus, telling Mary Magdalene the Good News that Jesus had Resurrected and with Him, they too.
We know that after the Holy Spirit descended upon them, the Apostles set out to live and yes, to die for the Lord. James left for Spain soon after the Ascension of our Lord, to bring the Good News of Jesus to the Gentiles of Spain, fulfilling the Words of Jesus: "The last shall be first."
Jesus appears to His Mother-He tells Her: Go to St. James
Mother Mary left, we are told, to go and live with St. John the Evangelist, to whom Jesus had entrusted His Holy Mother (She is your mother.) According to Sr. Mary Agreda, in "The City of God," our Lady was in Ephesus when our Lord Jesus appeared to His Beloved Mother and asked Her to go to Spain, to console and encourage Saint James in the path the Lord would now be asking him to follow.
According to an ancient and venerable tradition, our Lord sent His Angels to accompany and transport His Mother and their Queen to visit Saint James in Zaragoza, Spain where he was staying at the time. Her mission, was to tell Saint James that He, the Lord was pleased with the work he had been doing, evangelizing the people of Spain, but that now his Lord's desire was that he return to Jerusalem to be martyred.
The tradition of the Shrine, for almost 2000 years, has been that our Lady was carried on a cloud by the Angels to Zaragoza during the night. The following events are chronicled to have taken place on the night of January the 2nd, 40 A.D. While they were travelling, carrying their precious Passenger, they were industriously fashioning a pilar of marble and a miniature image of our Lady.
We can only wonder and dream what our Lady was thinking, as She floated over this land, Her Lord and God had created. Did She smile as She looked down upon the towering mountains of Italy housed in an unlikely looking boot. Did She see beyond the colorful peaceful-looking patch work farms of France to the struggles this eldest daughter of the Church would suffer? Did She catch her breath as She looked upon the plains of Spain so handsomely framed by mountains on one side and the sea on the other?
Was She dreaming, musing a little? Would Her Son be soon calling Her Home to Heaven to be with Him? According to the tradition of Sr. Mary Agreda's "The City of God," our Lady was about 55 years old, at this time. It was approximately 13 years before She would be Assumed by Her Son into Heaven. Her mission was to bring Jesus' command to Saint James to return to Jerusalem to be martyred. What had been Her martyrdom? Was Hers the dry martyrdom Archbishop Fulton Sheen spoke of?
We know She loved the Apostles, especially St. John to whom She had been entrusted. She had been given Saint John as a son, but he could not take the place of Her most perfect Son Jesus. Ask any mother who has lost a child; oh, she loves all whom the Lord sends her, but no one can fill the emptiness, no one can replace the piece of her heart that was ripped away when her child died.
Her merciful God had kept Her quite busy since her Son died, affirming, encouraging, bringing new hope and instilling more courage when her sons the Apostles wanted to run, I am sure, at times. Had Her Son left Her behind, to keep the family of Christ together? When we read the Acts of the Apostles we get a small glimpse of the dissension and the division often brought about by misunderstanding, the tools that Lucifer and his fallen angels tried to use to try to split up this holy and chosen family, our first Bishops and Priests. Was She thinking that this journey might be Her last mission on earth?
Was our Lady smiling as She arrived in Zaragoza? What did She see as She glided gracefully toward the little village of Zaragoza? Saint James and his disciples were deep in prayer. What got their attention first? Was it the bright light of the Royal Entourage whose rays cut through the dark of night? Was it the heavenly voices of the Angels, chanting hymns in honor of our Lord Jesus and his Mother Mary? Had St. James and his disciples shot up from on their knees? Or did they awaken as if from a dream? Or did they judge they were still dreaming?
For what had they been praying? I am sure, it was pre-empted always by the Will of the Lord; but did they feel the Wind of the Holy Spirit at their backs, knowing He wanted more of them, but what? How their hearts must have almost burst at the sight of their Mother Mary and her Heavenly Escorts! Did tears well up in their eyes, as they saw before them the evidence of how very much their Lord loved them that He had sent His Mother to them?
Did they sit at Her feet? Was She mounted on a throne of heavenly clouds, the Angels' wings fluttering happily around Her? As She spoke, were the sounds of the Angels singing the Gloria to God softly accompanying Her, in the background? Did it seem like an eternity until She spoke? Did Her eyes fill with tears as she looked at this son of Hers who would be soon going Home to be with his Lord, Her Son Jesus? Did She think: when, Son, when do I come Home to be with You?
"James, the Lord, My Son has brought you a message through Me. You are to return to Jerusalem to be martyred." To be martyred? Did Saint James wonder of what use it could be, he being martyred? Had he been praying for his next mission? And this was it? But, we know he said yes! Did our Lady have to hold out one of her delicate hands to keep Saint James from rushing out to do Her Son's Will before he knew the Lord's full and complete plan for him?
Build a church in honor of Our Lady and Her Pillar
Our Lady went on: Before leaving for Jerusalem, our Lord wanted Saint James to build a church on this very site where she was appearing to him. The pillar and Her image, so carefully molded by the Angels on their heavenly pilgrimage, was to be used as part of the main Altar. This done, our Lord would bestow special graces and protection upon the people of Zaragoza, in exchange for their pure devotion to our Lord and to our Lady.
Our Mother Mary remained with them until the church was completed. Although it is not written, you can be sure the Angels did not stand idly by and watch human hands alone do the work of bringing honor to the Lord and His Mother. After the last rock was laid and the roof completed of the new church, our Lady left with Her Angels.
Saint James leaves for Jerusalem
Saint James, followed soon after, taking his last journey, only now into Jerusalem to be martyred, in the name of Jesus. We write in this book (our new book on the Angels) a little about Guardian Angels. As Saint James journeyed in faith toward his beloved homeland, Jerusalem, to be martyred was he not sustained by his Guardian Angel?
Words like martyr and martyrdom sound so romantic and they do make inspiring reading. But if we are not careful, as we read about the many who shed martyr's blood for this beloved Church of ours, we can lose sight of the cost, the courage, the faith and the total abandonment to our Lord's Will it took for them to say yes to this extraordinary act. We can begin to take them and their gift to us, the Body of Christ, for granted. And if we are not alert, we can be deaf to perhaps what the Lord is asking of us today.
If we are not aware of that Angel who is always with us, to guide, to light and to protect us on our way, we might try to do it all by ourselves. Oh, we might do good things, but the minute we do it, not the Lord through His Angels and the intercession of his Saints and His Mother, then we get into trouble and begin to be fooled by the thought we are the masters of our own fate and destiny. Like with our first parents Adam and Eve we might buy into Satan's lie. Our spiritual director once said that when Pride comes in the door, it is wide open for the other vices to easily enter.
We have heard it said that when a prophet or a priest or a founder leaves a place, if the work of the Lord started by him does not live on, it was his work and not the Lord's. In the case of the people of Zaragoza, they began immediately to celebrate Mass at the little church built by Saint James, his disciples and the Angels. In addition, they began to treasure and venerate the holy image left by Her and Her Angels at the same time, right up to this day.
Pope John Paul II and Our Lady of the Pillar
The pillar that had been fashioned by the Angels is still there and has been venerated and kissed by the faithful for almost 2000 years. When you visit the Chapel of our lady of Pilar, you will see the tiny image resting on the Pillar brought over by Mother Mary and the Angels. And if you go to the back of the Chapel as our Pope John Paul II did, you too can kiss the Pillar.
On November 6th in the year 1982, when our beloved Pope John Paul II pilgrimaged to this holy Shrine, he knelt, like the millions before him and kissed the holy Pillar. He celebrated Mass at the Chapel of our Lady of Pilar, built by Saint James and the Angels 2000 years before. He prayed to his Lady, to the one to whom he has pledged his all (Totus Tuus), only now before Her image and title of Our Lady of the Pillar.
On that day, Pope John Paul II, very moved, and with great emotion, removed his zucchetto from his head and left it and a beautiful rosary, as a remembrance of his visit. The following are some excerpts from his speech on that special occasion:
"In my spiritual Pilgrimage of today, I wish to direct my thoughts to the Virgin of the Pilar in Zaragoza, Spain, whose basilica I had the pleasure of visiting, fulfilling my wish of kneeling as a devout son of Mary before Her sacred Column. This venerable Shrine, built on the banks of the Ebro River, is a great symbol of the presence of Mary since the beginning of the preaching of the Good News in the Iberian Peninsula.
According to an ancient local tradition, the Virgin appeared to James the Apostle in Zaragoza to console him, and she promised him her help and maternal assistance in his works of Apostolic preaching. Even more, as a signal of protection she left him a marble Column that, through the centuries has given the Shrine its name. Since then, the Pilar of Zaragoza, as it is commonly called in Spain, is considered as the symbol of the firmness, the constancy of the faith of the Spanish people and moreover, it is also an indication of the road that leads to the knowledge of Christ through the Apostolic teaching.
The Spanish Christians have seen in the Pilar a clear analogy with the column that guided the people of Israel in their pilgrimage to the Promised Land. Therefore, through the centuries, they have been able to sing "Columnam disciples habemus," we have as a guide a Column that accompanies us to the new Israel."
Before Pope John Paul II, the Popes right from the beginning issued Papal Bulls attesting to the authenticity of the Shrine and Mother Mary's appearance there, accompanied by the Angels.
In the fifteenth century the newly elected Dutch Pope Adrian VI who happened to be in Spain, at the time, made a visit to the Shrine of our Lady of the Pilar.
Pope Pius the XII elevated the church of Our Lady of Pilar to the honorable title of Minor Basilica.
Cardinal Roncalli who would later become the unforgettable John XXIII also visited and venerated the Pillar and the image of our Lady of Pilar.
It has been said, though, that Pope John Paul II has gone more deeply into the true significance and importance of the Pillar to the local as well as the Universal Church than any Pope that has preceeded him. The people of Zaragoza have proclaimed, that truly, John Paul II can be called Pope of the Pillar. He has made four visits to the Shrine, two of which were personal.
Veneration to Our lady of the Pilar began 12 years
before the Virgin Mary was Assumed into Heaven.
Think about it! The people of Spain were venerating the Mother of God under the title of Our Lady of the Pilar for at least 12 years before She was Assumed into Heaven. As we said, according to Sr. Mary Agreda, our Lady was 57 years old when this miracle occurred. We are also told in The City of God that our Lady was assumed into Heaven when She was 67 years old. Her apparition in Zaragoza, 12 or 13 years before our Lady's Assumption, was the only one we know of that took place prior to Mary's heavenly journey with Her Son, to be united eternally with God Her Father, Christ her Son and the Holy Spirit Her Spouse.
The little church, built 2000 years ago is still the same. Only they soon began building a larger church over it to accommodate the thousands that grew into millions of pilgrims that journey there each year. It is an awesome sight to behold, and it does take your breath away, when you enter this towering church dedicated to our Lord through His Mother Mary. But when you kneel in the Chapel, before the holy image of Mother Mary, receive Her Son our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, and go to the back of the Chapel and kiss the pillar held and molded by the Angels, that's when Bob and I fall apart, as do the thousands of pilgrims who have gone with us.
Did our Lord need His Mother to go to Saint James to bring him His message to return to Jerusalem to be martyred? We believe not, because we know He is all powerful and can make His Will known in any way He wills. But the truth is, He has been using His Mother since this time to now, to do just that.
Did our Lady need the Angels to transport Her to Saint James? Why could She not have bi-located like many of the Saints that have followed Her? We believe She travelled like the Queen She is, with Her Royal Escorts, as befits the greatest Queen who ever lived. And also, to teach Her children, us, that we can go through life alone, falling and rising and falling again, or journey as She did, as sons and daughters of the King of all, as princes and princesses on the way to our heavenly kingdom, with our Heavenly Escorts.
The Spanish people, every day, at every hour, sing to their Patroness the traditional invocation:
"Blessed and praised be the hour in which Blessed Mary came in mortal flesh to Zaragoza."
Taken from "The Many Faces of Mary" book II
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