Virgin of Pena de Francia
El Cabaco, Spain (1434)
A young Franciscan tertiary named Simon Rolan, was studying in Paris in 1425 when he saw a vision of the Virgin, who told him to seek out an image resembling her.
For nine years he searched and the Virgin appeared again and told him to go to the top of the mountain where on May 19, 1434, he uncovered a black statue buried under a rock.
At once, four men helping him were healed of all their ailments.
They began work on the mountaintop chapel that day. The seeker devoted himself to the building and care of the shrine. It became one of the great pilgrimage churches of Spain. The province of Salamanca celebrates the fiesta of the Virgin of Pena de Francia on the Nativity of Mary.
Text and image used with permission.
Source: "365 Days with Mary" by Michael O'Neill
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