The  Icon of Nazare

Near Fatima in Portugal is the town of Nazare.  Nazare is a small fishermen's town situated in one of the most beautiful sites of the Portuguese coast. The place is well known to the Portuguese and people of Brazil for its statue of the Virgin Mary and child Jesus.  Saint Joseph is said to have carved this dark-wooded icon in Nazareth when Jesus was less than a year old.

In the fourth century the statue was given to Saint Augustine who sent it to a monastery in Spain for safety.  

During the Saracen invasion of Spain, the Spanish king and the monk Germanus took the statue to Nazare and hid it in a cave.

In the twelfth century Dom Fuas Roupinho, the guardian of the castle of Porto de Mos, is said to have found the statue on one of his hunts and paid homage to it.

In the morning of thick fog, 8 September 1182, Our Lady of Nazare is said to have saved the life of Dom Fuas when he was about to fall into a precipice with his horse.  In thanksgiving for his miraculous escape, the nobleman built the "Chapel of Memory" at the spot next to the precipice and placed the statue inside.  

Visitors to the precipice can see the imprint of a horseshoe left in the rock by Dom Fuas Roupinho's horse.

A church was built later and the statue placed on the high altar.  Millions of people have prayed there, including the famous Vasco da Gama.

The miracles attributed to the icon are profuse, being displayed in many public places throughout Nazare.

Devotion to Our Lady of Nazare began 200 years ago in Brazil and has grown into the most important festivity of the state.  Thousands of believers set aside the second Sunday of October to celebrate with a large procession and festivities.  The procession can be attended by more than 1 million people and is the greatest Catholic manifestation in Brazil.