The icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa (Poland) will arrive in the Algarve on the 25th of March and will remain here until the 31st, being received at the monastery of Our Lady Queen of the World, in Carmelo do Patacão, in the municipality of Faro and also at the Hospital of Faro, at Carmo church and at Refúgio Aboim Ascensão.
The image will be received on the first day, at 21 pm, in the Algarve Carmelo, and will be present at the Eucharist that will follow.
On March 26, the image will visit the hospital in Faro from 10:00 am and at 16:00 pm, he will participate in the Eucharist with the blessing of patients in that hospital unit.
The next day, the icon will be at Carmo church, in Faro, from 9:00 am, to participate in a prayer vigil that will last until 18:00 pm, then return to Carmel for the Eucharist with the blessing of the families, at 21:30 pm.
On the 28th, he will remain in that monastery, on the 29th to visit the Refúgio Aboim Ascensão. During the following day, he will stay in Carmel and on March 31, he will participate in the Eucharist with the Polish Algarve community in that monastery at 16:00 pm and in the farewell prayer at 21:00 pm.
The initiative is part of the icon's international pilgrimage across Europe, in defense of life and the family. In February 2012, several Catholic leaders of pro-life movements, including the organization Human Life International, gathered in the monastery of Jasna Gora, in the Polish city of Czestochowa, to entrust to Our Lady the cause of defending life and outlining the itinerary of the pilgrimage “From Oceano to Oceano”.
It was designated as such, as it began in Vladivostok, Russia, next to the Pacific Ocean, and ended in Fatima, next to the Atlantic Ocean.
It is about making one of the most revered icons of Catholics and Orthodox on pilgrimage. The campaign's motto is “East and West in defense of life”, responding to the call of Blessed John Paul II in his encyclical “Evangelium Vitae”: “A great prayer for life that embraces the whole world is urgently needed”.
The icon will come from the Diocese of Setúbal to the Algarve on the 25th of this month, and on the 31st of March to Fátima.
The image, which is a replica of the original, has traveled over 30.000 kilometers and passed through countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, France, among others, in total from 23 countries.
The icon arrived in Portugal from Spain where, like other countries, he was welcomed in the various dioceses and parishes by bishops, priests and numerous lay people (not clerics).
According to statements given to the press room of the Shrine of Fatima by Nuno Prazeres, director of the secretariat of the World Apostolate of Fatima (WAF), an association that coordinates the initiative in Portugal, “the image represents the Mother of God according to the iconographic type” Hodegetria”, that is, “She who shows the way”. “In it we see the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in one of her arms and pointing to Him with her right hand, indicating Him as the source of life and salvation for humanity”, adds Nuno Prazeres.
According to tradition, the original icon was written by the evangelist St. Luke on the cypress table top of the Sagrada Familia house in Nazareth. Found since 1382 in the Sanctuary of Jasna Gora, Poland. In 1430, in an attempt of robbery and desecration, the icon was vandalized, and Maria's face was disfigured by the cuts of a sword. After the restoration, the scars remained and are today one of its main characteristics. Although closely linked to the history of a Poland suffering but persistent in the faith, the Icon is nevertheless known and revered throughout the world, both in the West and in the East.
The organization of the pilgrimage highlights the relationship of the Marian shrines Fátima and Czestochowa to the figure of the Polish Pope. “Blessed John Paul II, a great devotee of the Virgin of Czestochowa and also of Our Lady of Fatima, after the attack he was targeted on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square, offered to the Mother of God for his shrine of Jasna Gora, the white sash she wore that day around her waist, stained with blood; to the Sanctuary of Fátima he offered the bullet that hit him and which is in the precious crown of Our Lady”, recalls Nuno Prazeres.
More information can also be found at www.deoceanocean.org or with the World Apostolate of Fatima, by e-mail [email protected]
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