Group caught stealing construction material in Viana do Castelo

103 years ago, the pastor Severino Alves says he saw an apparition of Nossa Senhora in the place of Barral, parish of Vila Chã (São João), in Ponte da Barca. The sighting took place two days before the apparitions of Cova da Iria, in Fátima, and even today this small Minho shrine seems to have been forgotten by the Catholic imagination, given the strength that the story of Lúcia, Jacinta and Francisco gained in the Portuguese community.

It was on May 11, 1917 that the young pastor saw lightning, as reported by Luíz Arezes, the historian who wrote the book “Centenário das Aparições no Barral”, published in 2017. Then he will have heard a voice asking him not to. frighten. Like Fatima, she asked Severino to “pray” and tell everyone the “good news” that the place was sacred.

And so did the young shepherd, gathering the disbelief of some and the devotion of others. The case quickly reached the archdiocese of Braga, but the archbishop of that time thought it best to do nothing and wait for the miracle to be proven. The story ended up falling into general oblivion and only the inhabitants of that small place were setting “candles” to remember the phenomenon.

At Fatima they disobeyed the Church.

Gabriel Souto, a member of the Nossa Senhora da Paz Brotherhood, believes that the reason why the appearances of Ponte da Barca are not so well known is due to the late construction of a chapel or image that marked them.

For O MINHO, the confrere explains that, in Fatima, the people disobeyed the orders of the Catholic Church and immediately built a chapel. “Our sanctuary has only been around for 50 years, when in 1967 an image was placed here. Two years later, on June 24, the chapel was inaugurated and it was not until the 1970s that the underground crypt was built, marking the exact location of the apparition. ”

Barral’s “miracle” would only gain strength when the fiftieth anniversary of the Fatima apparitions, explains the member of the brotherhood. “The Marian shrine invited Canon Avelino Costa, a native of the parish, to give a conference and there they told him that there was news in a newspaper of the time that the apparition took place first in Ponte da Barca,” he explains.

And only then did the whole process begin to turn the place of Barral into a new Marian route: “during the 70s and 80s there was a great participation, but with the turn of the millennium, it began to decrease after the death of the canon.”

“From the year 2000, we began to have more people throughout the year. Currently, we have around 5,000 people at the time of the pilgrimages in May and in 2019 we had around 10,000 pilgrims who completed the guestbook, throughout the year, “explains the member of the brotherhood.

As for Fatima, the Senhora da Paz brotherhood ensures that there is no rivalry. ” We are also on pilgrimage, but here it is different, it is more modest and cozy, with more shade and greener ”, in the good sense of Minho.

Building

This year, the sanctuary presents a novelty that could even have opened on Saturday: a new picnic park with capacity for hundreds of people.

“Since 2012, a new fraternity took office, at the same time that the priest changed, and we began to do some work and spread the space more. As we had a greater participation last year, the Chamber of Ponte da Barca helped us create a new leisure space, so that pilgrims can be more comfortable, “he says.

The new park, currently under construction, will have a table offered by each family on site: the Chamber supported by an architect and in the adjustment of the terrain.

The sanctuary of Senhora da Paz today has a chapel, a church, a museum, a picnic area and several images that remind us of Our Lady, Pastor Severino and Canon Avelino, with the highlights of the celebrations that took place precisely on May 11.

In view of the covid-19 pandemic, the celebrations have no pilgrims and the spaces are all closed. However, a mass is celebrated this Monday, broadcast on social networks.