Our Lady of the Pillar

On 12 October the Church honors Our Lady of the Pillar, Nuestra Señora del Pilar, whose great basilica stands beside the Ebro River in Zaragoza, Spain. A pillar is a strong column that holds up a building, and Pilar is a very common girl’s name in the Spanish-speaking world, so many families celebrate a name day today. The saint who teaches is James the Apostle, Santiago, the brother of Saint John. He was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, and when Jesus called him he left his nets and followed him.

Jesus made James one of his twelve apostles and sent him, with the others, to take the Good News to the whole world. James was the first of the apostles to give his life for Jesus, in Jerusalem, around the year 44. An old tradition says that before that he went as far as Spain to speak about Jesus. Today he is Spain’s patron saint, and pilgrims still walk the Camino de Santiago to his tomb.

A pious tradition tells that in Spain, beside the Ebro, near the city of Zaragoza, James felt discouraged, because so few people believed his message. The tradition says that Our Lady, who was still living in Jerusalem, appeared to him standing on a pillar, surrounded by angels, to comfort and encourage him, and that she asked him to build a chapel there. Then James went back to Jerusalem. The Church has allowed this devotion for many centuries, but she does not ask us to believe every detail of the story. The first written records of devotion to Mary in Zaragoza come from the Middle Ages.

Today a great basilica stands in Zaragoza, with a small wooden statue of Mary and the child Jesus on a pillar. Many pilgrims kiss the pillar, and on 12 October people from all over bring bouquets of flowers, until the front of the basilica becomes a huge mantle of flowers for Mary. The Church teaches that Mary is a mother who prays for us and cares for us all our life. Even an apostle needed encouragement, and Mary gives it to us too.