The Solemnity of Pentecost , Virgen de Gracia / Virgin of Grace, Aés, Spain (1575) and Memorials of the Saints – 23 May

The Solemnity of Pentecost +2021
https://anastpaul.com/2018/05/20/the-solemnity-of-pentecost-20-may/

Virgen de Gracia / Virgin of Grace, Aés, Puente Viesgo, Pas-Miera, Cantabria, Spain (1575) – 23 May:

On 23 May, 1575, as widow María Saínz de Quijano prayed the rosary while watching sheep on Hediilla Mountain, she saw the Virgin appear :

“with such great splendour that I didn’t dare look at Her Majesty and she said I should ask the Curate of the town to build a Chapel in that spot and lace an image of the Virgin of Grace and one of St Lawrence, in the ew Chapel.“

To Maria’s objection that people wuld not believe her, the Virgin answered that she would make them believe. When the woman started to get up, she found she could not and stayed there, calling for her daughter Juana. Some neighbours passing bym found Juana, who carried her mother home on her back. María asked Juana to get the local Priest. She told him what had happened and he then told his superior, the Vicar of the valley, who dismissed it with a laugh, saying the shepherdess must have been dreaming. A few days later the Vicar passed through that place with his servant, who said, “Sir, they say the Virgin recently appeared to a woman in this spot.” The Vicar laughed again and was suddenly blinded. The servant led him home. In fear and remorse, the Vicar dictated a letter to the Archbishop, asking him to order construction of the Chapel so that he would regain his sight.

The Archbishop ordered workers to began cutting wood for construction. They cut some from high on the mountain and some from lower down, at the apparition site. But they couldn’t move the wood from the heights, although they moved that from the lower site easily.

Carmen González Echegaray, citing records in the National Archives of Spain, doesn’t say whether the Viosionary and the Vicar recovered but presumably they were among the first to receive the graces of the Virgin of Aés.

The Chapel has been rebuilt and renovated several times over the centuries, most recently in 1993. An annual procession to the mountain Shrine outside the village of Aés on 23 May, the apparition anniversary, draws participants from the entire valley. There are no acceptable images of the Chapel or the procession available.

St Basileus of Braga
St Desiderius of Langres
St Epitacius of Tuy
St Euphebius of Naples
St Euphrosyne of Polotsk
St Eutychius of Valcastoria
St Florentius of Valcastoria
St Goban Gobhnena
St Guibertus of Gorze (892-962) Monk, Hemit
Bl Ivo of Chartres
St Jane Antide Thouret

St John Baptist de Rossi (1698-1764) Priest, Preacher and Teacher
About St John:
https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/saint-of-the-day-23-may-st-john-baptist-de-rossi-1698-1764/

Bl Józef Kurzawa
Bl Leontius of Rostov

St Michael of Synnada (Died 826) Bishop, Confessor, Monk, Emmissary and Diplomat of Peace.
His Life:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/05/23/saint-of-the-day-23-may-saint-michael-of-synnada-died-826/

St Onorato of Subiaco
St Spes of Campi
St Syagrius of Nice

St William of Rochester (Died c 1201) Martyr, Laymam – Patron of adopted children.
Biography:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/05/23/saint-of-the-day-23-may-st-william-of-rochester-died-c-1201-martyr/

Bl Wincenty Matuszewski
—
Martyrs of Béziers: 20 Mercedarian friars murdered by Huguenots for being Catholic. Martyrs. 1562 at the Mercedarian convent at Béziers, France.

Martyrs of Cappadocia: A group of Christians tortured and martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian and Galerius. Their names and the details of their lives have not come down to us. They were crushed to death in c.303 in Cappadocia (in modern Turkey).

Martyrs of Carthage: When a civil revolt erupted in Carthage in 259 during a period of persecution by Valerian, the procurator Solon blamed it on the Christians, and began a persecution of them. We know the names and a few details about 8 of these martyrs – Donatian, Flavian, Julian, Lucius, Montanus, Primolus, Rhenus and Victorius. They were beheaded in 259 at Carthage (modern Tunis, Tunisia).

Martyrs of Mesopotamia: A group of Christians martyred in Mesopotamia in persecutions by imperial Roman authorities. Their names and the details of their lives have not come down to us. They were suffocated over a slow fire in Mesopotamia.

Martyrs of North Africa: A group of 19 Christians martyred together in the persecutions of the Arian Vandal King Hunneric for refusing to deny the Trinity. We know little more than a few of their names – Dionysius, Julian, Lucius, Paul and Quintian. c 430.