page_title: Our Lady of the Pillar
section_title: Zaragoza
hierarchical_section_title: Our Lady of the Pillar / Image / Zaragoza
caption_attribution_description: Español: Virgen del Pilar en su camarín de la basílica homónima de la ciudad de Zaragoza (España). La imagen fue tomada un día 2, motivo por el cual la Virgen se muestra, de forma excepcional, sin manto (esto sucede los días 2, 12 y 20 de cada mes).
context_page_description: Our Lady of the Pillar is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD 40 while he was preaching in what is now Spain. Those who adhere to this belief consider this appearance to be the only recorded instance of Mary exhibiting the mystical phenomenon of bilocation. Among Catholics, it is also considered the first Marian apparition, although it is unique in this regard because it is the only one to have occurred while Mary was still alive on earth.
  This title is also given to a wooden image, commemorating the apparition, which is enshrined at the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. Pope Callixtus III granted indulgences for those visiting her shrine in 1456. In 1730 Pope Innocent XIII mandated her veneration throughout the Spanish Empire. On 20 May 1905, Pope Pius X granted the image a canonical coronation.
  Our Lady of the Pillar is considered the Patroness of Aragon and its capital Zaragoza, and of the Spanish Civil Guard.
context_section_description: A fire in 1434 burned down the church that preceded the present basilica.
  The construction of the present Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, Zaragoza was started in 1681 and ended in 1711. 
  The wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is in the Late Gothic style. It stands 39 centimetres (15 in) tall, on a pillar of jasper with a height of 1.8 metres (5.9 ft).
  The statue depicts Mary with the Child Jesus on her left arm, who has a dove sitting on his left palm.
  Some reports state that an earlier wooden image was destroyed when the church burned down in 1434, consistent with an attribution of the current image to Juan de la Huerta (d. 1462) or his school.
  It appears that folk belief in some cases may be inclined to regard the Saragossa image as miraculous, sculptured by the angels as they transported Mary from Jerusalem to Saragossa (Zaragoza); this mystical tradition goes back to María de Ágreda (d. 1665),  herself the object of frequent "mystical bilocation" (i.e. she reported that she was often "transported by the aid of the angels" ), who gave an account to this effect in her Mystical City of God; however, unlike the tradition of the Marian apparition itself, the miraculous origin of the image is not part of the tradition recognized by the Holy See as canonical.
  Since the 16th century, the pillar is usually draped in a skirt-like cover called manto "mantle".
  As a whole, it is protected by a bronze case and then another case of silver.
  The image was canonically crowned in 1905 during the reign of Pope Pius X.  The crown was designed by the Marquis of Griñi, valued at 450,000 pesetas (c. USD 2.6 million as of 2017).
caption: The wooden image and pillar without the mantle (photograph taken on 2 April 2011; the image is displayed without mantle on the 2nd, 12th and 20th day of each month).
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