pilgrim virgin statue

Arrival of Pilgrim Virgin Statue Marks Start of Diocesan Pilgrimage

Click Here to See Additional Photos from the Prayer Service

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 6/7/07) pilgrim virgin

Rays of orange sunlight played off the delicate face of Our Lady of Fatima as a quartet of black-tied and white-gloved Ambassadors of Mary presented the four-foot wooden statue to a small crowd gathered at the front steps of the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington.
Received by diocesan seminarians, flanked by the plumes and swords of the Knights of Columbus and officially welcomed by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde, the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue made her debut last Thursday evening in the Arlington Diocese, where she will remain until the diocesan pilgrimage on Oct. 13.
Her arrival marked the official beginning of the pilgrimage, a biannual event held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Bishop Loverde said.
Ambassador of Mary Joe Roccapriore fought two traffic jams as he journeyed to and from New Jersey with the statue — boxed up for travel — the day before. Our Lady spent her first night and day in the ambassadors’ Annandale office, before she was greeted with “great joy and love” at the cathedral.
Adorned in white embroidery and a crown of gold, the International Pilgrim Virgin statue is one of nine replicas of the original, crafted in 1946, that travel the world reminding the faithful of the message of peace of the early 20th-century Fatima apparitions.
The traveling statue enables those who can’t make the 3,500-mile journey to Portugal to honor Our Lady of Fatima.
“Many people can’t get to Fatima,” said Tony Braddock, local leader of the Ambassadors of Mary, an organization of men who escort local statues of the pilgrim virgin to homes every Saturday. “What our Blessed Mother does is reverse that process. She comes to us.”
Amelia Asuncion, a parishioner at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax, is one of those many people.
“I’d like to go there, but I can’t,” she echoed while remaining in the cathedral late after the prayer service to spend time with the statue.
A native of the Philippines, Asuncion fought breast cancer with a double mastectomy in 2005. She attributes her healing to the five statues of Our Lady of Fatima that spent time in her home. To be in the presence of the international statue was “overwhelming for me,” she said.
Adorers at the prayer service sang Marian vespers, recited the rosary and spent quiet time in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament.
The statue will stop at more than 30 parishes and retreat centers that have requested visitation during the next 15 weeks — including the Diocesan WorkCamp in Orange, Va., at the end of June. Her next stop after the cathedral is Holy Trinity Parish in Gainesville.
For more information or a complete schedule of the statue visits go to www.arlingtondiocese.org.

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.