National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida

Image: Wikimedia Commons

In Aparecida, in the state of São Paulo, the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida is the largest Catholic church in Brazil and the second largest in the world after St. Peter's, as well as the largest cathedral anywhere. Its story began in 1717, when three fishermen drew a small dark clay statue of the Virgin from the Paraíba river, followed by a miraculous catch of fish. Consecrated on 4 July 1980 by John Paul II during his first visit to Brazil and declared a National Shrine in 1984, it welcomes some twelve million pilgrims a year, and the Passarela da Fé footbridge links it to the old basilica of 1888.