Festival of Our Lady of Nazare
September 2022

According to tradition, this miraculous image was carved by the hands of St. Joseph, the foster-father of Christ, while in the very presence of the Infant Jesus and the Mother of God. Later, the faces and hands of the images were painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. This remarkable image is still preserved in a church in Nazare, Portugal where it can be viewed by anyone. It is known that the statue of Our Lady of Nazareth came from the Holy Land where it was one of the oldest images ever venerated by Christians. It was saved from destruction sometime in the 5th century by a monk named Ciriaco, who gave the statue to St. Jerome. St. Jerome later gave it to St. Augustine in Africa, to protect the statue by removing it from the Holy Land. St. Augustine then gave it into the safekeeping of the monastery of Cauliniana, near Merida, a monastery on the Iberian Peninsula. To protect the statue, it was then brought to Nazare in Portugal and hidden in a cave for many centuries until it was found.