Overview

• Our Lady of the Pillar is recognized today as patron of Hispanidad, Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain’s Guardia Civil, and the national postal service.
• The feast coincides with Día de la Hispanidad, which commemorates the 1492 voyage to the Americas and aligns with Zaragoza’s Fiestas del Pilar.
• According to medieval accounts, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to the Apostle James in Caesaraugusta around the year 40, leaving the jasper column that gave the devotion its name.
• A temple raised at the reported site became the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, whose construction began in 1293 and last major reform was in 1961; it is listed among Spain’s cultural treasures and is part of the Marian route.
• Today’s santoral also includes St. Wilfrid of York, Pope St. Felix IV, St. Hedistus of Rome, St. Maximilian of Lorch, St. Rotobald of Pavia, St. Seraphin of Montegranaro, St. Domnina of Anazarbus, Blessed José González Huguet, and Blessed Pacífico Salcedo Puchades.