Oct. 12 a busy day

At the center of the altar reredos at Mission San Fernando Rey, right under the statue of Saint Ferdinand, is Our Lady of the Pillar (Spanish: Nuestra Señora del Pilar).

Back in July for the feast of St. James, I wrote about the connection of St. James or Santiago with Spain, and how this statue of Our Lady in Zaragoza commemorates the apparition of Mary to James while he was there as a missionary to Spain. James is thus a patron of Spain and of King Ferdinand, as a part of the Reconquista or reclaiming of territory within España after Islamic occupation. This is the earliest Marian apparition and would technically be bilocation, as Jesus’ mother is thought to be alive in AD 40, when this took place.

This feast of Our Lady is celebrated on October 12^th, the day that Christopher Columbus's expedition arrived in the Americas. He went ashore at Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492, and was very aware that this was Our Lady’s feast day.  This date was chosen in 1892 to highlight Italian-Americans (a predominately Catholic group who had been greatly persecuted as immigrants) and their contributions to USA history and culture by highlighting Columbus.

October 12^th is also the celebration of Mary under the title of Our Lady of Aparecida (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora Aparecida), who is patroness of the country of Brazil. In 1717 a small statue of Mary was recovered by fisherman and that image is now kept in the São Paulo Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida. Aparecida means "she who appeared".

October 12^th is also the date of two important youthful deaths. In 1998 Matthew Wayne Shephard succumbed to the brutal injuries he had sustained six days earlier on the night of Oct. 6. He was 21 years old at the time of this vicious anti-gay hate crime. His cremated remains were eventually buried in 2018 at the Episcopal Washington National Cathedral. In 2005 Saint Carlo Acutis died of leukemia at age 15 and this is his saintly feast day. Carlo is buried in Assisi, Italy at the Franciscan Santuario della Spogliazione (Shrine of the Renunciation) inside the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. This shrine commemorates when Francis gave his clothes back to his parents, embraced poverty, and said, “My only Father from now on is Our Father, who art in heaven!” It seems very poignant that these two share a date in death, on a day that is so filled with controversy!

Canadians celebrate this day as Thanksgiving. Mexicans celebrate it as the Day of the Race. October 12^th has also been named as a “Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity” and “Indigenous People’s Day” and “Native American Day of the Race/Dia de la Raza,” also “Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity” in an attempt to address the genocide of First Nations people in the colonizing and destructive effects that followed after Columbus.

So, a lot is invested in this one particular day.

It’s a federal holiday. It’s a feast of Our Lady. It has some relevance in Franciscan spirituality. And as any day on the Catholic calendar, it celebrates those who have gone before us in faith. But it is also an Ember day, in a renewed sense of that tradition, in order to do penance and seek forgiveness for past wrongs.