My greatest experience of Mary

My experience of Mary was influenced by my mother and by my parish priest, Father Sabino.

With my mother, we prayed the Rosary every night, on our knees, and we sang the office of the Holy Virgin every Saturday. At the age of 83, the year of her death, my mother was hospitalized and remained in a coma for over a week. I went to see her in the hospital. The doctor told me, "Your mother may die at any moment, or she may wake up." I went to pray the Rosary in the hallway. To my surprise and joy, my mother woke up and returned to her normal state! Thanking Jesus and Mary, I invited my sisters, who were present, to pray with me the Office of Our Lady. Right there and then my mother began to pray, in a loud and clear voice, until her last breath.

As for Father Sabino, he prayed the Rosary several times a day. One day I heard from one of his old seminary friends that they both prayed the complete Rosary every day! It was in 1947, the year I was a subdeacon. Until then I had prayed the Rosary, but after that I began to say the whole Rosary every day like they did.

Bishop Manuel Edmilson da Cruz, bishop emeritus of Limoeiro do Norte, Brazil

Exclusive interview by Thácio Siqueira for A Moment With Mary