A Marian apparition during Mary's lifetime!

The first Marian apparition took place in 40 A.D., only a few years after the death and resurrection of Jesus: the Virgin Mary then appeared to one of the apostles, St James the Greater, brother of St John, who at the time was in Zaragoza, Spain. This apparition is known as Our Lady of the Pillar.

In the early days of the Christian era, James went to evangelize the Roman province of Hispania, the future Spain. There he encountered many obstacles and experienced a period of great discouragement.

One night, while praying on the banks of the Ebro river, he was suddenly enveloped in a great light and had a vision: he saw the Virgin Mary, standing on a column of jasper.

The Virgin spoke words of encouragement, assuring him that his apostolate would bear fruit. She asked for a church to be built in the place where she had appeared, and left the jasper column with a statue of herself holding the Infant Jesus in her arms, on top of the pillar. Yet the Virgin was actually living in Jerusalem that same year, so this apparition was a bilocation.

James built a chapel at the place designated by the Virgin. Today it has become a basilica known as Our Lady of the Pillar, standing at the exact place where the Virgin appeared almost 2,000 years ago.

Aleteia