OUR LADY OF VIRTUES, LISBON, PORTUGAL

Feast Day: March 8

According to laid down tradition, the story of the Church of Our Lady of Virtues relates to the appearance of Our Lady to a Herds man in the early fifteenth century. The apparition gave rise to a pilgrimage to the site, as well as the later construction of a primitive chapel, presumably made of wood and other perishable materials. A short time later, due to the growing importance of the site and the devotion of the faithful that he saw going on around him, King Duarte commanded that a Franciscan monastery be built that would be attached to the chapel. Pilgrimages to the shrine became widespread throughout the remainder of the fifteenth century.

At the beginning of the 1990’s, when excavations were made at the monastery, all that remained were ruins.