Case file · Apparition / miracle
Our Lady of Nazareth found at the Murutucu stream
Belém tradition holds that around 1700 a caboclo, Plácido José de Souza, found a small image of Our Lady of Nazareth by a stream, and that it kept returning there each time it was moved.
1700 CE · -1.45, -48.48 · status: legend
The account
A chapel was built on the spot, today's Basilica of Nazaré. The Círio de Nazaré procession, first held in 1793, now draws around two million people each October and is recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage.
The sceptical view
The returning-image motif is common in Iberian shrine legends; the founding story is pious tradition.