The Virgen del Pilar, Patroness of Hispanity, already has a place in the heart of the Vatican gardens

The Virgen del Pilar, whose devotion enjoys great roots in Spanish territory and in many other countries, has since Wednesday with its own place in the Vatican gardens.

The ceramic panel, which represents one of the most popular Marian advocations in the country, in addition to being a patron saint of Hispanity, was inaugurated this morning in the historic Master bastionan area with a bulwark integrated in the Leoninas walls that surround the city of the Vatican.

The image represents the appearance of the Virgin to the apostle Santiago on the banks of the Ebro, an event that the tradition places on January 2, 40.

The work was painted by the company Valencian ceramics in Manises, a Spanish town with a long artisanal ceramic tradition. The representation measures 140 by 90 centimeters and is framed in Travertino, the same material used in the Basilica of San Pedro.

Its composition follows the traditional iconographic model: the Virgin on the column, the apostle Santiago kneeling as a pilgrim and an idealized view of Zaragoza next to the Ebro.

A project of the entire Church in Spain

The initiative has been jointly promoted by the Spanish Episcopal Conference and the Spanish National Church of Santiago and Montserrat of Rome. The councils of Zaragoza and Santiago de Compostela have joined the project since its inception, contributing financial support and symbolic support.

The installation was authorized on February 28, 2025 by Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, then president of the Government of the State of the city of the Vatican, who has also presided over the blessing of the mural as President Emeritus.

“The Jacobean and pillarist traditions, indissolubly linked, become more universal as they are present in the heart of the Church,” said the archbishop of Zaragoza, Mons. Carlos Escribano, in his intervention. “Maria shows how the first missionary disciple, the woman who holds and encourages the nascent church in her evangelizing task,” he added.

Official Representation of Spain in the Vatican

With this inauguration, Spain adds to other countries – especially Latin America – that they have in the Vatican gardens Marian images representative of their spiritual identity, exposed to veneration.

The official patron saint of Spain is the Immaculate Conception, an invocation that is already present in the Lourdes Grotto of the same enclosure, so the Virgen del Pilar, Patroness of Hispanity, was chosen.

After the words of the archbishop, the mural was discovered by Isabel Celaá, ambassador of Spain before the Holy See, and blessed by Cardinal Vérgez. They also intervened at the ceremony Mons. José Jaime Brosel, rector of the Spanish National Church, and the Deanes of Zaragoza and Compostela, Juan Sebastián Teruel and Manuel Jesús Formoso.

In preparation of the Bimilenary of the Virgin’s coming to Zaragoza

Some 150 people attended the event, including a group of Peregrinos from Zaragoza present in Rome on the occasion of the jubilee, as well as members of the Civil Guard destined in the Italian capital, who wanted to pay tribute to their patron. During the ceremony the anthem of the Virgen del Pilar and the anthem of the Apostle Santiago were sung.

The Notary Archbishop recalled that this inauguration is one of the first milestones in the preparation of the Bimilenary of the Virgin’s coming to Zaragoza, which will be held in 2040.