Bishop Michael Sis will join people in San Angelo and around the world to recognize the 350th anniversary of the death of Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda, the "Lady in Blue," on Sunday, May 24.
While the Lady in Blue Day has been celebrated in San Angelo for a number of years on June 20, the date of May 24 has been selected this year in solidarity with a major anniversary celebration taking place on the same day in her town of Ágreda, Spain.
The seventh annual celebration in San Angelo will begin with the Procession of Flowers at 6:00 PM at the Christ the King Retreat Center, 802 Ford Street, followed by the Mass of Pentecost at 6:30 PM, celebrated by Bishop Sis in the retreat center chapel.
The procession will start by the Concho River on the retreat center grounds. As members of the Jumano tribe did in 1629, the procession will then follow the crosses of flowers to the chapel.
Everyone is invited to join the procession; honored guests will be any person with Native American heritage.
Historian Gus Clemens, who has written about and presented on the Lady in Blue for more than 30 years, will give a short talk about María de Jesús de Ágreda prior to the Mass.
Refreshments will be served in the retreat center following the Mass. Trudo's Religious Store will be there to sell the famous book written by Sor María,
The Mystical City of God and the book about her life,
María of Ágreda: Mystical Lady in Blue, written by Marilyn H. Fedewa. Other religious items will also be available.
Bishop Sis encourages people of all ages to attend the event.
"It is fitting that we honor the Lady in Blue. Her first appearances in the early 17th century led Spanish missionaries to come to the San Angelo area in 1629 and 1632, marking the birth of our Catholic faith in West Texas," Bishop Sis said. "Sor María helped change our way of life forever. We owe a debt of gratitude to our Jumano brothers and sisters who opened their hearts to the instruction of this mystical lady who appeared over 500 times throughout the Southwest."
It is appropriate to have the procession start at the banks of the Concho River where it is said María appeared to the Jumanos at various locations along the river. After time, when María had finished her Catholic instruction, she told a group of Jumanos to travel to the Isleta Mission in New Mexico where Franciscan priests had established missions in the late 1500s.
Sor María told the Jumanos to ask the padres for a mission; the missionaries came to the Jumano homelands in response. When the priests followed the Native Americans back to the San Angelo area, they baptized over 2,000 Jumanos in the Concho River. Also, the retreat chapel so close to the river is reminiscent of the Isleta mission chapel where the Indians made their petitions to the padres.
If you have any questions, please call The Lady in Blue line at 325-657-7099 and leave your name and number. Event organizers will return your call, and they hope to see you and your family at the event on May 24.