Flora Cantábrica

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Balasar: the miracle of the earthen cross
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The chronicles say that on the day of Corpus Christi in 1832, when the faithful of Balasar went to the church of Santa Eulalia to hear mass, they observed with surprise that, a few meters from the chapel, the silhouette of a cross could be seen on the ground perfectly traced. According to the testimonies of the time, the portion of land inside the formation was noticeably lighter than the one around it, for which reason the cross, 3 meters long and 1.6 in its horizontal section, was sharply defined
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The then parish priest of Balasar, António José de Azevedo, wrote the following in a document that is still preserved in the Archdiocese of Braga: «The earth that this cross showed was whiter in color than the other and it seemed that dew had fallen all over it. the earth, in that place in the shape of a cross, no dew had fallen.
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In the priest’s account, the finding of the locals is described as a «rare case» and in it he assures that he carried out some tests to try to erase -without success- the strange formation. «I ordered all the dust and loose earth that was in that place to be swept away,» explains De Azevedo, «and it continued to appear in the same place in the shape of a cross.» In addition, he describes in his letter to the Archdiocese of Braga how the original tonality of the earth inside the figure was altered through a simple experiment: «I then ordered plenty of water to be poured, both on the cross and on the surrounding earth, and then the land that had the shape of a cross appeared black, which has been preserved up to now.
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After further observations, the parish priest notified his superiors how “on dark days the shape of the cross can be clearly seen at any time of day; and in those with clear sun it is seen very early in the morning, until 9 o’clock; and, in the afternoon, when the sun hides towards the west, and also at the height of the day, it is not clearly visible».

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… Apparently, and as De Azevedo also mentioned, the appearance of Balasar caused a revival of faith among the locals, who did not doubt the miraculous nature of the phenomenon. «Once the news of the existence of this cross was spread, the people began to come to venerate it. They decorated her with flowers and left her some alms,» the priest wrote.
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The gifts provided by the villagers allowed the construction of a humble chapel inside which the cross remains. Made of brick and with an austere aspect, it was finished erecting that same year of 1832, with prior authorization from the Portuguese ecclesiastical authorities. The devotion to the earthen cross, which drew hundreds of pilgrims to that small town, was maintained for some years and, due to popular demand, a brotherhood was created whose purpose was to promote the festival of the Holy Cross of Balasar. …….
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However, religious fervor gradually decreased, and the supposedly miraculous cruciform structure began to fall into oblivion. Today it remains in the same chapel, covered by a glass case that, in any case, makes it difficult to verify those differences in pigmentation that caused so much talk in its day. But the Christian faith around Balasar had and has other notable references.
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