VATICAN CITY, MARCH 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The retired prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes will represent Benedict XVI at the closing of the jubilee year convoked for the 700th anniversary of the devotion to Our Lady of Europe.
Cardinal José Saraiva Martins will represent the Pope at the May 5 event to be held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe, located in the British territory of Gibraltar at the southernmost part of the Iberian Peninsula.
The shrine includes a converted mosque and the devotion to Our Lady there dates back to the conquest of the Moors in 1462.
A small statute of Our Lady and the Christ Child survived the centuries there, despite various pirate raids.
