Miracles, Saints and Pilgrimages
Do you have a health problem? Particularly, ugly warts on a visible part of your body? Visit San Benito on his feast day, June eleventh. All you have to do is dip a hanky in blessed oil, rub it on your warts and presto! warts be gone. Though if you have any other health problem, he'll also help you get over it. You just have to rub the blessed oil over the afflicted part of the body. Now, while there are many parishes that celebrate San Benito (Saint Benedict), the most miraculous one is in the monastery of Lerez, right next to the city of Pontevedra. After all, the traditional song goes: Si vas a san Benitiño, Non vaias ó de Paredes. Que máis milagreiro é O do conventiño de Lerez. (If you go to little San Benito, Don't go to the one at Paredes. Because more miraculous is The one at the little monastery of Lerez.) There are many ancient beliefs like this one that were once attached to a local deity. With the advent of Christianity, the miracles were taken over by ...