Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows Chapel

(Szerdahely)

At the end of the 1400s, Gergely Vörös Bezerédj erected the statue of Our Lady in some woodland in the middle of the estate that he had bought from the Nádasdy family; this is where the chapel currently stands. After little more than a century, a bolt of lightning struck the statue during a terrible storm, breaking its supporting pillar into pieces. The rubble buried the statue beneath it, yet the statue remained completely intact. This seemingly miraculous event drew the faithful’s attention to the statue: the residents of the surrounding villages began to make pilgrimages to the statue. At the end of the 19th century, the crutches placed against the surrounding trees testified to the miraculous healing that had taken place at the statue. The statue stood in the open air until 1903, when a beautiful chapel was built from the faithful’s donations. In 1974, the statue was removed from its supporting pillar and placed in the chapel, and the woodland behind the chapel was transformed into an amphitheatre-like park for the pilgrims. This area is now surrounded by a Way of the Cross built in 1980.

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