SAINT JAMES THE GREATER (APOSTLE) WAS THE FIRST MARIAN VISIONARY IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
On January 2, 40 A.D., the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint James along the banks of the Ebro River at Zaragoza, Spain 
making him as the very first Marian visionary of the Catholic Church.
making him as the very first Marian visionary of the Catholic Church.She consoled him during his affliction because of his difficulty in evangelizing the early Spaniards to the Catholic Faith. Our Lady promised him Her maternal help and left him with an image of Herself on a pillar of jasper which was planted by the holy angels. She asked Saint James to build her a church of which She promised that “it will survive together with the Holy Faith until the end of time.”
This was the very first Marian apparition in the history of the Church. It is actually a case of ‘bilocation’ of the Virgin Mary because She was still living in Ephesus with Saint John the Beloved when this prodigious event occurred, about ten (10) years after the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Her Divine Son, OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Saint James the Greater,
pray for us!
OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR OF ZARAGOZA,
pray for us and heal us!