If the numbers from previous years are repeated, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Miracles expects to welcome more than 15,000 pilgrims this weekend. However, the closure of the main road between Raminho and Serreta may affect pilgrimage numbers this year.
The PSP posted the alternative routes (see image) on social media. They will be signposted on site for those from the north of the island entering Serreta via Raminho.
The section has been closed to cars and pilgrims on foot since January due to a landslide that caused an earthquake.
The police are urging those who use the alternative sections to do so “preferably during daylight hours” and for drivers to avoid them.
It also recalls the usual recommendations on these pilgrimage days: walk in single file, in the opposite direction to traffic, as close to the roadsides as possible, use crosswalks to cross the road, and wear reflective vests and light clothing.
It asks that roads with heavy traffic and smaller verges be avoided.
Drivers are asked to pay extra attention when they see a group of pilgrims and to reduce their speed, especially in areas with poor visibility.
The rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Miracles is calling for “active and intense” participation in the Eucharist.
Although 15,000 pilgrims attend each year, only 4,200 attend the religious celebrations.
“Participate actively and intensely in the Eucharist because it is there that God speaks to us through the word, through the mouth of the preachers, it is in the Eucharist that God best answers our prayers,” said João Pires, speaking to the Igreja Açores website.
This year’s religious feast theme is “Lord, teach us to pray,” the novena ended yesterday.
“Let God speak to us, we have to give him space, perhaps through silence,” said the parish priest, claiming that prayer ‘is a dialog, not a monologue’.
“The pilgrims come to the Blessed Mother with their personal problems of various kinds – economic, family, health – and they come to ask the Blessed Mother because they don’t think they are worthy of asking the father directly. It’s like in families: when we want to ask the Father for something, we first talk to the mother because she knows us and can intercede for us,” he added.
The bishop of Angra, Armando Esteves Domingues, will preside over tomorrow’s solemn Mass at 4pm, which will precede the procession.
Various masses and meditated rosaries are also planned for today and Tuesday.

Program
In terms of music, the Festas de Nossa Senhora dos Milagres will feature the Filarmónica Serretense today and fado singer Vera Brasil tomorrow.
On Monday, Zé Nandes (ex-Só Forró) and the charanga “Vira Milhe” will perform, there will be singing on Tuesday, and Francisco Ourique will perform a concert on Wednesday.
The festivities include the traditional bullfight in the Pico da Serreta on Monday at 5pm, with bulls by Ezequiel Rodrigues.
There is also a bullfight on Wednesday at 6pm, with bulls by Ezequiel Rodrigues and João Gaspar. The festival closes with a vacada by Ezequiel Rodrigues on Thursday at 5pm in the Pico da Serreta.

in Diário Insular-José Lourenço, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.