Vodica-Mariakert Shrine - Hercegszántó

Vodica-Mariakert Shrine bemutatása

Once upon a time the cattle was grazed on this meadow and watered of the water of the well dug here.
On a day before the feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary more people scythed grass here and one of them – who was used to pray in noon every day – went to the well for water. As soon as his jar sank in the water totally the water surface started fluctuating. He got frightened but then light arose in the well and the Virgin Mother appeared on the water with the child Jesus in her arms. The picture changed and then it seemed like a woman with a little girl in her hand. The man went back to his companions and told them what he saw. All of them hurried to the well, but they didn’t see anything already but they were possessed by inner calmness. The man was ashame of himself: he saw the apparition but his companions didn’t. At home he told everything: some people believed it, others didn’t. He couldn’t sleep at night; so he went to the well next day and saw the same thing again. The apparition was repeated three times. He started thinking, lightened up in his mind how the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary is coming and he really had seen St. Anna with the infant Mary. He planted a willow beside the well for the memory of the apparitions, and told his story to many people. The place was fenced in, a little chapel was built afterwards.

According to the visitors of the shrine’s other story in the 1830 years Joza Grličin was ploughing on the frontier called Babina Leđa when he noticed desperately that his oxens stood onto their hind leg first, they knelt down then and bowed their head. After that he recognised The Holy Virgin – in her arm with Jesus – on a near willow surrounded by brightness. Kneeled down awed and started to pray aloud; he saw fading brightness receding when he looked up later. The ploughman hurried into the village in order to tell the story to everybody. The people of Szántova hurried onto the place of the apparition promptly hoping that they will see The Virgin Mother with the little Jesus. The mass increased and almost the village's full population gathered by evening. Many people spent the night there praying and singing songs for Mary. In the next days the nearby villages' inhabitants also came: everybody was hoping that the amazing event will have a favourable effect on their own trouble.

In 1838 after the review of the apparitions, Péter Klobusiczky - archbishop of Kalocsa and Vienna - ordained ’Vodica-Máriakert’ and declared it a place of pilgrimage. At the end of the XIX. century a vineyard was installed in the environment of the shrine towards, that was removed gradually after the II. world war and nowadays tillage cultivation characterizes the area.

There are more information available about the building of the little chapel. In Historia Domus written by the caretaker József Balázs the following entry was made on 15th November 1949: „I was at Ferkó Vörös today for a small talk. I only got to know that the present chapel was built 70-72 years ago.” According to this the chapel was being built between 1877 and 1879. The entry written on 3rd February 1957 gives information about who had built the chapel and the time before it was built: „ … the old willow stood on the place of the current young willow and a picture of Mary was hanged on it and people used to pray in front of it. The father of Ferkó Vörös mentioned on the 9th sheet had the little chapel built then. The trunk of the willow was here even when I was a child and many small pictures and tiny statuettes decorated it. Later this tree-trunk disappeared.” According to the oral tradition known by Mária Gorjanácz the the chapel was built in 1882, and „… a German man from Kollut built the old chapel, the Swabian whose son got back his eyesight here.”

The thought of the extension of the chapel arosed during the works made between 1948-49 at the Csurgó but then it was decided to build a church on the hilltop beside the old county road. Mihály Puskás, a building contractor from Baja was entrusted to make the plans. According to the plans the two-steepled church would have been 20 metres long, 9 metres wide, the tower heights would have been 28 metres and 185 thousand forints were earmarked for the expenses without the transports. The contemporary relations first braked then stopped the impetus of the enthusiastic organizational works and the planned national fundraising.

Many wonderful recovery’s stories are attached to the water of Vodica-Máriakert. The sculpture of Mary placed south to the chapel stands for the memory of one of these wonders. An almost totally blind little boy was washing his eyes after prayer with the water of Vodica and the child's eyesight improved after the tenth occasion. After taking a bath in the water a little girl from the nearly Kollut who was suffering from polio healed. The soldiers of the first world war were praying to their patron saint the Virgin Mother of Szántó here asking thei