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Why We Celebrate
The Holy Ghost Festival
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In the thirteenth century the Azores Island suffered from many violent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The most seriously hit was the Island of Pico. The people of these Azores Islands could not survive the drought, crop failures and famine that now plagued them. They gathered together in earnest prayer to the Holy Ghost for help.
He who feedth the Raven heard their prayers, and on the morning of the Pentecost Sunday, there was a great rising sun and the people of these islands saw in the sunrise a ship coming into the Port of Fayal. This ship was laden with necessities of life. The food was distributed among the people of the various islands and they were very grateful that their prayers had been answered.
When their Queen Isabel heard of this providence, she organized a solemn procession in honor of the Holy Ghost. Accompanied by her maids she carried her Crown through the streets of Lisbon, to the the Cathedral, where she left it on the Alter as an offering of thanksgiving for the favors the Holy Ghost had given her people.
When Queen Isabel's husband (King Dinis) died, she took the third Order of Saint Francis. In 1612 her body was taken up to be put in a new shrine, and was found to be incorrupt. Two centuries after her death, 1625,she was cannonized by Pope Urban VIII.
Queen Isabel's body still remains in a silver and crystal casket at the Cathedral in Coimbra, Portugal.
All the people of these Islands vowed that they and their children and their children's children would commemorate the day by giving thanks to their Queen Isabel for the great sacrific she made in giving her Crown as a thanksgiving to the Holy Ghost
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