Bishop blesses shrimp boats as part of annual Portuguese tradition

Published: 2005-05-13

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (CNS) -- A procession honoring Our Lady of Fatima and the annual blessing of the fleet were held in Brunswick May 8 as part of a 67-year-old tradition in the local Portuguese community. Four men of Portuguese descent carried around Hanover Square a 5-foot-tall statue of the Blessed Virgin bedecked with ferns and fresh red and white flowers. Behind them were Savannah Bishop J. Kevin Boland and Father Wilfrid Logsdon, a Conventual Franciscan who is pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, as well as parishioners from St. Francis Xavier. Bishop Boland, in his homily at Mass, urged parishioners to keep their Fatima Day devotion alive for generations to come. Before the Mass, eighth-grader Josie Parker climbed a ladder to place a gold crown on the Fatima statue, which was procured from Portugal in 1938 by Brunswick's then thriving Portuguese shrimping community.

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