“Do you want to come with me?”
Thus begins a story as real as it is mysterious. A story that didn’t happen in the 19th century or in a remote place. It happened in 1945, in a humble corner of the Extremadura border, in the place called Chandavila, in La Codosera. There, the Virgin Mary appeared to two girls, Marcelina and Afra. And since then, the heart of God has beaten closer.
From that moment on, the town was forever transformed, changing the lives and faith of thousands of people. Currently, there is a large shrine in Chandavila, where the Virgin appeared, within the parish of La Codosera. It is a center of faith, where many people come seeking peace, forgiveness, and many blessings. There have been conversions and physical and spiritual healings. Marcelina: the innocent gaze that touched heaven.
Marcelina Barroso Expósito was only 10 years old. She was poor, fatherless, and lived with her mother, who was harsh and far from the faith. On Sunday, May 27, 1945, while returning with her cousin from a walk in the countryside, something unusual happened.
Amidst the silence and dust of the road, she saw a luminous Lady, dressed in black with a sky-blue veil, her hands clasped, floating above the ground. Her face radiated peace. Her gaze, love. Her gesture… she called to her.
“Do you want to come with me?” he asked her.
Marcelina didn’t understand, but her heart trembled. She had seen something… someone. When she told her mother, the response was a slap. But she didn’t remain silent. She came back. And the Lady came back too.
A chestnut tree, a chapel of heaven and a mission.
From that day on, the apparitions continued. During one of them, before hundreds of witnesses, Marcelina inexplicably knelt and walked across the cobbled ground to a chestnut tree. Upon arriving, she fell into ecstasy. “I saw a small, white chapel with an altar and an image of the Virgin… It was beautiful.” The Virgin asked her to build a chapel there and to celebrate Mass there within three months. She showed her what was to be built, like someone revealing the plans for a divine project.
A few days later, a 12-year-old girl, Afra Brígida, a resident of the same village, heard about Marcelina and mocked her. But soon, everything changed. On June 7, while present at the scene, she fell to her knees and went into ecstasy.
From then on, Afra lived a life marked by redemptive suffering: the stigmata of Christ appeared on her body. They bled every Friday and on special days. Her life was one of silence, penitence, and reparation. A hidden soul, chosen by God to show the suffering face of love.
Lights, miracles and signs from heaven.
For weeks and months, hundreds of people witnessed extraordinary events:
But most importantly, souls were changing. Confessions, conversions, and vocations multiplied. Marcelina’s mother, deeply moved, returned to the faith and donated the first tabernacle for the future shrine.
A simple and eternal message.
The Virgin did not come to frighten or to make a spectacle. She came as a Mother: “Come to this place. Pray. Do penance. Pray the Rosary. Build a chapel.” That was her message. Simple. True. Powerful. A call to prayer, to conversion, and to trust in God. And she did so in a hidden corner of the map, but not in heaven.
The Sanctuary: a seed that grew.
Thanks to the lively faith of many faithful, the site was renovated and a small chapel was built. Over the years, it became a Diocesan Sanctuary and a place of pilgrimage, approved and encouraged by the Archdiocese of Mérida-Badajoz.
In 2020, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the apparitions, the Holy See declared a Holy Jubilee Year. Today, Chandavila is a spiritual beacon: where the Virgin Mary wept for her children, hope is kindled today.
On September 15, 2024, the Archbishop of Mérida-Badajoz, Monsignor José Rodríguez Carballo, presided over a multitudinous mass at the Shrine of Chandavila (La Codosera), in which he named this shrine as a Diocesan Shrine, a preliminary step to declaring it a National Shrine and, subsequently, an International Shrine.
Today, the sanctuary is a spiritual beacon: where the Virgin Mary wept for her children, today hope is kindled, a beacon of forgiveness and peace. A place where the soul listens, faith is ignited, and the Virgin Mary continues to wait.
And you? What are you waiting for?
It’s not just a story from the past. It’s a living story. The Virgin Mary continues to wait, continues to call, continues to love. In every silence, in every candle lit, in every Rosary recited there… she appears again, this time in the soul.
Come to Chandavila. Pray. Let yourself be looked at. And listen, perhaps for yourself too, to her maternal voice:
“Do you want to come with me?”
