Furthermore…

Some years ago I got interested in the story of a Spanish sea vessel named ‘Nuestra Senora de Atocha’ that went down in a hurricane. It was carrying a cargo which included gold coins, and a modern day salvage hunter retrieved a cache of the coins and I don’t know what else. “Atocha” didn’t mean anything to me, and I had some curiosity about what lode of Spanish lore the owners of the vessel had drawn upon in selecting her name.
Last night a saw a rerun, er, ‘Classic’ episode of Mother Angelica’s show and she filled in some of the blanks. It seems there was a statue of the Blessed Mother in Spain dedicated to Our Lady of Atocha. Mary was holding the Baby Jesus. Baby Jesus was depicted holding a tiny bread basket and a water canteen.
It developed that one morning it was observed that the little sandals on the Baby Jesus’ feet were encrusted with mud. Unlike the kind of statues with which I am familiar, Mother said that European statues of that era were outfitted with actual items of clothing, such as the tiny sandals that were on the feet of the Baby Jesus.
The soil was cleaned away, but morning after succeeding morning the sacristan found the same condition repeated, with traces of mud even appearing on the hem of the Baby’s garment, so the sacristan hid in the darkness to observe who was violating the church’s property.
Behold and lo, that night he observed the Baby Jesus statue come to life and patter off from its location, out of the church.
It was somehow ascertained that He was bringing bread and water to imprisoned soldiers who had no family and friends to bring them sustinence. At that time the authorities didn’t provide food and water to such prisoners, and they had to depend on family and friends to bring them something. What a Friend they had in Jesus!