Fire breaks out at Our Lady of Aparecida Shrine in Brazil

By CNA Staff

CNA Newsroom, Dec 22, 2022 / 14:15 pm

A fire broke out yesterday morning in the Chapel of the Candles at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Sao Paulo state, Brazil.

The fire started around 8 a.m. local time. According to the Marian shrine, the fire started because a candle had been placed on a pew.

Firefighters responded quickly after the start of the fire and brought it under control. No injuries have been reported.

The Chapel of the Candles is one of the most visited spaces in the Aparecida Shrine. The faithful light candles of various sizes as they pray and give thanks to God.

According to the shrine, under the chapel there is a space where the melted wax is deposited and, on a busy weekend, about 10 tons of wax are collected.

In addition, the chapel has filters and exhaust fans to remove the contamination caused by the burning wax.

This story was first published by ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) Staff are a team of journalists dedicated to reporting news concerning the Catholic Church around the world. Our bureaus are located in Denver, Washington, and Rome. We have sister language agencies in Kenya, Germany, Peru, Brazil, and Italy. CNA is a service of EWTN News. You can contact us at news@catholicna.com with questions.