Nossa Senhora do Rosário and the pirates
It was the sixteenth century and island of Corvo, although almost all surrounded as a castle by very high rocks , but isolated and with few people, was totally at the mercy of the pirates who by this time often crossed the seas of the Azores.
The village and the chapel were located on a rock by the sea, near a loose pebble beach, which they called Porto da Casa, one of the most accessible places to pirates.
Once upon a time, while the men dealt with the sheep and the land and the women spun wool and made the arrangements of the house, a large group of pirates approached the said port.
People from Corvo, taken by surprise, thought that their end was near, they were a few and had no weapons to defend themselves.
From the sea came a lot of gun shots and the pirates threat of invading the island, stealing and destroying , if people from Corvo didn’t respond with force.
Finding themselves powerless, while fighting off the Rocha against the mouros, sending as many stones as they could, they called Nossa Senhora do Rosário to their aid. The vicar had taken in his arms, to the place of the battle, the little picture that stranded a few years ago, below, on the pebbles of Porto da Casa, which had an altar in the little church, there on the Alto da Rocha.
The fight was tough, but the people from Corvo routed the Pirates, won them, took them many weapons, without endangering the people on land, and still imprisoning a mouro.
This victory was due to Nossa Senhora do Rosário, patroness of people from Corvo, that while fighting by their side, deflected every gunshot sent by the pirates and returned them, multiplied, to mouros’ boats, making them rout away.
The pirates ran frightened and for a long time ago they did not attack Azores smallest island and used to rumour among themselves:
- We are not going to Corvo because there’s a Margarita there that holds the bullets. We send a shot, and she returns seven on board and kills seven at once!
That Margarita was Nossa Senhora do Rosário that, due to this achievement and many other miracles, was renamed Nossa Senhora dos Milagres and became the dearest Saint of people from Corvo.
Nowadays, the little picture is no longer in the chapel, on the Rocha, she rests in a beautiful church, downhill, surrounded by small houses, in a very narrow street in the small Vila do Corvo.
About the geocache
There is something special about this geocache. Besides giving some knowledge about Corvo it also belongs to the "Azores Project", a geocaching treasure hunt in the 9 islands.
On each island there is a geocache of the project. Inside of each container you will find part of the coordinats needed to find the AZORES project bonus cache that is located in St Michaels island.
Bonus cache is at
http://coord.info/GC3VBE5
Have fun and happy caching