Couple travels with Mary

As custodians of the diocesan Pilgrim Virgin Statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, they visited nearly every parish in the Diocese during a pilgrimage in 1987, which Pope John Paul II declared a Marian Year.

They also have traveled with the statue to Rosary rallies and the homes of people who are in ill health or who wish to have an enthronement ceremony.

Travels with Mary

"It's just such a wonderful feeling having Mary here, and the Fatima message is so important," Mr. Breitenbach said.

Since 1978, the two parishioners of St. Lucy's Church in Altamont have run the St. Joseph Marian Center out of their home. The center serves as the diocesan representative of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, a group of millions worldwide who respond to the requests made by the Blessed Mother at Fatima.

Moving statue

It also was present in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany on March 25, 1984, when Bishop Howard J. Hubbard consecrated the Diocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The 1987 Marian Year pilgrimage gave the statue a great deal of exposure -- and a reputation for healing. Mrs. Breitenbach recalled a woman who was suffering from cancer; after she prayed before the statue, her cancer went into remission. Another woman wept before the Pilgrim Virgin statue and sought help for her son, who was paralyzed in a car accident. Gradually, he regained movement in his limbs, and his prognosis for steady recovery was encouraging.

Devotion

BY being responsible for the statue, they have seen the ways in which Mary can intervene in people's lives, and that's enough to convince them that their work is worthwhile.

Said Mrs. Breitenbach, as the Pilgrim Virgin statue stood nearby, "We've had nothing but blessings in our family."

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