My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

The statue, according to tradition, was given to the Azores by Pope
Paulo III, the same Pope that founded the only Diocese in the
Azores in 1534, almost five hundred years ago in the city of Angra
do Heroísmo, the capital of Terceira. The statue was given to two
religious nuns from the Order of Clarissa who went to Rome to
ask the Pope for the Bula Apostólica, a Papal Letter for the
Convent to be built in Caloura, in the county of Lagoa, a few
miles from Ponta Delgada.
Caloura was constantly under attack by pirates during the time
around 1541. Some of the nuns ran away on the Holy Ghost
Sunday to the safety of the Convent of Santo André in Vila Franca
do Campo and the other nuns moved to the Convento de Nossa
Senhora da Esperança (Our Lady of Hope Convent) in Ponta
Delgada. The Statue of Santo Cristo was placed at Nossa Senhora
da Paz (Our Lady of Peace).
Before the famous Madre Teresa da Anunciada, the Statue of
Santo Cristo did not have much of a special devotion from the
people. It was this nun, Madre Teresa da Anunciada, born in the
town of Ribeira Sêca, in the county of Ribeira Grande, and her
devotion that brought the attention and veneration of many
Catholics, starting in 1697, when the statue was placed at the
Chapel of the Convent of Esperança, which was built for that
purpose, using donations from the community. Today the statue is
beautifully decorated and located in a very special place that is
constantly visited and venerated by millions of people of faith from
all over the world.
The first procession involving the statue took place on April 11,
1700. At the end of the XVII century, there were many
earthquakes that scared the population of Sāo Miguel
tremendously. After a month of panic, the villagers ran away from
their houses to the farms praying for divine protection. A
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