Paranormal record / 1936
6 August 1936. A hilltop in the backlands of Pernambuco. Two girls were sent out to pick castor beans. Maria da Luz, 13, was afraid of the cangaceiro bandits. Maria da Conceição, 16, told her Our Lady would protect them. Then it began to rain. A lightning bolt split the sky. A great light appeared on top of the mountain. In it, the image of a woman holding a child in her arms. Within days thousands were climbing to the rock at Cimbres. A German-born priest questioned the figure in a language the girls did not speak. Water flowed from the stone. Footprints appeared in it. Eighty-five years later, the Church finally spoke.
The hilltop at Sítio Guarda belonged to Arthur Teixeira de Carvalho. It rises above the village of Cimbres, in the Serra do Ororubá, in the municipality of Pesqueira. An exposed inselberg of thorny bushes and deep gullies. In 1936 cangaceiro bandits were active in the backlands. Two girls lived in the Teixeira household. Maria da Luz Teixeira de Carvalho, the landowner's daughter, was 13. Maria da Conceição, a poor girl living with the family, was 16.