Saint Francis of Assisi, thank you for this great crop of apples.

Yours sincerely, sr. Pedro Gomez-y-Miguel

Marcelina Valdez went to steal apples from don Cresencio. But she didn’t know that he had a very angry goat whom he used as a guard. The goat poked Marcelina with the horns. She thanks the Virgin for don Cresencio saw it and puled the goat away. Marcelina had to admit her shameful intent and to ask for Cresencio for forgiveness. She ended up with few bruises, and promises to the Virgin to not steal ever again.

A bull started chasing Ramon Mendoza. Running away, Ramon climbed up a tree, but the bull hit the tree so hard the whole tree shook. Ramon thanks the Virgin of San Juan for the tree was an apple-tree so he could eat apples all that time while the bull was waiting for him down. The bull stayed all day, and only when the dark came some workers helped Ramon. He thanks for that because his legs and arms got numb and he couldn’t stay any longer at the tree.

August 15, 1972

When we were going by the old road to San Juan de los Lagos to sell apples we met the phantasm of the headless rider. He often appears to travelers and abducts them. When we saw him, we entrusted ourselves to the Virgin of the Rosary. Thanks to her divine protection, the ghost passed by without noticing us. My husband and I turned gray after that, but we arrived to the town and sold our apples.

Dulce Maria Hernandez and her children were picking apples in the garden. Dulce fell of the ladder. Since she was six months pregnant, she is very grateful to the Virgin of Zapopan because she fell on the big fat dog that was so lazy that it didn’t even move. Dulce didn’t get hurt and her fall was soft.

There were some apple trees near the river, and the apples had ripened. We went to gather them before they fall to the ground. When we were coming back with baskets full of apples the terrifying encounter happened. We met two skeletons of revolutionaries on our way. One of them was zapatista, the other one was his companion-adelita. They went with their horse. When we saw them we entrusted ourselves to the Virgin of the Rosary. The skeletons passed by and didn’t notice us. Later we found out that they had been waiting in ambush since the Revolution and that day they inspected around. We thank the Virgin because if we had said one world they would have killed us.

Adelita is a type of woman warrior who accompanied a revolutionary during the Mexican Revolution. The term derived from the popular revolutionary song “La Adelita”.