GUSTINE — Across the Portuguese corners of California, nearly every farming town with Azorean roots hosts a springtime Holy Ghost festa. But what happens in Gustine each September stands alone. This is the Festa of Our Lady of Miracles — Nossa Senhora dos Milagres — a devotion celebrated only in two places in the world: the mountainside village of Serreta on Terceira, and here on the rural West Side of California.

This year, the celebration marked its 90th anniversary, continuing an unbroken chain stretching from 1936 to 2026 and linking generations of immigrant families to a tiny volcanic parish in the middle of the Atlantic.

The devotion traces back to 1694, when the people of Serreta faced pirate raids, earthquakes and famine. Turning to the Virgin Mary for protection, villagers vowed an annual pilgrimage each September up the steep slopes of the Serra de Santa Bárbara. More than two centuries later, Azorean immigrants settled heavily in the dairies of the West Side. In 1933, dairyman Manuel B. Souza — remembered locally as Manuel São Miguel — traveled back to Terceira and witnessed the pilgrimage firsthand. He returned to Gustine convinced the community needed the same spiritual anchor.

Souza rallied fellow dairymen and church leaders, commissioned an exact replica of the Serreta statue, and in 1936, Gustine held its first Festa. By the 1950s, tens of thousands traveled to town each autumn, making it the largest Portuguese celebration in California. In 1986, Gustine’s parish officially took her name, and in 2008, the Diocese of Fresno elevated the church to the Shrine of Our Lady of Miracles.

This year’s Festa leadership included Father Lenjenie Arcan, chairman and pastor; Kevin Soares, past president; Manuel Lopes, vice president; Augusto Correia Jr., president; Michael Alves, secretary; Durvalina Snoke, treasurer; and Dennis Miguel, marshal. For Correia, who grew up visiting Gustine from Newark, the role carries deep meaning.

“They took pride in engulfing the Portuguese community here,” he said. “During the parades, you go down Main Street in Gustine and it’s packed on both sides. All the merchants come out and watch it.”

Correia led the celebration with his wife, Melissa, serving as first lady, and their daughter, Caitlyn Isabella Correia, reigning as Senior Queen. Their godchild, Aubrey Ana Chase, served as Junior Queen. The Senior Queen court included Gabriela Ann Brazil and Mia Ashley Teixeira Silva; the Junior Queen court included Zailey Rose Calderon and Gianna Elia Nunes.

For Caitlyn, a Fresno State student, serving as Senior Queen was deeply emotional. She has represented Portuguese organizations throughout her life, and said closing this chapter as her parents’ queen was “more meaningful than I could ever fully put into words.”

The week began with nightly novenas at the Shrine, celebrated by Fr. Marc Valadão of St. Patrick’s Seminary and Fr. Arcan, accompanied by the shrine’s Portuguese choir. Families attended all nine nights, a tradition rooted in gratitude and devotion. Children rehearsed throughout August to serve as angels and choir members, continuing a practice that symbolizes the passing of culture from one generation to the next.

On Saturday at dawn, pilgrims gathered at the Newman Stockyard for the annual four‑to‑five‑mile walk into Gustine — a local reenactment of the mountain pilgrimage in Serreta. Some walked in silence, others barefoot on the asphalt, fulfilling promises made during illness or hardship. The physical effort is the tribute, a deliberate echo of the climb to Serreta.

From there, the festival moved into traditions drawn directly from agrarian island life. The Bodo de Leite rolled out from the Shrine, with steer‑drawn wooden carts decorated with flowers and folklore dance troupes performing along the route. Volunteers handed out warm sweet bread, recreating the historic practice of blessing dairy cows and distributing milk and massa sovada to pilgrims.

Throughout the weekend, the park echoed with cantoria ao desafio — quick‑witted, rhyming verses traded between poets over Portuguese guitars — and the GPS Hall hosted traditional fados, the soulful music of longing and memory.

By Sunday morning, the religious core of the Festa took center stage. A massive procession wound through Gustine toward the Shrine, with multi‑generational families carrying statues of patron saints — heirlooms their families have held for decades. After solemn mass, thousands streamed into the GPS Hall for sopas, the traditional feast of beef broth, cabbage, mint and French bread, served freely to anyone who entered.

Walking the parade route, the reach of the event was unmistakable. Families drove in from Dixon, Rocklin, Los Angeles and beyond. For many, attending the Festa is not a casual weekend trip — it is an inherited duty. Multi‑generational households set up lawn chairs and talked about parents and grandparents who made the same drive decades before.

Father Valadão explained what compels people to return year after year.

“Every second Sunday of September, the Portuguese come home to Gustine to put Mary back in her home,” he said. “She also wants to live in all of your homes as well. At some point in your life, you will come to this Festa. Our Lady of Miracles is a mother, and her maternal presence is what brings us together.”

That maternal pull culminated at midnight on Sunday. Thousands gathered with candles for the final return procession to the Shrine, singing “Boa Noite, Maria” — a raw, emotional farewell to the patroness who carried their families through another year of work, illness and change. Grown men and matriarchs wept as the statue swayed under the streetlights.

Whether Catholic, Portuguese or neither, the Our Lady of Miracles Festa brings hundreds of people together in Gustine to celebrate culture, food, faith, community and a sense of immigrant belonging that has endured for 90 years.