Joao Pozzobon owed a store in Santa María, in South Brazil. He worked on the farm, tilling the land, and supported his wife and children. Something happened on September 10, 1950, which would change his life forever, as well as the life of so many others. Sister M. Teresinha, of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, gave him an image of Schoenstatt Mother Thrice Admirable, whom  we call “the Mater”, after her original Latin title: Mater ter Admirabilis, in the form of Shrine, for him to pass round  the houses of his neighbors, inviting people to pray the rosary in their homes.

But Mr. Joao was encountered with great surprise when he saw the miracles that the Virgin was working both in his own heart as well as in the hearts of all those that she visited. Then, he decided to devote more of his time to be, as he himself would put it; the donkey of the Pilgrim Virgin of Schoenstatt, taking her wherever he could. »
Across fields, rivers, through the woods and across the valley, coping with the tropical heat in the south of Brazil, and always wearing suit and tie, in honor to his Queen, he walked and carried the image of the Pilgrim Virgin,  weighing 11 kilograms, over 140,000 km in 35 years.«

Mr. Joao made this formidable apostolate, never disregarding his wife and seven children. He was a model father and husband. His inner growth was also expressed in increasing social sensitivity and solidarity.

Being a rather unwealthy man himself, he founded Vila Nobre da Caridade, building quite a number of small wooden houses for those who did not have a dwelling. He visited thousands of homes, prisons, hospitals and schools. In 1959, in order to reach a larger number of families, he added to the campaign other smaller images that were of a similar size to those reaching the families. In 1984, a party of Argentines traveled to Brazil to procure 25 of these images, to be sent to the 25 Schoenstatt shrines through the American continent. This is how the Pilgrim Virgin campaign began to spread internationally.
On June 27, 1985, in Santa María, Mr Joao was run over by a truck and died. He had written in his will: “I offer myself as holocaust” in view of the greatness of the mission I was entrusted with. This mission was the great Rosary Campaign of the Pilgrim Virgin of Schoenstatt.

Today, throughout the world, in over 100 countries, millions of people receive the Pilgrim Virgin every month. Home after home, the Virgin is winning hearts, one after another, without a stop.