Benedita is a town and

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

in the Portuguese municipality of Alcobaça and in the Oeste region. The parish of Benedita is located on southern edge of the municipality and has an area of 30km². It borders the municipalities of

Caldas da Rainha Caldas da Rainha () is a medium-sized Portugal, Portuguese city in the Oeste Subregion, Oeste region, in the historical province of Estremadura Province (1936–1976), Estremadura, and in the Leiria District, district of Leiria. The city serves a ...

and

Rio Maior Rio Maior () is a municipality in the Santarém District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 21,192, in an area of 272.76 km². The present mayor is Isaura Morais of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the first woman to be elected mayor ...

. It has a population of 8480 people, as of 2021, which makes it the most populated parish of the municipality of Alcobaça.

History

Its history is long, beginning in 800 AD. Later,

Cistercian monks The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

, an organisation of Christians that were already in the town of Alcobaça, started to search for places to do agriculture and farming. The place of Benedita received town status on May 16, 1984.

Economy

Although a predominantly rural area, the parish of Benedita is heavily industrialised. Its main industries are the shoe making, leather, knife making, stonemasonry industries. Pig farming is also important economically for this parish. The town of Benedita is one of the main commerce centers in the municipality of Alcobaça.

Nature

The eastern section of the parish is covered by the

Aire and Candeeiros Ranges Natural Park The Aire and Candeeiros Ranges Natural Park (in Portuguese, Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros, or PNSAC) is a natural park in the Central-West region of Portugal. It occupies an area of and is the most important limestone deposi ...

Religion and culture

People of Benedita believe that there was a miracle with the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

. The Virgin appeared to two sisters when they were getting water from a source, telling them to choose another location for the village church. Every time someone started the construction, the rocks disappeared. This happened so many times that people started to believe that the sisters were right and so the construction was not on the desired location and now these rocks are exposed in one of the schools at the village.

References

{{authority control Towns in Portugal Alcobaça, Portugal