The village of Algoz is in Algarve, south of Lisbon. It's name comes from the Arabic name Al-Guzz which references the settlers that came to the area in the 12 century. The patron saint of the village is Our Lady of Mercy. Thinking about what those two things might look like in pattern form I came up with this. I remember as a child going to church (back in the days when ladies were required to cover their heads when in church) and seeing many ladies, with heads bowed, wearing lace mantillas and thinking that they looked like the statues of the Virgin Mary. This pattern is an abstracted version of those lace mantillas, with a slightly (?) Arabic influence, at least in my mind.