Our Lady of Luján

In 1630 a Portuguese landowner in Santiago del Estero asked a friend in Brazil to send him an image of the Virgin for a chapel. Two small terracotta statues arrived in Buenos Aires and set out by ox cart. According to tradition, near the Luján River the cart refused to move until one of the boxes was taken down; it held a small image of the Immaculate Conception, and people understood that Mary wished to stay there.

A man of African descent named Manuel, who had come with the shipment, devoted the rest of his life to caring for the image and welcoming pilgrims. A larger chapel was built, and in time the town of Luján grew around it. The present neo-Gothic basilica was begun in 1887. In 1930 Pope Pius XI declared Our Lady of Luján patroness of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The original image, just under 40 centimeters tall, is dressed in a white and sky-blue mantle, the colors of the Argentine flag.

Every October hundreds of thousands of young people walk about 60 kilometers from Buenos Aires to Luján in the Peregrinación Juvenil, one of the largest pilgrimages in the Americas. On May 8 the basilica fills with pilgrims, and Argentines around the world gather for Mass and to bring her flowers.