Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá

Around 1562 the Spanish painter Alonso de Narváez painted Our Lady of the Rosary on a cotton cloth for the chapel of an estate in Sutamarchán, in the New Kingdom of Granada, flanked by Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Andrew the Apostle. Rain and sun leaking through the chapel's straw roof faded the image so badly that it was removed and later taken to Chiquinquirá, where it was used as a rag.

On December 26, 1586, a devout Spanish woman, María Ramos, who had long prayed before the ruined canvas, saw it shining with light and its colors and figures fully restored. A local woman and her son also witnessed the wonder. Pilgrimages began at once, and the Dominicans became guardians of the shrine. Pope Pius VII declared her Patroness of Colombia in 1829, and on July 9, 1919, the image was canonically crowned in Bogotá. Saint John Paul II prayed before her in 1986.

July 9 is a great national feast in Colombia, with Masses, processions and pilgrims filling the Basilica of Chiquinquirá in Boyacá. Colombians call her "la Reina de Colombia."

She is also the Patroness of Maracaibo and of Zulia State in Venezuela. There, in 1709, a humble washerwoman, María Cárdenas, found a small wooden board on the shore of Lake Maracaibo bearing a faded image of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá; the image was renewed before her eyes, and the board is still venerated in the Basilica of Maracaibo. Zulians lovingly call her "La Chinita" and celebrate her on November 18 with the Feria de la Chinita, gaitas and the procession of the Aurora.