Our Lady of Las Lajas

The miraculous rock-image of Our Lady of Las Lajas

Deep in the lush Andean highlands of southern Colombia, near the city of Ipiales, largely hidden in a steep canyon above the swift-flowing Guáitara River, lies a marvellous Gothic-style church known as 'Santuario de Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Las Lajas' or simply Our Lady of Las Lajas (Nuestra Señora de Los Lajas)

This beautiful building houses a remarkable feat of engineering and was built between 1916 and 1949. The stunning church, now a National Shrine Basilica, is a marvel in itself, but the unique image of the Blessed Mother it houses, known as Our Lady of Las Lajas (“lajas” meaning “slab of rock” in Spanish), has a fascinating story behind it.

The first miracle of Our Lady of Las Lajas

As the legend goes, on a dark night in September 1754, an Indigenous woman named María Mueses de Quiñones was travelling from the village of Potosi, Colombia, along the Guáitara River with her daughter, Rosita, who was deaf and mute. 


They often travelled this route, but on that particular day, the two were caught in a raging storm and sought refuge among Las Lajas which were widely rumoured to be haunted. 

To Maria’s astonishment, she heard her daughter miraculously speak for the first time in her life, when she ran shouting joyfully: “There is a woman here with a boy in her arms!” Rosita pointed to a silhouette of a woman and child above Las Lajas, barely visible in the lightning of the storm.


According to an account by the founder of Tradition, Family & Property, the Brazilian Dr. Plinio Carrera de Oliveira, Maria's friends and neighbours refused to believe what she had reportedly seen. 


A few days later Rosita unexpectedly disappeared from home. After looking everywhere the anguished Maria surmised that her daughter must have gone back to the cave. She often said that the woman was calling her. 

Maria ran to Las Lajas to find her daughter kneeling in front of a splendid woman and playing affectionately with a Child who had come down from His Mother's arms to let the girl enjoy His divine tenderness. Maria fell to her knees before this beautiful spectacle; knowing instantly in her heart that she had seen the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.

The second miracle of Our Lady of Las Lajas

Maria and Rosita resolved not to tell anyone what they experienced, fearing ridicule and disbelief from the townspeople. However, as time passed, Rosita became gravely ill and died. Maria brought her daughter to the miraculous place that had become familiar and begged the Blessed Virgin to restore Rosita to life. 


The Blessed Mother, moved by Maria’s earnest supplication, granted a miraculous healing to Rosa. Maria ran to the town and told everyone what had happened. When they returned to the cave, the townspeople could see miraculous lights streaming from it, and a beautiful image of Our Lady that we see today was found on the rock face.

Neither Maria nor Rosita had seen the image there before. No one knew who had painted it or where it had come from. In the beautiful image, Our Lady is holding the Child Jesus and handing St. Dominic a rosary; the Child Jesus is extending a friar’s cord to St. Francis of Assisi.


The locals realised that they had found their true Queen! On Sept 15, 1754, a mass was celebrated at the cave.

The miraculous rock-image of Our Lady of Las Lajas

After extensive investigations, civil authorities and scientists determined that the scene was not a painting at all. The image was truly an image known as akeropita, which in Greek means 'not made by human hands', or made by Angels is miraculously part of the rock itself!


German geologists have since bored core samples from several places in the rock and discovered that there is no paint, dye, or pigment on the surface of the rock. Nor are there any discernable brush strokes. The colours of the mysterious image are the very colours of the rock itself and extend several feet deep inside the rock! 

Mary is depicted as a “Mestiza,” a woman of mixed Spanish and indigenous American descent. 

As is common with Marian apparitions and Marian imagery throughout the world, people of different cultures often depict holy figures, especially Christ and the Blessed Mother, to look the same way they do. 

It is well-known that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego as a woman of mixed Spanish and indigenous American descent and spoke his indigenous language, náhuatl. 

Even if these representations are not historically accurate to the actual ancestry of those holy figures, they are important for people of different lands and cultures to feel a bond of closeness and particular affection for Our Lord and Our Lady. They fill us with hope and inspiration, knowing that the Catholic faith transcends man-made divisions and that salvation in Christ is for everyone the world over.

The garments themselves are typical of the imagery of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. She’s wearing a blue mantle decked with stars; blue represents Heaven in iconography, and the stars are reminiscent of the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). 

Her burgundy red dress is covered in rich patterning: the red represents earth, and those of us in this “valley of tears” who cry out for her intercession on our behalf, and the rich decorations have a golden flower pattern - which locals believed to be a sign of royalty.  Her long, dark hair flowed freely but appeared as a royal mantle, reinforcing the notion of her majesty. 

The Madonna held a rosary in her right hand that she presented to the Spanish priest Saint Dominic de Guzman (c. 1170-1221), who was kneeling at her right. St Dominic, who is shown with a rosary, is the one attributed with popularising the devotion of the Holy Rosary. 

Jesus gives a cord with three knots to the Italian friar Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226), who kneels on the left of Our Lady and is also shown with three knots on his waist. These three knots symbolise the three Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

These two are founders of the orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans that first evangelized Columbia. 


Rays of light encircle the Mother and Child, whose face is very amiable and is turned toward the observer respectfully with confident strength and grace. By contrast, the Infant Jesus appears to be playful, with the innocence of a child sharing his gifts with St Francis. 

Evolution of the Basilica of Our Lady of Las Lajas

Five years after the Virgin Mary first revealed herself to Rosita, a small shrine was erected to protect the image, and the first pilgrims were welcomed to the site. The simple thatch-roofed construction was commissioned by Fray Gabriel de Villafuerte, a clergyman from the nearby town of Ipiales, who sought to capitalize on the miracle to advance his mission among local people. 

This first temple survived until 1796 and then was replaced by a small domed basilica built from stone, which was completed in 1803. The military cartographer Manuel María Paz painted it in 1853.

By the end of the nineteenth century, thanks to a boom in the mining of gold and other precious minerals this region of Colombia had become one of the wealthiest in the country. Its newfound riches encouraged the diocesan Bishop Fray Ezequiel Moreno to launch one of the largest construction projects that, until that time, the Catholic church had ever undertaken in the Americas. 

The icing on the cake, so to speak, was provided by the German artist Walter Wolf Wasserhouen, whose stained glass windows depict other miraculous Madonnas and Virgin Marys from Mexico, France, Italy, and Colombia. Outside, the sculptor Marce-Liano Vallejo Montenegro decorated the bridge with 32 marble archangels, cherubs, and musical angels between 1939 and 1949 (the shrine’s final completion).



Pope Pius XII issued a Papal Decree of Canonical Coronation on May 31, 1951, officially bestowing a crown upon the venerated image of Our Lady of Las Lajas, as a Marian devotion in Colombia, signifying the Church's recognition and high regard for this particular image and the devotion surrounding it; this act effectively elevated the status of the shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Las Lajas, making it a major pilgrimage site in the region.


During the investiture ceremony in 1952, in the presence of the entire Columbian episcopate, an actual crown of precious metals and jewels - the only man-made objects of the miraculous image - was affixed to a statue or holy image and the Gothic edifice was elevated to the status of a minor basilica. This popular crowning ceremony has been a part of Catholic piety for centuries and can be seen with many other statues or holy images all over the world, such as the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Rome and the statue of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary which stands in the public square in Lourdes, France. Later, earrings and a necklace were added to the image as a gesture of love and affection for the Blessed Mother.

The oldest miraculous event was recorded in the travel accounts of Fray Juan de Santa Gertrudis (c. 1724-1799) through the southern region of the New Kingdom of Granada between 1756 and 1764. Without the benefit of sight, Fray Juan travelled through cities, fields and villages blind and on foot from Ecuador to Narino, Colombia, begging people for money to build the Las Lajas chapel. After the chapel was erected, Fray Juan miraculously regained his vision as a result of his deep faith in the Virgin Mary of Las Lajas.

Saint Pope John Paul II consecrated the Sanctuary of Las Lajas on June 7, 1999. 

References

1. Rainbow Nelson. (n.d.). Las Lajas: The extraordinary Church in Colombia (V4 N10; pp. 58–63). PATEK PHILIPPE. Retrieved December 13, 2024, from https://static.patek.com/pdf/ppmagazine/en/PP_Magazine_V4_N10_Las_Lajas.pdf
2. Carpenter, J., & Carpenter, J. (2016, July 23). Our Lady of Las Lajas, Colombia, 1754 | Divine Mysteries and Miracles | Apparitions, Miracles, Healings, Artifacts, Etc. https://www.divinemysteries.info/our-lady-of-las-lajas-colombia-1754/
3. Calloway, D., MIC. (2017, March 29). The Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Las Lajas. The Catholic Exchange. Retrieved December 13, 2024, from https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7471
4. Marian Apparitions: Our Lady of Las Lajas. (n.d.). The Miracle Hunter : Retrieved December 13, 2024, from https://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/guaitara/index.html