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 mu...