Our Lady of Light

"La Santuca," patron of Liébana · Aniezo (Cantabria)

On the side of Peña Sagra, an image of an alabaster of just 22 centimeters - "La Santuca" - is patron of Liébana and stars every 2 May the one held by the longest procession in Spain.

Origin and history

Popularly known as "La Santuca" for the tiny size of its image - of alabaster, about 22-23 cm - the Virgin of Light is patron of Liébana, a title entrusted to it by Pope John XXIII in 1960; it was canonically crowned on 2 May 1991. His sanctuary rises on the slope of Peña Sagra, in the end of Anizzo. The procession has been documented since the 15th century, with factory books preserved since 1671.

Tradition tells that, in the 16th century, the Virgin appeared on a beech to a pastoralist lost in the fog, asking her to warn the priest of Aniezo to dig in the place and find his image. Its most famous feature is the May 2 procession, which runs between 26 and 28 km to the monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana and back, considered the longest procession in Spain, with the most massive participation of the valley.

Another version of the legend: the pastor, the cave and the angels

La investigadora Marina Gurruchaga Sánchezin his study on the foundational legends of the Marian shrines of Cantabria published in the Folklore magazine of the Joaquín Díaz Foundation (No. 471, 2021), contains a more complex version of the story, which it itself places in the end of the 15th century - the previous version speaks of the 16th century -. According to legendA shepherd saw her flock spread and asked for help from the Virgin, who appeared to her and told her that her image was hidden. in a cave. The priest did not believe the girl, who on the way down had also met the devil, and the Virgin sent her again to convince him and to raise a hermitage in the place she wanted. The priest tried to take the hermitage to a less monthous place, but according to the story, some angels They destroyed the work that was raised where the Virgin did not want it. The pastoralist was left as custody of the temple. The author stresses that her party is, "very expressively," the 8 September, Day of Lightand relates the name of the advocation to that of the mountain itself, Peña Sagra.

This is about popular tradition, not of documented history: there is no Church judgment about the apparition of legend. What the Church recognizes is the veneration of the Virgin of Light, patron of Liébana.