Our Lady of Holy Waters

Patrona de Villaverde del Río (Sevilla)

Patrona de Villaverde del Río, Nuestra Señora de Aguas Santas is a tiny Gothic size venerated for centuries, the protagonist of one of the oldest romaneries in Andalusia: "the Mass of the Convent."

Origin and history

The image is a gothic size of very small format (about 11-12 cm), sedent, with the Child on the knee, dating from the 13th to the 14th century. For centuries, the Franciscan people of the province of Los Angeles - to which the hermitage and the image were given in 1595 - went on to the parish of the Purísima Concepción, where the original is venerated (in the hermitage there is a replica of 1907).

The tradition attributes it to Saint Leandro, who would have given it to his brother Saint Isidoro, and makes it found by Pastor John Bueno after the reconquest; they are legendary stories. Patrona de Villaverde del Río "from time immemorial" and Mayor Perpetua since 1960, was crowned canonically by pontifical bull in 1979. His May Romeria, "the Mass of the Convent," is one of the oldest in Andalusia, and on September 8 he leaves in a post-custody that stops house by house.