Our Lady of Guadalupe of Torrecitas, a serrana devotion venerated in the Sanctuary of Torrecitas

Marian title of Santa María del Río (San Luis Potosí)

La advocación de Our Lady of Guadalupe of Torrecitas, also commonly called Virgin of the Torrecitas o Our Lady of TorrecitasIt's on. Torrecitas Sanctuary in the Sierra de Santa María del Río, state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, not in Colombia. Tradition explicitly presents it as a apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe on a mountain rock.

Main data

Origin and history

La advocación de Our Lady of Guadalupe of Torrecitas, also commonly called Virgin of the Torrecitas o Our Lady of TorrecitasIt's on. Torrecitas Sanctuary in the Sierra de Santa María del Río, state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, not in Colombia. Tradition explicitly presents it as a apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe on a mountain rock.

### Tradition and legend

According to the popular tradition, the image would have appeared in the year 1771 in a rock or rock of the saw, in a place between two hills and next to a spring. It is said that a man called Silvestris, in some caporal versions of Badillo's estate and in other lettuce thief, he went up to the hill (called "the Orange Media") looking for a lost cow; there he would have fallen asleep and awoke several times when he heard his name, until he discovered the silhouette of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the rock, sometimes associated with a ray that would have marked the stone.

Popular religiosity gives this Virgin a special character takatuturgo (miraculous), with gifts of healing, power pluvial y acuífero (related to rain and water, in a context of serrane springs) and function psychopompa, that is, as a "soul driver," accompanying the deceased to God. These characteristics are born from the set of oral accounts, promises made and exvotes, specific to a rural sanctuary of pilgrimage.

♪ documented history ♪

So documentedthe existence of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Torrecitas in the saw of Santa María del Río and of the stable veneration of an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared in stone, at least since modern times, although the sources consulted refer again to the traditional date of 1771 for the origin of the cult. The Wikipedia in Spanish and ethnographic studies unanimously cite that date as the year of apparition according to tradition, but do not provide original historical documents (notarial records, episcopal recognition decrees, etc.).

It is known that devotion has been growing to turn the place into one of the most important Marian shrines in the state of San Luis Potosíespecially for the rural communities of the region and for the faithful who come from the city of San Luis and other municipalities. To this day, there is no public formal decree that elevates the sanctuary to the category of national sanctuary; it is a sanctuary with the main scope diocesano/regional.

The image and the sanctuary

La image venerated in Torrecitas is a representation of the Virgin of Guadalupe engraved on a rock. It is a figure that appears on a large stone or rock, integrated into the subsoil of the place where the sanctuary was later built. Tradition states that the silhouette was miraculously "encapsulated" in the rock; the iconography corresponds to the Mexican Guadeloupe: Mary standing, in a position of prayer, with a starry mantle, on the moon and held by the angel, although the accessible sources generally describe the "image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the stone" without detailing all the technical iconographic features. The material is therefore natural rocknot a painting on canvas or an exempt sculpture.

The temple is known as Sanctuary of Our Lady of Torrecitas. It is located at about 2 425 m of altitude, in the heart of the Sierra de Santa María del Río, to the southwest of the city of San Luis Potosí, near San José Alburquerque and the exhacienda of Badillo. It is a relatively isolated sanctuary, surrounded by steep saws, with an explanade in front of the temple that serves to concentrate pilgrims on the parties.

The architecture, according to tourist and devotional images and descriptions, is that of a rural mountain temple, of moderate dimensions, with a simple main ship and structure adapted to the ground, without the characteristics of great monumental basilica. No consta in the sources consulted which have been elevated to the range of minor basilicaor having a National sanctuary; if it presents simple com Marian sanctuary of the corresponding diocese.

La official page of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Torrecitas indicates the celebration of Sunday Mass (11: 00 h) and special hours on holidays, which confirms that it is a stable place of worship with regular pastoral care.

Sponsorship and coronation

No formal proclamation of canonical patronage (by decree) on a specific city, municipality or diocese. Devotion is intimately linked to Santa María del Río and the surrounding mountain region, so that, in fact, it functions as a regional reference sanctuary for the faithful of the municipality and much of the state of San Luis Potosí, but no consta an official appointment as the principal patron of the diocese or of the nation.

With regard to a possible canonical coronation of the image:

– Las fuentes históricas y devocionales consultadas (Wikipedia, crónicas, material audiovisual, prensa y redes del santuario) no mencionan ninguna coronación canónica con decreto explícito ni la intervención de un delegado pontificio u obispos en tal acto. – Por tanto, a la luz de los datos disponibles: does not contain a documented canonical coronation.

Party and devotion

The main party is attached to the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12. Several testimonies point out that this day is when "more people" arrive and the "great feast" of the sanctuary is celebrated, with numerous places and pilgrims. Local devotion identifies the Virgin of Torrecitas with the Mexican Guadalupe, so the liturgical and popular feast is concentrated on December 12.

Around that date, thousands of faithful go up to the mountains from Santa María del Río, from the city of San Luis Potosí and from other nearby populations; they are organized pilgrimages on foot and in vehicles, and the place is filled with food, sweets and religious items. The topography requires a journey on mountain roads; it is noted that from road 57 to the sanctuary are made between an hour and a half and two hours, according to the conditions of the road.

Devotion is characterized by:

– Thanksgiving Pilgrims por favores recibidos, especialmente curaciones atribuidas a la intercesión de la Virgen. – Ofrendas de sailing, flowers and exvotes, testimonios de milagros y promesas cumplidas, colocados cerca de la roca donde se ve la imagen. – Peticiones relacionadas con la health, la rain, el water of the springs and protection at the time of death, in accordance with the popular attributes of the Virgin of the Torrecitas.

Outside December, the sanctuary receives visitors especially the Saturdays and Sundayswhen the basic services and the opening of the temple are assured; on ordinary days the place may be more lonely.

Link to the Rosary

Ethnographic descriptions of devotion to the Virgin of Torrecitas show that the faithful invoke it in their altares domésticos by prayers and, explicitly, by rosary prayer. It is indicated that when a devotee has a problem, he goes to the family altar - replica de la Virge