Our Lady of the Boat

The Virgin of the Costa da Morte · Muxia (A Coruña)

Next to the Brave Sea of the Costa da Morte, in Muxia, the shrine of the Virgin of the Barca unites the Jacobea legend of the stone boat of the Virgin with an old cult of the "holy stones" and one of the most popular Romeries of Galicia.

Origin and history

The Jacobea legend tells that the Virgin came to this place in a stone boat to encourage the Apostle James in his preaching; the great rocks near - Pedra de Abalar, Pedra dos Cadris, Pedra do Timón - would be the remains of that ship. The sanctuary rises on an earlier Romanesque hermitage (XI-XII), with documentation since the XIV-XV centuries; the present Baroque church is 1719, and Christianizes ancient cults to the stones.

The devotion is articulated around the Romeria of the second Sunday of September and the cult of "holy stones," to which healing properties are attributed: the Pedra de Abalar, which is balanced; the Pedra dos Cadris, under which it is passed nine times to cure ailments. At the rosemary, the image is taken in procession to the port to bless the sea. The sanctuary was damaged by a fire in 2013 and restored.

Canonical coronation: not recorded.