Our Lady of the Cows

Marian Advocation of Avila (Castilla y León)

The tradition relates the name of the advocation to the old dehesa and the cattle of the contour of Avila, and to the finding of the image in a usual place of passage of the cattle; it refers to an apparition in a meadow frequented by cows, from where the title would derive. The hermitage and its brotherhood have been documented in municipal and parish archives since modern times, at least since the 17th and 18th centuries. It is appropriate to distinguish the traditional account from the finding of the documented, which is the existence of the hermitage and the brotherhood in the Modern Age.

Main data

Origin and history

The tradition relates the name of the advocation to the old dehesa and the cattle of the contour of Avila, and to the finding of the image in a usual place of passage of the cattle; it refers to an apparition in a meadow frequented by cows, from where the title would derive. The hermitage and its brotherhood have been documented in municipal and parish archives since modern times, at least since the 17th and 18th centuries. It is appropriate to distinguish the traditional account from the finding of the documented, which is the existence of the hermitage and the brotherhood in the Modern Age.

The image and the sanctuary

The image is venerated in the Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de las Vacas, in Avila, an ancient hermitage of extrarradio today integrated in the city, in the context of the parish of San Pedro. The fellowship works charity and maintains the hermitage; many exvotes of the sick and families grateful for the favors received are preserved.

Sponsorship and coronation

She is a patron of the neighborhood and very venerated in Avila; her proclamation as the main patron of the city is not recorded. There is no solemn canonical coronation with a pontifical decree; there have been solemn coronations and entronizations of a local character, but the date of an official canonical coronation is not recorded.

Party and devotion

Its main feast is held on the Sunday following the Resurrection (the Festivals of the Cows) and on September 8. It highlights the procession with typical dances, jotes and dulzaines, and the participation of peñas and festive associations; the advocation has popularly been linked to the local taurino world, although this is a modern development of devotion.

Link to the Rosary

It does not contain a specific Rosary fellowship of the Virgin of the Cows. The Rosary is prayed in the novies before the feast, but as a general practice of piety and not as a characteristic of the advocation.